Boys Beware Read Online Free

referred to him before we found out his name). However, we didn’t want to ask Auntie Jay ourselves in case she got it into her head that we were interested and flew into a Mum-like panic, so we got Ali to do it for us. We gave her strict instructions.
    “Don’t just go jumping in. Be
discreet.”
    “Like how?” said Ali.
    “Like sort of … building up slowly,” said Tash. “You could ask about his dad, and what he does, and how long he’s lived here, and then you could just, like … slip it in.”
    “I happened to bump into his son on the stairs last night.
That sort of thing. ”
    “Then what?” said Ali.
    “Oh, well, then you could sort of very casually ask what his name was, and how old he is, and where he goes to school, and—” Tash waved a hand. “Stuff like that.”
    We should have known better than to trust Ali. She has no idea how to be discreet! First off we had to kick her, quite hard, under the table before we could get her going; and then when she did get going she went at it like a mad creature. There wasn’t any stopping her!
    “What does that man do that lives here? The one that lives underneath us? The one with the son? Has he lived here long?”
    “Andrew?” said Auntie Jay. “He moved in last year,after he broke up with his wife. He’s a writer, he writes educational books. A very interesting man! He—”
    “What about his son?” said Ali.
    Oh, God! I nearly died. I saw that Tash had gone bright red.

    “What about him?” said Auntie Jay.
    “Well, like, what is he called and how old is he, and all that sort of thing.”
    “Ali!”
Tash was mouthing at her across the table. I was kicking at her.
    “He’s fourteen,” said Auntie Jay. “His name is Gus. What else would you like to know?”
    Ali shot an inquiring glance at Tash. Tash, deliberately, kept her eyes on her plate.
    Auntie Jay seemed amused. She said, “How about where he goes to school? Whether he’s got a girlfriend?”

    “Yes!” Ali beamed, triumphantly, at me. I squirmed. Tash concentrated very hard on shovelling food into her mouth.
    “He goes to Simon Standish,” said Auntie Jay. “As to whether he’s got a girlfriend –” She was laughing at us! “ – I’m afraid I really couldn’t say. But I’m sure you’ll make it your priority to find out!”
    At least she didn’t fly into a panic and remind us of the No Boys rule. Just to reassure her, however, we have stuck a big sign on the outside of our door:

    Ali wanted to know what it meant. She said, “What peril? What would happen if they came in?”
    “We’d jump on them!” yelled Tash.
    Ali plainly thinks we are mad. But we think she is a total whacko, so that’s OK!
    Monday
    Everyone at school is just
so
envious of us! Meg Hennessy couldn’t believe that we are truly independent.

    “All on your own?” she kept saying. “Completely on your own?”
    Daisy Markham was the only one that wasn’t envious. She said she thought that she would be a bit scared if she were left on her own, but as Meg pointed out, “There are three of them. It must be such fun!”
    Daisy still seemed doubtful. She really is a complete wimp. She said, “I can’t imagine my parents leaving me to look after myself.”
    Like this was some kind of criticism of Mum and Dad. I resented that! I said, “Mum knows she can trust us.”
    “Yes, and it’s good training,” said Tash.
    “But you could get up to
anything
,” said Daisy.
    “Like we might have orgies,” I said; and me and Tash went off into a fit of the screaming giggles.
    Tuesday
    Kim Rogers asked us today if we were going to take the opportunity to have a party. Tash said, “You bet!” It is in fact no. 1 on our list of things to do. We’ll have to check it out with Auntie Jay, of course, but I’m sure she’ll say that we can. She might even let us invite boys, if it’s a party! After all, you can’t really have one without them. I have to say that Auntie Jay is pretty relaxed about most