Mates, Dates and ♥♡♥ Inflatable Bras. Book 1

Chapter 14- The Mystery Contestant Revealed

   My hair is fantabuloso. At last. Can life get any better?

   Betty, that’s the hairdresser, is my new best friend. She looked more like a mum than a trendy hairdresser and at first I had my doubts as to whether she could repair the damage.

   Nesta’s mum was just off to do her newsreading shift having had her hair done. She looked ever so smart in a navy suit and silver jewellery and I thought I’d be intimidated by her like I am by Izzie’s mum but she was really friendly. She took one look at what Kate had done and said to Betty, ‘Oh no, she wants it softer, feathered, layered, don’t you think?’

   I nodded but just to be on the safe side, I showed them the picture I’d cut out of the magazine.

   ‘Exactly,’ said Mrs Williams, looking at the photo. ‘Something to show off your lovely bone structure. And, Betty, run a few highlights through.’ She turned to me before going out of the door. ‘My present, Lucy. I know what it’s like when your hair gets ruined.’

   Nesta’s family is f. f. fab.

   And off Betty went. This time I didn’t look in the mirror until she’d finished, then when I did. . . Wow. It was fantastic. Spiky and short at the front and layered all over. Then she put some white blonde highlights through the top. Even I had to admit that this time the cut really suited me.

   ‘You look gorgeous,’ said Izzie. ‘It really shows off your cheekbones. Amazing.’

   ‘Yes. Very elfin princess,’ said Nesta.

   After Betty had gone, we had another look through Mrs Williams’s interior design mags and I saw the room I wanted. Pale lilac. With powder blue paintwork.

   ‘Très chic,’ said Izzie.

   It was all coming together. My hair, my room, my friends.

   It was time to ask Nesta my burning question.

   ‘Nesta,’ I said gravely.

   ‘Yes, oh gorgeous one?’ she replied.

   ‘You know Tony?’

   ‘Yes,’ she laughed. ‘He’s my brother.’

   ‘Why doesn’t he live with his mum?’

   Nesta went quiet. ‘She died. In a road accident when he was six months old. He never knew her. A year later, his dad met Mum and, well, my mum’s the only mum he’s ever known, even though she’s not really his mum physically.’

   ‘Where is he tonight?’ I asked. I wanted him to see me with my new haircut. Looking fantabuloso.

   ‘Some class after school, I expect,’ said Nesta. ‘He often stays late for one thing or another.’

   Suddenly Izzie clapped her hand over her mouth and gave me a strange look. ‘Ohmigod,’ she said. ‘OhmiGOD.’

‘What?’ chorused Nesta and I.

‘Tony,’ said Izzie. ‘Tony.’

She knew. I knew she knew. I went purple and now she definitely knew.

   ‘What?’ said Nesta.

   Izzie crossed her arms and looked at me as if to say, I’m not saying, are you going to?

   I glanced at Nesta and decided I could trust her.

   ‘What?’ she said.

   ‘Tony,’ I said.

   ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Tony, Tony. Tony what?’

   ‘A boy that we didn’t see in Highgate because he stays late for classes after school?’ said Izzie, waiting for the penny to drop.

   Nesta thumped her forehead. ‘Except we did see him, didn’t we? Obvious. Obviouso. Tony is the MC.’

   I nodded.

   ‘And he made you kiss him,’ said Izzie.

   ‘And I told him to stay away from you,’ said Nesta. ‘No wonder you hated me. Why didn’t you say, Lucy?’

   ‘I thought you’d tell him I fancied him and then I’d, I’d look stupid. If he knew I’d been waiting for him to come out of school, I’d look like a real
desperado.’

   At that moment, we heard someone coming in the front door.

   Oh, let it be her dad back from America, I prayed but of course, Murphy’s law, it was Tony.

   ‘Hiya, everybody,’ said Tony. ‘Wow. Is that little Lucy? Hey, you look great. Gorgeous.’

   He came and sat next to me. ‘Want another kissing session?’

   Nesta and Izzie just sat there gaping.

   ‘What?’ said Tony. ‘Why are you all staring at me? What? What’s happened?’

   Suddenly I got the giggles and couldn’t stop. That set Izzie off then Nesta and soon the three of us were holding our sides laughing.

   Tony got up and stomped to the door. ‘Girls. Sometimes you lot can be really juvenile.’

   ‘I thought he liked girls with a sense of humour,’ I said, still laughing.

   ‘Not when it’s directed at him,’said Nesta. ‘And I won’t say anything, about, you know, him being the MC, if you don’t want.’

   ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘I don’t want.’

   ‘Anyway,’ said Izzie. ‘I reckon you could get anyone you want looking like you do now. Play the field a while.’

   ‘Ah, but I have been kissed by the Master,’ I said, giggling again.

   ‘Then you owe it to yourself,’ said Izzie, ‘to see if anyone else can match up.’