Read Online Charlotte and the Starlet 2 by Dave Warner - Free Book Online

to the class how well she
could do her lips. She drew the stick across her
bottom lip.
    Lucinda, painfully proud of her thick hair, and
always dismissive of everybody else's, picked up her
hairbrush and waggled it at the class.
    'Okay, straw mats. Look and learn how to care for
lustrous hair.'
    Charlotte could see Hannah was fighting hard not
to burst out laughing. They met eyes and shot each
other a thumbs up. Charlotte felt a warm glow inside
as Lucinda pulled the brush through her tresses.
The molasses made the brush stick. The harder
Lucinda brushed, the stickier it got. Lucinda began
screaming.
    'Something's wrong with my hair!'
    In her panicked attempts to yank out the brush she
pulled out a huge clump of hair. Some girls shrieked
in sympathy, others, Charlotte and Hannah included,
laughed their heads off.
    'It's not funny. It's not fun...eeeeeee!' Lucinda
screamed as another shrub of her hair was ripped out.
By now the coffee was sticking in globs to her cheeks.
    Eve turned up her nose and sniffed.
    'Has somebody been smuggling in coffee?' she asked.
    Emma found a great deal of amusement at her
friend's discomfort.
    That was until the chilli kicked in. She let loose a
howl.
    'Owwwwwwww. My mouth is on fire.'
    She ran from the room, banging into the table and
sending cosmetics flying. Charlotte and Hannah
watched gleefully through the window as Emma
appeared on the lawn outside and leapt under the
sprinkler. She jigged around for ages, getting
thoroughly soaked. The class was in uproar, the girls
with tears of laughter rolling down their cheeks.
Dripping wet, ignoring the perplexed Eve, Emma
stormed back into the room and fixed on Rebecca,
who was howling with laughter.
    'This was you, wasn't it?'
    'Huh?'
    The accusation slowly wound its way from
Rebecca's ears to her brain and her laughter stopped.
    'You think I ...?'
    Emma loomed over her.
    'Of course it was you. Maybe this dumb thing
you've got going is just an act. Nobody could be as
stupid as you make out. Lucinda smells like Starbucks
and my lips are burning. I'm going to make you pay.'
    Lucinda, the hairbrush stuck in her hair like some
plastic Halloween hatchet, her cheeks sticky and
brown, realised what she meant.
    'Me too.'
    'What are you talking about?' asked Rebecca, her
eyes growing wide in panic as the others approached.
'It wasn't me.'
    'No? Then how come nothing happened to you?'
    Eve tried to intervene as they seized Rebecca but
she was no match for two angry princesses. Charlotte
reflected that this trick could only work with girls
who weren't really good friends at all. As Rebecca let
out a high squeal and Eve disappeared to find Mrs
Cooper, Lucinda and Emma began hurling make-up
at their 'friend'. Soon she looked a lot like a preschooler's
finger painting.
    Mrs Cooper and the gardener returned and pulled
Lucinda and Emma off Rebecca. Mrs Cooper then made
them clean out the toilets as punishment and warned
them that any more such behaviour would have them
reported to Miss Strudworth. All in all it was a triumph.

    Sleeping out in the open wasn't pleasant like it had
been in Snake Hills. It was cold and there were weeds
and pieces of machinery dotted throughout the paddock.
But given the appearance of the house and the
condition of the float, it was probably best. Mark
the Shark, as Leila had begun to think of him, visited
her some time after the sun went down and offered
her a carrot. She was so hungry she ate it. What a long
way it was from her climate-controlled monster
Winnebago to here. What a plunge from the heights of
Hollywood. She told herself now she had been an
idiot. Giving up the sort of lifestyle others dreamed
about for mere friendship. Leila had seen a couple of
TV movies about a King of England who chucked in
the crown for love. What a schmuck. Becoming
friends with a human, what had she been thinking?
A sickening thought crossed Leila's mind. What if
Charlotte didn't care that she'd gone? Charlotte had
Hannah now. Sure, Leila was her