Worse Than Boys Read online

  The train doors were about to close. ‘We can’t let them get away with it, Wizzie,’ I said.

  Wizzie shook her head. ‘I can’t grass on them. I won’t. I’ll take the blame before I do that.’

  And she would too. She would risk all the trouble in the world. And she would take all the blame on herself so the rest of the Hell Cats wouldn’t be involved. She’d do all this, rather than grass on the Black Widows.

  It was up to me, I decided. ‘You can’t grass, Wizzie,’ I said. ‘But I can.’

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  I’m going to be watching over my shoulder for a long time to come. The Black Widows don’t give up easily. They say they’re going to get me. But after I told the police what I knew, it was easy for them to prove the Black Widows were the ones who set fire to Erin’s flat. Seems they’d done the same thing before to girls who had got on the wrong side of them. Added to that, they had another grudge against the Brodies. It turned out that Erin’s brother, Calum, had ditched one of them. She was the one who broke down and told the police the whole story. In fact it was a double confession. They’d mugged the old woman too.

  So, with any luck, I won’t have to be involved in any trial.

  They’re out on bail at the moment, and me and Mum don’t take any chances. We check our flat every night just in case, and always make sure our smoke alarms are in full working order. Better safe than sorry.

  I just try not to be alone too much.

  And I’m never alone really. I’m at rehearsals a lot with Lauren. I’ve actually got a part in the show. It’s not much of a part. But I do get to thump Zak Riley in it, and that can’t be bad.

  ‘I think you fancy Zak Riley,’ Lauren said to me one day.

  What a stupid idea! How can you fancy someone when all you do is argue with them? Rose is in the musical too, playing Rizzo, the leader of the Pink Ladies, of all things! And I have to admit, she’s pretty good.

  Erin actually apologised to me, can you believe it? She even admitted to me that since it all happened she’s never wet the bed again. She smiled when she said it. ‘So, you really did me a favour.’ Then she added, ‘Or Heather did.’

  For a while I think people thought she and I would be friends again, but that would never happen. We talk to each other, but we could never be the kind of friends we were before. I’d never want to be.

  Lauren’s my best friend now. And we don’t bother with any gangs. There are no more Hell Cats or Lip Gloss Girls. No fights, no leaders. I can’t understand sometimes how I ever got caught up with all that. We’re still friends with Grace and Sonya, and we can actually have a friendly conversation with Rose and Erin too. Now, we simply have fun. And that’s so much better.

  And Wizzie? She’s still our mate. She says me and Lauren were born to be best friends. I worry about Wizzie. She spends a lot of time away from us, up on that dark estate where she lives. And her secret? I’ll never tell anyone where her scars really came from. I just hope there aren’t any more.

  Lauren’s mum and mine get on really well. They’re going to the school show together. I get on so much better with my mum now too. A lot of that is thanks to Lauren. She really is the best friend you could ever want. How could anybody not like her?

  And between us, I think big Anil really does fancy her.

  Also by Cathy MacPhail

  Run, Zan, Run

  Missing

  Bad Company

  Dark Waters

  Fighting Back

  Another Me

  Underworld

  Roxy’s Baby

  Also:

  Nemesis 1: Into the Shadows

  Nemesis 2: The Beast Within

  Nemesis 3: Sinister Intent

  Nemesis 4: Ride of Death

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney

  First published in Great Britain in 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  50 Bedford Square,

  London, WC1B 3DP

  This electronic edition published in October 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Copyright © Catherine MacPhail 2007

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  eISBN 978-1-4088-1661-5

  www.macphailbooks.com

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