Read Online The Mag Hags by Lollie Barr - Free Book Online

healthily and exercise more.
    There was a stunned silence in the room. Mand felt breathless, and her heart raced like shoppers on Boxing Day going into the sales. She was too scared to even look up from her notebook in case the girls thought she was an absolute dunderhead. But after a torturous moment the girls broke into rapturous applause.
    â€˜Mand, that was truly, truly great,’ said Belle, raising her hand to high-five her.
    â€˜Really? You’re not just saying that?’ said Mand, slapping Belle’s hand, then Cat’s, and Maggie’s and Wanda’s.
    Normally, Mand would never high-five anyone, as she hated any forced group activity, but for the first time ever she felt strangely accepted. The little voice in herhead that could be so critical was silenced, just for a few seconds.
    Suddenly, in all of the excitement, the door flung open. There stood Mel, a living embodiment of everything Mand had just spoken about – her skinny legs, her cute belly, which didn’t betray the fact she’d had two children. Mand’s heart sank, but the other girls secretly wished that their mum could be so hot. Apart from Belle, who always tried to shut out any feelings that came up when she saw other girls with their mothers.
    â€˜Hey,’ said Mel with a peculiar little wave to Mand. ‘Hey, girls!’
    â€˜Hello, Mrs Hospock,’ they replied in a chorus, sounding like a Year 2 class greeting their teacher.
    â€˜Mrs Hospock Schospock!’ said Mel laughing. ‘Sounds like Mand’s granny! A woman, I never, ever, want to be compared to, thank you very much. Call me Mel.’
    Mand piped up, in a slightly irritable tone, ‘Mum, we’ve got stuff to do, you know, if you don’t mind?’
    Mand was sick of her mum always wanting to be one of the girls. Since Lottie had left for university she wanted to ‘hang’ with Mand. But Mand didn’t want to hang with Mel; she wanted her to be her mother. A regular mother who went shopping and actually came back home with food, not a new pair of shoes, who cooked dinner, who made her clean her room, who didn’t go out with male strippers called Kane and tell everyone all about it.
    â€˜Okay, Mand,’ said Mel, backing out of the room. ‘There’s no need to freak out, I was just leaving.’
    â€˜Cool mum,’ said Wanda as Mel disappeared out the door. ‘Wish my mum had her belly button pierced.’
    â€˜She’s okay,’ said Mand. ‘But she can be as embarrassing as finding out that you have a boogie poking out of your nose when you’re talking to a boy you like.’
    What Mel would have thought of being compared to a boogie was anyone’s guess.

It was Saturday morning and Glitz, as usual, was packed. The scent of female hormones and endorphins going off in a shopping frenzy hung heavy in the air, as the sound of squealing coathangers scraped across the racks. Glitz was Baywood’s coolest shop. Every season, the store would copy whatever fashion appeared on the catwalk and sell it for next to nothing.
    Mand refused to shop at Glitz, because she knew the clothes had been sewn by third world teenagers who, if they were lucky, got paid five dollars per week for working sixty hours. She would only buy clothes from second-hand shops or those that were certified ethically made, which were more expensive. Hence, why she stuck to black, so everything went together.
    However, Cat and Wanda had no such reservations and had already been scanning the racks for the latest bargains for two hours when they bumped into each other on the second floor near the change rooms. Cat was looking at a white tailored pin-striped catsuit with a winged-tip collar, and Wanda was turning a pair of black velvet jodhpurs inside out.
    â€˜Hey, Wanda,’ said Cat, who normally wouldn’t have ever acknowledged a ‘Them’ in public. ‘Cool pants.’
    â€˜Yeah, I might make