A Royal Match Read Online Free

studio, even though her songs would make the most positive person want to self-destruct.
    Georgina gazed at my photo gallery. ‘I can’t believe you pulled someone so hot, darling!’ she announced.
    I had to hide my amazement. Georgina and Honey and their friends always called one another ‘darling.’ But she had certainly never called
me
‘darling.’
    I wasn’t sure if this meant I should ‘darling’ her back. What is the etiquette on that? I wondered. So I merely shrugged enigmatically.
    Star stopped playing her guitar and peered at the photographs. ‘Nor can I!’ she agreed – somewhat disloyally, I thought.
    I disappeared into the en-suite and started unpacking my woeful little selection of toiletries and make-up. I’d managed to decant some vodka into some empty Body Shop bottles when my parents were out. I knew from experience that these were vital components to being part of any dorm party. The cool girls always take Body Shop Specials down to the woods and I wanted to be prepared for my first invite to this exclusive club of dissipation. Georgina had already claimed the entire cupboard with about ten thousand little Body Shop Specials, so I just stuck mine on the wobbly shelf above the sink.
    ‘Calypso!’ Star called out to me. ‘Is this for real? Like, did you really pull this guy when you were back with your folks in LA?’
    Star knows only too well how deeply dull my trips to LA normally are, because I’m always moaning about them.
    ‘Yaah, of course,’ I told her breezily, as if fit, older boys falling madly in love with me was an everyday occurrence.
    And then Georgina said the words that I had wanted to hear ever since I first arrived at Saint Augustine’s. ‘He’s seriously fit, Calypso. I’m impressed.’
    So that was that. I knew then that whatever else happened in my life I would always have this memory to cling to.
I
had impressed
Georgina Castle Orpington
– the most deeply unimpressed girl in our year. First she darling-ed me and now
this
! A little imaginary slide show started playing in my head:
Georgina, her cool gang and me sitting together at lunch.
Georgina, her cool gang and me climbing out of the bursar’s window for late night dashes through the woods to take the 23:23 train to London to some ultracool club like Fabric.
Georgina and me, waxing each other’s legs and giving each other facials on Saturday nights.
Georgina and me, spraying Sun-In on each other’s hair.
    I don’t even really like Georgina, but I couldn’t help wanting to be liked by her … maybe even be a little bitlike her. Because girls like Georgina lived the good life. Girls like Georgina were always at the centre of things and I was so
over
being on the periphery. In just over a year I would be sixteen and I had never been kissed.
    I wanted to be respected enough to be accepted by the core of girls at Saint Augustine’s who made things happen.
    I just hadn’t expected it to be this simple. If I’d known, I would have done it ages ago. I mean, how easy could this be? Three photographs and I had already impressed Georgina Castle Orpington, a girl who had never just randomly spoken to me – apart from when she was trying to flog her clothes for exorbitant sums of money or telling me what a freak I was.
    She shook her head. ‘I mean it, Calypso. I am seriously impressed.’
    I tried to look all nonchalant and casual.
    ‘Are you coming out for a fag, then?’ she asked – and she didn’t even do a piss-take of my American accent or anything. She spoke in her normal Sloaney voice, just as if she was talking to one of her It-Girl friends.
    ‘Erm, well … the thing is, erm, I don’t actually smoke,’ I replied before I could stop myself. ‘… much – that is, I’m trying to give up,’ I added, thinking on my feet. ‘I mean, cancer and all that – you know how it is.’ I gave a little cough.
    I can make a total arse of myself when I try. Sometimes even when I don’t try.
    Georgina looked