Worse Than Boys (18 page)

Wizzie turned on her. ‘No, you’re not, Lauren. She’s making you do it.’ She pointed a black-nailed finger at me. ‘You wouldn’t have thought about it if it wasn’t for her.’ Then she turned to me and poked her finger into
my chest. Her little white face was red with anger. ‘You’re every bit as manipulative as that Erin.’

That really hurt. ‘Don’t say that, Wizzie.’

But she wasn’t going to stop. ‘You’re trying to turn us into the Lip Gloss Girls, and I don’t like it!’

Chapter Forty-Six

The night before the auditions we all gathered at Lauren’s house. All of us except Wizzie. We waited and waited and she didn’t turn up. She’d been annoyed since she’d found out that Lauren was still going to audition, no matter what she said.

‘Is Wizzie mad at me?’ I asked.

Grace answered. ‘I think she’s just mad.’

‘She’ll be fine,’ Lauren said. ‘She told me today I’d get that part for sure.’ Then she laughed. ‘Said she’d punch Hammond’s lights out if I didn’t. She’s for it, she just doesn’t want to admit it, because it wasn’t her idea in the first place.’

But I couldn’t help wondering, where was Wizzie? Since the night at the Mall she’d missed a few of our meetings. I kept remembering those horrible Black Widows and hoped she wasn’t with them.

What else were we doing behind her back? she had
asked. But I wondered, what else was Wizzie doing behind ours?

‘Oh well, her loss,’ I said, trying to be cheery.

Lauren’s mum brought in toasted cheese sandwiches for our supper. ‘I’ve added some cinnamon and garlic tonight,’ she told us, as she brought in a plate piled high. ‘I think it brings out the flavour of the cheese.’

‘I don’t know about bringing it out, but I’m bringing it up in five minutes,’ I whispered.

Lauren’s brother sent us all a really rude text message that sent us into a fit of giggles. Her dad popped in with funny stories about strange objects that got stuck in drainpipes. Her sister Ellen was all nervous because she was going out on a first date with a new boyfriend. No wonder we always loved coming to Lauren’s.

Wizzie wasn’t here and I felt we were all more relaxed. We lay along the beds and laughed and fixed our hair, tried on each other’s clothes and did all the things I used to do with the Lip Gloss Girls. Maybe Wizzie was right. Without her, we were turning into them.

‘I’m really nervous about this daft audition,’ Lauren said. ‘I don’t know why I’m even trying for it.’

‘Because
she
said so,’ Grace said, giving me a push.
‘And it’s getting to the stage where we seem to be doing everything she wants.’ I looked at her quickly, sure she was getting at me. But there was a smile on her face. Grace was enjoying it too.

‘You’ll be brilliant,’ I told Lauren – couldn’t have her backing out now.

Lauren took one look in her mirror. ‘Look at me. This Sandy is supposed to be sweet and innocent.’ She held out her topsy-turvy hair. ‘I look like a scarecrow. I’m a mess. How am I ever going to convince anybody I could be Sandy?’

‘My mum’s told me exactly how to do your hair tomorrow. It’ll be fine.’

‘Or you could just shave your head,’ Sonya suggested. ‘You’d look great in the school play bald.’

The idea seemed to appeal to Lauren. ‘Hey, do you think that would look funky?’

‘That’s what I love about you, Lauren,’ Sonya said. ‘You’ve got the guts to be different. You would shave your head just to see what it looked like!’

‘And that’s what I really like about you,’ I said, suddenly wanting them all to know how I felt. ‘About the whole lot of you.’ I looked around at them. Sonya, with the stutter; Grace, who never got a joke and with her
long horsey face (well, let’s face it – that’s the only way you could describe her); Lauren, with her idiot hairstyles. And I thought about Wizzie, with her rings and her scars. ‘I like how you are all different, and you bump each other up all the time.’

They all looked at me as if I’d said something really stupid. ‘I hope you don’t expect a group hug next,’ Grace said solemnly.

‘Not like your old pals,’ Sonya said.

I felt so far away from those ‘old pals’ now, as if all that belonged in another world.

‘No,’ I said. Me and my ‘old pals’ hadn’t wanted to be different. I could see that now. We had all wanted to be the same. We had all wanted to be like Erin.

Erin. I hated her more at that moment than I ever had before.

‘You’ve got them back anyway. You’re one of us now.’

I was, and I was glad of it. But it wasn’t enough. Not by a long way.

