Eva's Holiday by Judi Curtin Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    Victoria made a face. ‘I couldn’t. My phone had an accident.’
    I tried unsuccessfully not to giggle. Victoria’s phone is always having accidents.
    ‘What happened this time?’
    ‘Er …it fell down the toilet.’
    This time I didn’t even try to hide the giggles. Victoria giggled too.
    ‘It’s not really funny though. It probably can’t be fixed, and Mum won’t buy me a new one until September. She says I’m too careless.’
    ‘Poor you,’ I said. ‘But look on the bright side, at least you’re not stuck in a weird dump like this for the summer.’
    ‘Speaking of weird,’ said Victoria. ‘We passed a girl on the road, just before we got here, andshe was acting really weird.’
    ‘Weird how?’ I asked, not sure that I wanted to hear the answer.
    ‘It looked like she was crawling through the hedge or something,’ said Victoria.
    ‘That’s ………….,’ began Joey, who always seemed to be around when I didn’t want him.
    ‘Hey,’ said Victoria. ‘You must be Joey.’
    Joey gave her his best gap-toothed smile.
    ‘So cute,’ said Victoria smiling back.
    I was starting to agree with her, when he went on talking.
    ‘That girl you saw is Eva’s new best friend, Kate,’ he said. ‘She’s really funny. She doesn’t mind picking up earwigs or anything. She—’
    I couldn’t take any more. I picked up a magazine, and lightly whacked Joey on the head with it. Then I raced out the door before he could go crying to Mum and Dad.
    I ran down the road to safety, with Victoria laughing and running after me.
    There was no sign of Kate, but unfortunately Victoria hadn’t forgotten about her.
    ‘Is that girl we saw really your friend?’ she asked. ‘If you don’t mind me saying it, she didn’t exactly look like your type.’
    I hesitated. I knew I should be loyal to Kate, but I wasn’t brave enough. So I shook my head.
    ‘No. She’s not my friend. She’s just a girl who lives around here. Joey only made that friend stuff up to annoy me.’
    ‘Good,’ sighed Victoria. ‘We wouldn’t want you going all weird on us. Now what’s there to do in this place?’
    It didn’t take long to tell her. My favourite place was The Island of Dreams, but I could hardly take Victoria there. For one thing, Kate might show up. It wasn’t just that, though. I’d betrayed Kate enough already, but taking my friend to her favourite place without her would have been totally mean.
    So we decided to walk to the beach.
    As usual, Cathy and Lily were sitting on the wall opposite the shop. It was almost like they were living statues, part of the scenery.
    ‘Who are those two girls over there?’ asked Victoria. ‘Do you know them?’
    Yes, but they think I’m weird just like my friend Kate.
    ‘Not really,’ I said.
    ‘So let’s get to know them,’ said Victoria, who can make friends with anyone.
    Maybe she was right. If Cathy and Lily saw me with my real friend, my cool friend, maybe they’d forget that Kate was my friend too. Maybe they’d like me. Maybe I was going to have a half-way normal summer after all.
    As we walked towards Cathy and Lily, I fixed my hair and straightened my top.
    Cathy and Lily gave us their usual bored looks as we came close.
    ‘Hi, Kate’s friend,’ said Cathy.
    Victoria gave me a funny look, before Cathycontinued. ‘Where’s Kate today? Digging potatoes? Eating worms? Swinging out of trees?’
    I could feel my face going red. I should have known that this was a stupid idea.
    And to make things even worse, I couldn’t think of a single smart thing to say back to Cathy.
    ‘Come on,’ I said to Victoria, pulling her by her arm. ‘Let’s hurry, I want to show you the beach before the tide comes in.’
    Victoria followed me to the beach, but as soon as we got there, she made me stop and she stared me in the face.
    ‘What’s going on, Eva?’ she asked.
    I took a step backwards. Victoria can be very intimidating when she wants to.
    Then she continued, ‘Why are