Cassie's Crush (15 page)

“Colin, no one in their right mind would go in that car right now,” Mum reminded him. She turned back to me. “Have a good time and be
sensible
, OK?”

“Of course I will,” I said, bounding towards the door.

“Hey, what's that hanging down from your jumper?” she called after me.

“Just a tail,” I laughed, giving it a quick flick as I headed out.

 

At the clock, I jumped off the bus and prowled up to Marcia and Evie, who looked amazing. Marcia threw open her thick winter coat to show a cute knitted black dress with red hearts hand-stitched all over it, and under Evie's jacket was a stripy top, stripy leggings, a sticky-out black tutu and clompy lace-up boots. “You look fantastic,” Marcia enthused as I pulled up my jumper to show my catsuit.

“You really do,” Evie added. “Where did you get it?”

“Ned's girlfriend bought it for me,” I said.

“Lucky you! Is it serious with them, then?”

“Who knows?” I asked, too excited to try to figure out Ned's love life now. “Anyway, shall we go?”

Marcia nodded, and the three of us hurried down to the seafront. It was already dark, but the evening was mild and a calm sea lapped gently at the damp sand. “There's the fire!” I exclaimed, forgetting about seeming cool and casual, and racing towards it while pulling my cat mask down over my face. This time there were loads more people, dancing about, their laughter carrying all the way along the beach. My heart was thumping as we headed towards the flickering glow.

“Think the Leech'll be there?” Marcia asked.

“Probably,” I murmured, but I didn't care about her any more, not when everyone was dressed up in wigs and masks and obviously having a great time. Someone had brought their iPod and some speakers and music was blaring out. I spotted Daniel Herring's face peeping out from a bear costume. The Leech was prancing about in a leopard cape and Mickey Mouse ears, and Ollie – who hadn't bothered dressing up after all – broke away from the group to say hello, all smiles. “Happy birthday,” I said with a grin.

“Thanks. Love the mask, Catgirl. Can I try it on?”

“Er, OK,” I said, taking it off and handing it to him. He pulled it on and started doing some crazy cat dance, which prompted the Leech to zoom over and start dancing with him
really
close. Honestly, I didn't care at all – all I wanted was my mask back.

“Wanna dance?” Stalking Paul asked, sidling up to me.

“Er, maybe later…” Sam was approaching, dressed in what looked like one of his dad's suits and a trilby hat.

“Hey, Cass, I spoke to Dad about the car,” he said.

“What did he say?” I asked, aware that Ollie now had his arms around the Leech and she was giggling like crazy. Stalking Paul had gone off to dance on his own, bouncing his arms about like hoover tubes.

“He said he's happy to have a look at it, see what the problem is. He's going to phone your dad to see when he wants to bring it in.”

“That's good of him,” I said with a smile.

“I think he's intrigued,” Sam added. “He likes a challenge…”

“Oh, I nearly forgot!” the Leech shrieked as the song stopped. “Me and Jade made you a cake, Ollie!” Sam and I watched as everyone clustered around and the girls presented a round, flat cake with HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLLIE written on it in different coloured icing pens. “Looks like a cowpat,” Sam whispered in my ear.

It's funny, because even though there were so many people there, it almost felt as if it were just me and Sam, warming ourselves by the fire. “Oh my God,” I whispered. “The Leech is trying to feed Ollie.” Sure enough, she'd pulled the mask –
my
mask – off him and placed it on a rock so she could post little pieces of cake into his mouth.

“D'you think he likes that?” I asked. “All the attention she gives him, I mean.”

Sam rolled his eyes and nodded. “God, yeah, he loves it all right.” Evie was imitating the Leech, popping bits of cake into Marcia's mouth, and then Marcia started dancing with Daniel and me and Sam started dancing too. I'd even thrown off my sweater because it was so toasty and warm by the fire. And it was far better than the party at Marcia's would have been, with her mum lurking and me having to be incognito all night.

