Going for Gold by Annie Dalton Read Free Book Online Page A

saying we were the real deal, the rebels. Everyone else was just ‘bogus’.
    She was scrutinising me again. “You trust me, don’t you?”
    “Totally,” I said, ignoring a far-off twang of alarm.
    “Only I’m going to take you to this really special place, but it’s a surprise so you’ll have to cover your eyes.”
    Giggling nervously, I let Maia steer me through the gardens. Belly-dancing music drifted from a tourist boat. I could hear loud rhythmic clapping as the tourists joined in the dance.
    I heard Maia snigger. “Just picture all those old wrinklies doing belly-dancing moves! Euw!”
    “Don’t be mean,” I protested, giggling. “And don’t make me laugh, I keep nearly tripping over as it is!”
    The Nile smells were getting much stronger. We must have been getting close to the river. I could hear Maia breathing and I felt a rush of panic. Was she planning to push me in?
    “Duck!” she commanded, letting me go.
    I ducked through an invisible entrance, setting off tinkling sounds.
    “You can look now!”
    “How - where—?” I stuttered amazed. “What is this place?”
    “It belongs to the hostel. No one uses it so I thought we’d take it over.” Maia seemed pleased at my surprise.
    Tea-lights in pretty glass holders flickered everywhere. Three walls were hung with richly patterned Bedouin rugs, the fourth wall was mostly taken up by a huge open window overlooking the Nile. Under the window a squashy sofa, draped with more tribal rugs, just begged you to kick off your flip-flops and enjoy the river views.
    “Someone must come here, or who lit the little tea-lights?”
    “That was me, silly! I wanted it to be special.” Maia put on a girly voice. “Hi, madam, my name is Maia and I’ll be looking after your every need this evening.”
    I giggled. “You’re TOTALLY mad, you know that!”
    She got busy throwing fresh mint into a pot, making Egyptian-style mint tea, seeming to know exactly where everything was kept.
    We curled up with our steaming tea glasses, watching the stars dance in the water.
    Maia noticed me shiver. “Wrap yourself in one of these!” She helped me arrange one of the tribal rugs around my shoulders. “Isn’t this better than that old party?” She gave a naughty giggle. “You’d like it even better if you were with Indigo!” “I wasn’t that into him, shut up!” Maia went so quiet I thought I’d offended her. She fiddled with her fake ankh.
    “Actually, Indigo isn’t the only mate we have in common.” Maia sounded cagy. “Your friend Lola is going out with an old friend of mine.”
    I laughed, amazed. “No way! You really know
    Brice!”
    Maia suddenly got off the sofa and went to sit in a nearby wicker chair, I heard her take a breath. “I probably seem really sure of myself, right? Sassy,
    quirky…?”
    “Well, yeah—”
    “It’s totally put on. I’m just so sick of getting hurt.”
    I sat up, startled. “Omigosh, Maia.” She sounded almost angry. “It’s always the same story. I make friends with some cool angel girl. We swap
    girly info, fave music, most embarrassing moments. Finally I take a risk and tell her something real, you know, like the truth about my past, and suddenly little Miss Celestial Cool doesn’t want to know.” “Maia, that’s terrib—”
    “Let me say it, before I chicken out. I wasn’t telling the whole truth just now. Brice and I do go way back, but we didn’t exactly meet in Heaven.”
    “Oh, wow, you’re from the same time period?” I breathed.
    She shook her head. “We didn’t meet on Earth either.”
    With the sick, dropping down a lift-shaft feeling that goes with real shock, I realised what she was telling me. Maia had met Brice in the exact OPPOSITE of Heaven; in the clammy sulphur-smelling corridors of a Hell school.
    I heard her swallow. “I don’t blame you if you don’t want to be my friend. You’d always be thinking, ‘Is Maia for real?’” She sounded like a lost little girl. I was