Worse Than Boys Read online

  Erin put her arm round my shoulders. ‘She wouldn’t dare do that to Rose.’

  Heather’s frown suddenly turned to a grin. ‘You’re right. Rose with her hair a mess, with a broken nail. “I’ll die, I’ll just die!” ’

  ‘I keep my nails long so I can drag them down Wizzie’s face.’ Rose drew her nails down Erin’s radiator, and we all shivered at the sound. Anyway, Rose was used to us going on about her vanity. She thought she was gorgeous, with her thick dark curls and her violet eyes. ‘I’m the one who’s going to be the babe at this wedding. You wait and see.’

  Heather giggled. She’d forgotten my bad temper already. I sometimes wondered if she suffered from short-term memory loss. ‘I wish big Anil was going. I really fancy him.’

  Anil Gupta, the best-looking boy in the school. Drop-dead gorgeous. Just about every girl fancied him, but not half as much as he fancied himself. ‘As if he’s going to look at any of us,’ I said. ‘Not when there’s a mirror nearby.’

  ‘There’ll be other boys at the wedding,’ Erin said. ‘My brother’s pals are all going. They’re a lot older than we are though. I think they’re more likely to be after the three other bridesmaids.’

  Erin changed out of her dress and when she was back in her jeans her mum came in with cheese toasties and tea for us all and we sat on the floor and got stuck in.

  As soon as her mother had gone, Erin said, ‘Come on, let’s play Light as a Feather.’

  Our wish game. One of our favourites. Erin locked the door because her mother didn’t approve – she thought it had a touch of the supernatural about it – then Erin came back and sat with us.

  Everyone said you needed at least six people to play Light as a Feather, but we always did it with just the four of us. And it always worked. We were sure that was because we were special. The magic was in us.

  First the atmosphere had to be captured. The room had to be dark and eerie. It really helped that the wind had got up and we could hear it whistling through the telephone cables on the street outside. We switched off all the lights except for a dim night light Erin kept by the side of her bed. And then we started to tell ghost stories. You always had to start Light as a Feather with the ghost stories.

  We let Rose tell hers first. That was because her stories were always rubbish, lifted word for word or scene by scene from some horror movie she’d seen on DVD. Then it was Heather’s turn. Heather couldn’t tell a story to save her life. She told us the Monkey’s Paw, one of the creepiest stories ever, and told us the end of the story first. She always did that.

  It was Erin and I who knew how to tell a ghost story.

  Erin kept her voice mysteriously soft. Her story was all about the ghost of a little girl who comes back to haunt the man who killed her. He sees her one dark night in his car mirror, sitting in the back seat, just staring at him. He looks into the back seat and she’s not there. There’s nothing there. But when he turns and looks into the mirror again, her face is so close, as if she’s right at his shoulder, and he screams and loses control of the car. It tumbles down a ravine. And as it bursts into flame, someone sees the little girl standing on the road, looking down and smiling. She’d had her revenge. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and we all moved closer into the circle together.

  Then it was my turn.

  Chapter Four

  I knew some great stories and made up lots more. And I always told the story as if it had really happened to me. That was my special trick.

  ‘It was when I had the part-time job in the video shop, remember?’ I knew they all could. Bruno, the owner, knew my mum and he had given me a pocket-money job, tidying up the shelves. I had only lasted a few weeks, because I never did tidy any shelves. All I did was watch videos. Bruno had given me my money one night and told me not to come back.

  ‘I told you I was fired,’ I said softly, ‘but that wasn’t the truth. The last night I worked there, something terrible happened.’

  ‘Is this a wind-up? Did this really happen?’ Heather was shushed by the others.

  ‘Bruno had gone out to deliver some videos and DVDs people had rented, so I was left alone in the shop. Mary Brown was due to come in. You remember Mary Brown?’

  They all nodded. Mary Brown really had worked in the video shop.

  ‘She had lovely long blonde hair, didn’t she?’ Rose said.

