Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 01] (13 page)

‘Exactly,’ said Mrs
Williams, looking at the photo. ‘Something to show off your lovely bone
structure. And, Betty, run a few highlights through.’ She turned to me before
going out of the door. ‘My present, Lucy. I know what it’s like when your hair
gets ruined.’

Nesta’s family is f.
f. fab.

And off Betty went.
This time I didn’t look in the mirror until she’d finished, then when I
did…Wow. It was fantastic. Spiky and short at the front and layered all over.
Then she put some white blonde highlights through the top. Even I had to admit
that this time the cut really suited me.

‘You look gorgeous,’
said Izzie. ‘It really shows off your cheekbones. Amazing.’

‘You look elfin,’ said
Nesta. ‘Very Winona Ryder.’

After Betty had gone,
we had another look through Mrs Williams’s interior design mags and I saw the
room I wanted. Pale lilac. With powder blue paintwork.

‘
Tres chic
,’
said Izzie.

It was all coming
together. My hair, my room, my friends.

It was time to ask
Nesta my burning question.

‘Nesta,’ I said
gravely.

‘Yes, oh gorgeous
one?’ she replied.

‘You know Tony?’

‘Yes,’ she laughed.
‘He’s my brother.’

‘Why doesn’t he live
with his mum?’

Nesta went quiet. ‘She
died. In a road accident when he was six months old. He never knew her. A year
later, his dad met Mum and, well, my mum’s the only mum he’s ever known, even
though she’s not really his mum physically.’

‘Where
is
he
tonight?’ I asked. I wanted him to see me with my new haircut. Looking
fantabuloso.

‘Some class after
school, I expect,’ said Nesta. ‘He often stays late for one thing or another.’

Suddenly Izzie clapped
her hand over her mouth and gave me a strange look, ‘Ohmigod,’ she
said.‘OhmiGOD.’

‘What?’ chorused Nesta
and I.

‘Tony,’ said Izzie. ‘
Tony’

She knew. I
knew
she knew. I went purple and now she definitely knew.

‘What?’ said Nesta.

Izzie crossed her arms
and looked at me as if to say, I’m not saying, are you going to?

I glanced at Nesta and
decided I could trust her.

‘What?’ she said.

‘Tony,’ I said.

‘I know,’ she said.
‘Tony, Tony.
Tony
what?’

‘A boy that we didn’t
see in Highgate because he stays late for classes after school?’ said Izzie,
waiting for the penny to drop.

Nesta thumped her
forehead. ‘Except we
did
see him, didn’t we? Obvious. Obviouso. Tony
is the MC.’

I nodded.

‘And he made you kiss
him,’ said Izzie.

‘And I told him to
stay away from you,’ said Nesta. ‘No wonder you hated me. Why didn’t you say,
Lucy?’

‘I thought you’d tell
him I fancied him and then I’d, I’d look stupid. If he knew I’d been waiting
for him to come out of school, I’d look like a real desperado.’

At that moment, we
heard someone coming in the front door.

Oh, let it be her dad
back from America, I prayed but of course, Murphy’s law, it was Tony.

‘Hiya, everybody,’
said Tony. ‘Wow. Is that little Lucy? Hey, you look great. Gorgeous.’

He came and sat next
to me. ‘Want another kissing session?’

Nesta and Izzie just
sat there gaping.

‘
What?’
said
Tony. ’Why are you all staring at me? What? What’s happened?‘

Suddenly I got the
giggles and couldn’t stop. That set Izzie off then Nesta and soon the three of
us were holding our sides laughing.

Tony got up and
stomped to the door. ‘Girls. Sometimes you lot can be really juvenile.‘

‘I thought he liked
girls with a sense of humour,’ I said, still laughing.

‘Not when it’s
directed at him,’ said Nesta. ‘And I won’t say anything, about, you know, him
being the MC, if you don’t want.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘I
don’t
want.’

‘Anyway,’ said Izzie.
‘I reckon you could get anyone you want looking like you do now. Play the field
a while.’

‘Ah, but I have been
kissed by the Master,’ I said, giggling again.

‘Then you owe it to
yourself,’ said Izzie,‘ to see if anyone else can match up.’

C h a p t e r
 
1 5

Decisions,
Decisions…

Contents
-
Prev
/
Next

‘So, girls,’ said
Wacko a fortnight later. ‘Next week I want your subject choices in. You’ve all
had plenty of time to think about it so I expect your papers on my desk on Monday.’

Eek. Double eek. I
hadn’t thought about it at all. Not for ages. I’d been too busy having a good
time with Nesta and Izzie and making clothes and doing my bedroom.

We’d spent the last
two weekends painting. Lai and Steve had helped and it looked fantastic. I
chose lilac mist for the walls and, as I’d seen in the interior magazine, we
painted the woodwork pale powdery blue. The room was transformed and looked
much bigger, as well as cleaner and brighter.

Mum took me down to a
market in the East End to look for fabrics for the curtains and cushions but we
didn’t see any I liked at any of the stalls. Then we passed an Indian shop.
Rolls of beautiful materials were spilling out on to the pavement. I had to
stop. Lovely shimmering jewel colours with silver and gold borders.

‘Mum, let’s look in
there,’ I said, pulling her in.

I found a roll of sky
blue
sari
fabric with a silver embroidered border. It would look
stunning against the lilac walls and it wasn’t too expensive. We made our
purchase then bought some lining and some curtain rails.

When I got home, Mum
helped me do the curtains and we made them so that the lovely silver border was
at the bottom. We even had enough to swathe some at the top. It was the
finishing touch and made the room look floaty and soft.

