The Secrets Club by Chris Higgins Read Free Book Online

party?’ she asks, looking at my muddy nails. I hide them
quickly in my lap. ‘There’s plenty of hot water.’
    ‘Yes please. You go first,’
I say to Ali, feeling a bit shy.
    ‘No, you go first,’ says
Ali, obviously feeling a bit shy too.
    ‘
I’ll
go first!’ says Tash who’s never felt shy
in her life.
    ‘We can all go first,’ says
Lissa. ‘No one needs to wait.’
    When Lissa said we could all have a bath
or a shower at her house I didn’t realize she meant all at the same time!
She’s got not one, not two, not three, but FOUR bathrooms! There are only four
people in her family: Lissa, her brother and her mum and dad. That’s one
each!
    ‘Imagine having a bathroom to
yourself,’ squeals Tash as she dives into Lissa’s en suite. ‘You
are soooooo lucky!’
    ‘Bags me this one,’ says Ali
and disappears into what I think is the family bathroom.
    ‘Whose is this?’ I ask,
peering into a bedroom. It’s massive.
    ‘My mum and dad’s,’
says Lissa and I shut the door quickly. ‘I’ll use that one. You can have
my brother’s if you want.’
    Lissa’s brother is captain of his
rugby team at school and that’s all I know about him.
    ‘He’s not going to walk in
on me, is he?’
    ‘No, of course not. He’s
gone to his mate’s to avoid you lot and he’s says he’s not coming
home till you’ve gone. Take your time.’
    Mrs Hamilton appears carrying a big pile of neatly folded towels and hands me a
couple. ‘Here are some fresh towels for you, Danielle dear. I do hope Rupert
has left everything tidy for you.’
    Rupert! I’d forgotten
Lissa’s brother’s name was Rupert. The only Rupert I’ve ever known
apart from him is one that wears a red jumper, yellow check trousers and a matching
scarf, and sits on Keneil’s bed. Now I have a vision stuck in my head of
Lissa’s brother looking like Rupert Bear.
    I sort of assume his room is going to be
immaculate like the rest of the house but it’s not, it’s normal-boy
messy. The curtains are still drawn but in the gloom I can make out an unmade bed, a
computer with a dirty cereal bowl and mug next to it, and lots of discarded T-shirts
and jeans and (avert my eyes!) boxer shorts on the floor. There’s also a
lingering warm sour boy smell.
    Rupert may be posh but he’s no
different from any other boy. No yellow trousers or scarves or red jumpers.
(Tee-hee!)
    I skip quickly into the en suite which
has towels on the floor and tubes of toothpaste and
zit cream and other stuff left open. It feels weird being in some
random boy’s private space. It’s not as if he was expecting anyone so
it’s all left out on display. There’s probably really personal stuff
here like … Don’t go there, Dani. Take a deep breath.
    I lock the door, slip off my clothes,
play about with the shower control until it’s the right temperature and step
into the enclosure. Wow! It’s a power shower and it’s so strong! I stand
underneath with steam rising round me, loving the sensation of hot water blasting my
skin and no one rapping on the door telling me to get a move on. I’m never
going to meet him (not tonight anyway), so I help myself to Rupert’s shower
gel, Rupert’s body scrub and Rupert’s shampoo and conditioner, and then,
when I’m scalded and scrubbed to within an inch of my life, I turn off the
shower, step out and wrap myself in the biggest, softest towel I have ever seen in
my life.
    I wind a smaller one round my hair in a
turban, cover myself from face to toe in Rupert’s moisturizer, pick up my
uniform off the floor and stuff it into my bag. Then I pick my way daintily through
the bedroom, taking particular
care to
avoid the discarded boxers. I open the bedroom door and peek out. No one about.
    Carrying my bag full of clothes and
wearing nothing but a towel and bright pink skin, I go in search of the
others.

Chapter 14
    They’re in Lissa’s room in
various stages of undress.
    ‘Look at you!’ giggles Ali
when she sees me wrapped in