  ‘All of a sudden the big screen on the wall flashed into life. I hadn’t switched it on or anything. It gave me a scare, but I thought Bruno must have had it on a timer. There were no customers, so I just settled down behind the counter to watch the film that was playing. Right away I thought there was something funny about it. There were no opening credits, no voiceover, just a man in a long cloak with the hood pulled low to hide his face. He was striding across some railway tracks. At first he seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, until I saw he was heading towards a shack on the edge of a town. There was no music, just the wind whining through the telegraph wires, but that only made it scarier, because I could hear the wind whistling outside the video shop too.’

  We jumped as the wind suddenly got up and howled outside.

  ‘Just like that,’ I whispered. ‘It was giving me the creeps, because the video shop is pretty remote as well. I tried to turn the film off, but I couldn’t find the switch. And all the time that man just kept moving nearer and nearer the shack. And I knew something awful was going to happen. He was coming for someone. Finally, I couldn’t take any more and I stood outside the front door just to get away from it, but it didn’t make me feel any better. That video shop is right on the edge of that big estate, it’s totally isolated. I could see the lights of the houses on the other side of the football pitch, but they seemed a million miles away. There wasn’t a soul about. And it was such a wild night. It was eerie standing out there too. So I went back inside. I tried not to look at the screen, but I couldn’t help it. And I saw he was almost at the shack.’

  Rose caught her breath. ‘Wait a minute, Hannah. That video shop is right beside the railway lines … on the edge of town.’

  I nodded. ‘I know. I began to think he was coming for me. I tried to tell myself how stupid that was, it was only a film. But by then, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. He reached the shack. He was at the back door. He began to turn the handle …’ I held my breath, paused for just long enough to keep them in suspense. ‘And right at that second I heard the back door of the video shop begin to creak open.’

  Their eyes were wide. I had them.

  ‘I screamed. I ran outside. I wasn’t waiting there to see who he was or what he wanted. And I ran right into Mary, coming into work. She grabbed me and I told her what had happened.’

  ‘What did she do?’ Heather asked.

  ‘She laughed. Said it was only a daft picture on a screen. She told me to wait there and she would go in and switch it off.’

  ‘And did she?’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t know. Because Mary didn’t come back out again. I shouted and shouted, but there was no answer. I was sure she was winding me up, but I was too scared to go back inside. I was so glad when Bruno arrived in his car. I told him the whole story and we both went inside. You know Bruno, he kept going on about daft lassies. He was going to fire both of us.’

  Heather gasped. ‘And was Mary there, lying in a pool of blood, an axe sticking out of her head?’ I sometimes thought Heather had a better imagination than me!

  ‘No.’ I kept my voice soft. ‘There was nobody there. The back door was wide open and Mary was gone. Bruno was raging because Mary had left the shop unattended. He went out to check and do you know what …?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘When I looked up at the screen on the wall. The film was still running, only this time the man was striding back over the tracks. He was carrying a girl, her long blonde hair trailing on the ground.’

  Heather gasped. ‘Just like Mary Brown’s!’

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘I screamed when I
saw it, and Bruno came running back. I pointed to the film, told him that was Mary the man was carrying, I was sure of it. And do you know what he said? He told me not to be so stupid. Mary had probably gone off with one of her boyfriends. She was always doing that. He said that was her fired for leaving the shop unattended. Then he just switched the film off. And the screen went black.’

  I sat back. ‘Did you like it?’

  ‘How much of that is true?’ Rose asked.

  ‘Well,’ I said in my most mysterious voice. ‘No one’s seen Mary Brown since that night. They all say she did run off with one of her boyfriends … but I think different.’

  Chapter Five

  The ghost stories set up the atmosphere. Now, it was time to play Light as a Feather. You must have played Light as a Feather, but in case you don’t know it, I’ll tell you how it works. Someone lies on the floor, like a corpse, arms folded and crossed over their chest. They have to lie silent and still, hardly breathing.

  Rose wanted to be the corpse. She lay down and closed her eyes, and began to breathe deeply. I sat at her head with my hands placed gently under her shoulders, palms up. Erin and Heather took their places on either side of her. They placed their hands under her back and under her legs. In the dimly lit room I began to say softly, ‘Light as a feather. Light as a feather.’