‘It’s going to be the icing on the cake when Lauren gets that part tomorrow. I’m dying to see their faces!’

The thought of the audition set Lauren off in moans and sighs once again. ‘What am I doing this for? I’m so nervous.’

‘You will get the part.’ I was sure of it. Mr Hammond was a fair man. He would give the part to the best singer, and that was Lauren. Anyway, he’d never had any time for the Lip Gloss Girls either.

I lay in bed that night and I couldn’t get to sleep. Thinking over everything, thinking especially about Erin.

Manipulative. The word repeated itself over and over in my head. That was Erin. Manipulating me, manipulating us all. She’d made a fool of my mum, and I had let her. She’d made a fool of Heather that night at the wedding, and I had laughed too. Why had I never realised that before?

My mobile rang at midnight. It was Lauren. ‘I can’t sleep, Hannah. I’m dead nervous. What am I doing this for? They’ll all laugh at me.’

‘Because you want to,’ I told her. ‘And because you’re good. It’ll be a laugh. And I’ll be there with you.’

After I’d spoken to her I snuggled down under the duvet. I was filled with a warm feeling of friendship for Lauren. Who would ever have thought that? I’d once thought she was hard and tough and common. And here she was, phoning me because she was nervous about an
audition for a school musical. Had she phoned any of the others? I hoped she hadn’t. I wanted to be Lauren’s friend. Anyway, I didn’t think she had. It was me she’d turned to. I was nervous too. She just had to get that part. It would bug Rose so much if she did.

It had been a good night. One of those nights you imagine you’re going to remember for the rest of your life.

But where had Wizzie been? Was she annoyed because Lauren was going in for the school musical? Annoyed at me? Was she moving away from us towards one of those other gangs? The Black Widows?

It was as I was drifting off to sleep that I realised there was something else. Something kept repeating itself in my head. Something that I was sure was significant. Something about Wizzie.

Everyone’s got secrets, Wizzie had said that first night we went to the Mall … and I wondered, what was Wizzie’s secret?

Chapter Forty-Seven

The auditions were to take place after school. No one knew that Lauren was going in for the part of Sandy. No one would ever expect one of us to even consider such a thing. It had to be a complete surprise to everyone. I had decided that we were going to make an entrance. My mum had sorted out Lauren’s wardrobe for the audition and Lauren’s mum had fixed the clothes so they were just right for her. After school we headed for the girls’ toilets to change. Lauren and I went into one of the cubicles while the others waited outside.

Wizzie stood guard at the door, to stop anyone else from coming in.

‘Better use the toilets on the bottom floor,’ she told a couple of girls who tried to get in. ‘Sonya’s got a bad case of diarrhoea in here.’

Sonya almost screeched. ‘What did you tell them that for? Why me?’

Wizzie only shrugged. ‘Had to tell them something, didn’t I? Nobody’ll want into this lavvy now.’

In the cubicle, I brushed and brushed at Lauren’s hair, just the way Mum had shown me. I pulled it back into a ponytail and held it with a ribbon. I had brought wipes and by the time I’d finished, Lauren’s face was shining, and so was her hair. Lauren was really pretty, I thought, and once she put on the soft pink skirt and the blouse my mum had supplied her with I was really amazed at the change in her. She stepped out of the cubicle like a model at a fashion show.

‘Tara!’

It wasn’t just me who gasped. Grace almost swallowed her chewing gum. Sonya shrieked. Wizzie drew in her breath.

‘What do you think?’ Lauren said. She saw all their astonished faces. ‘Do you think I look daft?’

Sonya suddenly burst out laughing. ‘You were born to wear a ponytail.’

‘You look just like her in the film,’ Grace said.

I laughed. ‘She means Olivia Newton Mearns.’

Grace giggled. We all did. The only one who wasn’t laughing was Wizzie. She was leaning on the wall, watching Lauren sullenly.

‘What’s wrong with your face?’ I asked her.

‘She definitely looks like one of the Lip Gloss Girls now.’

I could see what she meant. Lauren did. The fierceness had come from that wild hair of hers, and her crazy clothes. This was a different Lauren. She looked sweet and innocent. She had the fresh face of a cherub, scrubbed and rosy cheeked.

‘Weird what a change of hair can do, or clothes,’ Sonya said.

‘Or a good wash,’ I added, and Lauren gave me a push that sent me flying.

‘I’m sure I can remember having a bath once,’ she said.

Wizzie might not have liked it, but she was a mate. She linked her arm in Lauren’s and we marched along the corridor together towards the auditorium, striding it out, with Lauren in the middle of us.

