Girls Under Pressure by Jacqueline Wilson Read Free Book Online Page A

length of two streets before collapsing. I was so sweaty I was terrified I’d overwhelmed the efficiency of my Mum roll-on and I had to keep my distance from everyone all day long.
    “I know exercise is a good idea,” I say. “It’s not that I don’t want to do it. I can’t. You know how useless I am, Magda.”
    “It’s only because you’re not fit,” Magda persists. “How about going to a gym?”
    “Please!” says Nadine, shaking her long locks in horror.
    “Go on, Ellie, you might find it fun. There’s a special early gym session down the leisure center. We could meet up before school,” says Magda.
    “What?”
    “Stop it!” says Nadine. “You two are going completely bananas. It’s like something out of
The X-Files
. My two best friends have been taken over by crazed zombies. First Ellie gets this thing about being fat and gives up eating altogether—
Ellie,
the girl who once ate three Mars bars on the trot!—and now Magda’s saying she wants to get up at the crack of dawn and go and work out in a gym.
Why?
”
    I wonder if Magda’s desperately envious about Nadine’s modeling chance too. Then my brain starts working
properly
.
    “This guy you met in the Soda Fountain—
he
doesn’t happen to have an early-morning gym session, does he?” I say.
    “Aah!” says Nadine.
    “No, Jamie doesn’t,” says Magda. “He’s not into anything physical. Apart from sex. He can’t keep his hands to himself. He’s like an octopus. I’m not going out with
him
again.”
    “No, but Jamie wasn’t the one you really fancied. It was the dark dishy one. Mike?”
    “
Mick.
Oooh, he is so gorgeous! He was round at Jamie’s place the other day. He sat next to me on the sofa and OK, we weren’t even touching, but it was like these electrical currents were going sizzle sizzle sizzle between him and me. I felt my hair was practically standing on end. I tried so hard with him and I just know he’s interested, but he’s Jamie’s best friend and he obviously doesn’t want to cause trouble. He and Jamie are ever so close.”
    “Maybe they’re too close,” I say. “Are you sure Mick isn’t gay, Magda?”
    “No, of course he’s not gay! Look, OK, he did just happen to let slip that he works out at the Sunrisers Club down the leisure center—”
    “Then I should think he
is
gay. Straight guys don’t bother about their bodies half so much,” says Nadine, flexing her own arms. “Hey, what do you think of my muscle definition? Do you think I ought to try to develop it?”
    “Try developing your bust, darling,” says Magda, sticking out her own Wonder Bra bosom.
    “It’s OK to be small. Lots of models are. And anyway, I could always go for a breast enhancement later,” says Nadine.
    “Sounds like you’re more in need of a
brain
enhancement,” I say sourly. “And you, Magda. I’m not going to a sweaty old gym just so you can make out with this Mick.”
    “OK, OK, not the gym. Maybe it would be almost too obvious. Anyway, it costs a fortune. No, I thought we could go swimming. The pool opens at seven same as the gym. How about going just
once
? Ellie? Nadine? Then we could fetch up in the cafeteria for breakfast afterward and surprise surprise, there’s Mick. Hopefully.
Please!
I don’t want to go on my own. I’ll stand you both breakfast afterward. They do super raspberry Danish pastries.”
    “I’m on a diet,” I snap.
    “Looks like your little ploy’s not working, Magda. You can certainly count me out. I need my beauty sleep,” says Nadine.
    “Ellie? Listen, I was reading this article about swimming, how it’s the best exercise you can take because you’re using every single muscle in your body, right—and if you go early in the morning, before you’ve eaten anything, it speeds up your metabolism so that whatever you eat after gets burnt up in double-quick time. So you could eat up that raspberry Danish and not put on an ounce in weight.”
    I know she’s just shooting me a