Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 06] Read online

  Mates, Dates, and Mad Mistakes

  Cathy Hopkins

  (Book 6 of “The Mates, Dates” series)

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  Background Color 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

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  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  About the Author

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  Thanks as always to Brenda Gardner, Yasemin Uçar and the team at

  Piccadilly for making working on these books such a pleasure.

  To Rosemary Bromley at Juvenilia for all her support. To Steve

  Levering for all his help and for being a great sounding board. And to

  Rachel Hopkins, Georgina Acar, Scott Brenman, Becca Crewe, Alice

  Elwes, Jenni Herzberg, Olivia McDonnell and Annie McGrathfor

  keeping in touch with me on e-mail about what’s what with teenagers

  and for answering all my questions.

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  C h a p t e r 1

  Chickens

  Contents - Next

  ‘Sounds horrible! said Nesta, pulling a face.

  ‘What?’ I asked as Lucy and I came back into her bedroom with sleepover supplies (the usual: Diet Cokes, Salt & Vinegar Pringles and Liquorice Allsorts). TJ, Nesta and I were staying over at Lucy’s, after she’d held a girls-only party earlier in the evening. We’d finished clearing up after the other girls had left and were ready for some late night nattering before getting into our sleeping bags.

  ‘Yeah, what sounds horrible?’ asked Lucy.

  TJ pointed to a book of spells that I’d lent Lucy earlier in the summer. ‘Becoming blood sisters,’ said TJ in a spooky voice. ‘Says in Izzie’s book that if you want to bond with your mates for life, the best way to do it is to each prick your finger with a needle, then press the tiny point of blood on your finger against the prick on your friends’ fingers. It makes you sisters for life.’

  ‘Yee-uck,’ said Nesta. ’Can’t we burn our bras instead, like those women in the sixties?‘

  Lucy laughed. ‘No we can’t, because seeing as I have no chest to speak of, I haven’t got a bra to burn.’

  ‘Yes you have,’ said Nesta. ‘I’ve seen it.’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘I chucked it out. No point. It was after something Lai said. He asked, if I had no feet would I still wear shoes? I said no, course not. So then he said, so why do you wear a bra?’

  ‘What a cheek. What does he know?’ I said as I put down the Pringles. ‘That’s really mean, even for a brother.’

  Lucy shrugged. ‘Nah, he’s right. I only wore one because everyone else does. For show. Trouble was, nothing did show except an empty wrinkle of lacy fabric under my T-shirt. It’s much more comfortable without one.’

  ‘Oh, let’s do the blood sister thing,’ said TJ. ‘It’ll be a laugh and we’ll be friends for ever and ever.’

  I shook my head. ‘Nah, sounds daft. It’s the sort of thing that kids do, junior school stuff…’

  ‘And this coming from Mystic Iz, Queen of Witchiness herself,’ said TJ. ‘What’s up with you?’

  I shrugged. ‘Nothing. It just sounds childish. I’ve had that spell book for years. I read it when I was in Year Seven’

  TJ looked disappointed. ‘I think it sounds cool. And there’s a nice sentiment behind it - makes a change from all those spells you usually do for getting boys and stuff.’

  ‘Yeah, let’s try it,’ said Lucy.

  ‘Well, you have to sterilise the needles, you know,’ said Nesta.

  Lucy rolled her eyes. ‘You’re such a prissy-knickers.’

  ‘No, actually she’s right,’ said TJ. ‘Best be on the safe side.’

  ‘Yes, better had, Lucy,’ I said. TJ’s parents are both doctors so if anyone should know about what’s safe and what’s not, it’s them.‘

  ‘Oh, all right,’ said Lucy. ‘I will.’

  ‘And as long as it won’t hurt…’ said Nesta.

  ‘It won’t,’ said Lucy as she began to look for needles in her sewing box. She found a sachet of them and waved them in the air. ‘Won’t be a mo. I’ll just put on my nurse’s uniform and go and sterilise these.’

  She was back a few minutes later and handed us a needle each.

  ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s do it properly,’ I said. ‘We should sit in a circle, and Lucy, can we light a candle?’

  ‘Ah, so Mystic Iz isn’t quite dead, then?’ said Nesta, grinning.

