‘You bitch!’ Erin screeched at me, and before I could think of a good answer she ran at me and brought her nails down my face. ‘You did this on purpose.’ The fury of her assault had taken me by surprise. My face stung.
‘I can’t help it if Lauren’s a better singer than pudding face there.’
Rose was ready to run at me when I said that. ‘You knew that was my song!’
‘I only knew you were going to murder it.’ I looked round at my mates. ‘Can you get charged with murdering a song?’ Rose really did leap at me then.
It was Sonya to the rescue. ‘Get your paws off my mate.’
Erin pulled Rose away from me. ‘With pleasure. She might catch something if I don’t. Anyway, you can have her. She’s got what she deserves at last.’
I was right in her face. ‘Yeah, I deserve the best. And that’s what I’ve got.’
‘I hate you, Hannah Driscoll.’ Erin said it through her gritted teeth. ‘Hate you.’
‘I hate you as well.’ Rose’s eyes were filled to the brim with tears.
Wizzie had had enough. She spat on the ground, pushed at Rose’s shoulder. ‘Are you snivelling because you lost a part in the school musical? What a wimp.’ She turned her back on Rose and laughed. ‘She wants to get a life, eh?’
She hardly got the words out of her mouth. Rose leapt on her back, tried to claw at her face – took Wizzie so much by surprise she was pulled down. Then Erin was on me again, and I was going down for nobody. She reached out to punch me and I caught her wrist and twisted it up her back. She yelled and kicked me hard on the shins but even that didn’t make me let her go. ‘Thought you could drag me down, Erin, and I’d never get up? Well, I did, and look who’s on top now … and don’t think I’ve finished with you yet … I’m coming to get you.’
‘LET HER GO!’
Mrs Tasker’s voice boomed down the corridor. She ran at us, grabbing me by the collar, yanking me away from Erin. ‘Did you just threaten Erin there, Hannah?’
‘She did, Mrs Tasker. She’s a witch.’ Erin pulled herself away from me.
‘Takes one to know one.’
Mrs Tasker already had Wizzie by the arm. ‘All of you are coming with me to the headmaster.’
‘We’ve got season tickets for his office,’ I said cheekily.
We were practically frogmarched to the office. Mr McGinty railed at us. ‘You’re worse than boys when you get started.’
Did he think that was an insult? We loved hearing that. Worse than boys.
It was me he was singling out. ‘I’d have thought you’d had enough of gangs, Hannah. Now you seem to have taken over from Wizzie.’
I’d taken over from Wizzie? Was that what they all thought? Wizzie shuffled beside me. It was getting to her, I could tell that.
* * *
Lauren was waiting for us at the gates when we all came out, anxious to hear what had happened.
But she hardly listened really. She had lots to tell us too. She was more excited than I’d ever seen her. ‘There’s going to be loads of rehearsals. I’ll hardly ever see you lot.’
‘You’re going to be brilliant,’ I told her.
‘Do you get to kiss big Anil?’ was all Grace wanted to know.
Lauren laughed. ‘Don’t think old Hammond approves of kissing. But I might just jump him anyway. You know how us actresses like to improvise.’ Then she stopped and grabbed me. ‘Thanks, Hannah. I’d never have done that without you.’
Sonya patted me on the back. ‘Good one, Hannah. Did you see the look on Erin’s face?’
‘And that wimp, Rose, crying. I’d pay money to see that again.’ Even Grace approved.
The only one who wasn’t laughing was Wizzie. She was standing back, watching me.
‘Are you OK, Wizzie?’
She didn’t look OK. She was angry, I could tell. I couldn’t blame her really. Her friends were all crowded round me as if I was the leader, as if I had taken over from her.
Wizzie stood apart from us, glaring at me. And it scared me.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Over the next few days we hardly saw Lauren. She was always at rehearsals for the show. Even during break times she seemed to spend more time with the other members of the cast, waving to us in the canteen, or grinning at us whenever she went by. I’d see her with big Anil, as he bent down to talk to her. ‘Do you think he fancies Lauren?’ Grace asked one day.
‘I only think he fancies himself,’ I said. But I began to wonder. Lauren looked so different. She always seemed to look clean and fresh. She even came in to school one day wearing a pale blue sweater. That made Wizzie really mad.