Maya's Secret by Holly Webb Page A

arms’ length, looking at her worriedly. “Did you miss us?”
    “No … I mean, yes. But that’s not why I’m crying,” Maya sniffed.
    “Tell me.” Her mum sat down on the stairs, and pulled Maya down next to her.
    Maya sighed. There was such a lot to explain. She’d spoken to her mum on Skype a few times, andtexted her, but she hadn’t told her about the fashion show. Maya wasn’t sure why, although their calls had always been pretty short because Mum was working. Dad had started thinking about some new lyrics while he was out there, and Maya got the feeling he wasn’t listening that hard when they’d talked. And she’d wanted to save it as a surprise. Some surprise. Large tears ran down her nose.
    “The project – remember we talked about it?”
    “Fairtrade?”
    “Uh-huh. We’re doing a fashion show, at school. Two weeks from now, on Tuesday night.”
    “A fashion show?” Her mum sounded confused. “But … how?”
    “I asked Tara, from the Daisy shop, if she’d do it with us. We went to see what it was like, and I thought of the show while we were there. We’re raising money to help build a school in Bangladesh.”
    “But Maya, that’s amazing!”
    Maya sighed. “It is, isn’t it? Except I’ve messed it all up. No one’s coming. We’ve just about sold enough tickets to pay the caretaker to open up the school, but the hall’s going to be almost empty. It’ll look so stupid. Ali and the others will never let us forget it, and Emily and Poppy and Izzy hate me!”
    “OK, slow down.” Her mum was frowning. “Forget Ali, I can’t stand that girl and I’ve never even met her. Why do Emily and the others hate you?”
    “I’m in charge of publicity. Me and Poppy, but Poppy drew the poster and everything. I’m supposed to get us in the paper, and they won’t email me back.”
    “Typical,” her mum muttered. “Local papers are always like that. But that’s not your fault, Maya.”
    “Emily had a go at me about it. She sort of said it was…”
    “How sort of?” Her mum hugged her tighter.
    “I suppose I went off on one a bit…” Maya admitted. “But she was being mean. She does that, though…”
    “Uh-huh. But you still like her.”
    Maya’s bag beeped, and she reached down to grab her phone, frowning at the strange number.
borrowed mum’s phone 2 say sorry. will u sit with me tmrw? E xxx
    Maya laughed, feeling suddenly shaky with relief. Emily didn’t hate her after all.
    “Is that from Emily?”
    “She says she’s sorry.” Maya leaned against hermum’s shoulder. She was so tired her bones felt wobbly. “I’ll text her back in a minute.” She keyed the message in, her fingers shaking a bit from relief.
ok. sorry I lost it. M xxx
    “That doesn’t actually solve your problem, though,” her mum said thoughtfully.
    “You really know how to cheer me up…” Maya whispered. But it was true. Even if she and Emily were friends again, they still had an awful lot of tickets to sell.
    “You know I said I’d love to help with your project?” her mum asked quietly.
    “Mmm?”
    “Well, there is one way we could get some publicity pretty easily.”
    Maya blinked at her. And then she realised what her mum was talking about. India Kell just had to say that she was supporting their little fashion show, and it would definitely get in the local paper. It would probably be on the front page.
    “Oh… Would you do that?”
    “Of course I would, if you want me to. I’d love to, Maya, I think it’s brilliant, what you’re doing. Itwould be such a shame if more people didn’t get to hear about it.” She was silent for a minute. “But it’s just what you didn’t want.”
    Maya nodded. “I know. It wasn’t going to work for much longer, though. I hate not being able to talk about you to my friends. And I really want to be able to have them round.”
    “They’re good enough friends that you don’t mind them knowing, then?”
    “I think so. Even Izzy, and I’ve only