  Erin and Heather took up the chant. ‘Light as a feather. Light as a feather.’

  Over and over again we repeated the words, almost like a litany. Softly at first, then our voices grew louder, until they became more of a demand. ‘Light as a feather! Light as a feather!’

  And Rose began to rise under our hands.

  I don’t know how it happened. I never could understand how it happened. To us it was magic. Our magic. Was there a logical explanation how we could make one of us rise? I don’t know. But it amazed us every time.

  I held my breath, the words now once again a whisper, a whisper of wonder. ‘Light as a feather.’

  Rose lay still, her eyes closed, totally under our control as she rose up into the air.

  Magic! I thought. It was magic, just like us. We were magic too.

  Why couldn’t things be magic like that at home? As soon as I walked through the door that night, my magic mood changed. My mum was waiting for me, eager for all the news about the wedding. She was even more excited than I was about being invited. She was in awe of Erin’s family, her mother especially. That always embarrassed me so much.

  ‘You’ll have to get a really good gift. Erin’s mother will expect quality.’

  ‘Mum, we’re putting money together and getting a gift between us, I told you that.’

  She shook her head. ‘No. Let the others do that. You get a really good gift and it will be from you and me. I want Erin Brodie’s mother to see I know how to choose quality too.’

  Why did she always have to be like that? Turning even the most enjoyable occasion into a competition. She was so chuffed that Erin was my friend. Had hoped that she might be invited to the wedding too. But no one invited my mum anywhere. And I knew why.

  I went to sleep that night and pushed my annoyance at Mum aside. It didn’t matter. Life was so good. And if Wizzie and her mates were out to get us, that only made it better. Because we’d win.

  I knew we would always win in the end.

  Chapter Six

  I came across Sonya in the toilets next day. Or ‘S-s-ssonya’, as we liked to call her. I knew that was cruel, and I wouldn’t have done it to anyone else who stuttered. But Sonya didn’t seem to care. I was sure she only stuttered to wind us up.

  I saw her eyes dart to me as I pushed my way through the door, checking to see if my mates were with me. A look of relief flashed across her face when she saw I was alone. Sonya was overweight. Not quite fat, but heading that way. I used to say they could use her for a battering ram. She didn’t like that. Sonya had a reputation as a good fighter, but I’d never really seen her fight, just land on people. Honestly, that’s not fighting, is it?

  She sneered at me. ‘You’ve g-got it coming, know that?’

  ‘S-s-ssorry, S-s-ssonya, did you s-ssay s-ssomething?’ Then I laughed.

  Sonya’s face went brick red. She threw a punch at me, but I stepped away from it, missing it easily.

  ‘G-g-ggot to be qu-quicker than that, S-s-ssonya.’

  She would have lunged at me again, but right at that moment the toilets were invaded by a bunch of older girls, prefects, always ready to step in and stop any trouble.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ one of them asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. Sonya’s face was red with anger. It gave her away big time. She pushed past them and crashed out of the toilets.

  ‘You lot are always causing trouble,’ Pam Ward said. Head girl, a force to be reckoned with.

  I was all innocence. ‘They’re the ones who cause the trouble. I was only sticking up for myself.’

  She didn’t look as if she believed me. I didn’t care. It would make a great story when I told it to the girls later on.

  ‘You’re in Erin’s crowd, aren’t you?’ Pam said.

  Why did they always say that? Just once I wanted Erin to be in my crowd, but pointing that out seemed like some kind of betrayal, so I said nothing to correct her. ‘Erin’s my best friend,’ I said.

  Pam sniggered. ‘Do the other two know that?’

  I pushed my way out the door, half expecting Sonya to be lying in wait for me. But it was Heather who was there. ‘I heard that,’ she said. ‘Thanks very much. Erin’s your best friend, is she? Not me.’

  I put my arm around her shoulder. ‘I only said that because they were talking about Erin.’