The music got louder and Daniel yelled, “Who dares jump into the sea?” We all ran towards it, and the icy waves took my breath away as they splashed around my ankles. I wasn't cold inside, though. Sam was heading towards me – he'd put on my cat mask now – and my heart stopped as he waded right up next to me in the shallow water.

One by one, everyone started screaming that it was freezing and ran back to the fire to get warm. But Sam didn't, and I didn't either. He stood there, ankle-deep in the sea, and Ray's words pinged into my head:
If you're going to have a crush on a boy, shouldn't you pick someone amazing?
Well, I had. I just knew it. It was like tiny sparks were flying between us. I
was
cold now, but it didn't matter because Sam had taken hold of my hand.

The music seemed to fade away as we just stood there, not speaking. My heart was thumping wildly over the roar of the sea.

Then he kissed me.

And I kissed him back. My head was whirling, and I wasn't thinking who might look over and see, and what the Leech would think, or any of that. It didn't even matter that my snogging practice had gone so badly, because this kiss was perfect. When I opened my eyes I saw stars and the blink of the lighthouse way out at sea. And I was there with Sam. Except it
wasn't
Sam. The boy had taken off my cat mask and it was Stalking Paul.

“It's you!” I blurted out, staggering backwards.

“Yeah, who did you think it was?” He was grinning madly.

“Why were you wearing my mask and Sam's hat?” I yelled.

“It was just a joke, Cass! Ollie told me to put it on…”

“Give it back!”

“Here,” he chuckled, handing the mask to me.

“Very funny,” I said, stomping out of the freezing sea and back to the fire.

“Was that you and Paul snogging out there?” the Leech spluttered.

“Is it any business of yours?” I snapped back. I knew, though, that it'd be all round school the next day. Never mind TEEN'S ROOFTOP PRANK ALERTS EMERGENCY SERVICES. They might as well stick CASSIE MALONE KISSED STALKING PAUL on the front page of the
Tarmouth Times
.

“What were you doing?” Marcia shrieked while Evie fell about laughing.

“Nothing! It was dark out there, he had my mask on…”

“Who did you think it was?” Evie demanded.

The Leech had sauntered over and was sneering at me. “You thought that was Ollie, didn't you? I know you've had a crush on him for ages. God, you make it
so
obvious, the whole school knows…” When I glanced behind her, Ollie was laughing and Sam was nowhere to be seen.

“Very romantic,” Ollie teased, “kissing in the moonlight like that…” Stalking Paul grinned, and I mustered a weak smile before grabbing my bag. Clutching my damp mask and pulling my sweater back on, I started to clamber over the rocks.

“Cassie!” Marcia yelled, hurrying to catch up with me. “You're not going already, are you? Come on, it was just a pathetic joke…”

“I just want to go home,” I said with a shrug.

“Oh, come on, Cass,” Evie pleaded, but I shook my head and started to walk away.

“We'll come too,” Marcia said firmly.

“No, you stay. Honestly, I'm fine. I'm just not in the party mood any more.”

Her eyes were wide and full of concern. “You sure? Honestly?”

I spotted Sam then, standing by the fire, giving me a
what's going on?
look. “I'll call you later,” I told Marcia quickly, and started to walk away. A few seconds later, there were footsteps behind me, and I swung around to see Ollie.

“Cassie, I'm sorry,” he said, catching his breath. “I didn't realize you'd take it like that…”

“Take
what
?” I asked coolly.

He paused, and had the decency to look embarrassed. “Er, it was my idea for Paul to wear your mask and Sam's hat. It was just a joke, I'm sorry…”

“S'OK,” I muttered, starting to make my way towards the steps which led up to the promenade.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Ollie added, falling into step with me.

“What?” I turned and looked at him.

“I, um…” He stopped and nudged a clump of wet seaweed with his foot. This was it. Ollie Peyton was going to ask me out and it was all wrong, I didn't want to go out with him any more. “It's, er … to do with my mum,” he explained. “She does this programme on TV; you've probably never seen it…”

“Your mum's on TV?” I asked.

