Read Online Annabel's Perfect Party by Holly Webb - Free Book Online Page B

Annabel never being able to keep secrets – even down to what was for pudding or what she was going to wear the next day – was a family joke, she just had this need to tell people about things. Her mother hadn’t realized that it upset her. She’d been noticing over the past few weeks that now they were at secondary school the triplets really seemed to be growing up and changing – amazingly fast. “Don’t worry,” she soothed. “I won’t. It’s a lovely plan, Bel. I’m very proud of you, you know.”
    â€œCome on, Bel!” came the screech from the hall. “What are you doing ?”
    Annabel dashed over and gave her mother a hug. “See you later! Thanks again, Mum!”
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    T he triplets raced off to school, desperate to tell their friends that the birthday party of the year was back on. Halfway there, Annabel suddenly stopped dead. “Hang on! We haven’t worked out who we’re giving these invitations to yet. We ought to do that before we get to school – we can’t exactly go back to someone and say sorry, we’ve changed our minds.”
    â€œ You could, Bel – no one would be surprised,” laughed Katie.
    â€œHa, ha and again, let me see, ha ,” said Annabel, thinking back a little irritably to what she’d just been saying to Mum. “Be serious. Who are we going to invite?”
    â€œHmm. Ten invitations. Well, Megan and Fran and Saima for a start.”
    â€œAnd Fiona? I know we don’t see as much of her as we used to now we’re all at Manor Hill, but she’s really sweet,” suggested Becky.
    â€œYes, definitely Fiona,” agreed Katie.
    â€œThere’s one really important thing we need to decide,” mused Annabel, still in serious mode. “Are we going to invite any boys? I mean, lots of our friends are boys, but do we want them at our party?”
    Katie made a face, scrunching up her nose. “It’s difficult – we don’t know what we’re going to be doing , so how do we know if it’ll be weird having boys there.”
    â€œI think we should have boys,” broke in Becky firmly. “I don’t think Mum would have organized anything really girly, or she’d have told us to stick to inviting girls. I mean, she knows there are boys we hang around with sometimes.”
    Annabel carefully didn’t let her relieved expression show. She’d been desperately trying to think of a way to convince the others that it would be OK to invite boys without showing that she was in on the secret.
    â€œOK,” agreed Katie. “So, we’ve still got six more invites! Did you want to ask Jack and Robin, Becky?”
    â€œOooh,” giggled Annabel. “Very keen, Katie! Something you’re not telling us? Which one, hmm?”
    â€œShut up, Bel,” snapped her sister, embarrassed. “Just because you can’t think of anything except boys and make-up, it doesn’t mean I can’t.”
    Annabel sniggered. “Can we invite Jordan and Matthew? They’re fun, they’d be good to have at a party. Just two left now?”
    â€œMmm. I think we should ask Moira, you know, she lives near Saima? She’s nice. It’s hard to know who to give the last invitation to, though – I mean, there’s lots of people I like in our class, but I’m not sure I like one of them more than anyone else.” Katie nibbled her thumbnail in a distracted way.
    â€œWell, I think we should ask David Morley,” said Becky, a bit hesitantly.
    Annabel and Katie looked blank.
    â€œYou know! That boy who has to sit with Amy and Emily and Cara in history. The poor boy never, ever speaks to them, and they just pretend he’s not there. I feel sorry for him, he still hardly knows anyone, and he had to move away from all his old friends. I reckon he needs a party invitation more than anyone else.”
    Katie and Annabel