The Secrets Club (8 page)

Marvyn turns round and looks straight
at me. I expect him to be shocked when he sees I'm a girl but he just grins at
me so I grin back weakly. When he turns back to Lissa I can hardly breathe, waiting
for her reaction. I am so dead.

But they carry on chatting as normal. He
hasn't split on me.
Thank you, Marvyn. I owe you.

When he looks back I smile again in
gratitude, but this time his eyes pass right over me and continue sweeping the room,
like he's looking around to see if he knows anyone else. And then the penny
drops. He hasn't recognized me dressed as a girl. Why would he? He's
only ever seen me before as a mud-splattered male footballer.

He glances at most girls without a blink
but then he spots Tash, who is still talking to
Duncan, and nudges Ajay in the ribs. Ajay sees her too and his
eyes light up and immediately he makes a beeline for her. Poor Lissa, she
doesn't stand a chance.

She still trails after him though, so
Marvyn, who is left on his own, follows her. I try to avoid eye contact as they pass
but at the last minute I can't resist looking up. Marvyn catches my eye and
grins again. Then he stops, a small frown appearing between his eyebrows. Oh no!
Look down, Dani, look down!

‘Do I know you?' he
asks.

Um, yes. We've played football together.

‘Don't think so,' I
say breathily, my voice unnaturally high, trying desperately to model myself on the
Barbies, the most girly-girls I know.

Convince him you're someone else, Dani. You can do it. Don't look
him in the eye. Play with your hair. Show him your red-white-and-blue-striped
fingernails. And smile. That's it.

‘You remind me of someone,'
he says thoughtfully. ‘But I can't think who.'

Oh flip. Flutter your eyelashes! That's what Georgia does.

I open and close my eyes rapidly and he
looks a bit alarmed, but stands his ground.

‘Have you got something in your eye?'

‘Some mascara. And eyeliner. You
know, just girly stuff.' I giggle nervously.

‘What's your name?' he
asks.

‘Danielle,' I mumble.

‘What?'

‘Dani-
elle
,' I
repeat, emphasizing the Elle. It works.

‘Hi, Elle, I'm
Marvyn,' he says. ‘Are you at school with Tash?'

I nod, groaning inwardly. He's
going to find out, I know he is, and then I'm done for. I am going to be so
humiliated when everyone finds out I've been pretending to be a boy. Plus my
football career will be over before it's even started.

It's not fair. I am never going to
live this down, especially when the Barbies get to hear about it!

And then I spot him. My superhero!

Rupert is coming to the rescue bearing
two tall glasses containing some sort of sparkling drink decorated with umbrellas
and pieces of fruit. I hear myself saying, ‘Actually, I'm with someone.
Have you met Rupert?' and I surprise myself because I sound so
sophisticated.

Marvyn looks up and sees him too. ‘Sorry, mate!' he mumbles and moves
away.

It worked! I can handle this. I feel so
grown-up.

‘Who's your friend?'
asks Rupert as he hands me the drink.

I smile at him mysteriously and take a
large gulp while I think of a cool answer. I'm learning so fast!

‘Easy,' says Rupert
warningly. ‘It's very fizzy.' But it's too late. The bubbles
go straight up my nose and explode. He looks at me in alarm as I start snorting
uncontrollably.

‘Are you OK?'

I gasp for air as my nose makes loud pig
noises. People turn round to look and start to giggle. Lissa comes over and bangs me
unhelpfully on the back.

‘Don't do that!' I
splutter as snot emerges from my nose and drips unbecomingly on to my blue silk
dress.

Correction, Lissa's blue silk
shirt. Now she is looking at me with disgust and Rupert is staring at me in horror
and I can't breathe.

The whole room is staring at me.
Including Marvyn.

This party is turning into a disaster. There is no way I'm going to keep my
cover if I'm the centre of attention like this. I need to get out of here
quickly before Marvyn recognizes me and Incredible-Snorting-Pig-Girl is finally
unmasked as Imposter-Boy-Footballer in front of everyone.

Including the first ever crush of her
life, the gorgeous Rupert.

‘Need the loo!'

I make a dash through my open-mouthed
audience to the downstairs cloakroom, snorting all the way.

