Coleen McLoughlin - Dress to Impress

Panting to a halt, I watched miserably as my bus honked past, gusting out a smelly whoosh of exhaust. Mel and Lucy were pressed to the glass, waving sympathetically at me, while Dave Sheekey – Ben Hanratty’s best mate and the most annoyinglad at Hartley High – pulled stupid faces at me out the window. Ten minutes to wait till the next bus, then twenty minutes of biting my nails as I got later and later for register. I slumped down on one of the bus-stop seats and pulled out my apple. It wasn’t all bad, I supposed. At least I could brush my hair. And I was sure I had some tic tacs somewhere…

At five to nine, I burst through the classroom door like one of those cowboys you see in films who gets hurled through a saloon window.

“Ta-da,” I declared. “Not late!”

“Whoop-de-doo,” drawled Summer Collins, my least favourite girl in the whole of my class. Summer’s mates Hannah Davies and Shona Mackinnon sniggered on cue as Summer pushed back her long blonde hair with one hand. Hello? I thought. Who is she trying to impress?

“Sit down, Coleen,” our form teacher Mr Andrews said. Mr Andrews is OK, if you dig goatees and physics. “We’re almost at the end of register.”

I hurried to my seat and flopped down beside my mates. “Lucy,” I began, keen to get to the bottom of the whole Ben/Jasmine thing as soon as possible.

“Ravi Singh?” Mr Andrews read from the register. “Daniel Thorburn?”

As Ravi and Daniel grunted at Mr Andrews, I realised Mel and Lucy were both looking weirdly at me.

“What?” I said, my hand going instantly to my head. Doing a high ponytail at a bus stop without a mirror never really works. Did it look totally awful? I’d never seen Lucy looking so pale and agitated. She didn’t normally get freaked out by bad hair.

“Coleen,” Mel whispered, “you know the footie at the weekend?”

“Like I’m going to forget what an idiot I made of myself,” I said, lolling back in my chair. I couldn’t work out why Mel was talking so quietly. No one ever whispered at register. “That Frankie lad we met was nice, wasn’t he? I think he liked you, Lucy.”

“ Shhhhh! ” Lucy hissed wildly.

“Tanya Williams?” Mr Andrews went on.

“Here, sir,” said Tanya.

“And last of all, our new face,” Mr Andrews said. “Frankie Wilson?”

At Frankie Wilson’s name, I let out a loud snort. Again. Oh noooo. I swung around and gawped at the familiar-faced lad sitting at the back of the room. Frankie Wilson? Here at Hartley High?

“Present,” said Frankie Wilson with a smirk. “And may I thank the lovely laydee two tables down for such a warm welcome.”

I blushed like a tomato, while everyone in the room – especially Summer and her mates – laughed themselves sick. Lovely laydee? What a creep!

“Urrrrrgh,” I growled at Mel and Lucy as Frankie Wilson capered around the back of the classroom, taking bows like some kind of clown while the whole room cheered. He had his blond hair gelled into spikes, and was wearing his school tie undone nearly to his belt. What was he playing at? I caught Summer’s expression. She was totally drinking it in. Then I realised Summer’s hair-tossing earlier had all been for Frankie’s benefit. Tragic!

“What a loser,” said Lucy as we all filed out of the classroom and headed for drama. “And he seemed so…nice at the footie.”

“Lads always act like idiots in school, I guess,” I said. It was pretty generous of me, given that my pride was still hurting.

“Especially when they’re new,” Mel agreed. “They’ve got to be all look-me-tough-guy, you know?”

I slung my arm around Lucy. “You OK?” I asked.

“I guess,” Lucy mumbled. “It was just a shock, that’s all.”

“Talking of shocks,” I said, keen to move on from Frankie Wilson, “what’s going on with Ben and Jasmine Harris?”

Mel gasped as I told them what I’d seen in the park after the footie. Lucy on the other hand didn’t look very surprised.

“Jasmine was round ours most of half-term,” she said. “It was really weird having her in the house. I was going to tell you at the footie, but then we met Frankie and…I kind of forgot.”

“You really do like him, don’t you?” I said.

“I did ,” Lucy said sadly. “But I don’t any more. Who could fancy an idiot like that?”

“Summer Collins,” I said. “Did you see all that hair-flicking back there?”

“ That’s what all that was about!” Mel said, acting all amazed. “There I was thinking maybe she was just swatting a bunch of flies around her head!”

Lucy gave a glimmer of a smile. Even though we were doing our best to cheer her up, I could guess how she was feeling. Stupid, and annoyed, and disappointed. I thought about Ben and sighed. It looked like love just wasn’t going our way.

We were going round to Lucy’s for tea after school. I’d had this whole outfit planned for Ben’s benefit: my newly beaded T-shirt plus my favourite leggings and these cute little banana shoes that fold in half so you can carry them around in a teeny handbag. The whole ensemble folds down into practically nothing, and I’d been going to tuck them into my bag before school that morning. But you guessed it: in my bus panic, they got left behind.

“Don’t worry about it, Coleen,” said Lucy, unlocking her front door as I stood and fretted with Mel out on the pavement. “Ben won’t notice you anyway. He’s bringing Jasmine back later on.”

Like that was going to make me feel any better.

“No way!” I wailed.

“It must be really funny seeing Ben all loved up,” Mel giggled.

Lucy made a face. “Gross, more like. His mates are really mad at him because he’s not seen them all half-term. He’s gone all Jasmine this, Jasmine that. I can’t get a word of sense out of him.”

“Can we change the subject?” I asked.

We went upstairs to Lucy’s room, and Lu put on some really soulful music. It made me feel even worse. I was as jumpy as a kangaroo on a trampoline. My ears were on elastic for the front door. When we heard Ben’s voice, I couldn’t resist creeping out and peeping over the banister down into the hall. I so wish I hadn’t. Ben and Jasmine were giggling about something, their heads all close together.

“Stop torturing yourself, Col,” said Mel over my shoulder. “Come back in with us. Lu wants some advice on what she should do about Frankie Wilson.”

“I thought she didn’t like Frankie any more,” I said in surprise.

Mel rolled her eyes. “Who ever said lurve was logical?”

When you’re suffering from a broken heart, talking about someone else’s broken heart always helps. I followed Mel back into Lucy’s room, where Lu was sitting on the edge of the bed looking all miserable.

“Weren’t you going to forget about Frankie Wilson?” I said, plopping down beside her.

“I know,” Lucy sighed. “But I can’t. He was great at the footie, into the same music as me and everything. I’ve never met a boy I get on with so well. It felt like we had a real connection. I think maybe he’s just showing off in class so no one picks on him. Don’t you think?”

She looked at me hopefully. I had a sudden memory of how Frankie had brought Lucy out of her shell at the footie. That was the real Frankie, I felt sure of it.

“We’ll give him another chance tomorrow,” I said at last. “Mention the football and see what he says.”

“Tea’s on the table!” Mrs Hanratty shouted from down in the kitchen.

I hunted around Lucy’s dressing table until I found what I needed.

“Sunglasses?” Mel said in surprise as I slipped the sunnies on my nose.