Two-Faced by Mandasue Heller Read Free Book Online Page A

you for anything,’ Kim yelled as Pam headed out of the room.
    Wincing when Pam slammed the door, Michelle watched as her mum moved away from the couch and set about ripping open one of the chairs.
    ‘Why are you still here?’ Kim demanded. ‘You know the post office shuts at twelve.’
    Leaving her mother to her destruction of the furniture, Michelle went to her bedroom to get her savings book.

3
    Mia was on cloud nine when she got to school on Monday. She’d had a brilliant weekend, and she was dying to tell her friends all about it. Well, not about her and Darren, obviously, because she hadn’t spoken to him since Sunday morning and didn’t know what had happened with Sandra yet. But she couldn’t wait to see their faces when they heard about the modelling. They’d probably say she was lying to start with, but they’d soon know she was telling the truth when they saw the pictures she was getting done after school this evening.
    She bundled them into the toilets now, leaving Laura as lookout, and perched on the loo to tell them her good news. But Lisa Holgate started talking before she had a chance.
    ‘What happened with you and Darren Mitchell at the youthy the other night?’ she asked. ‘Don’t think we didn’t see you sneaking off with him. And you’d best watch yourself, ’cos Sandra will batter you if she finds out.’
    ‘Like to see her try,’ Mia snorted, snatching the cigarette that one of the others had just lit out of her hand. ‘Anyway, it’s none of her business, ’cos Darren will have finished with her by now. He was going to tell her when she got back from her dad’s last night.’
    ‘She didn’t look upset when I saw her and Tina Molloy getting off the bus just now.’
    ‘He probably hasn’t had a chance to tell her yet,’ Mia said, annoyed that Lisa wasn’t letting her get on with her story. ‘Anyway . . . I don’t want to talk about her , I want to tell you about my photos.’
    ‘What photos?’ Jenny Marsh asked, watching the cigarette closely to make sure it didn’t get finished before she’d had some.
    ‘The ones I’m getting done after school tonight,’ Mia announced. ‘I’m going to be a model,’ she elaborated, crossing her legs. ‘So I’m getting my portfolio done – by a professional photographer.’
    ‘What you going to do with them when you get them?’ asked Lisa. ‘Only I’ve heard you can end up paying loads of money out, and then no one ever sees them.’
    ‘Not if you haven’t got an agent,’ Mia agreed. ‘But Darren’s setting me up with his cousin’s one. She’s only eighteen, but she’s already got her own flat, and everything.’
    ‘You what?’ Lisa smirked. ‘I hope you’re not talking about Lorraine Braithwaite, ’cos there’s only one reason she ’s got all that shit, and it ain’t what I ’d call modelling.’
    Mia narrowed her eyes and was about to demand to know what Lisa meant when Laura hissed that someone was coming. Dropping the cigarette into the toilet, she whispered that she’d tell them the rest later.
    ‘Who’s smoking in here?’ Sandra Bishop shouted, banging on the door.
    Cheeks flaming when her friends looked at her, Mia pretended that she thought it was a teacher and put a finger to her lips.
    ‘Caught you!’ Sandra barked, popping her head up over the cubicle divider. ‘Give us a fag and I’ll think about letting you off.’
    ‘They’re hers,’ Mia said, pointing at Jenny.
    Glaring at Mia for opening her big mouth, Jenny slid a cigarette out of her pocket and handed it up. Snatching it, Sandra jumped back down.
    ‘God, I hate her,’ Lisa muttered – quietly, in case Sandra heard. ‘And how come you didn’t tell her about you and—’
    Hissing ‘Shut your mouth!’ Mia got up and yanked the door open.
    Lisa followed her out into the corridor and said, ‘I don’t see what your problem is. I just reckon you should have told her – if you’re so convinced Darren wants you instead of