  Lucy found a candle, lit it, then turned off the electric light and we sat in a circle on the floor.

  Lucy, TJ and I did it straight away. A quick jab and we were ready.

  Nesta screwed her face up and put the needle close to her thumb, like she was trying to puncture the skin really slowly. ‘I can’t,’ she moaned. ‘I really can’t. I hate needles and it’s going to hurt’

  ‘Just do it quickly,’ said Lucy. ‘It just takes a second and only feels like… like a quick prick.’

  ‘I could answer that with something very rude,’ laughed Nesta. ‘But I won’t. Are you sure these needles are sterilised properly, Luce? We might get some horrible disease. I don’t think it’s safe to share blood.’

  ‘Chicken,’ I said.

  ‘Oh, come on you big sissy,’ said TJ, taking the needle from her. I'll do it for you.‘

  ‘No, no,’ she cried, rolling over on the floor on top of her hands. ‘You’ll stab me or hit an artery or something.’

  ‘Trust me, I’m a doctor,’ said TJ. ‘Or at least my parents are.’

  ‘No,’ said Nesta, getting up again. I'll do it myself.‘ Once again, she softly prodded her thumb with the needle. ’No… It’s not working. No. Sorry. Can’t do it.‘

  ‘Well, we can’t carry on if you don’t,’ said Lucy. ‘It wouldn’t be right. Me, TJ and Izzie would be bonded for life and you’d be on the outside. It might be awful bad luck.’

  ‘Yeah, come on, cowardy custard,’ I said, massaging my thumb. ‘My blood’s drying up.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I can’t. I just can’t.’ Nesta leaned back and grabbed the spell book off the bed. ‘Isn’t there some other thing we can do to bond us for life? Something that doesn’t involve pain?’ She reached for the Pringles. ‘How about we all take a bite of one of these and pass it on. Bond over a Pringle. Same sort of thing - caring sharing, bonding schmonding.’

  I had to laugh. Nesta never takes anything like doing spells seriously. ‘Go on, then, pass us a Pringle,’ I said.

  Nesta selected one from the tub, then we passed it around, each taking a tiny bite of it.

  ‘OK, by the power vested in me by this salt and vinegar crisp,’ I said in my best solemn voice,‘I hereby decree that these four girls gathered here tonight shall be friends for ever and ever, bound together by the magical force of the Almighty Pringle.’

  Lucy and Nesta started laughing. ‘All hail to the Pringle,’ said Lucy.

  ‘All hail,’ echoed TJ and I.

  Then I had an idea. ‘OK, then how about this? If we really want to have an experience that will bond us, how about doing something that will look good as well?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked TJ. ‘Like dressing up to do spells?’

  ‘No. How about we get our belly buttons pierced?’

  There w
as a stunned silence. I don’t think they expected anything like that, but I’d been thinking about having it done for a while. Part of a whole new image. We were going into Year Ten at school a week on

  Monday and somehow I wanted to leave the old Izzie behind with the old year. I felt like I’d grown out of so many of the things I’d been into, including my clothes -literally, with some of them. I seemed to have shot up a few more inches over the last year and some of my jeans were stopping short of my ankles. Tres uncool. Anyway, I’d told Mum that I was having a mid-teen crisis and needed some new clothes. She’d laughed and said there was no such thing as a mid-teen crisis, as when you’re a teen, it’s crisis all the way through - mainly for her. Poo. I don’t think she knows how lucky she is. If she knew what some of the girls at our school get up to behind their parents’ backs, she’d have a fit. Relatively, I give her an easy time, although she doesn’t think so.

  ‘Hmm,’ said Nesta finally. ‘Having a stud put in will probably hurt as well, won’t it? But… I have always wanted one.’ She stroked her impossibly flat tummy. ‘Yeah, a belly button stud would look neat.’

  ‘It won’t hurt,’ I said. ‘Candice Carter had hers done. She was telling me earlier this evening at the party. She said they put stuff on your tummy that kind of freezes it so you don’t feel anything.’

  ‘Well, I’m in,’ said Lucy. ‘I need all the help I can get, to get boys to notice me. A belly button stud would look really cool and might detract from the fact that I have no basoomas.’

