Star Crazy Me by Jean Ure Read Free Book Online

said.
    He didn’t even slam the door behind him. I would have done.
    Needless to say, the minute he’d gone I collapsed like a squashed meringue. Mum’s always said that one of these days my tongue will get the better of me. “Justcan’t learn to control it, can you?” I could even hear Nan rebuking me. “Well, that’s it, girl! You’ve really gone and done it this time.”
    I’d bawled at Indy, now I’d bawled at Josh. But it was his own fault! He shouldn’t have brought Nan into it. He knew she was the only person in my entire life who’d ever really, truly loved me. He knew how much I missed her.
    Memories of Nan came flooding over me and plunged me into even deeper depths of misery. When Mum came home at six o’clock she was considerably annoyed to find that last night’s dinner dishes, plus this morning’s breakfast stuff, were still mouldering unwashed in the sink, and the pizza which apparently (so she said) I was supposed to have taken out of the freezer and put in the oven was still in the freezer, and the oven hadn’t even been turned on, and for crying out loud, Carmen, you haven’t done a single solitary thing!
    I told her that I had in fact been doing myhomework, and waved Josh’s print-out at her to prove it. It wouldn’t have cut any ice with Mum even if it had been true. She went on at some length about how she had been working for eight hours straight, and the least she deserved was to find dinner ready and waiting for her when she got back. I guess she had a point. One way or another, it was a pretty horrible kind of evening.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Mum was on late turn next day, so I had to get up and get dressed and make like I was going to school. While I was munching cereal in the kitchen, her mobile started squawking. She yelled at me from the bathroom. “Carmen, get that for me!” So I picked it up and found it was a text message from school, alertingMum to the fact that I hadn’t been there yesterday. I’d forgotten they did that. Phew! Lucky for me I’d got there first. I deleted it immediately.
    â€œWho was it?” said Mum.
    I told her it was someone trying to sell something.
    Mum said, “Sell what?”
    â€œDidn’t ask.”
    â€œWell, in future I would like to know ,” said Mum. “It could have been a free kitchen. How do you know it wasn’t a free kitchen?”
    I said, “It wasn’t a free anything. It was just rubbish.” I grabbed my bag and made for the door. “I gotta go, I’ll be late!”
    I caught the bus at the usual stop, but instead of getting off at Ravenspark Road I stayed on till we reached the shopping centre. I wasn’t going back to that school again ever. Of course I knew they would come for me. I’d be hunted down like a criminal and dragged off in chains, or more likely handcuffs. I’d heard of people being brought back to school by thepolice. But they couldn’t make me stay there! I’d just keep running off until in the end they’d be forced to send me somewhere else. Either that, or lock me up. Whichever. I didn’t care! Sooner be behind bars than have to suffer Marigold Johnson and her gang of sniggering morons every day.
    â€œ That fat freak! What’s she think she’s gonna do ?”
    The words still rang in my ears. I had the feeling that everyone was staring at me. Ooh, look! Fat! Body fascists, that’s what Josh had called them. You’re the wrong size, you’re the wrong shape! Yeeeurgh , bluuurgh , don’t want her joining the club!
    Thinking of Josh, as I went into the shopping centre, made me feel bad all over again. He and Indy were my two best friends, and I’d upset both of them. Josh had trusted me with his secret. He’d confided in me what he wouldn’t even confide in his mum and dad, and I knew how hard it must have been for him. He is such a very private