Katy Birchall - Secrets of a Teenage Heiress

Although, seriously, I wish she’d shut up about Oliver Dillon and his loser band.

‘Absolutely,’ Grace said enthusiastically. ‘He’ll be at your party. I told him to invite his friends and I know that Liam and Tom were both keen.’

‘Well done.’ Ella smiled smugly. ‘It will be nice to have some mature boys there.’

‘I wouldn’t count on those two to bring up the maturity levels,’ I added. ‘Wasn’t it Liam who drank a whole bottle of Worcester sauce for a dare?’

‘Oh yeah.’ Grace giggled. ‘He threw up everywhere .’

‘Oliver seems mature,’ Ella said consideringly, taking her pocket mirror out and examining her eye make-up.

‘Really is a shame I can’t go,’ I prompted.

‘Has Oliver dated anyone at school?’ Ella asked Grace, ignoring me completely. This was getting ridiculous. Couldn’t she concentrate on anything else? Or me at least? She could show some emotion that I wouldn’t be able to make it to her party.

‘Why? Are you interested in him?’ I said, cutting to the chase.

‘Oh my God, no , I’m not interested. I was just asking.’ Ella fake-laughed before turning seriously to Grace again. ‘Has he?’

Grace shook her head, before adding excitedly, ‘He asked the same about you, though.’

‘Really?’ Ella snapped her mirror shut, her eyes widening.

‘Yes, last night.’

‘And what exactly did you say?’

Grace’s cheeks turned pink under the pressure of Ella’s fixed stare. ‘Um . . . I just said that you had that thing with Aidan . . .’

‘ Grace! ’ Ella hissed. Grace cowered.

‘Was that wrong?’ she asked timidly.

‘Why would you say that? Now he’s going to think that I’m unavailable!’

Grace’s face was now a bright red. ‘N-no, I’m sure he doesn’t think that. I can tell him that it’s over with Aidan, I just wasn’t certain.’

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Grace. She was very petite – the smallest girl in our year – so she looked even more vulnerable as Ella, who was one of the tallest, towered over her. Ella wasn’t going to be forgiving. She never was. I would have to save the day.

‘I think it’s a good thing.’

Ella rounded on me. I could see Grace’s shoulders visibly relax as the heat was diverted on to someone else. ‘What do you mean?’

I sighed at how clueless she was. ‘If he wants to go out with you then he needs to make an effort. He can’t just date you because he makes the decision to.’

Ella hesitated as she considered my point so I continued. ‘You deserve the best, he has to prove that he is the best. Does that make sense?’

‘I guess,’ Ella said, her brow furrowed.

‘Good work, Grace, you’ve probably made your brother keener than ever. Not that you’re interested in him, right, Ella?’

‘Right,’ she said unconvincingly.

‘But hey, he might just win you over at the party.’

Ella nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, he might. Not that I’ll be waiting around for him to make a move.’

‘Duh, obviously not.’ I paused. ‘But just in case, how about you borrow my black leather mini that you love so much?’

‘Really?’

I was satisfied to note that Ella turned to look at me properly for the first time since we’d started talking.

‘Your new one?’ she asked. ‘But you haven’t worn it yet.’

‘That doesn’t matter.’ I forced a smile. ‘It will look great on you.’

I hated lending anything to Ella. And not just because she never told anyone who complimented her on it that it was in fact MY stuff, but also because it meant I could never wear it again. Last year at a summer pool party, I wore a pair of really cute designer pink shorts that I had stupidly lent Ella the weekend before. And then Zoe, one of the girls in our year, asked me if I had borrowed them from Ella . It was MORTIFYING. Ella is my friend and everything, but I don’t copy anyone. They copy me . I obviously had to go home straight away and change, and I threw the shorts in the bin. My brand-new leather skirt was now doomed to the same fate. But I guess it’s like when celebrities go on those reality TV shows, eat bugs and dance and stuff, and come out with a new lingerie line and book deal. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made to get what you want.

‘Great!’ Ella whipped out her lip gloss, added another layer to her already way too shiny lips and snapped the lid back on. ‘It really is such a shame that you can’t come to the party, Flick. It won’t be the same without you.’

Finally. The reaction I had been waiting for. Even if I did have to sacrifice my leather mini in the process. She flounced off towards her classroom and Grace breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Thanks so much, Flick. I thought she was going to yell at me then. You always know what to do. I wish I was more like you.’

I gave her arm a comforting pat.

THE DAILY POST

Skylar Touches Down in London!

By Nancy Rose

American teen pop star Skylar Chase has landed in the capital as she embarks on her first UK tour. The popular singer has been touring the world ever since her debut album exploded on to the charts, propelling her to number one for weeks, and beating the world record for longest album in the top spot. ‘I’m excited to be here in London,’ the eighteen year old told the Daily Post exclusively. ‘I’ll be here for a while to work on several projects, so I’m looking forward to seeing the sights as well as getting down to some hard work.’ Rumour has it that while she’s here in the UK, she will be staying at London’s famous grande dame hotel, Hotel Royale. Only the best for this pop princess!

‘Is it true? Is it true?’

Grace’s sudden squealing jolted me from my phone. While the others had been sitting together, going on about Ella’s party in the last few minutes of our lunch break, I had happily tucked myself away in a corner for some online shopping.

‘Is what true?’ I asked grumpily, quickly closing the page of leather skirts.

‘This!’ Grace shoved her phone, which was open on some celebrity gossip website, under my nose.

‘Skylar Chase is in London,’ I read. ‘So?’

‘Look at where she’s staying!’ Grace cried, her long black hair swishing into my face as she leaned over to point it out to me.

I read further down the piece and by the time I had scanned the paragraph, my desk was surrounded by an excitable, whispering crowd. This always happens when someone super famous stays at the hotel. Everyone at school becomes obsessed with following me around, asking for the celebrity’s autograph or even sometimes just showing up at home. As my school is near to the hotel, this happens quite a lot. Matthew gets all grumpy when he has to shoo them away.

Ella pushed her way through the group at my desk before plonking herself importantly on the chair next to mine.

‘Well?’ she asked, tilting her head curiously.

‘I’m not sure,’ I answered honestly. ‘It makes sense that she would be staying with us, though. Where else would she go?’

‘Oh my God,’ Grace squeaked. ‘Imagine if you see her in the lobby!’

‘Would she give you tickets to her tour?’ Ella asked, shooting Grace a look of irritation as Grace practically hopped up and down on the spot.

‘I’ll probably get backstage passes.’