Bhangra Babes Read Online Free Page B

ears. “Well, isn't it?”
    “No, Kim,” I assured her. “No, it is
not
great.”
    I took a quick look over my shoulder. By leaping out of my seat at the first peal of the bell, dodging round Chelsea and Sharelle and sprinting to the door, I'd got away from Kiran and made it to the front of the line. She was stuck near the back.
    Kim was looking bewildered. “Why not?” she asked.
    “Because a rather embarrassing incident occurred
    this morning,” I replied. “And before you ask, I don't want to go into details.”
    Mr. Hernandez wandered over to us. “Amber, did I just experience a time warp, or did Mr. Arora ask you to look after Kirandeep not five minutes ago?”
    “He did, sir,” I said, “but I didn't think I needed to hold her hand all the way to the assembly hall.”
    “Then I suggest you take your duties more seriously,” Mr. Hernandez said sternly. “Go to the end of the line.”
    Fuming, I stepped out of the queue and went to the back to join Kiran. Loyally, Kim followed me.
    “Oh, hello,” said Kiran in a very offensive tone. “I thought you were trying to avoid me.”
    “I was,” I replied.
    “Well, you'd better try harder next time,” she retorted.
    “Oh, that's not going to help anyone, now, is it?” Kim said sensibly. “Why don't you try to be friends?”
    We both stared savagely at her.
    “All right”—Kim changed tack in a hurry—“maybe not
friends.
But you could be polite to one another.”
    “Polite people don't go around sticking newspapers down other people's sweaters,” I replied.
    Kiran grinned. Shockingly, Kim did too, until I gave her a look. We marched off to the assembly hall in angry silence.
    Mr. Hernandez was always late, so we were last to arrive. The other classes had left a narrow gap in the middle of the enormous hall for us to squeeze into.
    While we were inching our way into position, I took a good look round. The lower school had to sit on the floor, but the upper school had chairs. There was Geena, looking very smug, with an aren't-I-lucky-I-get-to-sit-on-a-chair-now face. Her eyes almost fell out of her head when she saw Kiran next to me. Jazz had turned round and noticed too, and both of them were smirking away.
    I wasn't interested in their childish reaction, though. While we waited for Mr. Morgan, the head teacher, I twisted round to locate the delightful new boy. There he was, sprawled casually on a chair at the end of a row, looking as if he owned the place. He wasn't in Geena's class, although he was in the same year. Oh, he really did have everything, I thought dreamily, feasting my eyes. Looks, class, style—
    “Oof!”
    “Why don't you sit still?” Kiran snapped. She was so big, she'd taken up half of my tiny bit of space, and to add insult to injury, she'd just stuck her elbow in my ear.
    “Well, if you weren't such a big lump, we'd all have a bit more room!” I retorted.
    It was very unfortunate for me that, about a second before I spoke, Mr. Morgan had walked into the hall: you could have heard a pin drop in the sudden silence. Well, you might have heard a pin drop if I hadn't been speaking at pretty much the top of my voice.
    “Ambajit Dhillon!” Mr. Morgan said coldly, peering at me over his half-moon glasses. “You will go and sit by your teacher. Immediately.”
    Oh dear. Somehow I managed to climb to my feet in a space the size of a envelope and make my way down the row to Mr. Hernandez. I was hot and cold all over with embarrassment.
    Mr. Hernandez shook his head sadly and pointed at a patch of floor right next to his chair. “Not a very favorable start to the new term, is it, Amber?” he said.
    I kept my head down for the rest of assembly. There was only one more slightly embarrassing moment when Mr. Morgan extended “a warm welcome to all our new pupils,” and everyone turned to stare accusingly at me. Other than that, I was just mortified and humiliated. So, nothing too awful.
    “Amber, correct me if I'm wrong,” said