“Occasionally, yeah. She's a psychologist. She's on this series called
Out of Control
, about teenagers who get up to stuff – like, trouble with the police – and she has to analyse why they do it.”

“Um … what does this have to do with me?” I asked.

“Well, I told her all about that mad thing you did – climbing on that kebab place roof and getting into the paper, and she said, ‘Brilliant, she'd be perfect for the programme…'”

“Are you serious?” I blurted out. “You honestly think I'd want to be on telly as some kind of problem teenager and have your mum analyse me?”

“Well, I thought maybe, er…” He dug the toe of his trainer into the sand.

“You
are
kidding,” I said. “You can't honestly think I'd want to do that.”

“I thought you might,” he said sheepishly. “You're pretty cool, like you don't seem to care what people think…” If only he knew! I spend my
life
worrying what people think of my mad family and Mum's pink dog van. “You'd get paid,” he added, and I thought of my £1.72. “And you'd be famous,” he added.

“I don't want to be famous,” I said, turning and marching towards the steps. “I'm not interested, Ollie. Sorry, but you've got the wrong girl.”

I could hardly sleep last night for thinking about it. My first proper kiss … and it was with Stalking Paul. This is the boy who thinks “bum” is the same spelled backwards as forwards. I called for Marcia on the way to school (I'm allowed to go to her house again – not
in
it, but to the front door. How long's her mum going to hold a grudge against me?) and she looked as miserable as I felt. “What's wrong?” I asked her.

“Last night,” she muttered.

“Did something happen after I'd left?”

She nodded glumly. “The Leech said she'd heard all about me being a washing-machine kisser…”

“Who told her that?” I shrieked.

“Daniel, of course,” she said. “But I reckon she was just stirring up trouble because she was furious that Ollie kept going on about you after you'd gone home, and how he felt terrible about the mask prank…”

“So he should,” I muttered.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “and so should Daniel. He lied, Cass. I mean, I've never even kissed him! Why would he say that about me?”

“I've no idea.”

“I mean,” she raged on, “I wouldn't kiss Daniel Herring if he was the last boy alive. Not now, anyway,
and
I've thrown out that stupid Valentine's card.”

“Oh, Marcia.” I put my arm around her shoulders and tried to think of something comforting to say, but the whole thing was baffling.

“I don't know if he really said it or if the Leech made it up, but you know what?” She gave me a defiant stare. “I don't care either way. And I figure that if I don't care about that, then I don't care about
him
, and what's the point of having a boyfriend I don't care about?”

“There's no point,” I agreed.

“Apart from being able to say, ‘I've got a boyfriend'?”

She was right. After all, Mum escaped through her bedroom window in the middle of the night to meet Dad. If you're going out with someone, it has to
mean
something, doesn't it?

 

I spent most of the day pretending I hadn't heard “you snogged Stalking Paul!” comments, and it wasn't until I was safely home, and tipping out the contents of my schoolbag on my bed, that I found it: a small, slightly grubby envelope for me. No stamp, no address, no nothing. Just
Cassie
in careful handwriting in the middle of the white envelope. Someone must have slipped it in there at school.

I ripped it open. It was … a Valentine's card. Lots of tiny red hearts bursting out of a cake on the front. Inside it said:

 

To Cassie,

From your secret admirer xxx

 

I know – hardly wildly original. But it was the first valentine I'd ever had. So who'd sent it? I was mulling this over when my phone bleeped with a text from an unknown number. Hands shaking, I opened it. It said: HEY CASS GR8 PARTY LAST NITE HAHA LOL PAUL

Paul?! And how had he got my number? Of course, he was one of the people Marcia had asked me to phone about her cancelled party. I glared at the card, then flung it across my room, just as Dad called my name from downstairs. “Cassie, where's your friend's dad's garage again?” he yelled.

“Um … I think it's near Morley Street,” I replied. Dad muttered something else, and I remembered then that he was meant to be taking the car round to Sam's dad's place. “Are you going now?” I called downstairs.

