Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie

the email again. It was like a jigsaw with pieces missing: we’d found out that ‘Apollo’ was a sun god and ‘Artemis’ was a goddess – a hunter. But it didn’t make anything clearer.
    ‘Sweetie?’
    I jumped as the door swung open and Mum’s fixed blonde helmet of hair appeared. She clucked at me.
    ‘Tired out from shopping?’ she cooed. ‘What did you get?’
    ‘Mmmn,’ I grunted. ‘Didn’t find anything I liked, actually.’
    Mum’s face fell. Or would have done, if it hadn’t been artificially held in place by her latest face-lift. ‘Oh, sweetie. I hoped you’d find something nice for that disco.’ She raised her eyes. ‘Shame Theo won’t be going with you.’
    She giggled. I swear, she giggled. I turned away, my face reddening. I’d forgotten about the school disco. It was less than a week away now – Friday evening. It suddenly occurred to me that Mum might not be the only person who assumed I would want to go with Theo.
    Now I had another thing to worry about. Honestly. Why did life have to get so complicated?
    I decided that as soon as I got to school on Monday I would somehow make it clear I was busy on the night of the school disco, before anyone could make out my decision had anything to do with Theo.
    But, as usual, Jemima was way ahead of me.
    Monday. The last day of November. Dad had left on a business trip to Germany that morning. For some reason I’d started working in class again. I hadn’t meant to. I just found myself copying down stuff without realising it. Not that I was concentrating very much. I spent most of my time thinking about Theo. I was thinking about him when the bell rang for short break. I walked outside. It was freezing cold and everyone was huddled in groups, just trying to keep warm.
    As I wandered across the playground I saw Jemima and her friends standing around in a giggling cluster, a couple of metres away. I scurried past them, intending to find a quiet patch of wall round the side of the school, where I could be by myself.
    Someone grabbed my hair from behind. Yanked me backwards.
    ‘OW!’ I tried to turn round. Bodies pressed in on me from all sides. My chest tightened.
    Jemima’s face appeared in front of me, her eyes all narrow and mean. She glanced over my shoulder at whoever was tugging on my hair.
    ‘Nice takedown, Phoebs.’
    ‘Let me go,’ I stammered.
    ‘ Ooooh .’ The girls around me giggled.
    ‘So. You know if you’re a virgin yet?’ Jemima sneered.
    I looked down at my shoes. My heart pounded against my ribs.
    ‘You see, I think you were lying about that boy,’ Jemima said. ‘I think you made up about him being your boyfriend just so you’d look like you weren’t the total loser you in fact are.’
    I blushed. Trust Jemima. This wasn’t fair. I’d only hinted about Theo and me.
    ‘I didn’t say he was my boyfriend.’
    Jemima pounced on this like a cat, her pointy face gleaming with delight. ‘So he isn’t then?’ she said triumphantly.
    I paused, unsure what to do. If I said Theo and I weren’t going out now, I’d look unbelievably stupid. But if I said we were – and any of them ever found out . . .
    ‘I know why you made it up,’ Jemima said slowly. ‘My mum told me you had a sister who came here years ago. Really pretty and popular. I bet she had a boyfriend in Year Ten.’
    I stared at her, horror-struck. Jemima knew about Rebecca? Wasn’t it bad enough to have Mum and Dad and the teachers talking about her all the time? Now everyone in my class would know how useless I was compared to her too.
    I took a deep breath.
    ‘Actually he is my boyfriend.’ I stared Jemima in the eye. ‘I saw him on Saturday. We were together all day.’
    For a second, Jemima looked shocked. Like she wasn’t really sure whether or not to believe me.
    ‘Oh yeah? How far d’you go then?’
    The girls around us sniggered. Then there was an expectant pause. They were all looking at me. I could feel Phoebe behind me, still tugging at