Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 04] (12 page)

Walking
the Durg

Contents
-
Prev
/
Next

‘Don’t go into the
woods,’ said Mum, as I got ready to take Mojo for a walk on Wednesday after
school. ‘Stay on the roads where people can see you.’

‘I’m going to ask if
Scott will come,’ I said. ‘Then it will be OK, won’t it?’

‘Yes, fine,’ said Mum.
‘But don’t be too late back. You’ve still got homework to do.’

I couldn’t wait to
call on Scott. I’m sure it wasn’t my imagination that he’d been so flirty in
Hampstead on Saturday. He’d seemed genuinely bowled over by my new look and at
one point he’d held my hand and squeezed it. I’d got that lovely fluttery
feeling again, like when he’d nuzzled my neck. I couldn’t stop thinking about
it and what it might be like to hold his hand again and even kiss him. My
insides went all liquidy and peculiar just imagining it.

I combed my hair
loose, put on a bit of lippie, then put Mojo on his lead and went next door.

Mrs Harris answered.

‘Is Scott home?’ I
asked, trying my best not to give away the fact I was quaking. Mad really, as
I’d been over to his house a million times and thought nothing of it.

She called up to him
in his room and he emerged at the top of the stairs a few minutes later.

‘Oh, hi Tj.’

‘Er. Hi. Um.
I’m taking Mojo for a walk. Do you
want to come?’

He shook his head.
‘Watching “The Simpsons”,’ he said.

‘Oh. OK, cool. Another
time,’ I said, hoping that I hadn’t shown how disappointed I was. He didn’t
even come down to say goodbye.

As Mojo and I went up
to Muswell Hill Broadway I wondered if I’d misread the signals. Had he ever
held my hand before? Or squeezed it? I couldn’t remember. Maybe I was reading
too much into it. Maybe he hadn’t liked my new look after all. But he seemed to
at the time. He kept staring at me. I felt so confused.

I decided I’d look in
a few shop windows in the hope of finding an alternative style to Barbie babe.
Fat chance, I thought, as I looked at the various tops and skirts on display. I
wasn’t sure what I wanted to look like, though one thing I was certain about
was that I didn’t want to wear those high heel things again. Agony.They may
have looked good, but there was only so far I was prepared to go in the ‘have
to suffer to be beautiful’ game.

Mojo trotted alongside
me happily as I pondered the great philosophical question of who was the real
TJ Watts.

Is she Noola the Alien
girl?

Or Miss Strop-Bossy
Prefect who likes to put boys straight?

Or Arm-wrestling
Champion of North London?

Or Miss Goody 2 Shoes
who always does her homework?

Or Norma Know-It-All?

Or Barbie’s brunette
sister?

Or on the other hand,
is she a total nutter with loads of different characters living in her head?

‘What do you think,
Mojo?’ I asked as we made our way past the cinema and down Muswell Hill High
Road.

‘Aha,’ said a voice
behind me. ‘Talking to yourself, first sign of insanity.’

I turned and there was
Steve with Ben and Jerry.

‘I was talking to
Mojo,’ I said. ‘But you might be right about the insanity bit. In fact, I was
just thinking I might well be going bonkers.’

He laughed. ‘You going
to Highgate Woods?’ he asked as Mojo, Ben and Jerry got down to the dignified
business of sniffing each other’s bottoms.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Mojo
would love to, but Mum said I mustn’t go on my own.’

Steve checked his
watch. ‘Well, we have just been, but I’ve no doubt these guys wouldn’t object
to a bit longer. Come on, I’ll keep you company.’

I gave Mum a quick
ring on my mobile and, after giving me the third degree, she finally agreed.

We set off for the
woods and once inside, let the dogs off their leads. They raced off excitedly,
best of friends already. As they charged about, Steve and I chatted like old
mates. It’s so weird, I thought, here’s me all great pals with Steve and
nervous with Scott, whereas only a week ago, Scott was my pal and Steve was a
complete stranger.

‘So, what’s with you
and that guy?’ asked Steve after a while.

‘What guy?’

‘One outside Cafe
Nero. You seemed to like him.’

‘God, am I
that
obvious?’ I was taken aback that he’d read my thoughts. ‘I hope he didn’t
notice.’

‘I don’t think he did.
Too busy ogling Nesta.’

My heart sank. Maybe
that was it. It was really Nesta he was interested in. And he’d been doing the
flirty bit to get to her through me.

