The Secrets Club by Chris Higgins Read Free Book Online Page A

a towel. She’s the most fully clothed of us all in
her cotton leggings and print top. Tash is wandering around in her bra and pants (I
didn’t know she wore a bra!), still torn between the fur combo and the white
lacy dress. Lissa is standing in jeans and bra (I knew she wore one), daubing some
stuff on her face.
    ‘What you wearing, Dani?’
she asks.
    In reply I unzip my bag and pull out my
jeans and favourite T-shirt. Uh-oh! I shouldn’t have stuffed my muddy school
uniform on top of them.
    ‘You can’t wear
those!’ says Tash. I stare at them glumly. They’re crumpled, damp and
mucky. I give them a good shake and
try to rub the mud off but it only makes them worse.
    ‘You’ll look like a
grub,’ says Liss. ‘Borrow something of mine.’ She flings open her
wardrobe door to display the entire contents of Topshop. ‘Help
yourself!’ she says. So I do.
    But here’s the problem.
Lissa’s about a foot taller than me, so all the jeans and trousers I try on
are way too long for me. And it doesn’t help if I roll them up because even
though Lissa is quite skinny, the waist is too big for me and they fall down over my
hips and I look like Charlie Chaplin.
    ‘You’ll have to wear a
dress,’ she says and I say, ‘No way!’ and luckily for me
they’re all too big as well.
    ‘What are we going to do?’
says Tash and then Ali says, ‘Come on! We’ve improvised before. Remember
the fashion show?’ She opens Lissa’s drawers and rifles through the
contents. ‘Here we are,’ she says triumphantly, waving a top in the air.
‘Perfect!’
    And you know something? It really is.
It’s a sleeveless sky-blue button-up shirt made of soft silky material, but
not too girly, so I don’t object to trying it on. It feels lovely against my
skin.
Ali stares at me critically then
whisks a thin brown belt off a pair of Lissa’s jeans and buckles it round my
waist. She’s got an eye for clothes, even though she hates the fashion
industry; she gets it from her sister.
    ‘What d’you think?’
she asks me. I study myself in the mirror. The shirt looks like a dress now but I
like it, even though I can’t remember when I last wore one. It makes my legs
look longer.
    ‘She needs shoes,’ says
Lissa, ‘but mine are all too big.’
    ‘If I wear my fur combo and boots
instead of my little white dress she can have these,’ says Tash, flashing her
open-toed high heels at me.
    Ali opens her mouth to object to the
fur, sees the others glaring at her, and gives up. ‘OK then, I’ll paint
her toenails.’
    ‘I’m not having my toenails
painted!’ I object, but she’s not listening. She paints my toenails
bright red and then she paints red, white and blue stripes on my fingernails which I
have to admit makes them look very eye-catching and patriotic. Then Lissa wants to
try her foundation and blusher on me and after that Tash
does my eyes with her kohl pencil and triple-effect super-lash
mascara.
    ‘Try my new organic lip
gloss,’ says Ali, offering it to me. ‘It’s
Nikki’s.’
    ‘Me! Me! Me! Me!’ squeals
Tash, who is besotted with Ali’s sister, and grabs it first. I watch how she
puts it on, then copy her. I never thought I’d be doing this. We grin at each
other.
    ‘You look pretty,’ I
say.
    ‘So do you,’ says Tash to my
surprise. No one’s ever said I looked pretty before. ‘Now then,
let’s see what I can do with your hair.’
    She picks up her hair bag and advances
on me. I sit there for ages while she blasts my roots with a warm dryer, then teases
and flicks my hair into shape with a multitude of brushes and combs. I always
thought it would be a real pain to have your hair fussed with, but actually it feels
nice and relaxing and I almost fall asleep. Finally, she spikes it with the gel
she’s just given Lissa for her birthday and stands back and looks at me with a
critical eye. ‘Right then,’ she says, ‘you’re done. What
d’you think?’
    I stand up to examine myself in
Lissa’s