‘What happened to you Friday
night?' says Lissa accusingly on Monday morning as she hands me my school bag
in the yard.

I take a peek inside. My school uniform,
my jeans and favourite T-shirt and my hockey kit have been washed and ironed to
within an inch of their lives. They look brand new. I'm wearing my spare set
of uniform today which looks nowhere near as smart.

I hand Lissa a plastic bag. She stares
glumly down at its crumpled, snot-stained blue-silk contents. Oops! I
should've asked my mum to wash her shirt/dress thing. I'm not like
Lissa, I don't think of these things.

‘It was the bubbles. They went up
my nose. I couldn't help it.'

Tash giggles at the memory but Lissa
gives
her a stern look and she stops
immediately. She and Ali are standing slightly behind Lissa to the left and right
like a deputation. Oh dear, I thought this might happen. I'd texted Lissa to
let her know that I'd got home safely but after that I'd ignored their
calls all weekend. I knew I'd have to face them this morning though.

Lissa: ‘I don't mean that. I
mean why did you run off …?'

Ali: ‘Without saying goodbye to
anyone …?'

Tash: ‘Like Cinderella?'

I look with interest at Tash. I
hadn't thought of it like that. I suppose it was a bit like a fairy tale with
me (Cinderella) fleeing into the night away from Rupert (my handsome prince) with a
secret I had to keep hidden at all costs. Only I'd left my muddy clothes
behind instead of a jewelled slipper.

So what did that make them then? The
Ugly Sisters!

I resist the urge to laugh but I
can't have been very successful because Lissa snaps, ‘It's not
funny, Dani! You never even thanked my mum for the party!'

‘I'm sorry!' I say
genuinely.

‘She thought we'd had an argument and you'd run off
upset,' she continues.

‘But we didn't –'

‘
I
know that, but
she
didn't! I had to stop her from ringing your mum.'

‘Oh flip!' My mum would be
furious if she found out.

She scowls at me. ‘And Rupert gave
me grief too.'

‘Did he?'

‘Yeah. He said it must've
been my fault you went home because when you were talking to him, you were getting
on fine.'

‘Did he? Did he really say
that?'

‘Yeah. I just said he did,
didn't I? What's wrong with you?'

Even though I'd been dreading
coming in this morning, I suddenly feel light and happy.

‘I'm sorry!' I repeat
and fling my arms round her neck. ‘It was
so
embarrassing what with
me snorting like a pig and snot pouring out of my nose and everyone in the party
looking at me. I just wanted to go home. So when I came out of the loo and no one
was looking, I grabbed my coat and made a dash for it.'

Lissa goes from prickly cross to soft and melty in two seconds flat.
‘That's OK,' she says and pats me on the back. ‘I get
embarrassed sometimes too.'

‘Yeah,' says Ali
thoughtfully. ‘But
Dani
embarrassed! That's got to be a
first.'

‘It's probably your
hormones,' says Lissa kindly. ‘That's what Mum says when I go
moody.'

I want to tell her that's not
hormones, that's her, because Lissa is renowned for being moody. But things
are going so well I refrain and just nod in agreement.

‘It was a great party
though,' I say. ‘Thanks for inviting me, Liss.' She beams at me.
Then I can't resist adding, even though I know how risky it is, a bit like
prodding a troublesome tooth to see if it's still aching, ‘It was good
to see Ajay and his friend there too.'

‘Marvyn?' Lissa goes a bit
dewy-eyed. ‘He was nice, wasn't he?'

Tash squeals. ‘I knew it! Lissa
for Marvyn! Lissa for Marvyn! I saw you dancing with him at the end!' and
Lissa goes red. Then Tash adds, ‘I was chatting to him yesterday and he said
he had a good time,' and Lissa goes redder still.

‘Who was Elle by the way?' adds Tash and my heart does a
somersault.

‘Elle?' asks Lissa.

‘Yeah. Only he said he'd
been talking to someone called Elle at the party.'

‘There wasn't anyone called
Elle at the party,' repeats Lissa, puzzled, and then her face falls. ‘Oh
no! He must've meant Ella. I bet he fancies her! Didn't he mention me at
all?'

‘Yeah. Non-stop. He said you were
the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen in his whole life and he was madly in
love with you,' says Tash with a straight face.

