Stravaganza by Mary Hoffman

Author:Mary Hoffman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781599905747
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

‘You’ve been lying to me,’ said Nick.

Georgia gave a guilty start. She had been worrying all weekend about having deceived him. And now he had found her at break on Monday and confronted her.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I just couldn’t help myself.’

Nick’s expression had changed from crossness to real alarm but Georgia didn’t notice. She just ploughed on, making things worse.

‘I mean, Isabel asked me to go with her and I couldn’t think of a good enough reason not to.’

She looked up and saw that Nick had gone quite white.

‘And when were you going to tell me?’ he said.

‘I don’t know,’ she said miserably. ‘When did Bel tell you?’

‘She didn’t,’ said Nick. ‘I didn’t know.’

‘But you said I’d lied to you!’

‘Matt told me he’d met you in the market on Saturday and you’d gone to see Mortimer,’ said Nick. ‘I meant you’d lied about not being able to see me because you were working.’

The bell rang for classes. Georgia reached out to Nick and he brushed her off.

‘Don’t touch me,’ he said very quietly. And he turned and left Georgia standing alone. She hadn’t felt this bad since the Nucci massacre.

*

Isabel had lunch with Laura. Her friend was looking tired, with big dark circles under her eyes.

‘Are you OK, Lol?’ she asked. ‘Is anything wrong?’

Laura shrugged. ‘Oh, you know,’ she said. ‘Just the usual. You know I don’t cope well with pressure.’

‘What pressure?’ asked Isabel, and Laura looked at her as if she was mad.

‘What pressure? It’s only two months till the exams start!’

‘Oh, I know,’ said Isabel quickly. ‘It’s crazy. I thought you meant, you know, at home.’

‘There’s nothing wrong at home,’ said Laura stiffly.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Isabel. ‘I didn’t mean . . . Look, would you like to come back to mine after school?’

Laura looked at her gratefully; Isabel had been very elusive lately.

‘I’d like that,’ she said. ‘Maybe you could help me with my History notes? I can’t get a grip on the difference between Dunkirk and D-Day.’

‘Mmn, yes, sure,’ said Isabel. She had noticed that neither Nick nor Georgia was sitting with Sky and Matt and Ayesha. In fact, they were nowhere to be seen. Her first thought was that they must be somewhere together but then she saw Nick come in by himself and take his tray over to some students in his own year. He never normally sat with them and at least two girls started to flirt with him.

But he didn’t seem to notice and just sat hunched and tense, concentrating on eating his food but not looking as if he knew what was on his tray.

Isabel saw that the other Stravaganti were also looking anxiously at him. And of Georgia there was still no sign.

But she was in their English lesson that afternoon, looking as miserable as Nick.

What’s the matter with everyone? thought Isabel. These Stravaganti couples don’t seem to last long. She looked at Sky, who was sitting on the opposite side of the room from Alice. Would it be any different if he were with me? she thought.

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