A Merry Little Christmas by Julia Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

about Kelly R thox? :-S
    Mel:
Kelly who? She’s history.
    Kaz:
You’re sure?
    Mel:
Totes. He thinks I’m hawt!!
    Kaz:
And you are, babe!
    Mel:
Meet tomorrow for beef!
    Kaz:
Laters.
    Mel:
xxx
    Teenage Kicks
    Random thoughts of an Anonymous Teen
    Saw the Boy today. It’s the first time since that whole Dad finding us in the cafe shit. He hasn’t been replying to my texts, so it was always going to be AWKWARD. Christ. He must think I’m such a loser. To have a dad like that …
    So I try to play it cool. I say hi, and pretend I’ve come in to collect my wages. I sashay slowly up the aisle, hoping he’s looking at me. Instead I stack over my new platforms & look like a total douche. I get up feeling an idiot & I want to
die
.
    But then he looks at me and my heart
goes all funny and he says, ‘Hey babe, I know you like me, but you didn’t need to fall at my feet.’
    Which
isn’t
true actually. I didn’t fall at his feet. I want to die even more, but then I realise he’s grinning at me, and so we have a coffee together and he says it’s ok that my dad shouted at us.
    ‘It’s cool,’ he said, ‘He’s your dad. If I had such a fit daughter I’d probably do the same.’
    He thinks I’m fit. I can’t believe it. The Boy, who just happens to be the most amazing, gorgeous guy in the whole world, thinks
I’m
fit.
I am going to ignore those rumours going round school that he’s been seen out with the Chav Queen. I’m sure she started them anyway, ever since Best Mate told the whole class how I snogged the Boy at her New Year’s Eve party. It’s me he likes. I know it now.
    He’s asked me to meet him in town again. After school. I was sooo nervous. I made Best Mate come with me till we saw him. I could barely speak. Best Mate, said there’s another rumour about him and a girl who doesn’t even go to our school. ‘Be careful, babes,’ she said. I know she’s looking out for me, but I wish she’d shut up. I know the Boy isn’t interested in anyone else, cos he told me. Said not to listen to any silly rumours. I’m the only girl for him. Held my hand and said he loved me. I think I love him too . .
.
Does it always feel this exhilarating and mad, and miserable and mental? How do you KNOW for sure?

Chapter Four
    Marianne came home from work after another depressingly difficult day, feeling shattered and miserable. But her step lightened as she walked into the house and heard the babies gurgling in the kitchen. However crap her day had been, no one could take away the pleasure the twins brought her. She went to open the door, and then she heard voices. Steven was talking to Gabe’s mum.
    ‘I really liked Middleminster, Granny,’ he said. ‘But Dad doesn’t want me to go.’
    ‘Of course he does,’ said Jean. ‘But if you do go there, he’s going to miss you.’
    ‘I don’t think I’m going to get in anyway,’ said Steven gloomily. ‘I’ve been practising with Marianne, and the tests are really difficult.’
    ‘I’m sure you’ll do fine,’ said Jean, ‘and if you don’t get in, it’s not the end of the world. You can go to Hope Sadler School with your friends.’
    ‘But I don’t
want
to go to school with them,’ Steven burst out miserably. ‘Apart from George, they all take the mickey out of my singing. And it’s what I want to do more than
anything
.’
    Steven sounded so miserable, Marianne’s heart contracted. Poor poor thing. She and Gabe had been so caught up in their worries about losing him they hadn’t stopped to consider properly how Steven felt.
    Feeling she’d eavesdropped enough, Marianne called out, ‘Hi, I’m home,’ and entered the kitchen. She really wanted to go and give Steven a hug, but thinking it would be hard to explain without giving away the fact that she’d been listening, just grinned at him instead, and said, ‘Good day?’
    ‘It was okay,’ he grunted.
    ‘And how have the twins been?’
    ‘Fine,’ said Jean, ‘no trouble at all. You know how