Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson Page A

outrageous, like she keeps pretending she’s after you – well, I
think
it’s pretending – but then she can be amazingly sweet to me. You’ll never guess what Miranda bought me today, Carl.’
    ‘Miranda Miranda Miranda. Hey, maybe she’s
your
type, Sylvie,’ said Carl. ‘Do
you
fancy her?’
    ‘Shut up!’ I said. I felt my cheeks going scarlet as I remembered the girl in the shop.
    ‘Syl? I didn’t
mean
it. Anyway. Look. Do you think Miranda would like to come bowling some time?’
    I stared at Carl. ‘You want to go bowling with Miranda?’ I repeated.
    ‘Not just her. Us. We could go one Friday night.’
    ‘The three of us?’
    ‘Well. I could get one of the guys from school to come too. Maybe.’
    ‘Which guy?’
    ‘I don’t know. Whoever wants to come.’ Carl coughed and sat up. ‘Paul was saying he likes going bowling. Maybe he could come.’
    ‘Paul the football guy?’
    ‘Yeah. Him.’
    I went and sat down by Carl’s giraffe, stroking her long soft droopy neck. It was so strange. It was all happening just as Miranda had suggested. Perhaps she really was an enchantress like her Glassworld counterpart? Why was Carl inviting her if he didn’t like her? And why on earth was he suggesting
bowling
?
    ‘You don’t like bowling,’ I said.
    ‘I think it’ll be fun.’
    ‘You hated it that time you went with Jake.’
    ‘Yeah, well, I hate anything I do with Jake,’ said Carl. He stretched. ‘So. This Friday? You and Miranda, Paul and me?’
    ‘OK.’
    ‘Great.’ Carl smiled at me. It was adevastatingly sweet smile, his brown eyes shining. I stopped puzzling over everything and smiled back.
    ‘Now I really must get on with homework,’ Carl said gently, getting his school bag and flipping through it for textbooks and jotters.
    ‘You always have so much homework,’ I said, sighing.
    ‘You always have so little,’ said Carl. ‘And even then you don’t always do it.’
    ‘I haven’t got any this evening. I don’t even know what we got set, on account of the fact Miranda and I played truant this afternoon.’
    I knew that would stop him in his tracks and divert him from his homework. I told him the whole story of our afternoon adventure. Carl looked reluctantly impressed. We’d often fantasized about playing truant when we were at school together. We’d even plotted the best way to do it and planned what we would do together on our snatched day of freedom. We’d never quite managed to
do
it.
    ‘Miranda’s got a lot of bottle,’ said Carl. ‘Still, better not get
too
carried away. You don’t want to get into too much trouble.’
    ‘Lucy thinks I’ll get expelled.’
    ‘Oh well, Lucy would.’
    ‘I think we’ve broken friends, Lucy and me,’ I said, nursing the giraffe.
    ‘Well, that’s cool, isn’t it? Because you’ve got Miranda now.’
    ‘Yes. She said she wants to be my best friend.But you know what Miranda’s like, Carl. You don’t really know where you are with her. She could just as easily stop being your friend and become your worst enemy, and then where would I be?’ I said, clutching the giraffe close to my chest.
    ‘You’d be where you always are, best friends with me,’ said Carl.
    He reached out and we did our special best-friends clasp. I wanted to hang onto his hand but he gently disentangled his fingers and opened up his school books. I sat cross-legged watching him work for a few minutes and then I went home.
    Mum was just coming down the road, struggling with shopping. I ran to help her, feeling guilty.
    ‘I thought we were going to Tesco on Sunday morning when I can help,’ I said, hauling flimsy plastic shopping bags indoors.
    ‘Hey, hey, careful, there’s eggs in that one. Don’t try to carry them
all
, you’ll hurt yourself.’
    We struggled together down the hall into the kitchen and tumbled all the bags down on the floor. Mum switched on the kettle and started unpacking everything, putting food in the fridge and cupboards. I nicked a