  ‘Basoomas?’ asked TJ. ‘What are they?’

  Lucy pointed at her chest. ‘Boobs, you idiot. Lai calls them basoomas or jaloobis.’

  TJ pulled a face. ‘He needs help, does your brother.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ sighed Lucy.

  ‘We could all have a different colour stone on our stud,’ I said. ‘Have you got any books on astrology, Lucy?’

  ‘Course,’ she said, getting up and going to her shelf. ‘That one you gave me last Christmas.’

  When she handed me the book, I had a quick flick through and found a section on which stones and colours are right for different signs. ‘OK, here it is, our birthstones. It says garnet for those born in January, so that’s me.’

  ‘What colour is a garnet?’ asked Lucy.

  ‘Sort of deep wine red,’ I answered.

  Lucy nodded approvingly. ‘That would look good on you with your dark hair.’

  ‘Nesta, you’re Leo,’ I continued, ‘so it says… Let me see… you were born August 18th, so yours would be a ruby. Wow, that would look fab against your dark skin. Really exotic.’

  ‘Nah,’ said Nesta shaking her head. ‘I’d look like some belly dancer. No. I want a diamond if I’m going to have anything. Much classier.’

  ‘Fine, whatever,’ I said. ‘Lucy. Gemini, born May 24th… it says emerald for you.’

  ‘An emerald might look better on you, Izzie,’ said Nesta, ‘to go with your green eyes.’

  ‘Yeah. I’d rather have a sapphire,’ said Lucy. ‘You know, blue, to match my eyes.’

  ‘Yeah, and blue suits blondes,’ said Nesta.

  ‘Well, we don’t have to stick to this,’ I said. ‘It’s just if we wanted our birthstones.’

  ‘What’s mine?’ asked TJ.

  I flicked through the book to Sagittarius. ‘OK, November to December. It says November, topaz, December, turquoise. You were born November 24th, so topaz. It’d be great.’

  ‘Topaz? That’s yellow, isn’t it?’ asked TJ. ‘I don’t think that’s a good colour for a belly button stud at all. You know how some of them go a bit ucky - a yellow stone might look like a lump of solid puss or something.’

  ‘Er TJ, g-ross,’ laughed Nesta. ‘But I think you’re right. I think a turquoise would look better on a brunette like you.’

  I closed the book, put the back of my hand on my forehead and sighed my best tragic sigh. ‘I despair. Sometimes I wonder why I bother with you ignoramuses. I just thought we could be the Birthstone Belly Button Gang, that’s all.’

  ‘You’re mad, Izzie,’ laughed Lucy. ‘But it would be nice if we all got different colours.’

  TJ was looking dubious. ‘I don’t know. You lot have all got really flat tummies but mine’s rounded. I don’t think they look as good if your stomach isn’t like a washboard.

  Besides, won’t it cost a fortune? I don’t think I’ll have enough, with the pocket money I get.‘

  ‘Good point,’ said Lucy. ‘Cost - what do you think?’

  ‘I’ll find out,’ I said. ‘I doubt it will be that much. I mean, it’s not like we’re buying real diamonds and gold or anything.’

  TJ still looked anxious. ‘I don’t think my mum and dad will like it.’

  ‘They don’t need to see it,’ said Nesta. ‘We’re going back to school in just over a week. Soon we’ll be in winter clothes. No one will see it.’

  ‘So what’s the point of having one done?’ asked TJ.

  ‘When we’re out together, stupoid,’ said Nesta. ‘When we wear crop tops.’

  ‘I guess,’ said TJ.

  ‘So we all in?’ I asked.

  The others nodded, TJ somewhat reluctantly.

  ‘Right then,’ I said. Tomorrow morning. I’ve seen a place in Kentish Town near where the band plays. We’ll go there.‘

  Birthstones

  January: Garnet (wine red)

  February: Amethyst (purple/violet)

  March: Aquamarine (bluish green)

  April: Diamond (clear)

  May: Emerald (green)

  June: Pearl (off-white)

  July: Ruby (red)

  August: Peridot (olive green)

  September: Sapphire (bright blue)

  October: Opal (milk white)

  November: Topaz (yellow gold)

  December: Turquoise (turquoise)

  C h a p t e r 2

  No Pain, No Gain

  Contents - Prev / Next

  TJ was the first to cop out.

