Bobby's Girl by Catrin Collier Read Free Book Online

yourself,’ Kate bit back.
    Rich ignored Kate and glared at Penny. ‘You can’t seriously be considering going, Pen?’
    â€˜It’s America.’
    â€˜It’s not like the TV shows.’ Rich was always teasing her and Kate about their addiction to American westerns, like Bonanza and the High Chaparral . ‘The cowboy films you watch are their idea of serious history. AndHollywood is a right dump. Worse than the council estates around Ponty.’
    â€˜Been there, have you, Rich? The council estates as well as Hollywood?’ Kate sniped.
    Rich remained unabashed. ‘Face it, Kate, you live on an estate. You know what I mean.’
    â€˜No, I don’t. Would you care to explain?’ Kate demanded.
    Penny’d stepped in. ‘Stop quarrelling.’
    â€˜Kate started it.’
    â€˜No she didn’t. You’re being childish. We’ve moved on since Victorian times. No one gives a damn where people come from these days.’
    Even then she’d occasionally wondered why she stayed with Rich. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t had offers from boys just as attractive. But whenever she came close to moving on, Rich would say or do something heart-meltingly sweet, like drive her down the Gower so she could photograph and sketch the landscape while he stood around freezing. Or produce tickets for a Royal Shakespeare production in the Aldwych they were both desperate to see. Or escort her to an art exhibition that bored him witless just so she wouldn’t have to go on her own.
    â€˜Coming with us, Rich?’ Kate taunted, knowing Rich’s teacher father insisted both his sons work on their grandfather’s farm every holiday ‘to keep their feet on the ground’.
    â€˜I suppose I could ask my old man if he’d let me off herding sheep, milking cows and mucking out horses this summer.’
    â€˜Don’t bother. You’d cramp our style.’ Kate wasn’t joking and Rich knew it.
    Tired of listening to Kate and Rich fence words, Penny’d left her chair. ‘You going to the hostel, Kate?’
    Kate stuffed the yoghurt and chocolate back into her bag. ‘Yes, before I get any more gibes about my diet.’ She waved the bar of chocolate under Rich’s nose. ‘Alison asked me to get this when I said I was going into town.’ She bent close to Rich’s ear. ‘It’s for her little brother’s birthday,’ she shouted, making him jump.
    â€˜What about our game, Pen?’ Rich questioned petulantly.
    â€˜Kate’s right. You were losing.’
    â€˜I wasn’t. And, you said you wanted to see The Magic Roundabout .’
    The only time the common room was full was the ten minutes when the cartoon was shown on television before the evening news.
    It was Rich’s remark that made her decide, no matter what, she was going to the States. If for no other reason than it would prove her independence.
    She’d picked up her bag. ‘I need to phone home about America. If I plead poverty, my father may cough up the fare. He’s always telling us travel broadens the mind.’
    â€˜Travel in Europe maybe,’ Rich declared. ‘But I fail to see how travel in America will do anything of the kind. There’s no culture …’
    â€˜See you at supper.’ She’d pretended not to hear Rich when he called after her but she noticed Kate turning and poking her tongue out at him. 

C HAPTER F IVE
    â€˜America, darling, what a marvellous opportunity. For four months you said?’
    â€˜June to September.’ Penny knew her mother would be pleased at the thought of her travelling with other students.
    â€˜Is Rich going?’
    â€˜He’s thinking about it.’ Her parents had made it clear they felt she and Rich had become too serious about one another too young. ‘Kate’s going.’
    â€˜That’s wonderful, Penny, darling. I’ll get your father