  But it was a lie. Erin was my best friend. She and I were special. Soul mates, me and Erin. I tried to make it up to Heather as we walked to class.

  There was a crowd round the school noticeboard and we pushed our way to the front. ‘Hey, look what they’re putting on for the school summer show! Grease!’

  Everyone loved the school summer show, except maybe Wizzie and her lot. People like her, the low lifes, wouldn’t have anything to do with the school show. But we loved it. It was always such a laugh.

  ‘We must tell Rose. She’d be brilliant playing Sandy.’ Rose was a really good singer. She had dreams of going on the stage one day. She’d been in the show the year before. She’d definitely be up for this one too.

  Suddenly, Heather burst into song. ‘Summer lovin’, I came in last …’

  I joined in, totally off-key. Didn’t know the words either. ‘Summer lovin’ … Wizzie got gassed …’

  We laughed ourselves silly as we walked up the corridor, hurrying to tell Rose about the auditions. Erin caught up with us and joined in. I noticed Sonya and Lauren watching us. Surely it was envy I saw in their eyes. What else could it be? Who wouldn’t want to be one of us?

  Chapter Seven

  There was a fight coming. We could all sense it. Nothing was said, but the tension was there. And it was coming from Wizzie’s crowd, the Hell Cats. I said it was probably BO and we all laughed.

  Even the teachers sensed it.

  Mr Hammond, the teacher who produced the school show, called us together one day and asked us just what was going on.

  ‘Nothing, Mr Hammond,’ Erin said, before I had a chance to speak. She looked round at us. ‘We don’t know what you mean.’

  Heather looked blank. Not a difficult thing for Heather. Rose just looked bored.

  Mr Hammond spoke directly to Erin. ‘Don’t think if there’s any trouble you won’t get the blame. Just because you lot manage to avoid it most of the time.’ He was one of the few teachers who didn’t give us any slack. He thought we were every bit as much to blame for trouble as the Hell Cats. ‘You think because you live in a better area you must be better than they are. Actually, that’s what makes you worse.’

  We all looked at each other as if he was talking Chinese.

  ‘What are we supposed to have done wrong?’ I managed to get
his attention at last. He turned to me.

  ‘You were on that train too. Don’t think I don’t know it. And I know how it works, Hannah. They got the blame, so Wizzie will get back at you for it. I know Wizzie and I know you lot. And you’re all trouble. Not one of you any better than the other.’

  ‘We keep back from trouble, sir. You ask anybody.’ I was all wide-eyed innocence. I could see that was really annoying him.

  As he finally stomped away from us, I whispered to Erin, ‘But if trouble comes to us, we don’t turn our back on it.’

  And trouble was coming. But when? I didn’t feel scared thinking about it. It was more like excitement I felt. Every time I passed Wizzie or her mates in the corridors I tensed, expecting them to lunge at me, expecting a fight at any moment. I even imagined it happening. And I’d win. Then I’d go back to Erin and tell her. ‘Sorted.’ I’d sorted it. Me. Hannah. I wanted to be the one who sorted everything.

  I walked into the canteen and there they were, at their table. Wizzie was lying along it on her belly Lauren and Sonya were sitting on it. Big Grace had her feet resting on it. Why couldn’t they ever just sit at a table like normal people? I wondered.

  I decided I wasn’t going to wait for them to come to me. I barged up to them instead. ‘That’s very unhygienic,’ I said, pointing out Wizzie’s bare midriff. I noticed she’d had her belly button pierced. It had a ring attached to it. Even more unhygienic. ‘Especially since it’s your belly that’s on the table.’

  Wizzie sat up. Did she have a fresh scar on her neck? Red raw, I was sure she did.

  ‘Cut yourself shaving?’ I asked.

  It was Sonya who leapt at me. Wizzie held her back. ‘Not here, Sonya hen. We’ll get them later. And we’ll pick the time.’

  ‘You … and what army?’ I suppose I was trying to egg them on. Here in the canteen, I wanted all of them jumping on me. Boy, would they be in trouble then.

  Wizzie knew that too. ‘I’m going to make you so sorry, Driscoll.’