Zodiac Girls: Brat Princess by Cathy Hopkins Read Free Book Online

has
many mysteries, many secrets,” she said, and she
picked up a pile of clothes, a pair of trainers, a black
baseball cap and a small brown paper bag from the
table and handed them to me. “Now, first things first.
You’ve missed dinner, so here’s a sandwich, an apple
and a carton of orange juice.”
    I took a peek in the bag and handed it back to
Selene. “Er, no. I don’t think so. I only eat red apples
and that one is green. I don’t eat brown bread, I only
like ciabatta – toasted – and I don’t do orange juice. I’ve
already ordered some fries and a milk-shake.”
    Selene took the bag back. “Are you sure? You must
be hungry.”
    “I’d rather eat my own arm than that.”
    “Suit yourself,” said Selene. “You might well have to
do that. But in the meantime, you have to change.
When in boot camp, you have to dress like a boot
camper. So, off with those clothes you’ve got on and
pop these on.”
    I glanced at the clothes she’d given me. A navy
fleece, trackie bottoms and a pair of plain white
trainers. Off the scale of uncool. The trainers weren’t
even by a cheap designer. “Are you out of your mind?”
    “So some folk say,” she replied. ‘I am the Mo—”
    “Yeah, yeah. I heard Mr O’s intro. You’re the
Moon. Good for you. And I’m a teapot. Yeah. We’ve
been through the introductions. So. Where are my
things and my suitcase?”
    Selene looked taken aback. “In the vault. You can
have it back at the end.”
    “End? But… you can’t take my things away. They’re
mine.”
    She gave me a simpering smile. “Not any more,” she
said then held out a transparent plastic bag. “Now put
your jewellery in here.”
    I put my hand up to my throat and fingered my
locket on its silver chain. A ripple of panic went
through me. “No. No. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”
    Selene smiled again. “We don’t use the word ‘won’t’
here. Nor ‘can’t’.” In a second, her expression changed
and became sad. “Now give over the jewellery.” She
held out her hand.
    I wasn’t actually wearing much jewellery, only my
studs, my locket and chain and my silver bracelet.
None of it was worth very much as I tend not to travel
in my valuable stuff, but no way was I handing it over,
especially not the locket. “No,” I said. “You can take a
hike.” I noticed that she was wearing a necklace. It was
a pendant with a circle in the middle and two half-moons
on either side. “You’ve got your necklace on, so
I’m going to keep mine.”
    Selene looked alarmed, like she was going to cry. “A
hike at this time of night? No. Oh. Don’t be difficult.
I do so hate it when people don’t co-operate. It can
make me very emotional ! And especially when there’s a
new moon in the sky like there is tonight. It’s a time for
new beginnings you know. A good time if you give it a
chance and don’t resist it. It can be a time for
rejuvenation. So don’t make me MAD! Lunatics,
they’re MAD aren’t they? Lune. Another word for
moon. Making sense now, is it? Moon. Lune. So I’m
warning you, I can get MAD .”
    I jumped back when she shouted the word mad as
she said it with such force. Boy, Mr O said this lady was a
counsellor, but she’s clearly way unstable, I thought as I made
for the door.
    “MARIO,” Selene called and in an instant Mario
appeared and blocked my way out. “Leonora doesn’t
want to hand over her jewellery.”
    Mario gave her a curt nod. “It’s the rules,” he said
then he strode over and bent down so that we were nose
to nose. “Now hand it over or else you and I are going
to stand here all night.”
    I crossed my arms and shut my eyes. “Fine.”
    Seconds went by and I took a peep. He hadn’t
budged an inch. His big face loomed in front of me. We
were almost eyeball to eyeball. At my last school, I
could out-stare anyone but this guy was out of my
league. I quickly shut my eyes again. Out of sight, out of