Cowgirl Read Online Free Page B

said. “You can learn a lot from her instead of that ne’er-do-well Sian. And you,” she said to Darren. “I’ll be speaking to your mam, make no mistake.”
    So off we went, and I’m thinking I’ve got to walk back into school with Cowgirl, who happens to have two boys slung over her shoulders, one of them being Sian Jenkins’s brother – ’appy days.

N INE
    We went back across the scuzzy Mawr Common, towards school. It was bad enough to have to walk back with Cowgirl, without the extra attention we were getting. She had her arms wrapped around both boys’ legs like she was carrying two sacks of fodder to the milking shed. Ryan started hitting Cowgirl as he hung over her shoulder. She stopped. “See those stingy nettles?” she said. “You hit me one more time and I’ll walk through them, backwards.”
    “I feel sick,” said Jamie.
    “Teach you to bother people who do no harm.”
    Ryan hit her again. “PUT US DOWN!”
    “Right, that’s it!” Cowgirl went up to the nettle bushes, turned and walked into them backwards. Ryan and Jamie screamed like they were on a roller coaster.
    Kids followed us as if it was a daily event, and so by the time we got to the school entrance there was a crowd. Then Sian was standing in front of us. God, she looked angry. “Put my brother down!”
    “Not yet. Almost there.”
    Sian turned on me and my knees went wobbly. “Why didn’t you stop her?”
    “She was with her, Sian,” said Ryan, upside down. “She was there.”
    I pointed at Darren. “I was sorting
my
brother out, wasn’t I?”
    “She and Cowgirl were round my gran’s!” said Darren, the grass.
    “Cosy,” said Sian, glaring at me, and I knew that was it – I was in deep. She turned to Cowgirl. “Put ’em down – now!”
    “No.”
    Sian grabbed her brother and started to tug. Karen, one of Sian’s best mates, held Jamie, but Cowgirl carried on walking as if she was a horse pulling a plough. Ryan and Jamie screamed. Everyone was laughing, and then Cowgirl let go. Ryan, Jamie, Sianand Karen ended up in a pile on the ground. I would have laughed too, if I hadn’t been thinking about what Sian was going to do to me.

T EN
    “I didn’t know what they were doing, Mam. Honest.”
    “You were naughty, Darren,” she said, staring at the TV, having a smoke.
    “Is that all you’re going to say?” I shouted. “He was ringing the doorbell so that his mates could break in the back to help themselves – burglars!”
    “Don’t shout, Gemma! I don’t come home to listen to you shouting, all right?”
    “Yeah, Jamma,” said Darren. “Mam’s watching TV and having a rest. You can see that,” he added as he slid on to the settee, like a creep. “I wasn’t robbing, Mam. Honest to God.”
    “They were going to call the police!” I said.
    “Who were?”
    “Gran and Roger.”
    “Oh, I’ve never liked that Roger – rude, he is, and miserable!”
    Darren leaned his head on Mam’s arm. “Cowgirl dragged them through stingy nettles, Mam.”
    “Who is this girl?”
    “Kate Thomas,” I said, folding my arms. I was stood in the middle of the lounge like I was the mam and they were the kids.
    “Massive, she is,” said Darren.
    “What was she doing round your gran’s, anyway?”
    “Robbing her, for all we know,” said Darren.
    “Gran invited her,” I said, though I was past caring. “She lives on a farm, milking cows.”
    “Should have seen their faces after going through the stingies, Mam – all lumpy they were.”
    “Oh! I knew it was box fourteen!” said Mam, staring at the TV. “Seventy-five grand she lost! Should have listened to me.”
    “She should have listened to you, Mam,” said Darren.
    I couldn’t bear watching him crawl, so I went up to my room.

    I took out a jewellery box Gran had given me years ago, not that I’ve got any proper jewellery, and I looked at the dried grass and leaves inside.
    When we went for that picnic, me and Darren went exploring – we used to