Читать книгу The It Girl: Team Awkward - Katy Birchall - Страница 7

What’s wrong with you?

Nothing‘s wrong with me. I‘m concentrating, Jess.

No one concentrates this hard while Miss Brockley writes on the board in a language no one on the planet understands.

Yes they do. She‘s writing important words that we need to know for our end of term exams. And some people on the planet do understand French.

Some people like who?

Well, I‘m going to take a long shot and say that French people probably understand French.

Can you please tell me what’s wrong with you, so that we can hurry up and get to the bit where I tell you you’re ridiculous and then you realise that it’s actually fine? Are you worried about sports day? I told you I’d explain the whole Puffin thing to you. You don’t need to worry, the school’s just split into two teams.

Sounds weird to me – but no, I’m not worrying about sports day quite yet, although no doubt the fear will begin to loom soon.

Did Miss Duke say something weird? Was it something to do with the way you walk?

No, it wasn‘t a big deal, she just wanted to . . . Wait. What? What‘s wrong with my walk?

Nothing.

Jess! What is wrong with my walk?

Seriously, nothing. Stop passing notes. I’m concentrating.

Now I really am panicking. Why would you ask me if the headmistress wanted to see me about my walk?!

Geez, you’re such a drama queen. You just walk a bit funny, that’s all. Kind of . . . slumpy. I just wondered if she thought you had a problem or something that needed looking at. You know, in a caring way. Now tell me what’s bothering you. You have a funny look on your face. Is it Connor?

Forget what I’m thinking about Connor, now all I can think about is my ‘slumpy walk’.

Aha! So you were thinking about Connor! Spill.

It‘s nothing. I saw him this morning.

When?! What did he say???

When I came out of Miss Duke’s office. I walked straight into them.

Them? Who is THEM?

I mean him. Him. I think Miss Brockley is looking this way. Wait, no, she‘s looking past me. Hah, she definitely is. I‘m so stealthy at this. She’s none the wiser. What a dodo. Anyway–

‘What do you mean, you have detention?’

Why does Dad always have to make tiny things into such big deals? For example, that time when we went on holiday to the middle of nowhere in Ireland and as a joke I hid the hire car keys in a bush to make him panic. I couldn’t have predicted that I wouldn’t be able to remember which one I had hidden them in. I didn’t stop hearing about that for days.

And now here he was all angry at me because I’d had the courtesy to ring him to tell him I’d be late home for supper.

‘I got caught passing notes with Jess in French.’

‘And they gave you detention? That seems pretty extreme,’ Dad huffed. ‘Let me come in and have a word with them.’

‘In the note I called Miss Brockley a dodo for not realising I was passing notes.’

There was silence on the other end of the phone, and then a long-drawn-out sigh.

‘Fine. Come home straight afterwards, we have people round this evening.’

‘Who do we have coming round? Actually, never mind,’ I said hurriedly as Jess mouthed ‘lunch’ at me. ‘Got to go, Dad, see you at home.’

‘Bye, Anna,’ he said grumpily. ‘Try not to insult too many teachers this afternoon.’

I rolled my eyes, said goodbye and then hung up before heading to the dining room.

‘Why are you two always late?’ Danny grumbled, coming up behind us.

‘Duh, she’s an It Girl,’ Jess grinned. ‘It’s fashionable to be late. Anyway, Anna had to make a call.’

‘Don’t look too impressed,’ I said as Danny raised his eyebrows at me. ‘It was my dad.’

But as I sat down with my tray next to Danny I suddenly realised the whole room was staring at me and a spatter of giggles was coming from Sophie’s table.

‘What?’ Jess asked them, hands on hips. ‘Haven’t any of you seen a celebrity before? Play it cool, guys.’

There was an uncomfortable pause, and then everyone started talking again. I smiled gratefully at Jess. ‘Thanks.’

‘Whatever,’ she said, picking the mushrooms off her chicken. ‘They were probably just staring because of your walk. Nothing to do with any plant pots.’