‘I hope you know we haven’t a hope,’ Wizzie said. ‘Everybody hates us.’ Then she grinned. ‘Who says we’ll trash the place if she doesn’t get the part?’

What an entrance we made. Wizzie pushed through the double doors, making such a clatter I was sure the doors were coming off their hinges.

I walked after her, with Grace and Sonya. We left Lauren to glide in behind us, like a queen. Everyone turned to look. I clocked them. There was big Anil, folded over a seat – probably didn’t even have to audition, big show-off. Zak Riley was there too. Surely he didn’t expect a part? But the ones my eyes searched out – the only ones I was interested in – were Erin and co. They were right at the front, no surprise there, and Erin got to her feet to watch us. She stood rigid, the way she always did when she was spoiling for a fight. The rest stood up too and turned to look at us.

Wizzie held up her hands. ‘It’s OK. No applause. Not at the moment. Autographs later.’

We took our seats at the back and spread ourselves out. Mr Hammond hurried towards us. ‘What are you doing here? You better not be here to cause trouble.’

‘Us, sir?’ I said, all innocence.

‘We’re here to audition.’ He stared at Wizzie when she said that, disbelief written all over his face in big letters. Don’t know why he looked so surprised. Seeing her sitting there, with her wild hair and her eyebrow pierced, I thought she would have made a great Rizzo, the leader of the Pink Ladies.

‘Don’t worry,’ Wizzie said. ‘I’m not going into your
daft play.’ She pulled at Lauren’s pink cardigan. ‘She is.’

Mr Hammond’s eyes travelled to Lauren, all pink and fresh and pretty, and stayed there, as if he was trying to figure out if he knew her. ‘My goodness, Lauren, I wouldn’t have recognised you. I didn’t know you could sing.’

‘Wait till you hear her,’ I said. ‘Hidden talents.’

He turned his attention to me then. ‘Ah, so this is your doing. And what part is Lauren auditioning for?’ He was asking me, not Lauren. I could almost see Lauren ready to say she’d take anything, but I was having none of that.

‘The main part. Sandy. That’s the only one she’s interested in.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘I see,’ he said.

‘You’ll give her a fair shot at it, won’t you, sir?’

Mr Hammond didn’t think Lauren stood a chance. None of them did. He still thought we were here for a laugh, to make a complete mess of his audition. ‘Of course I will. But I’ll be keeping my eye on you,’ he said, and then he hurried back down to the front of the stage.

It would have been hard not to make a fool of the auditions. How some people have the nerve to get up
and sing beats me.

The boys were first. And that was such a laugh. Everyone knew the main part would go to big Anil. He didn’t even need to sing. But he did, just so the girls could swoon at him.

Another couple of boys tried out for the same part, but they didn’t stand a chance.

There were no surprises when Mr Hammond announced that Anil would play the lead. I called up to the teacher, ‘Cheat! He was definitely miming, sir!’

Almost everyone laughed, even big Anil. Only the Lip Gloss Girls kept their faces straight and solemn. And Mr Hammond. He shook his head in a warning, still sure we were here to make trouble.

Zak Riley got a part too, as one of the more stupid members of the gang. ‘Type casting!’ I called up when we heard that news.

Then it was the girls’ turn, and that was even funnier. Mary Fortune got up and belted out ‘Simply the Best’ as if she was Tina Turner herself. She was awful. We stamped and whistled when she’d finished as if she’d been brilliant. She knew we were making a fool of her and glared daggers at us. She was so busy glaring she tripped and fell off the stage. That only made us whistle
and cheer even louder. Mr Hammond came up and warned us to shut up. ‘I’ll put you out if there’s any more of that.’

Lauren whispered as he walked away, ‘I’m definitely not getting that part now.’

She looked nervous. Little bubbles of sweat dotted her top lip. I glanced at Rose. She didn’t look nervous at all. Confidence oozed from her. I could see Erin and the new girl, Geraldine Mooney, whispering in her ear, probably telling her how wonderful she was going to be. They would be sure she would walk this one. So had I, once.

Until I had heard Lauren sing.

Eventually, it was Rose’s turn. She stood up, smiling, and walked straight-backed to the stage. Erin and the rest started cheering and stamping and whistling, just as we had done, but Mr Hammond didn’t rush to silence them.

And Rose started to sing ‘Summer Lovin’.

Lauren turned to me. ‘That’s the song I’m going to sing!’