Just for a split second you can see that
Lissa believes her. Then, as Tash bursts out laughing, Lissa shrieks and swings the
plastic bag with the blue shirt at her head and she ducks and runs off, with Lissa
chasing her.

And then, thank goodness, the bell goes
for school and Ali links her arm through mine and we go inside chuckling at them
both and a new school week begins.

If anything, Mrs Waters steps up the
pace of hockey training this week. To tell the truth I'm loving it but not
everyone feels the same. The weather continues to be cold and wet and some people
cry off, pleading coughs and colds, such as Georgia, though it's pretty
obvious there's nothing wrong with her. Even stalwarts like Lissa start to
object when she slips and falls flat on her back in the mud.

‘I'm soaked right through to
my knickers!' she wails as we're getting changed afterwards. I make the
mistake of laughing and she glares at me. ‘It's not fair,' she
grumbles. ‘It's all right for you.
We're
going through
all this for nothing. We don't even get the chance to try out for the
development squad.'

‘Shut up, Lissa. Dani's miles better than us,'
says Tash, which only makes Lissa scowl more.

‘We are the Gang of Four, the No
Secrets Club, remember?' reminds Ali sternly. ‘We have to support each
other. Like you supported me for the fashion show.'

Ali is so loyal. She's not even in
the hockey team but she's been turning out to play to plug the gaps.

Lissa looks a bit shamefaced. ‘I
know. Sorry, Dani.'

‘It's OK. Don't
worry.' I give her a hug. ‘It'll be your turn next. Anyway, I
might not even get in.'

‘Course you will,' she says,
hugging me back. Lissa might be moody but she never bears grudges. ‘You better
had,' she adds fiercely, ‘after all this effort.'

‘I'll do my best,' I
say flatly. But the truth is I'm not even sure I want to. Well, I do,
obviously; it would be brilliant to learn to play hockey at a higher level and Mum
and Gran would be so proud of me. But I don't know how often this Development
Centre
thingy meets, and I'm
guessing it's going to be on Saturdays. So how on earth am I going to manage
that if I'm already playing football?

I give a big sigh and Ali looks at me
strangely. ‘Cheer up,' she says. ‘I thought you loved
hockey?'

‘I do,' I say truthfully but
I don't add the obvious. I love football more. It looks like I'm going
to have some choices to make. I've got my first match for Blackett this
weekend. I just can't see how I'm going to fit everything in.

Then, as if Lissa can read my mind and
has decided to make my already complicated life even more stressful, she says,
‘Hey, you lot! Don't forget we're meeting up this Saturday at
Donatella's.'

‘Are we?' I say blankly.

‘Yeah. It's my birthday,
remember?'

‘It was your birthday last
week,' I point out.

‘Duh! That was my party, stupid.
Anyway, you don't have to worry, it's my treat. My Auntie Florence sent
me some money and I can't think of a better way of spending it than on coffee
and cake with my three best friends.'

‘Aahh! Thanks, Liss. That's really generous of
you,' says Ali, smiling. ‘I'll be there.'

Tash beams. ‘Me too. So long as
it's OK with my mum. Shouldn't be a problem,' she adds
cheerfully.

‘What about you, Dani?' asks
Lissa pointedly. ‘You are coming, aren't you?'

I hesitate and a hurt expression flashes
across her face. She thinks I don't want to.

‘You're playing football
with your mates,' she says bitterly. ‘Of course. Silly me.'

‘Dann-nii,' whispers Ali
disapprovingly.

‘It's Lissa's
birthday,' Tash points out, her usual smiley face serious for once.

‘I can't,' I say
weakly. ‘I've got to go and see my gran.' Even to my ears it
sounds like an excuse.

‘Yeah, right,' says Lissa,
her voice hollow. She doesn't believe me. None of them do. Three faces glare
at me.

I swallow hard and do some rapid
calculations in my head. ‘I could come before though, if you want,' I
say. ‘For an hour.'

‘YAY!' Lissa flings her arm
round my neck. ‘About eleven o'clock?'

‘Ten,' I say. ‘Ten
would be better.'

But she doesn't respond. She's too busy gabbling away
about the different coffees and cakes at Donatella's.