The Mag Hags Read Online Free Page B

isn’t it?’ interrupted Maggie. ‘So Reanne, what first attracted you to the millionaire Adrian Askew?’
    The girls cracked up laughing, partly out of surprise that Maggie could be so funny. Belle laughed so much she had bubbles from the ginger ale coming out of her nose. Maggie was chuffed. She had made a joke, even if she had nicked it from an English TV show.
    â€˜It’s true. I’m sure she’s only after him for his money,’ said Belle, once she had stopped hyperventilating. ‘I don’t trust her. She’s so fake, she even calls him, “Ade-Poo”. She says, “Ade-Poo, Ree Ree needs a cuddle from her Poo-Poo.” My father has been reduced to a bowel movement!’
    â€˜I’ve never liked any of my mother’s boyfriends,’ admitted Mand, aware that everyone in town knew about the hairless stripper episode. ‘Before Kane, she went out with a really hairy guy and used to call him “Hairy Bear”. His back was so hairy you could have woven a carpet big enough for this whole house. I’d be like, “Mum, I know they’re both mammals, but why are you dating a bear, not a human?”’
    â€˜You think that’s bad,’ said Wanda. ‘My parents havebeen together for twenty-two years and still think they’re love-struck teenagers. Rather than get a life, it’s get a room! They’re always snogging all over the house, it’s disgusting.’
    â€˜I think that’s sweet,’ said Cat. ‘Makes me believe that love can last forever.’
    â€˜Love only exists in the minds of the deluded,’ said Belle glibly. ‘Now, are we going to get on with this magazine or what?’
    While it was good news that the girls were finally talking to each other, they were still at an impasse on what the magazine was to be about. Maybe because it was her house, or maybe it was because she had inherited a naturally bossy streak from her father, Belle took over.
    â€˜Bone says we have to talk directly to our peers,’ she said. ‘What do you think that means exactly?’
    â€˜I suppose,’ began Maggie hesitantly, ‘it means the magazine isn’t actually about us. It’s for girls like us and that means all of us. So if we’re all contributing then, of course, we’ll be talking directly to our peers.’ She was on a roll now, and the others stared at her in shock – they’d never heard so many words come out of her mouth at once. ‘It’s like Bone said, “Use each other’s strengths.” So let’s use the fact that we are dissimilar, and have different tastes in practically everything, and then surely we’ll be talking directly to our peers – and that means all of them.’
    â€˜You’re right,’ said Wanda, impressed. ‘So what are girls like us into?’
    â€˜Well I’m not into all the fluffy commercialism we’re spoonfed – you know, own this, buy that or look like me and you’ll be happy,’ said Mand. ‘Because we’re teenagers all we’re supposed to care about is shopping, celebrities and make-up. Meanwhile, the planet burns up and so does our future. And we’re supposed to go down the shopping centre and not notice. And if we do, we’re freaks.’ She glared at Cat, who rolled her eyeballs.
    â€˜But I read magazines to escape from reality,’ said Cat. ‘I don’t need to be reminded that the world sucks the big one. I can forget all the doom and gloom, tune out. I like to be entertained, not preached to.’
    â€˜I love the whole look of them, the way they’re designed, the way they feel,’ said Belle, who saw the world in pictures rather than words.
    â€˜And I love fashion, being able to express who I am through what I wear, not conforming to what someone else perceives as style,’ said Wanda, more animated than the others had seen her before.