The overall effect was
lovely but had taken up all my spare time. Subject choices hadn’t even got a
look-in.

Things were looking up
on the boy front too. When I go out with Izzie and Nesta now, boys look at me
as well. And not just the nerdy ones that no one else wants. Some quite cute
ones have given me the eye. But to my mind, no one came close to Tony.

I saw him a couple of
times at Nesta’s but he ignored me. I don’t think he had recovered from us all
laughing at him. Then one evening, he came out of his room when I was going to
the bathroom.

‘
Psst
,’ he
said. ‘Lucy, in here.’

I followed him in and
he shut the door. I stood there nervously wondering what he wanted. Then before
I could say anything, he pushed me back against a wall, put my arms around his
neck and kissed me. A long deep sensual kiss that went right down to my toes
and back again.

Then he stood back.
‘So, do you want to go out some time?’

I remembered
everything that Nesta had said about him. He likes a challenge then dumps the
girl. Nesta said he’d even chucked the girl I saw there a couple of weeks ago.
Izzie’s words also went through my head. Don’t be too easy. Boys like a
challenge. Although it was very tempting, I took a deep breath and moved away
from him.

‘I don’t know,’ I said.
I’ll think about it.‘

He looked taken aback
then shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’

Then he opened the
door to let me out. ‘You’re probably too young for me anyway.’

But he was smiling as
he said it.

Time was running out. Monday
was D-day for Wacko and Saturday was the Clothes Show. When was I going to have
time to choose my subjects? I got my file out and sat at the kitchen table with
what I had done so far in front of me. Three lines.

‘Lucy, shouldn’t you
be in bed?’ said Mum. ‘It’s almost eleven o’clock.’

‘We have to hand this
in on Monday and I still haven’t a clue what I want to do when I grow up. Too
many choices. It’s driving me mad.’

Mum sat down at the
table next to me. ‘I remember feeling the same,’ she said. ‘In fact even now I
don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.’

‘But you
are
grown up. And you have a job.’

‘Yes, but I still feel
nineteen sometimes. There’re always choices, aren’t there? I mean, I know I
have a job. I’m a psychotherapist. But that’s not what I am. It’s only what I
do. Who I am is changing all the time and I could change my job any time I
want.’

‘I wish I could decide
on just one thing, never mind think of changing. It’s such a nuisance.’

‘Choice isn’t a curse,
Lucy. It’s a blessing. And there will always be choices. Every day, every week.
They’ll keep coming.’

I groaned.

‘There are easy
choices, like do I want tuna pizza or four cheeses? Shall I paint my nails pink
or purple? And there are the bigger choices, more serious stuff like career or
relationships. And those choices will seem to keep changing depending on how
you’re feeling inside as well as how outside influences affect you.‘

‘It all sounds so
complicated,’ I sighed. ‘Oh for an easy life.’

‘I’ll drink to that,’
said Mum. ‘How are you getting on with that boy you like?’

‘He says I’m too young
for him. But it’s not that. One of the girls he went out with, I thought she
was sixteen but turns out she’s the same age as me. I just look young for my
age.’

‘You’ll see that as a
gift one day,’ smiled Mum. ‘It’s a family gene, none of our family looks their
age. Believe me, when you’re thirty or forty you’ll be glad you look younger.
But for now, come on, up to bed. Sleep on it. You never know, it might all
become clear in the morning.’

Fat chance. I’ll never
be able to sleep. What if I pick the wrong subjects and regret it? I wish, I
wish
I knew what to do. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

The
Way is Clear

Contents
-
Prev

I made a special
outfit for the Clothes Show. Halter tops are turning out to be my speciality
and I ran one off out of some of the leftover
sari
material using the
silver to make criss-cross straps at the back. Then I made a grey crepe wrap-over
skirt to go with it.

I met up with Nesta
and Izzie at the tube station. Nesta looked sensational wearing her black
leather trousers and a short jacket. And I was so pleased to see that she had
my red top on underneath.

Izzie was wearing a
long hippie dippie outfit in purple with some amethyst jewellery she found at a
stall in Camden.

The hall was heaving
with people when we got there.

We paid for our
tickets then went to join the crowds wandering around the many stalls and
shopping areas. Izzie was soon absorbed in a stall selling New Age lotions and
crystals. Nesta was busy craning her head looking for talent scouts.

‘Aren’t they supposed
to spot you, not the other way round?’ I asked. ‘Just relax, Nesta. Enjoy
yourself. The talent scouts will be doing just that, scouting.’

We were wandering into
one of the shops when I stopped in my tracks.

‘What? Who have you
seen?’ asked Nesta.

I pulled Nesta behind
a rail of clothes and pointed. There was Josie Riley and a bunch of her mates.
Josie was flirting with a boy who was standing in the middle of them lapping up
the attention. She was flicking her hair about and doing all that touchy feely
stuff, brushing the boy’s arm and looking deeply into his eyes.

It was Tony.

‘Oh, don’t worry,
Lucy,’ said Nesta. ‘He may be a big-head but he’s not stupid.’

I wasn’t so sure. He’d
said how much he liked confident girls and Josie was certainly that. Plus he
looked like he was really enjoying himself.

Suddenly Josie spotted
us and gave us a sick smile and a wave.

‘Want to go over?’
said Nesta.

‘Oh no,’ I said,
darting behind another clothes rail. ‘I couldn’t bear it if he likes her.’

‘Suit yourself,’ said
Nesta. ‘Anyway he hasn’t seen us.’

There was so much to
take in. Hours flew by as we tried clothes on, experimented with new eye
colours and plastered ourselves with free samples of moisturiser and perfume.