Wedding Belles by Sarah Webb Page A

cheering.”
    “Really? Miss Mallard says you’re doing great.”
    “I think she’s just being kind.”
    Nora-May laughs. “Think about staying on the squad anyway. If we could just get rid of Annabelle, I’m positive a lotta girls would sign up again. It’s awesome fun.” She lowers her voice. “You know my accident was Annabelle’s fault. She was supposed to catch me, but she wasn’t paying attention. She’s poison, seriously.”
    Miss Sketchberry walks in and asks us to quiet down. It’s torture sitting in class, knowing Seth is just behind me. I’m sure I can feel his eyes on my back. I force myself not to turn around to check, and I try to concentrate on what Miss Sketchberry’s saying about the Elgin Marbles instead.
    The week crawls by. Seth always says hi to me if we bump into each other in the corridor or outside class, but we still haven’t had a proper conversation. He seems distracted in class, and I know it must be because of Polly.
    Luckily the D4s are so self-obsessed that they haven’t noticed we’re not together anymore or they’d be picking on me like crazy. They love it when someone is feeling miserable. Maybe it’s a good thing that we never held hands or smooched in school. It means our breakup is less obvious.
    Mills is being sweet, hanging out with me at lunchtime and checking that I’m OK. I’m sure she’d much rather be with Bailey, especially as I’m finding it hard to laugh or even smile at the moment. But Bailey is spending a lot of time with Seth, and I don’t feel comfortable hanging out with him yet. I’m not sure if Seth would even want me around anyway. I have no idea how he feels about me now. I still don’t know if he even wants to be friends. Maybe he wants to forget all about me and pretend that our relationship never happened. It’s all so confusing. I’m exhausted thinking about it.
    I’ve arranged something for Mills (with Nora-May’s help) to say thank you for being such an amazing friend. I got chatting to Nora-May after class yesterday, and it turns out that her cousin from the Boston Twirlers — Mindy — is still in Dublin, staying with Nora-May’s family after the Saint Patrick’s Day performance. Nora-May’s asked Mindy to come along to practice today to give us some tips. I’ve helped to arrange it with Miss Mallard.
    Mills is going to be so thrilled. All week she’s been talking about the Boston Twirlers and how amazing they were at the parade. I can’t wait to see her face!
    “I know you’re up to something, Amy Green,” Mills says as we walk out of the changing rooms that afternoon for All Saints practice.
    “
Moi?
How could you think such a thing?” I pretend to look innocent.
    We make our way into the gym, where Miss Mallard is standing with Annabelle, Sophie, Nina, and Nora-May. “There you are, girls,” she says. “Now, Amy, would you like to tell the squad what you and Nora-May have lined up for them today?”
    “I’d love to. Nora-May’s cousin, Mindy, is in the Boston Twirlers and she’s coming along to give us some pointers.”
    “She sure is,” Nora-May adds with a grin.
    “Really?” Mills squeals. “I can’t believe it! Us, trained by one of the Boston Twirlers!” She starts fiddling with her high ponytail and smoothing back her hair.
    “No one from the Boston Twirlers is going to be interested in you, Mills,” Annabelle says. “Get a grip. And it’s only one cheerleader, not the whole squad. It’s hardly that exciting.”
    “It’s still really something,” Sophie says. “I saw them at the parade on Sunday, and they were awesome.”
    “Awesome?” Annabelle sneers. “Since when is anything
awesome
, Sophie? We’re not in Boston, which is a dump of a city, by the way. It’s not a trendy place to live, like New York or San Francisco.”
    “Annabelle, just shut it. Boston is so not a dump. You’ve obviously never been there.” Nora-May isn’t impressed. I’m not surprised. I’d be pretty annoyed