LITMIR.BIZ

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forehead against the wall to see what happened. I got no inspiration whatsoever. We both just stood there in silence with our heads touching the wall until I finally got hungry and left him to it. Not sure an intern would be a good idea.’

      ‘They’re so embarrassing.’ Jess shook her head as Josie took out a pocket mirror and admired herself. ‘I bet Sophie has already bought half the tickets. The idea of getting in there with Brendan’s family will be the only thing she cares about. She couldn’t care less about the internship.’

      ‘Why don’t you buy a raffle ticket? You’re pretty good at photography.’

      Jess burst out laughing. ‘Yeah, on my camera phone. Not sure that counts.’

      ‘Go on, it’s only one pound a ticket and if you win, I bet you’d get to go on some cool fashion shoots too. You’d be brilliant!’

      I wasn’t lying. Jess is good at photography; she has a framed photo on her wall at home that she won a competition with when she was younger. Plus she is artistic too, her mum has shown me some of her paintings.

      I made sure that when Jess came over to mine for the first time Dad hid my pottery attempts that he usually displays on the mantelpiece. Not proudly, he always likes to tease me, but because they are excellent conversation starters. I don’t protest this. My Christmas robin is quite literally a blob of clay with a red circle in the middle.

      ‘Anna,’ Jess sighed. ‘They won’t be looking for someone like me, will they? I’m sure Brendan’s mum will be much happier with someone like Sophie who can hang on to her every word and look the part.’

      ‘You look the perfect part,’ I said crossly. ‘Come on, if you don’t get one then I’ll buy one for you.’

      She finally gave in to my pestering and we made our way over to the table. Sophie saw us approaching and nudged Josie in the ribs, who looked up and immediately scowled. ‘What do you want?’ she spat, folding her arms.

      ‘I’m so sorry about Chemistry, Josie,’ I squeaked, feeling genuinely bad. ‘If there’s anything I can do –’

      ‘Personally,’ Jess interrupted chirpily, ‘I think your hair looks much better that length, Josie.’

      ‘That hardly makes things OK,’ Sophie replied angrily, tilting her head.

      ‘Yes,’ Josie pouted, taking her cue as ever from Queen Sophie. ‘There’s nothing you can do about it now.’

      ‘Great, glad that’s all sorted,’ Jess said firmly. ‘Now, I’d like to buy a raffle ticket please.’

      Sophie’s mouth dropped open. ‘You. You would like to buy a raffle ticket.’

      ‘Yes, one please.’

      ‘But,’ Josie sniggered, looking her up and down, ‘you clearly don’t care about . . . the way things look.’

      Jess’s cheeks started to go red.

      ‘I’m not really sure it’s up your street, Jess,’ Sophie said with a tone of mock regret and then shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t bother buying a ticket. It’s professional photography.’

      Jess looked at the ground, embarrassed, and I’m really not quite sure what came over me but suddenly words were coming out of my mouth.

      ‘Ten tickets please.’

      They all stared at me in shock. ‘Yeah, ten.’ I repeated in a squeakier tone than I would have liked. I reached into my purse and held out the money.

      Sophie snorted and Josie followed suit but there was now a small queue beginning to form behind me. Josie looked at Sophie for instruction. Sophie pursed her lips and gave a curt nod. Josie snatched the money and shoved the tickets across the table.

      I walked away triumphantly, my heart slamming against my chest.

      ‘Well, what do you know.’ Jess grinned as I passed her the tickets. She gave me a small grateful nudge. ‘Thanks.’

      Sitting in French later that afternoon, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Beatus dance. What would happen if they didn’t let me in because I didn’t have a date? Even worse, what would happen if they did let me in but then everyone was dancing in pairs and I was the ONLY one not dancing?! What would happen if everyone started pointing and laughing at me because I was so pathetic?! WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF I GENUINELY DID HAVE TO BRING DOG AS MY DATE?!

      This called for emergency note passing with Jess.

       Hey - can I ask you a question?

       Anna, you’re passing notes in French? Are you mad?! She’ll catch us! Miss Brockley is very cunning – she does archery in her spare time.

       It’s important.

       OK, go on then, ask away.

       Would you date me?

       What?

       If you were a boy, would you date me?

       This is uncomfortable.

       No it’s not. I need to know.

       Well I don’t know. Probably not.

       WHAT? WHY NOT?

       Because of your obsession with your dog. He’s cute and everything but you’re out of control.

       Do I talk about Dog lots?

       Yes. But maybe not so much around boys so they might not know about the obsession, which is a good thing. You could keep it under wraps until you marry the guy and then, BOOM. Let out the truth about your weirdness.

       Oh. OK.

       Why does it bother you so much that you don’t have a date? It’s just a dance. Who cares?

       It is not just a dance. Everyone is talking about it. And it’s only the beginning of term so it will get worse in the lead-up.

       I don’t have a date.

       You have Danny. And anyway you CHOOSE not to have a date. I bet every boy in the year would do anything to be your date to the Beatus dance.

       You have Danny too. We’ll go as a three.

       What about the slow dances?

       What ABOUT the slow dances?

       We can’t dance as a three!

       Why not?

       BECAUSE. That would look weird. How would you even do that?

       We could all hold hands in a circle and sway.

       Like some kind of cult? I don’t think that would go down very well.

       We could chant too.

       I can tell you’re making fun of me now. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but I am actually being serious.

       Why do you get so worked up about stupid things like this? It’s a DANCE. Only people like Sophie get worked up about stupid things like this.

       People like Sophie never get worked up about things like this. They don’t need to. She doesn’t need to ever worry about having a date. I bet she’s going with Brendan Dakers.

       Word on the street is that he hasn’t asked her. Anyway, forget about Queen Sophie. Why don’t you take Dog as your date?

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