Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie Page A

my hair.
    Jemima curled her lip. Any second now she’d start in on how I was making it all up again. I had to say something. Something convincing.
    ‘We went to his friend’s house . . .’ I hesitated, my heart racing. No way could I add any imaginary details. ‘We just did . . . stuff.’
    Jemima snorted. ‘You don’t even know what people do, do you? Which isn’t surprising. Who’d want to touch you? Ugh.’ She screwed up her face. Phoebe laughed loudly behind me. I could feel her grip on my hair loosening.
    ‘Actually he does want to . . . with me,’ I said. It didn’t sound like my voice speaking.
    ‘Yeah right.’ Jemima’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’re making it up.’
    My heart was beating so fast I thought it might explode. But it was too late to take back what I’d said now. ‘No, I’m not.’
    Jemima folded her arms and grinned nastily. ‘Mmmn,’ she said. ‘We’ll see at the disco, won’t we? On Friday.’
    Oh, God .
    I guess I should have just come right out then and said I wasn’t going to the stupid disco. That Theo and I were going to the movies instead, or something. But as I looked into Jemima’s eyes I knew that was exactly what she was expecting me to say. And that she wouldn’t believe a word of it.
    ‘Yes,’ I said, my face burning. ‘You’ll see on Friday.’
    Jemima’s mouth twitched with annoyance. She hadn’t expected me to call her bluff. ‘Fine,’ she spat. ‘Hey. I bet your sister didn’t have to make up stories about having a boyfriend.’
    Sniggers and giggles.
    ‘Anyway, he’s gonna dump you way before Friday.’
    More sniggers. More giggles.
    My eyes filled with tears. I tore away from Phoebe’s loose grasp and pushed through the girls surrounding me. I ran hard across the playground, the tarmac blurring in front of me, the sound of sneering laughter ringing in my ears.
    I’d just made things worse. Jemima still didn’t believe Theo liked me. Which meant nobody did. And now I’d more or less staked the proof of it on whether or not Theo came to the school disco. Which he wouldn’t. Stupid, stupid. I was going to look a total idiot.
    Unless . . . unless there was some way I could get him to come.

 
21
Theo
    I didn’t speak to Jake for two days. I was too angry at him for telling Rachel about my dad being alive. I’d ended up explaining everything to her. She knew as much as I did now – more than Max and Jake, even. I felt I owed it to her to be honest, but I didn’t like it. I really didn’t like how it felt – trusting her with all that information.
    Eventually I got bored of not talking to Jake. I went up to him at break on Tuesday and joined in his football game. We had to talk then, about passing the ball and stuff. So it was natural to just keep on talking afterwards.
    He kept nagging me to organise another Saturday with Rachel and Max.
    I didn’t like that either. I mean, I’d expected him to bore on about Max. After all, he’d spent most of Saturday afternoon being beaten by her at Deathmaster Battleground. Grinning like an idiot while she insulted him.
    But Jake kept talking about Rachel. ‘I think she liked me,’ he said as we changed after games on Tuesday afternoon. ‘Up for a snog anyway. Definitely.’
    Rachel? I frowned. Max could look after herself, but the idea of Jake hassling Rachel for a kiss annoyed me. She was too shy. Too easily upset about everything.
    I tugged my shirt on and started buttoning it up. ‘You only think she likes you because she didn’t tell you to piss right off,’ I said. ‘I don’t want you stirring things up.’
    ‘Then I’ll go for Max.’ He grinned. ‘Don’t you see? Between us we can’t lose.’
    ‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ I snapped. ‘I’m not interested in either of them.’
    It was true. I never thought about Max like that. And Rachel. Well. Rachel wasn’t the sort of person you’d fancy.
    ‘So who are you interested in outside of chicks in magazines and bands?’ Jake