Best Friends Read online

  She's told me heaps and heaps of stuff. But now she's got this secret. She doesn't know t h a t I know she's got a secret. I found out in a bad way. I read her diary.

  I know you s h o u l d n ' t ever r e a d anyone's private diary. Especially not your best friend's. I've actually had a peep at Alice's diary several times. Not to be m e a n and sneaky. It's j u s t so i n t e r e s t i n g finding out w h a t s h e ' s thinking, like t h e r e ' s a little window in her forehead and you can peep t h r o u g h into her brain. It's usually lovely because she writes all this stuff about me.

  Gemma was so funny in class today that even Mrs watson burst out laughing Gemma and I made up our own cartoon story about all the animals in Noah's Ark and the giraffes stood up too suddenly and made a hole in the roof and it was raining hard but the elephants spread their ears to Keep Noah and his family dry. Gem gets such good ideas. . .

  18

  I w a s feeling fed up at school today because Mum won't let me have that suede jacket we saw on Saturday but Gemma shared her chocolate with me and said she 11 buy me as many suede jackets as I want when we re grown up.

  I love it t h a t she writes page after page saying I'm comical and inventive and kind. I love it t h a t she's stuck a funny photo of us with our a r m s round each other at t h e front of her diary. She's outlined it with silver pen like it's a frame and t h e n stuck her favourite stickers of flowers and dolphins and kittens and ballet dancers all over t h e page.

  This is why I took the tiniest peek at her diary yesterday. We'd had a lovely afternoon making a picture of t h e flat we're going to share together when we're old enough. Alice seemed a little odd about this at first, b u t I j u s t thought it was because she's not quite as good at drawing as I am.

  She perked up when I said we'd cut stuff out of my m u m ' s magazines. She liked

  choosing a n d cutting out our twin beds a n d our h u g e squashy

  velvet sofa and our giant fridge

  and our big white furry rug.

  She started cutting weeny

  bright hexagons out of

  the magazines in different colours to make into patchwork quilts for our beds, with matching patchwork cushions for the sofa. I enjoyed cutting out lots of food to stick into our fridge, although some of the tubs of ice cream and chocolate éclairs were so big they spilled out onto the floor. Imagine a tub of ice cream so big you could stick your whole head inside it to have a good lick; imagine chocolate éclairs so enormous you could sit astride them (though it might make your knickers a bit sticky).

  Then I inked eyes and ears and a snout and four claws on the big white furry rug, turning it into a real live polar bear for us to cuddle and take turns riding on his back.

  Alice did get a bit irritated about that. 'I thought we were going to do this properly, Gem. You're just messing about,' she said, opening and closing her little pink mouth every time she opened and closed her scissors.

  I got a bit irritated too because she spent ages and ages getting all the colours of her patchwork pieces in place and making them into a pattern.

  Alice got even more irritated when I had an itchy nose and sneezed and blew all the pieces about before she'd had a chance to stick them down.

  But that was just us, ordinary Alice-and-Gemma fuss. It wasn't like a real quarrel. We don't ever ever ever have proper quarrels. We haven't ever 20

  broken friends, not even for half a day. So why won't she tell me this terrible secret?

  Doesn't she want me to be her friend any more?

  She did act a bit weird at tea time. It was a special tea, even though it was just Mum and Alice and me.

  Dad was out in his cab working, Callum was round at Ayesha's and Jack had a tray up in his room because he couldn't be dragged away from his computer. We had Mum's spag bol and then fruit salad with that lovely squirty whippy cream out of a can and then a handful of Smarties each. I chose all the blue ones and Alice picked out all the pink.

  I ate everything up. In fact I even licked my plate when Mum wasn't watching. Alice didn't eat much at all. She's usually a bit picky about her food, but she loves spag bol and fruit and cream and Smarties as much as me, so this was definitely a bad sign. She didn't even want to have a who-can-suck-up-her-spaghetti-fastest competition. When my plate was totally empty Alice was still winding her spaghetti round and round her fork in a thoughtful way, but not actually eating it.

  'I'll eat yours if you like,' I offered, just to be helpful.

  'You leave Alice's plate alone, Gemma!' said Mum. 'Just because you hoover yours up in two 21

  minutes flat! Honestly, you've got the table manners of a starving gorilla.'

  I started monkeying around then, beating my chest and smacking my lips, until Mum got cross, which wasn't really fair because she'd started the gorilla reference. Alice's spag bol was stone cold by this time so Mum tactfully removed it. Alice did eat a little fruit salad, though she just pressed one weeny dollop of cream on top. I seriously sprayed my plate, making a cream mountain, until Mum snatched the can away.

  Then we had the Smarties.

  'Remember we had Smarties stuck all round the icing on our last birthday cake?' I said. 'Hey, did you know you get a special wish every seventh Smartie?'

  'No you don't. You just made that up. You only get wishes when you cut your birthday cake,' said Alice. 'We haven't got a cake. And it isn't our birthday.'

  'We can make a wish any time we want, birthdays or unbirthdays. Come on, Alice, wish with me.'

  We always wish the same wish.

  'We wish we stay friends for ever and ever and ever,' I said.

  I dug Alice in the ribs with my elbow and then she said it too. Mumbling a little. Then she ducked her head and had a drink of juice. She coughed and 22

  spluttered and had to run to the bathroom.

  'Oh dear, poor Alice. Did she choke on a Smartie?'

  said Mum.

  'I don't think so,' I said.

  When she came back from the bathroom Alice's eyes were all red. I know your eyes water a bit if you choke. But she looked as if she'd been crying.

  I didn't think too much of it at the time.

  Alice is a bit of a crybaby. She cries at the most ridiculous things. She even cries when she's happy, like the time I gave her my grandma's china doll, Melissa. She left her to me when she died. I loved her because she was my grandma's special doll. She'd been her grandma's special doll once upon a time. Melissa was very pretty, with soft brown ringlets and shiny brown eyes with proper eyelashes. I liked flicking her eyelids up and down, making her blink very realistically. Mum got narked and said I'd poke Melissa's eyes out if I wasn't careful.

  Alice loved my doll too, especially her beautiful white dress and petticoats and her long lacy knickers (imagine wearing knickers way past your knees!). I really really wanted Melissa to play with.

  I'm not at all a girly girl but I've always liked playing games with dolls. Wild, messy, exciting games.

  My Barbies trekked through garden jungles and 23

  wrestled with earthworms and nearly drowned in torrential rain.

  I looked at pristine Melissa. Even her little pearl-buttoned suede boots were white. I knew just what she'd look like if I kept her. I suddenly knew what to do. I gave Melissa to Alice. Alice clasped her to her chest (carefully, so her clothes weren't crushed) and great fat tears spurted down her cheeks.

  I got worried in case I'd made a mistake and she didn't really like Melissa. Alice insisted she was crying for joy. I cried tears of anguish, fury and despair later that day when Mum found out. She was sooooo cross with me for giving away Grandma's doll.

  I wondered if Alice could possibly have been crying tears of joy because of our special Smartie wish but this seemed a little excessive, even for Alice.

  She seemed fine again after tea. We watched television together, and when our favourite pop programme came on we sang along too and did all the dance routines. Well, Alice danced every step correctly; I just jumped up a