Read Online Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson - Free Book Online Page A

real Dan. He’ll talk about him to Magda and she’ll twig what he’s
really
like.
    “No, leave Dad to me, I’ll handle him,” I say firmly. “OK, I’ll go to the party with you, Magda.”
    “You won’t regret it, I promise,” says Magda.
    I regret agreeing almost immediately. I tell Dad about the party, practically hoping he’ll say no way. Anna is very doubtful, and asks straight away if the parents are going to be there and what about the drink/drugs situation and suppose there are gatecrashers?
    “Look, I don’t want to be rude, but I wasn’t asking you, Anna, I was asking Dad,” I say. Though I’m secretly glad she’s pointed out all these objections.
    I hope Dad will take them all on board and agree it’s out of the question.
    But he doesn’t. “Come off it, Anna, you’re sounding positively middle-aged,” he says. “This is just some tame little party at a schoolboy’s house. Why shouldn’t Ellie go? And she’ll be fine if Magda’s going too. That kid knows what she’s doing, all right.”
    “I don’t give a damn about Magda. It’s Ellie. Does she know what
she’s
doing?” says Anna.
    “We’ve got to credit her with some sense. You know enough not to do anything stupid, right, Ellie? You go to your party and have fun.”
    “I don’t think you’re being a very responsible parent,” says Anna. “But then you’re not famed for your responsibility, are you?”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” says Dad.
    “I think you know,” says Anna.
    “I don’t have a clue,” says Dad.
    I don’t have a clue either but I leave them to have a row while I go up to my room. I get out all my clothes and try on every single item. I look a mess in everything. Fat. Babyish. So utterly uncool that I despair.
    I’m still despairing on Saturday evening, even though Magda arrives early and gives me advice.
    “Dress down. You’ll look as if you’re trying too hard if you dress up. Wear your jeans.
Not
the cruddy ripped ones. The black.”
    OK. So that’s my black jeans, even though they’re so tight I shall be cut in two if I sit down.
    “You won’t be sitting down, babe. You’ll be dancing,” says Magda. She looks at my boots. “Well, lumbering.” She sees my face. “
Joke,
Ellie!”
    I don’t feel like laughing. I feel so fat I select my biggest baggiest T-shirt to wear with the jeans.
    “No no no,” says Magda. “Dress down but also dress sexy.”
    “But I’m not.”
    “You don’t have to
be
it. Just look it. Something little and tight on top. For God’s sake, Ellie, yours are Wonders
without
the bra. So if you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
    I’ve never felt less like flaunting in my entire life. But I do as I’m told and put on an old purple T-shirt I wore when I was practically a little kid. It strains across my embarrassing chest. I look as if I’m wearing a giant rubber band but Magda insists I look fine. She makes me up with purple shadowed eyes to match the T-shirt and fusses that we haven’t got deep purple nail varnish too.
    Dad is giving us a lift to this Adam’s house. (Magda is meeting Greg there.) Dad winks approvingly at Magda, who is looking ultracute in a little black skirt and a black-and-white top so short she shows her tiny waist whenever she moves. Dad stops winking and blinks when he sees me. “Ellie!” he says.
    “What?” I say, trying to sound surly and defiant—but my voice cracks.
    “Mmm. Well. You look very . . .” He looks over at Anna. “Maybe this party isn’t such a good idea after all,” he says. “I didn’t realize it was going to be so . . . grown up.”
    Anna raises her eyebrows. Eggs jumps up onto the armchair. “Look at me! See how tall I am! I’m a grown-up. I want to go to the party.” He jumps up onto the arm and slips.
    Anna is kept busy quelling his yells and rubbing his sore bits. Dad sighs and offers us an arm each. “Allow me to escort you, ladies,” he says.
    He fusses in the car, grilling Magda about Greg and