‘I know,’ I said. ‘He
lives next door to me. Has done for years and we’ve always been mates. Until
lately. It’s all changed. I found myself… you know, er, well, thinking about
him a lot. I don’t know what I feel, it’s all so weird. And I certainly don’t
know what he thinks, but I don’t think he rates me other than someone to talk
to. Oh, I don’t know…’

‘Any boy who doesn’t
fancy you must be mad,’ said Steve. ‘And I’ll tell you one of the biggest
secrets about boys…’

I held my breath for
the great revelation.

They’re exactly the
same as girls in that they also feel shy and awkward that they don’t always say
the right thing or act the right way.‘

‘Really?’

Steve looked at me
closely. ‘Boys may act confident, but can be just as nervous as you underneath.
Everyone fears being turned down and looking a fool.’

‘I just don’t think
he’s interested…’

‘How do you know who’s
interested or not?’ said Steve. ‘Sometimes when a boy is acting disinterested,
it’s actually more frozen than cool. Frozen with fear as mostly girls call the
shots. Boys fear rejection like anyone else.’

Me calling the shots?
That was a laugh. But boys being nervous too, that was obvious really. I’d
never thought about it before. I’d been so caught up in my own ill-ease, I
hadn’t thought about theirs. Of course boys must feel that way too sometimes.

‘For instance,’ said
Steve, ‘you may think a boy doesn’t want to know, but he may be too scared to
say anything. I know I am sometimes, you know, if I like someone.’

Maybe that’s what
Scott had been doing just now, I thought. Acting cool. Afraid I’d reject him.
No. Not possible. Or was it? I felt more confused than ever.

‘In fact…’ said Steve.

‘How does anyone ever
get together then?’ I interrupted. ‘I think I’d need someone to make it
very
clear to me.’

‘How?’

‘Dunno. Cards.
Presents. Billboard in Piccadilly? Shout from the top of the rooftops I FANCY
TJ WATTS.’

Steve laughed. ‘I’m
sure there are loads of boys after you,’ he said. ‘You just don’t know it.’

‘Really?’

‘Well you saw the
reaction you were getting yesterday.’

‘Yeah. But I wasn’t
sure if that girlie girl look was really my style.’

Steve nodded. ‘Yeah.
Don’t get me wrong, but I thought Nesta had made you into a Nesta clone. That
look suits her, but I see you more as Buffy than Barbie.’

‘Really?’ Cool, I
thought. I liked the sound of that. More Buffy than Barbie. I must make a note
of what kind of clothes she wears.

‘So how’s the mag
going?’

‘OK. But it’s brought
out the competitive side of everyone at school. And some of them can be pretty
bitchy. Like there’s this one girl, the one we saw in Hampstead. She’s giving
me a really hard time.’ I continued filling him in on the Dog of the Week stunt
that Wendy had pulled.‘Wendy Roberts.’

Steve slapped his
forehead. ‘The one outside Accessorize? I
knew
I knew her. Now you say
the name… A mate of mine went out with her.’ Then he chuckled. ‘I could tell
you some good goss about her.’

‘What?’

‘No front teeth.’

‘How do you know?’

‘My mate found out
when he snogged her. One of them came loose. That’s how I remember her name. She’s
waiting for implants but the dentist won’t do them until she’s older. So she’s
got dentures. Real false teeth. Apparently she knocked both of them out in a
riding accident. You could print a piece about dentists. And put in a picture
of her as an example.’

I laughed at the
thought of it. ‘With a caption. All I want for Christmas is my two front
teeth.’

‘Or instead of
wide-eyed and legless, you could write, wide-eyed and toothless.’

‘Don’t tempt me,’ I
said.

The time whizzed by as
we chatted on about ideas for the school newsletter and Steve offered to do a
piece on photography.

When I looked at my
watch, it said eight o’clock.

‘God, I’d better go,’
I said. ‘Mum’ll kill me.’

We rounded up the
dogs, put them back on their leads and Steve walked me to the top of our road.

‘So, bye,’ he said as
we reached our gate.

‘Bye.’

He went to go, then
turned back.

‘Er. Um. Do you… would
you like to play tennis one day?’

‘Sure,’ I said. I’d
enjoyed the time we spent together and was beginning to think we could be good mates.
‘If you’re prepared to be beaten.’