A Royal Match Read Online Free Page A

at me strangely for a moment, but then she just said, ‘Yaah, you are so right, darling,’ in herdrawly way. Then she added that she was thinking of giving up too. I was so amazed I almost fell backwards like Star’s dad!
    ‘I’ve really got to give up trainers,’ Star declared from her position on the floor, breaking the spell of my little bonding moment with Georgina. ‘They are totally taking over my life.’
    Georgina and I watched as Star jammed the last of her six hundred black trainers in her cupboard and slammed the door with her foot.
    Georgina looked Star up and down – from her shoes to her hair and then down from her hair to her shoes again. She has a lot of dismissive looks like this down pat. All the cool girls have this ability to shrivel your confidence with withering looks.
    Star didn’t shrivel easily, though. I guess the fact that her father was way richer than Georgina and her cool pod of friends put together gave her confidence a boost – or maybe she really just doesn’t care.
    Star had a saying which had always helped us survive the slings and arrows of Georgina and her friends’ jibes: ‘Wear Your Pain Like Lip-Gloss.’ The first thing any girl does when she’s in a jam or stuck for words is reach for her lip-gloss. So whenever we’re nervous or someone says something bitchy to us, we pull out our lip-gloss and apply.
    I pulled out my lip-gloss and applied, but Star didn’t notice because she was busy giving Georgina her ownwithering look, which, as looks go, is like a cross between the gym mistress’s pre-menstrual scowl and a tiger growling – i.e., pretty damn frightening.
    Then Georgina gave Star another look of
her
own.
    I’m telling you, it was a war of looks.
    I have always admired Star for standing up to Georgina and the other girls, because I was completely terrified of them. It’s not like Star was bursting with confidence either. I mean, she was fully self-conscious about her weight – not that she was a chubba or anything, but like I said, Saint Augustine’s had a reputation for producing tall, willowy girls, whereas Star was more your classic ordinary-sized girl with red hair (she calls it Titian, but it doesn’t alter the fact that she’s always being teased for being a ginga).
    Star always says that she envies my figure. I keep telling her she has nothing to worry about because she has a lovely figure and beautiful hair, but she still says she’d rather trade with me. I suppose I
am
tall – although I’m more gangly than willowy. My mom says I’ve got stunning cheekbones, but the older girls were always coming up to me and pinching my cheeks and saying stuff like, ‘You’ve got the cutest little chubby cheeks.’ I hated that.
    ‘God, you’re a loser, Star,’ Georgina sighed as she put her Gucci sunglasses on (presumably to save her eyes from the glare of our ugly rays).
    I wanted to defend Star – not that Star would have wanted me to, and anyway, anything I said would only have made things worse – but then something almostmagical happened. Georgina turned to look at me through her sunglasses and smiled. ‘Bet he was a great kisser, darling,’ referring to Jay. ‘You can always tell by the lips.’
    ‘Definitely,’ I lied, trying not to puke at the thought of kissing Jay. I mean, yes, he’s fit and all, but HELLO, he is SO gay. He practically walks on tippie-toes.
    Georgina lowered her glasses down her nose slightly so she could give me the searchlight look, only without the dismissive sneer that she used on Star. I could tell she was genuinely awestruck by my pulling prowess. Well, maybe not
awestruck
exactly – I mean, Georgina is no beginner in the art of pulling. At the last social she pulled five boys!
    But she was rattled, I could tell.
    I was shaking my duvet into its cover when Honey and Arabella came in and slumped on Georgina’s bed. ‘Hey, check this out, darlings,’ Georgina urged, pointing to my photographs. ‘Calypso has