  ‘I can’t,’ she said as we stood in front of a tattoo shop in Kentish Town on Saturday morning, trying to summon up the courage to go in. I had half a mind to agree with her and call the whole thing off. It was one thing having an idea, it was another actually carrying it through, and I was feeling distinctly nervous. It will be OK, I told myself as I glanced at a couple of guys leaning against the shop front smoking cigarettes. Both were a bit hard-looking, dressed in Camden black, and I wondered if they were the ones who did the piercing or just customers hanging out. Either way, both of them were walking advertisements for the shop. Their arms were completely covered in tattoos and they had studs everywhere, in their noses, in their lips…

  and one had little pointy studs on top of his ears that made him look like Mr Spock in Star Trek.

  ‘I’m really sorry,’ continued TJ, ‘but Mum and Dad would kill me. I know we agreed not to tell our parents, but… I can’t risk it. You know what my dad’s like.’

  We all nodded. Everyone calls TJ’s dad Scary Dad. He’s a lot older than the rest of our dads and is very strict and solemn-looking. I’d probably cop out as well if he was my father.

  ‘Plus,’ said TJ, ‘we don’t know how much it costs yet and I’ve already spent most of this month’s pocket money. Mum and Dad would get suspicious if I asked them for any more, you know. They’d want to know what I’d spent my money on.’

  ‘No worries, TJ. Me and Nesta will go in and check it out,’ I said. ‘Get the details and find out if it’s all cool. If it looks remotely dodgy, we don’t do it. OK?’

  ‘It will be OK,’ said Lucy as Nesta and I headed for the door.

  As we approached, one of the guys with a goatee smiled at us. ‘Can I help you, ladies?’ he asked.

  ‘Um, yes,’ I said. ‘We wanted to ask about piercings.’

  ‘Then come this way,’ he said and led us into the shop. Inside, it looked normal enough - very clean, with posters on sale and jewellery on display. At the back were what looked l
ike hairdressing chairs in front of mirrors, and I could see what looked like a dentist’s chair in a room off to the right. A shiver went down my spine.

  ‘So what do you want to know?’ asked Goatee Man.

  ‘How much is it to have your belly button pierced?’ said Nesta.

  ‘Thirty-five pounds,’ he said. ‘Is it for you?’

  We both nodded.

  ‘How old are you?’

  ‘Sixteen,’ Nesta lied.

  The man shook his head. ‘Then you’d have to come with your parents. We don’t do belly button piercings without parental consent. Sorry.’

  ‘But we do have our parents’ consent,’ I fibbed. ‘They’re totally cool about it.’ Haha. Big lie. My mum would hit the roof if she knew where I was, but I didn’t think it would be a problem. She wouldn’t even notice. She never pays much attention to me these days, except to lecture me about where I’ve been and what time I get back.

  Goatee Man grinned. ‘That’s what they all say, darlin’. Nice try, but sorry, no go.‘

  Nesta and I went back out to join TJ and Lucy. ‘No go,’ said Nesta. ‘We need our parents’ permission.’

  TJ looked relieved, but Lucy looked disappointed.

  ‘And it’s thirty-five pounds,’ I said.

  ‘That’s me definitely out, then,’ said TJ. ‘I’ve only got fifteen pounds fifty.’

  ‘Maybe they’d do a deal and put it halfway in,’ laughed Lucy.

  TJ punched her arm. ‘Haha. But have you got enough?’

  ‘I’ve got forty quid that my gran sent me for my birthday,’ said Nesta. ‘I could lend someone five.’

  ‘I’ve got thirty,’ said Lucy. ‘That’s all my savings.’

  ‘I’ll lend you the last five,’ said Nesta. ‘What about you, Iz?’

  ‘I’ve just got it. Dad gave me twenty quid a few weeks ago and I saved it. With what’s left of my pocket money from Mum, I could just about do it.’

  TJ pointed back at the shop. ‘But they said they wouldn’t do it without permission.’