‘Danny,’ I said, ‘do you think I walk funny?’

He shrugged. ‘Maybe a little. Not really. I’m not sure I’ve noticed.’

‘How would you describe Anna’s walk?’ Jess asked, picking up her glass of water. ‘If you had to use a word to describe her walk, what would it be?’

‘I don’t know.’ Danny looked thoughtful. ‘Slumpy?’

‘For goodness’ sake!’ I said as Jess raised her eyebrows victoriously at me. ‘That’s not even a thing!’

‘It is a thing. You have a slumpy walk,’ she said, with a smug I-told-you-so smile. ‘Will you tell me about seeing Connor this morning?’

‘Jess!’ I glanced around me nervously. ‘Stop talking about him so loudly.’

‘He’s not in here, I already checked.’

I craned my head to look carefully around the dining room. ‘You’re right. I wonder where he is.’

‘You should know that,’ Jess teased. ‘He’s your boyfriend.’

‘How has your morning been, Danny?’ I asked, attempting to change the conversation.

‘Oh you know, the usual, teachers trying to frighten us with exam talk,’ he sighed. ‘I watched such a good nature programme last night though. Did you know that a scorpion will attract a mate by taking her pincers in his and then commencing a dance of courtship?’

‘Well,’ Jess looked bemused, ‘that’s interesting, Danny. Has Connor done that to you yet, Anna?’

‘Done what?’ I played with my food.

‘Taken your pincers in his before commencing a dance of courtship.’

‘We did dance together at the Beatus dance last term,’ I shrugged.

‘Yeah, but all of us were dancing together then,’ Jess pointed out. ‘And he was doing a meerkat impression. I’m not sure that counts as a dance of courtship. We’ll have to consult Marianne. But tell us what happened with Connor this morning. You had such a weird face on in French class.’

‘Nothing, really. We just talked.’

‘No passionate kissing, then?’

‘No, Jess! Outside Miss Duke’s office is hardly a romantic setting,’ I hissed. ‘Stop talking about . . . kissing so loud! Imagine if someone heard you!’

Jess rolled her eyes but went quiet and Danny began to talk about scorpions again.

I was being honest: Connor and I had talked. But what I wasn’t telling Jess was that it hadn’t just been the two of us . . .

I was only in the headmistress’s office for about thirty seconds. She’d wanted to check whether if I was OK after the whole me-stuck-in-a-plant-pot-being-an-Internet-sensation thing.

‘You know . . .’ Miss Duke began, no doubt wondering how she could possibly comfort me, ‘. . . these things blow over.’

‘The Internet doesn’t help that.’

‘In this day and age I’m afraid that fame is a very difficult game.’ She sat back in her chair thoughtfully, like a wise owl. Now that I think about it, her bright, round eyes and pointy features do kind of remind me of an owl.

‘I’m not even sure why I’m famous. I haven’t done anything except fall into a plant pot!’ I shook my head. ‘Seems unfair, really.’

‘Well, if you feel like everything is getting too much for you,’ Miss Duke looked at me kindly, ‘my door is always open.’

I smiled at her and was getting up to leave, but she carried on.

‘Except for Friday lunchtimes, when Mrs Ginnwell and I play Cluedo. I’m afraid my door is firmly closed then. I need all the concentration I can get.’

I almost laughed, but then I noticed her deadpan expression, so I just nodded and hurried out of the office. That’s when I saw Connor down the corridor. He was talking animatedly with a girl from our year, Stephanie. I didn’t know her very well, and I definitely hadn’t been aware that Connor knew her that well either, but clearly he did. She was laughing out loud and tossing her very shiny hair around glamorously. Why hadn’t Connor ever mentioned being friends with her before?

Flustered, I turned round to walk the other way. But then Connor called out, ‘Spidey!’

