Girls Under Pressure by Jacqueline Wilson

Author:Jacqueline Wilson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-12-14T11:02:02+00:00

Chapter Seven

I go swimming on Monday morning. Zoë is there too. I hear two girls gasp as she takes off her tracksuit in the changing rooms. Zoë turns her back on them and ties her hair up in a ponytail. It hangs lankly, m u c h thinner than it used to be.

'Zoë?' I say uncertainly. 'Zoë, you're getting so thin.'

' N o I'm not,' she says, but she looks pleased.

' H o w much do you weigh?'

' I ' m not sure,' says Zoë. 'Anyway I need to lose a lot more because my dad's still insisting we go away for Christmas and he'll practically choke me with food so I've got to be a bit on the skinny side to start with.'

'Zoë, you're not skinny, you're skeletal,' I say, but I can't persist.

Maybe she'll only think I'm jealous. Maybe I am.

118

'Is your friend Magda coming today?' Zoë asks.

' N o , ' I say, and my heart aches thinking about her.

I forget Zoë. I forget me. I just think of Magda as I swim up and down, up and down, up and down. I can feel the adrenalin pumping in my veins. I swim faster than usual, faster than Zoë, faster than all the girls, faster than some of the boys.

There's a little crowd larking about at the shallow end. I can't see them clearly without my glasses. I'm not sure if they're any of the ones w h o k n o w Mick, ones w h o might have been there on Saturday night.

But there's no mistaking Mick himself in the café.

I go in there, hair still wet, glasses steaming up, legs bright pink from swimming, but I don't care if 1 look awful. I march straight up to him, sitting there with his mates. He's smirking all over his face.

'Who's this then?'

'What do you want, girlie?'

'It's Magda's mate.'

'Where's Magda then?'

'Where's Slaggie Maggie?' says Mick, and they all laugh.

My hand reaches out and I slap him really hard across the face. His head rocks in shock, his eyes popping like they're going to roll right down his cheeks.

'You shut up, you creep,' I say. 'Magda's not a slag.

She's a very picky choosy girl and she'd never have a one-night stand with you or anyone else for that matter. If you dare call her names or spread rumours about her I'll tell her brothers and their mates and 119

they'll chop you stupid schoolboys into little pieces.

So shut up about her, see?'

I storm off, the whole café staring. Some of the boys jeer, some laugh. T h e n they start shouting after me. They call me a slag. They call me Frizzy Face and Four Eyes. They call me Fat Bum. And yet I don't care. I truly don't care. I'm pleased I struck a blow for Magda. That's all that matters.

She's still very quiet and droopy at school. Nadine is also totally hang-dog because everyone naturally asks her h o w she got on at the Spicy heat and she has to say she wasn't chosen.

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