Worse Than Boys(41)

Wizzie threw back her head and laughed. And I knew I had done it, because suddenly, they were all laughing. Even Grace.

‘I didn’t think there was anybody behind the wheel! I couldn’t see you. The invisible driver.’ Wizzie laughed.

‘Where did you get the car?’ Lauren asked.

‘A friend,’ I said casually.

‘This is brilliant,’ Sonya said, and she didn’t even stutter.

I was so pleased they were pleased I accidentally let the handbrake off and almost rolled into a brick wall again. ‘Get in quick!’ I shouted. ‘I can’t stop this thing properly.’

Grace hauled open the back door. ‘Can you drive?’

‘Well, I can’t stop it, I can’t steer it and I can’t change gears. But otherwise, Michael Schumacher eat your heart out.’

Lauren clambered in the back beside Grace. ‘Where are we goin’?’

‘Pick a place. As long as it doesn’t have any turns in the road, we might survive.’

Sonya squeezed in beside Grace and Lauren. ‘No, honestly, whose c-car is it?’

‘Professional secret,’ I said.

Wizzie threw herself into the front seat beside me. ‘You stole a car! Bold bitch!’

I didn’t tell her any different. I liked how she said that – ‘bold bitch’.

‘Let’s go for a spin,’ I said.

Getting the car into reverse was my first problem. It didn’t help that they were all shouting advice at me.

‘It’s something to do with that stick thing.’

‘I think you have to press one of those buttons.’

‘Have we got to get out and push this blinkin’ thing?’

In the end that was exactly what they had to do. The four of them leaning on the bonnet and turning me round. But once we were out of that car park, I was on a roll. The retail park was on the edge of town and the street it was on led to a lonely coast road.

‘Aren’t you supposed to have the lights on?’ Lauren suggested, and for the first time I realised that I had been driving along the road in a dark car.

I switched on the radio, the windscreen wipers and the hazard lights before I finally remembered where the right switch was, and the road ahead blazed with light.

‘Ah, this is so much better. I can see where I’m going now.’

Lauren let out a sudden screech. ‘Ah! What’s that?’ She pointed to something squashed flat on the road ahead of us.

‘Looks like a hedgehog,’ Wizzie said, peering closer.

‘Is it dead?’ Lauren was almost out the window, looking at it.

‘Well, it’s certainly not sunbathing, Lauren,’ I told her, and suddenly, we were all laughing.

I couldn’t remember when I had laughed so much. We screamed as we wheelspinned round corners, we made up stories on the dark roads to frighten ourselves, and turned up Junior’s CD to full blast, singing at the top of our voices.

I think at some point I even managed to get the car into second gear.

It seemed ages later when I dropped them all off at the retail park again. But it was less than an hour. We were still laughing.

‘We really should do this more often,’ Wizzie said. ‘Who says we’ll steal a bus the next time?’

They all stood waving at me as I drove off, and it was only as I parked Junior’s car (perhaps a little too close to the BMW beside it) that it occurred to me that, by the time I’d left them, I’d felt as if we’d been friends for ever. They were my mates.

I think we’d bonded.





Chapter Thirty-Seven


I swaggered into school next day and was folded into the group of them as they stood in the corridor. ‘Crashed any good cars lately?’ Lauren asked.

‘I nearly did. Twice after I left you. And then I forgot to put the handbrake on. The car rolled away and I think it might have put a dent in Mrs Miller’s BMW.’ It was an exaggeration, a little lie, but I didn’t care. Then I shrugged. ‘But everybody knows Junior’s a rotten driver. He’ll get the blame. He’ll probably think it was him as well. He’s got a memory like a sieve.’

‘Is that Junior Bonnar you’re talking about? Was it his car?’ Wizzie asked.

‘Yeah, do you know him?’

‘He went to school with my brother.’

‘Was that the young offenders’ institute?’ Lauren laughed.

‘No, it was not.’ Wizzie sounded annoyed and Lauren immediately changed the subject. But I knew what school she was talking about. Junior had only ever gone to one school. A special needs school in the town. I could see Wizzie was sorry she’d mentioned it, so I said nothing.

Then we walked the yard, arm in arm, and it was exciting to see the looks on everyone’s faces. Hannah Driscoll, now best mates with her arch enemies, all in just a few days.