‘Er, hi,’ I said, turning around. I could feel myself blushing all the way down to my toes. Connor had called me ‘Spidey’ ever since last term, when he had discovered in detention that I shared his love of superheroes and all things comic book. I was usually teased for my Marvel comic-book obsession – especially by Jess, who continued to call it my ‘weird, geeky Marvin habit’, despite me correcting her a hundred billion times – but Connor didn’t tease me one bit. He had even created a comic strip, called The Amazing It Girl, that was inspired by me. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me.

‘You’re looking very furtive,’ he grinned as he strolled up to me. ‘Where have you been?’

‘Miss Duke’s office.’

‘We haven’t even got to the first lesson of term yet.’ He folded his arms and smiled cheekily. ‘That’s impressive, even for you, Anna.’

‘She just wanted to, um . . . she wanted to check that I was OK. After the . . . plant pot incident.’

‘Ah yes,’ Connor nodded slowly, a look on his face that I couldn’t quite work out.

Just then Stephanie and her impossibly shiny hair joined us. I saw that she had a cool, super short block fringe – I’d always wanted one and had considered cutting my long shaggy fringe shorter, but I knew I couldn’t pull it off. Once I’d combed my hair forwards to see if it would give me a geek chic celebrity look. Dad walked in as I was doing it and asked, ‘are you acting out War Horse again?’

I decided the look wasn’t for me.

‘Hi, Anna, did you have a nice holiday?’ Stephanie asked.

‘Um, yes, thank you. Not much happened,’ I lied, hoping that she was the only person in the world who hadn’t seen the plant pot video.

‘I felt like I was working the whole time,’ Stephanie said, rolling her eyes. ‘So much revision!’

‘Yeah, it wasn’t fun,’ Connor agreed. ‘But there were some highlights.’

I felt a flutter in my tummy. Was he talking about hanging out with me? He must be! He had just been doing revision or Art class otherwise. Oh my goodness, Connor had referred to me as a HIGHLIGHT. I couldn’t wait to tell Marianne and Jess!

‘Well, you might call them highlights. But they were quite stressful as well!’ Stephanie nudged Connor’s arm.

Well, that was a little uncalled for, I thought. Hanging out with me hadn’t been stressful! OK, fine, there had been moments of stress, like the time I got chased by a goose. But that only happened once and I was sure that Connor had just found it funny, not stressful.

‘We learnt a lot,’ Connor argued.

Very true. Next time, I was just going to surrender the bread to the goose.

‘Maybe, but I still think I enjoyed the milkshake bar more.’

Wait. There definitely hadn’t been a milkshake bar involved. What were they talking about?

‘Milkshake bar?’ I asked, as casually as possible.

‘Sorry, Anna, I should have explained,’ said Connor, turning to me. ‘Stephanie was in those Art classes I went to, and after class a couple of times we went to this amazing milkshake bar. It does every flavour in the world.’

‘You should come next time we go, Anna! Connor told me that you have a bit of a sweet tooth. They do Nutella flavour, and I know it’s your favourite.’ Stephanie smiled, hitching up all the books she was holding.

He’d told her about my Nutella love? I tried not to feel jealous of this girl who not only had very nice hair but was apparently artistic too, and who had spent her Easter holidays with Connor at a milkshake bar.

‘I had a Nutella milkshake once in your honour,’ Connor informed me proudly. ‘It was pretty good.’

The bell rang, echoing down the near-empty corridor.

‘Right, better get to class.’ Connor hitched his bag on to his shoulder. ‘Anyone walking this way?’

‘I am,’ Stephanie smiled.

Of course she was.

‘I’m going the other way,’ I said, in my most cheerful-not-minding voice.

‘See you later, Spidey.’ Connor smiled at me. ‘I’ll come find you.’

I nodded and walked away, glancing back to see Stephanie launching into what was probably another hilarious, sophisticated Art story that didn’t involve anyone being chased by a vicious goose. But just as my heart was sinking, Connor looked back over his shoulder, catching my eye and smiling slowly, and the butterflies in my stomach went sugar-high crazy.