“Yes, love.” I realized I was smiling. I only had the vaguest idea where the garage was, but I wasn't about to tell Dad that.

“I'll come with you if you like,” I called out, leaping off my bed, “and help you find it.”

 

We set off, with Dad still wearing his work shirt with The Jolly Jam Company emblazoned on the breast pocket. “I think it's down here,” I told him, trying to shut down my nose so I wouldn't inhale too much cheese stink. We drove down a side street, then into an even narrower lane and, by a stroke of luck, at the end there was Roach's Garage. Sam's dad was waiting for us, and he brought me and Dad cups of tea to drink in the office while he had an initial probe about. We'd only been there for ten minutes when Sam appeared, all smiles, and I no longer cared about the stupid prank with Stalking Paul wearing my mask.

“Mr Malone, Dad says can you pop next door into the garage?” Sam asked. “There's something he wants to show you.”

“OK,” Dad said, looking puzzled, while Sam and I lurked behind.

“D'you know what it is?” I whispered.

Sam nodded and sniggered. “So … what did he find?” I prompted him, feeling intrigued now.

“Wait and see.” Sam grinned and just for a second, my insides kind of flipped.

“Cassie!” Dad called out as we stepped into the garage. “Come and see what Barry's found.”

Sam's dad smiled at me. He had a friendly face, like Sam – the same dark blond hair and pale blue eyes. Our car boot was open and when I peered in, I realized he'd taken the plastic bottom out of it. There was still a
terrible
stink. In fact, it was worse than ever. “What's that?” I asked, pointing at a small pile of gunky stuff stuck to the metal.

“We have an idea,” Barry said teasingly, “but I think, to be sure, we'd better send it off to a lab for analysis…”

“Is it…
alive
?” I asked, my stomach heaving.

“Sort of,” Dad spluttered, his shoulders shaking with amusement. “It's cheese.”

“What?” I gasped, with Sam chuckling beside me. “How did it get down there?”

His dad took a chisel and started scraping away at the gunk. “It's soft cheese,” Barry explained. “Camembert, isn't it, Colin?”

My dad gave a sheepish nod. “We bought it in France before Christmas, remember, Cassie?”

“Of course I do,” I said quickly. How could I forget our thrilling drive to Wine's World in Calais? Mum had wanted a huge cheese, I remembered now.

“We put it in the boot and must have stacked all the wine boxes on top of it,” Dad explained.

“And it was left there,” Barry continued, sounding pretty excited about his detective work, “and there's a hole here – see?” He pointed at our boot's plastic bottom, which was propped up against the garage wall. “It lay there so long it must have melted with the heat of the engine and, er, decayed…”

And to think, I try to pretend my family's normal.

“…Then it dripped down through the hole,” Barry continued.

“I remember finding a piece of greasy paper in the boot,” Dad said vaguely. “I just thought it was litter, but it must've been the cheese wrapper.”

I glanced at Sam, expecting him to look completely disgusted, but he was choking with laughter. “Ever had to sort something like that before, Dad?” he asked.

“Can't say I have,” Barry chuckled. “Anyway, this'll take me a while to scrape off, and we'll need to give it a good scrub out afterwards. Will you help me, Colin?”

“Of course,” Dad said. I hovered about, wondering what to do next.

“C'mon,” Sam said, touching my arm. “Dad'll call us when it's done.”

 

I liked that. The fact that a vehicle needed cleaning and I wasn't expected to have anything to do with it. “Where shall we go?” I asked Sam.

“Want to see our garden?” he asked, suddenly sounding a bit shy.

“Sure,” I replied, following him in through a door at the back of the garage. We climbed the narrow stairs to the flat above. “You live here?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Sam said. I followed him in, and the kitchen was nicely chaotic, the opposite of Marcia's place, where you worry like mad that you'll drop a crumb on the floor.

“Is your mum in?” I asked.

“No, she's out picking up my little sister from the childminder.”

“And where's Billy?” I asked, remembering the friendly hound he'd brought round for clipping that first time.

