The Flirting Games (The Flirting Series - Young Adult) by Stella Wilkinson Read Free Book Online

driveway, he
watched as various parents collected their children for a day out. He waved at
a couple of people he knew from the year below him.
    You always got a funny mix at
boarding school. Kids were sent here for so many different reasons. His own
father was an army captain, in charge of training, and was sent all over the
country as needed, and his mother preferred to rent a house in barracks rather
than stay at home so they could be together. She hadn’t wanted the children to
get moved around all the time so they shut up the family house during term
time, which was why he and his brother and sister had all attended boarding
school.
    Jack wandered into the main hall
looking for his brother and sister. Alex was in the courtyard with their
cousins, Rose and Toby.
    Alex and Rose were both 16 and had
been born only days apart, and so they’d always been close. Toby was only 13
and Jack hadn’t ever really had much time for him as the age gap between them
was so large, he himself having turned eighteen last January.
    He was more interested in finding
Ellie. As younger sisters went, Ellie was pretty cool. She was full of mischief
and sharp as a tack. He’d actually really enjoyed having her around when she
finally joined him and Alex at Compass Court. She was cheeky with his friends,
up for any dares and perfectly capable of charming her way out of trouble with
the teachers. Plus it was her birthday this weekend, and he was looking forward
to surprising her.
    Alex saw him and made his way to
Jack, letting him know that Ellie was in the village pub.
    Rose looked up and gave Jack a wave.
He waved back, but didn’t bother to go over. Rose and Toby had spent 3 weeks of
the summer holiday at his parents’ house while their own parents had been
abroad working, so he didn’t feel the need to chat to her again so soon. Not
that he’d seen a huge amount of her during that time. She had spent most of it
on her phone gassing away to her friends.
    Rose seemed to have changed this
summer; she had blossomed from a kid into a teenager. She seemed far more
interested in fashion magazines and boys than she had been before.
    Poor Alex, Jack smiled to himself,
he was getting left behind. He hoped Alex grew up a bit this year; he was too
skinny by half. It was such a shame that Alex preferred science to sport.
    There were other faces he
recognized. Quite a lot of people nudging each other and pointing him out. He
tried not to feel gratified by it.
    He was still smiling as he got back
into his car to drive into the local village. Maybe school days really were the
best days of your life…
    ***
    Sophie Jones had been watching Jack
out of the corner of her eye from the moment he’d arrived to talk to Alex,
until the moment he drove away. Her stomach was clenched with longing. Jack was
just the most perfect guy she’d ever met. He was bright, funny, charming and
unfairly good-looking. Tall and broad-shouldered, not to mention the rippling
stomach muscles she’d been lucky enough to once get her hands on. He had floppy
dark brown hair, an infectious grin and eyes that twinkled pure golden brown
when he laughed. He was friends with everybody; everybody except her. She
wondered if he was avoiding her now. She felt like an idiot for throwing
herself at him. She guessed he didn’t respect her any more. Not that he’d said
so. But he had said he would call her and then he never did.
    She wished she could talk to Rose
about it. But she couldn’t tell Rose. Rose would be outraged on her behalf and
probably try to force Jack to ring her. It would be really embarrassing.
Especially as her friends thought she was the authority on flirting. It was
true she wore her skirts short and, yes, she liked chatting up boys; she
thought she had gotten quite good at it. So why hadn’t she played the game
better with Jack? Could she have done anything different to get him to like her
more? The trouble was she had run out of time. It had taken her five years