Viva Alice! Read Online Free Page B

porridge-free breakfast, Grace, Alice and I put on our bikinis and went to lie outside in the sunshine.
    I took out a monster-sized bottle of factor 50 sunscreen and started to rub it all over my arms and legs.
    ‘Your mum?’ asked Alice.
    I nodded. ‘If I go home with the tiniest trace of sunburn, she’ll go crazy and she’ll never let me out of her sight again – and I’m sooo not going to let that happen.’
    ‘Anyway,’ said Alice quickly. ‘Enough about your mum. We’ve got more important things to worry about. We need to get started on ourplan.’
    ‘We have a plan?’ asked Grace.
    I giggled. ‘Alice always has a plan,’ I said. ‘Don’t bother arguing, because you’ll end up doing what she wants anyway.’
    Alice ignored me. ‘Where’s Gavin gone, Grace?’
    Grace pointed to an open window at the side of the house. ‘Can’t you hear the sad music?’ she said.
    ‘That’s why we need a plan,’ said Alice. ‘Music that sad can’t be healthy. Anyway, the first problem is the way Gavin spends time looking at photographs of Witch-girl. Did you see him at breakfast-time?’ He looked like he wanted to climb into the phone and hug her. He’ll never get over her while he’s doing that.’
    ‘That’s true,’ said Grace. ‘But how do you suggest we stop him?’
    ‘Could you tease him until he gets really mad, and then your mum and dad could take his phone from him?’ I suggested. ‘My parentsare forever doing that to me when I get mad at Rosie.’
    Grace and Alice both laughed, which was a bit mean. ‘He’s nineteen,’ said Grace. ‘I think he’s a bit old to be banned from his phone.’
    She was right of course, and that made me feel worse.
    ‘I know,’ said Alice. ‘I could “accidentally” push Gavin into the pool while he’s got his phone in his hand.’
    I rolled my eyes. Trust Alice to go for the dramatic option.
    ‘No way!’ said Grace. ‘He just got that phone last week and it was really, really expensive. If it goes for an “accidental” swim, Gav will go crazy. We need to find a way of stopping him from checking up on Witch-girl, without actually damaging his phone.’
    ‘OMG!’ I said. ‘I know what to do. My mum threatened to do it to me last week when she caught me on the computer when I was supposed to be doing my homework. One of herloser-hippy friends told her about a way of blocking access to particular sites.’
    ‘Yesss!’ said Alice. ‘Good idea, Meg. Only thing is if we block Gavin’s phone, he’ll probably find another way of getting on the internet. Is there a computer in the house, Grace?’
    Grace grinned. ‘No. There are no computers or laptops here. Mum and Dad wanted this house to be kind of a computer-free haven. They don’t bring their smartphones with them either. If we block Gavin’s phone, he won’t have any other way of getting on to a site to gaze at his lost love.’
    ‘Sounds good,’ I said. ‘Except for one small detail.’
    ‘Which is?’ asked Alice.
    ‘How are we going to get at Gavin’s phone?’ I asked. ‘He always has it in his hand. I haven’t seen him put it down since we got here.’
    ‘I heard him saying he was going for a run this morning,’ said Grace. ‘He’ll bring his phone with him, of course – he always does.But after the run, he’ll have a shower, and even
he
doesn’t bring his phone into the shower with him. Hopefully he’ll leave it in his bedroom and we’ll be able to get it then.’
    ‘We won’t have much time though,’ I said.
    Grace laughed. ‘We’ll have
ages
,’ she said. ‘Gavin always has really, really long showers – Mum and Dad kill him for using so much hot water. Trust me, we’ll have plenty of time to do whatever we want to his phone.’
    ‘Perfect,’ said Alice. ‘That’s when we’ll do it. Get ready, girls, step one will be happening very soon.’
    * * *
    An hour later, I was standing guard outside the bathroom, and Grace was at Gavin’s bedroom door, waiting