“Oh, er…” Sam blushed. “He's not actually ours.”

“Isn't he? But I thought you said…”

“We were looking after him,” he said quickly. “Anyway, want to see our roof?”

“Are you kidding?” I joked. “Look what happened last time I ended up on top of a building…”

“This is different,” Sam said. “C'mon, I'll show you.”

Sam's roof was up a short flight of wooden steps and through a hatch. We stepped out, and I saw the whole of Tarmouth all lit up with the streetlights and the sea sparkling in the distance.

Sam flicked a switch by the hatch and all these little coloured lights came on, strung between plants in pots. It was a proper garden – a roof garden – with a bench and a canopy where you could sit and look out to sea. “This is amazing,” I said, perching on the bench. “It's beautiful, Sam.”

Sam sat beside me. I could hear our dads down beneath us, laughing away in the garage. And a funny thought struck me: maybe Sam had
borrowed
Billy so he could come round to our van? If he had, he'd probably paid for the shampoo and trim out of his own money. And perhaps he'd borrowed the other dogs too… Why would anyone go to all that trouble? “Sam…” I started hesitantly.

“Uh-huh?”

“Do you think, um … my family's weird?”

“No, why would I?” I could sense him looking at me but I stared straight ahead at the on-off blink of the lighthouse.

“Oh, a few things,” I sniggered. “Mum's van, the rotting cheese in our car…”

“They're not
that
weird,” he said. He paused, and then he added, “There is something, though.”

“Is there? What is it?” I turned to look at him.

He was silent for a moment, and my heart started beating really fast. “D'you still like Ollie, Cassie?” he asked.

I felt my cheeks flushing pink. “Not any more,” I said firmly. “You know what? Last night, at the beach, he asked if his mum could put me in some programme she's making about problem teenagers…”

“You're kidding!” Sam spluttered. “You're not a
problem
, Cass. It's just … stuff seems to happen to you.”

I chuckled. “You could say that. Anyway, he said I'd be paid and become famous, but I'd hate that!”

“Being paid?” he asked.

“No, being famous! Wouldn't you? Can you imagine even being like Ollie, with everyone hanging around you all the time? I mean, I like just being … me.”

Sam smiled. “I like you being you as well.”

My heart flipped again, and I looked at him. “Do you?” I asked.

“Oh yeah.” I felt myself almost
glowing
, and I wished our dads would take ages to scrape off the cheese so we could sit up here for longer. I wanted to sit there all night.

By now, it didn't sound like they were working on the car any more. There was a low chattering noise, as if they were just sitting and talking, like we were.

“Cassie,” Sam murmured, “did you find your Valentine's card?”

“That was from you! I thought it was Paul!” I probably shouldn't have looked so delighted, but I couldn't help it.

He grinned. “And I s'pose I should tell you that I borrowed those dogs so I could come over and see you…”

“I, um, wondered about that,” I murmured. He laughed, and even in the darkness I could tell he was blushing. I thought about all the mad things I'd found myself doing for Ollie. But borrowing dogs … even I hadn't done anything
that
crazy.

I don't know what made me do the next thing, but maybe it's because I realized Sam's the sweetest, loveliest boy I'd ever met, and I just couldn't help myself. My heart was thumping as I took hold of his hand.

He didn't pull it away. He just turned to me and he kissed me, and it didn't matter that the kiss in the sea with Paul had been so embarrassing because this one was … how shall I put it?

Amazing.

Spine-tingling.

Like I was about to explode with so much excitement I could
almost
jump off Sam's roof.

We stopped kissing and just sat there, looking out over the dark sea. “Ready, Cassie?” Dad called up from the street. “Car's all cleaned up now. The cheese smell's gone!”

“Coming,” I called back. Then Sam kissed me again.

“Cassie? What are you doing up there? Come on now, let's go home…”

“In a minute,” I murmured as we held hands and watched the twinkling lighthouse. Who needs strawberry love potions? Not me.