I ignored her. I turned to Lauren. ‘I think you might brush up quite well and be a Sandy. Sandy’s the sweet and innocent one that ends up in the Pink Ladies.’
Now they all laughed.
‘Lauren, sweet and innocent!’ Wizzie threw herself back onto the bed, holding her stomach, killing herself laughing. ‘That’s a good one!’
‘What’s Grease?’ It was Grace who asked.
‘Grease, the film. The musical. You must have seen it.’ I burst into song. ‘Summer Lovin’. Everybody knows that song. Even my out-of-tune version.
Grace nodded at last. ‘Oh aye, I remember that one.’
‘Wonderful film,’ I went on. ‘Olivia Newton Mearns and John Revoltin’ are in it.’
Wizzie’s chewing gum flew out of her mouth. Lauren swallowed hers. Sonya fell off the bed.
Grace just looked blank. ‘Aye, right!’ she snapped at me. ‘His name’s not John Revoltin’. You’re winding me up.’
‘And her name’s not Newton Mearns either, Grace. Newton Mearns is a small town near Glasgow.’
Wizzie threw a pillow at me. ‘Show off!’
I smiled at Grace. Didn’t want to annoy her. I was still trying to win her round, but honestly, sometimes it was such fun winding her up.
Sonya flopped beside Wizzie. ‘Whoever heard of one of us getting a part in the school show? The teachers hate us.’
Lauren shrugged. ‘What would be the point of going for an audition?’
Wizzie stood up. ‘Aye, what would be the point? Whoever heard of a Hell Cat trying for the school show?’
‘Yeah,’ Grace agreed. ‘Would never happen.’
‘Never want it to happen. School show’s for muppets.’
If there was a real edge in Wizzie’s voice, I must have missed it. Maybe I was too excited at what I was already planning. I knew I couldn’t let this pass. This just had to happen.
I made sure I was last to leave Lauren’s that night.
‘You’ve got to promise me you’ll go in for the school show, Lauren.’
She stood at the door and shook her head. ‘Me? They’d never give the part to me.’
All Lauren needed, I was sure, was a little bit of persuasion. I’d be there to give that. ‘But you’re a great singer. I’ve never heard anybody sing as well as you.’
And I hadn’t. Not even Rose. She thought the part was hers. She was sure of it. We all were.
Now I intended different. And wouldn’t that be sweet revenge on Rose?
Chapter Forty-Three
It felt as if Lauren and I had been friends all our lives.
I went to her house often after that first night, doing my very best to persuade her to audition for the show. I knew I was doing it behind Wizzie’s back, but Wizzie was so set against it. ‘We’re not the Lip Gloss Girls, you know,’ she would say whenever I mentioned it. So I stopped mentioning it in front of her.
I loved going to Lauren’s. Everybody was welcomed here, even Wizzie. I loved the way her family all joked with each other. It was like walking into a comedy show every time I went there. It was the quietest house I had ever been in, yet it never felt like that. It always seemed to be filled with chatter and laughing. Why couldn’t I have fun like that with my mum? I said as much to Lauren one night.
‘I don’t think you give your mum a chance,’ Lauren said. ‘You’re always that serious about her.’
‘That’s because she’s always so serious. She’s always going on about being such a loser, nothing ever going right for her. She depresses me. She makes me feel like a loser too.’
‘You! You’ve got to be joking. I used to see you with Erin and them, and you were so full of it. Thought you were something. And you’re trying to tell me you felt like a loser?’
And I remembered how confident I always felt with the Lip Gloss Girls. Sure of myself because I had my friends around me. ‘Is that how I really looked to you?’
‘You better believe it. That’s why none of us liked you. But it’s funny when you think about it, Hannah. I used to hate you, and now that I’ve got to know you … you and I get on really well, don’t we?’
Who would have thought it? I remembered the fights I’d had with Lauren, the way I’d slagged off her hair, and her clothes, the insults she’d traded with me. Now, when I didn’t come to her house, we phoned each other at least ten times a night. Never ran out of things to talk about.
Lauren went on. ‘Do you know what else I think is funny? I want to be just like my mum. And you want to be the exact opposite of yours.’
‘Can you blame me?’