Worse Than Boys(45)

‘Why on earth are you running about with Wizzie?’

‘She’s my mate,’ I said at once.

‘Wizzie was never your “mate” as you call her. You fought with her. You never got on with her.’

‘I do now, Mrs Tasker. I get on with them all.’

‘I don’t like it, Hannah. I don’t like it at all. And neither do the rest of the teachers.’

‘They asked to be friends with me.’

‘You could have had other friends, Hannah.’

But I couldn’t. Nobody wanted me. Why hadn’t she seen that?

‘They’re trouble, Hannah. These girls are not your type.’ I knew she meant they were common, came from the wrong side of town. I had thought that once too. But not any more. ‘I think they’re good friends, Mrs Tasker.’

She tried one last time to get through to me. Make me drop them. ‘There’s still a question mark hanging over them about the old woman who was held up. You haven’t forgotten her, have you?’

Of course, I hadn’t forgotten her. It was the one thing that worried me and I was trying to pluck up the courage to ask them about her too.

It was only a matter of time before my mum found out about my new friends.

She came charging in one night from late-night shopping and dropped her bags with a crash. A bag of frozen peas burst open and scattered noisily on to the kitchen floor.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

‘I’ve just met your friend Erin’s mother.’ As soon as she said that I knew exactly what was wrong. The cat, as they say, was out of the bag.

She went on. ‘At least I thought she was your friend.’ She looked at me as if she really wanted to throttle me. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? I made a real fool of myself. I walked right up to her and said, “Oh, I’m so glad the girls have made up.”’ When Mum told a story she always put on a posh voice. ‘“I knew they wouldn’t fall out for long,” I says to her. And she says to me in that nippy voice of hers, “I don’t know who your daughter’s made up with, but it certainly wasn’t my Erin. I wouldn’t let Erin anywhere near her after what she did.”’

I got to my feet. ‘She said that!’

Mum wasn’t listening. ‘But she knew exactly who my daughter had made up with, didn’t she?! “I think your daughter’s found her own class at last, from what Erin tells me.” That’s what she said to me.’ Mum took a deep breath. ‘Hannah, what does she mean? Who are you going out with at night?’

But I could tell Mum knew the answer already. Erin’s mum and her nippy voice had told her. ‘You’re going about with that awful Wizzie’s gang. I can’t believe it. I won’t have it, do you hear me? I won’t have it.’

Now it was my turn to sigh. ‘You’ll not have what, Mum?’

‘I’ll not have you going round with that lot.’

‘I’ve been going around with them for a couple of weeks now, Mum, and I haven’t got into any trouble.’

She shook her head so violently I was waiting to see it spin across the room. ‘It’s only a matter of time.’

‘So what am I supposed to do, Mum? They’re the only friends I’ve got now.’

She slapped her head dramatically. ‘How sad are you? They’re the only friends you can get? You must be desperate.’

‘I was,’ I reminded her.

‘Well, you won’t be seeing them again. I forbid it. I’ll ground you.’

‘You can’t ground me. I’ve not done anything wrong!’

She ranted on until I couldn’t listen any more. She was going to ground me till I was sixteen, she yelled at me. But I knew she couldn’t ground me at all. The way her shifts worked, half the time she wasn’t home at night. I’d never really defied her before – never had to with the Lip Gloss Girls. Everything Erin did was just fine, according to my mum. But I would defy her now.

I strode into my room and slammed the door shut. Then I texted them all.

HELP. CRAZY MOTHER.

Wizzie’s answer made me laugh.

W8 TILL U MEET MINE. SHE DFNITLY FLU OVR THE CUCU NEST.

I didn’t care if it made my mother mad, or if the teachers were annoyed. So Erin’s mum thought I’d sunk low. So the teachers thought I was running with a bad crowd. Why should I care what they thought? For the first time in ages, I was enjoying myself. And I hadn’t been in a fight once with the Hell Cats. Why couldn’t anyone else see that?





Chapter Forty-One


Lauren suggested we all meet at her house next night. It was Mum’s night for her aerobics class, so she wouldn’t be in till later. I’d be back before she was.