Best Friends Rock! by Cindy Jefferies Page B

silly.”
    Ellie was sure Connor would be against her skulking too, so she made her mind up to go, and to hope for the best. Besides, airports were exciting, even if you weren’t flying anywhere. Ellie loved watching passengers arriving from far-flung places, especially Africa. Some of the people from that continent wore such colourful clothes. They made Westerners look unbelievably dowdy.
    Luckily, the flight landed in the middle of the day, so Ellie didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, which was just as well, after the late night she’d had. The airport wasn’t far, and they were in good time to meet the flight. Ellie went to look at the arrivals board and frowned. “It’s been delayed,” she said to her mum.
    â€œThat’s annoying,” said Georgia. “How silly of me. I meant to check online before we set off, but I forgot.”
    â€œIt’s only half an hour,” said Ellie. “We can go and have a coffee while we’re waiting.”
    They watched the arrivals screen from one of the airport cafés, and soon the status of Hannah’s flight turned to “landed”. Ten minutes later, Ellie got a text.
    Hi! it said. Are you at the airport? It was the first text Hannah had sent her since their argument.
    Ellie replied. Yes. She wasn’t sure what else to say, but her heart started to thump.
    A few minutes later another came in. Just hanging around for our bags. Can’t wait to see you!
    Ellie heaved a huge sigh of relief. Maybe it would be all right. Me too! she replied, with her heart lifting. “ Come on, Mum,” she said to Georgia. “Let’s go to arrivals. I expect they’ll be through soon.”
    At the barrier there were lots of people waiting. Ellie found a space and leaned on the barrier, watching for people who looked as if they’d been on holiday. It didn’t take long. They were unmistakable in their flip-flops and colourful clothes, bulging bags and tanned faces. Some of them looked as if they’d actually come straight from the beach.
    Ellie saw Hannah before Hannah noticed Ellie. She was wearing a new pair of cool gold sandals, and had a short dress on that Ellie hadn’t seen before. On her head was a straw hat. Her luggage was piled on a trolley, and her dad was pushing it, accompanied by her mum. They all looked very tanned and happy. For a moment Ellie regretted not going with them. It would have been such fun, and they would have come home with a huge number of shared happy memories. But then she remembered how she’d have been letting Heart down at the last minute, and how unprofessional that would have been. And in fact she’d done so much over the past few days; quite enough to make up for missing a foreign holiday! And then Hannah saw her, and let out a squeal of delight.
    As soon as they hugged they both knew that everything was all right. “I’m sorry I was so horrible,” breathed Hannah. “The longer I left it the harder it was to make contact. But I so hoped you’d be here.”
    â€œI’m sorry I let you down,” said Ellie, and they hugged again.
    â€œI got you such a sweet sun top,” Hannah was saying as they walked slowly, arms linked, towards the exit. Then Ellie saw someone she recognized.
    â€œConnor!” She disentangled her arm from Hannah’s and muttered, “Hang on a minute,” before he reached her.
    He stood a couple of feet away from her, looking suddenly rather shy. “The others have gone through to departures,” he explained. “But I saw the flight coming in from Malaga and hoped it might be the one you were meeting.” He paused. “Everything all right then?”
    Ellie nodded. “Everything’s fine,” she told him. “I’ll introduce you…” She started to turn back to Hannah, but Connor grabbed her hand.
    â€œHaven’t got time,” he said. “I just wanted to