The Flirting Games (The Flirting Series - Young Adult) by Stella Wilkinson

Chapter 1
     
    Ellie Parkhurst was restless. She needed some
excitement in her life. She’d only been back at Compass Court Boarding School
for four weeks and it just wasn’t the same this year. She missed the company of
Jack, her eldest brother.
    Jack was fun. He and his friends had been
daring and a bit wild. In school he had often teased her but he spoilt her
rotten and everyone knew he had her back. In her third year he had caught her
kissing Bryn Dawes in the West Tower Common Room and had thrown poor Bryn
against the wall and held him there by his neck, demanding to know what he
thought he was doing. Jack was four years older than her and had left the school
the year before, and she hadn’t realized how hard it would be here at boarding
school without him and his friends livening it up. It was boring!
    She did have a fair amount of family
here with her. Her other brother, Alex, was 16 and just two years above her. He
was pretty decent, but he just wasn’t as fun as Jack. Rose and Toby Falcon were
her cousins who were also at Compass Court. Rose was the same age as Alex, and
Toby was 13 and in Year 3, a year younger than Ellie herself.
    She and Rose were friends as well as
family, but Rose was so like Alex: just plain nice! Ellie was much more like
Jack in personality. She liked things a bit more happening.
    She kicked her feet against the end
of the bed, beating out a rhythm. What she needed was a new challenge,
something to liven up the year.
    She looked across at the empty beds
in the dormitory room she shared with three other girls. On the far side were
two neatly made beds that belonged to Jessica and Miranda Taylor-Thomas. Ellie
glanced at the watch on her wrist. It was Saturday afternoon, nearly three
o’clock. Both girls would be in the music room right now, she guessed. To her
left was the more messy bed of the new girl, Flora Kincaid.
    So far she liked Flora. She was a
bit quiet, or quieter than Ellie would have expected from an American, but then
again it was very hard being new. Maybe she should make more of an effort to
invite her to things.
    At that moment there was a tentative
tap on the bedroom door. Raising her head, Ellie saw her cousin Rose peering in.
    “Hiya, I’m going to down to the
village to meet Alex and some of the others. Do you want to come?”
    Ellie swung her legs off the bed.
“Yeah, ok thanks.” Might as well, she thought. “Give me five minutes?”
    “Sure.” Rose smiled and turned to
leave. “I’ll be in the Common Room.”
    Ellie grimaced at her reflection in
the mirror. Her fringe was sticking up all over the place. Hmm, not how she
wanted to be seen. At nearly 15, you didn’t let boys see you going about
looking like a scarecrow.
    She pulled a brush through her long dark hair
and added some mascara to her lashes. She had finally been able to persuade her
mother to let her buy some makeup this summer. She wasn’t really allowed to
wear it in class, but she had been sneaking on mascara all term, it made her
brown eyes seem brighter and gave them more impact. Of course, wearing a school
uniform did no one any favors. But in Oakworth, the local village, she could
dress how she liked, so she added some cherry lip-gloss too. Looking down she
was happy with her outfit. Black top, with long trailing sleeves and tight
black jeans with her favorite gray suede boots. She flicked her hair over her
shoulder, leaned forward to kiss the mirror and decided she was ready.
    ***
    Nathaniel Naverly smiled at himself
in the mirror. He ran his hands through his blond hair and flexed his chest.
His reflection pleased him. Five years of school sports had filled out his
upper body: his shoulders were wide, his stomach tight and his arm muscles
looked toned. He’d spent a lot of the summer swimming, as well as playing
plenty of football and cricket.
    Back at Compass Court for his sixth
year and he reckoned he was ready to pull anyone he wanted. He knew girls liked
him; they thought he was