awesome.
So it’s official. Finn Ryland is my boyfriend.
FRIDAY 27TH JANUARY
I don’t want to become one of those types who only talks about their extremely attractive, adorable and sweet boyfriend, so I thought I’d bless my friends with
some help with their own love lives. As you know, I am always sensitive in the delicate matter of love, so at lunchtime I said, ‘Ang, will it be tongues for you and Elliot at the park
tomorrow?’
Ang looked like I’d given her an electric shock.
‘No? Maybe you could just warm up with a bit of direct eye contact?’
Ang nodded and squared her shoulders in the way that soldiers do before they march off to war. ‘I’ve got a few topics of conversation planned,’ she said. ‘I thought
I’d start by asking how the cold weather affects his paper round.’
‘Uh-huh, sounds like a cosy time for you two. What about you, Lily? How about getting snoggy with Westy?’
Lily drew herself up tall and looked down her nose at us. ‘I’m afraid my affections are engaged elsewhere.’
We laughed our heads off.
‘Yeah,’ said Lily, slouching again. ‘But I
am
sort of seeing someone.’ She went back to picking the raisins out of her muffin.
Megs and I squealed, ‘WHAT?’
Angharad, I noticed, said nothing. ‘You knew!’ I said to her. ‘I will sit on you as soon as I don’t need all my attention on interrogating Lily.’
‘Who is it?’ Megs said. ‘What’s happening? Is he your boyfriend? Or just sort of, you know? Where did you meet him?’
I put my hand over her mouth. ‘Megan, silence!’
We all looked at Lily.
She smiled. ‘It’s Arif.’
‘Oh,’ I said.
Arif is Lily’s pen pal. When we were in Year Eight, we had a student teacher who matched us up with pen pals at another school where her friend was studenting. Mine was called Ashley-Rose.
She only wrote to me twice. But Lily has been emailing Arif ever since.
‘Arif?’ Megs said.
Lily nodded.
‘Arif that sent you a list of his top one hundred
Star Wars
moments?’
Lily nodded again.
‘Arif?’
‘Yes, Megs, Arif is the object of Lily’s affections,’ I said, in order to stop us going round in circles.
Megs pulled a face. ‘But . . . you two just talk about weird stuff.’
We’ve all seen Arif’s emails. They are mostly about space travel and characters from sci-fi programmes that the rest of us have never even heard of.
‘Things have taken a slightly more romantic turn,’ Lily said.
I think my eyes bulged. It’s hard to imagine someone you heard dressed up like a dalek for Halloween getting romantic.
‘Do you even know what he looks like?’ Megs asked.
‘I’ve seen photos.’ Lily was starting to sound a bit defensive. ‘He’s got a nice nose.’
Fortunately, the bell rang at that point which was just as well because I could see that Megs was about to say ‘Arif?’ again.
SATURDAY 28TH JANUARY
It was our trip to the park today. As usual when we plan to do anything outside, it was absolutely freezing. Ice everywhere. I’m not one to let nature dictate what I
wear so I pulled on my thickest tights and my new denim skirt.
I skidded my way round to Megs’s house to meet up with the girls and we got to the park before the boys. We headed for our usual spot next to the playground. I was ready for a little
sit-down, but when you’re wearing a miniskirt it’s quite hard to get your legs under a picnic table without flashing the crotch of your tights. I was halfway through this delicate
procedure (using Angharad’s head for support) when I heard someone shouting, ‘HELLO, GIRLS!’
Even though I was mid-bench-straddle, I twisted round to watch the unmistakable bulk of Westy heading towards us. He was on a scooter, pumping his leg to build up speed. He launched himself
along the frosty path and it was all going smoothly till he stopped looking where he was going to give us a wave. The scooter hit the edge of the path and he somersaulted over a low fence and
landed
K. Sterling
Jacquie Rogers
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley
Shiloh Walker
Elizabeth Moynihan
Mary Balogh
Tara Fox Hall
Jonathan Maberry
Jane Hunt
James Kakalios