Diamonds Are a Teen's Best Friend by Allison Rushby

restaurant), platinum-blonde wig (can you believe they hire out fancy dress costumes and wigs on board a cruise ship? Holly and I couldn’t), a face full of make-up (and I mean full – false eyelashes and all), and a diamond necklace and bracelet of Holly’s. (I have to keep touching them to check they’re both still there and I haven’t lost them. Who knew diamonds could be so scary?)
    ‘If your dad sees you, he will kill me.’ Holly shakes her head. ‘You look about twenty-one.’
    ‘Really?!’ I check out my reflection again. I guess I do look a lot older. It’s the make-up. And the … um … the ‘chicken fillets’, as Holly calls them. ‘You think the chicken fillets look real?’
    Our two sets of eyes both move down to my chest, where, underneath my strapless boned gown, two pieces of skin-coloured plastic are hiding. Kind of like implants, but on the outside. Holly calls them her ‘secret weapons’ – she doesn’t believe in the kind of implants that go on the inside.
    ‘Let’s put it this way,’ she shrugs, ‘do you think mine are real?’
    Now our two sets of eyes move to Holly’s chest.
    ‘But yours are !’ I say. ‘They must be, because I’m using the secret weapons tonight.’
    ‘Think again, babe. I’ve got a pair and a spare.’ Holly smiles and then leans forward to reapply her lipstick. ‘What if I lost one in the pool? I always carry a pair and a spare.’
    ‘In the pool? More likely in the racing car driver’s spa.’ I give Holly a look. Between practice sessions this afternoon, she’d ducked off to have a spa with the racing driver. A private spa. (He has the flashiest and most expensive suite on the ship.)
    Holly looks over at me with one raised eyebrow. ‘I keep telling you. It was just a spa. Nothing else. Antonio is a perfect gentlemen …’ She pauses and looks thoughtful for a moment. ‘Well, most of the time.’
    Hmmm. I decide that maybe this is the right time to bring up the Nessa’s Lessons in Love thing. With all her badminton and spa bookings, I haven’t had a chance yet. Frankly, I’d been slightly freaked out by watching Holly make what could only be called a fool of herself at badminton. ‘Um, Holly?’
    ‘Mmmhmmm?’ she replies as she fluffs her hair.
    ‘Nessa’s Lessons in Love. If they’re not working out for you …’
    Holly waves a hand. ‘Oh, they’re just a bit of fun. And I’m having fun. I’m lucky you reminded me that’s what I should be doing.’
    ‘Well, that’s good, but maybe if you toned it down a bit.’ My eyes widen as the phrase comes out of my mouth. Tone it down a bit? Who am I? My dad?
    ‘Maybe.’ Holly keeps fluffing.
    ‘I mean, a bit of flirting is good, but you don’t want to look silly or anything.’
    ‘Of course not.’ Fluff, fluff, fluff.
    ‘You seem to be spending a lot of time with Antonio. Maybe finding PM is going to be easier than we thought?’ And maybe, if Holly finds herself a nice boyfriend, she won’t need so much badminton coaching, or so many spas.
    Holly sighs. ‘I hope that’s true, but I have to remember that, this time around, I’m going to move a bit more slowly. No more rushing into engagements for me. I’ve learnt my lesson. The hard way.’
    ‘But what if Antonio really is PM?’
    Holly turns her whole body towards me. ‘But if hereally is PM,’ she says, lisping, her mannerisms, her whole being changing before me, ‘he really will wait for me.’
    ‘Oh. My. God.’ My eyes practically pop out of their sockets and I instantly forget all about my Nessa’s Lessons in Love nagging. ‘How do you do that?’ It’s like Holly is Marilyn Monroe. We may both be dressed exactly like her – pink, blonde and diamonds – but it’s like Holly’s channelling the woman.
    She laughs. ‘Years of practice. I used to make my family laugh themselves sick when I was little. I’d do impersonations of anyone and everyone they asked me to. Famous people, people we knew, whoever. They’d