Blue's Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page B

about. Like Toby, facing an English exam she hadn’t studied for and, the biggest worry, her mother’s wedding.
    She was heading for a seat as far away from Toby’s gang as possible when Sasha, Georgie and Grace spilled out of the corridor and turned towards her.
    â€˜Tell me they’re not heading straight for me?’ Max asked no-one in particular.
    She focused on the blue bread sandwich with pink cucumber filling and the carrot and honey hash brown that Irene had made for her lunch, hoping everything else would disappear.
    It didn’t.
    The three girls stood in front of Max like over-excited puppies. They always wore the rightclothes, got the right marks and had parents who looked like they’d stepped out of a shampoo ad.
    What did I do to deserve the way this day is turning out? Max thought as she bit into her sandwich.
    â€˜Max! Max! Is it true?’
    In any other playground this may have been just another day at school, but these girls never spoke to Max, and in fact, until now, Max hadn’t known they even knew her name. Either way, she was in no mood to start making friends with them today.
    â€˜Is what true?’
    â€˜You know!’ Grace was short and had this high-pitched voice that could have cracked glass.
    â€˜Um.’ Max prepared to take another bite of her sandwich. ‘No, I don’t.’
    Sasha took over. She was cooler and more in control of her screech factor than Grace. ‘That your mum is marrying Doctor Shannon?’
    Dr Rex Shannon was Aidan’s soap character’s name. He played a psychologist and even had his own doll made in his image. And yes, despite how Max felt about it, he was marrying her mum. She tried to think of what to do next, of how she could make them go away. Then she had it.
    Outright denial.
    â€˜Yeah right,’ she scoffed, taking a bright red muffin from her lunchbox.
    â€˜Well, what’s this?’ Georgie flicked a magazine in Max’s face and there, on the cover, was a picture of her mother and Dr Shannon posing in wedded bliss. Max swallowed to try to keep her lunch from flying out of her reeling stomach.
    â€˜I … I …’
    When had this happened? Why hadn’t she been told? Why was she always the last person to know anything her mother did?
    â€˜You mean your own mum didn’t tell you she was getting married?’ Georgie’s eyebrows flew up so high they almost rocketed off her forehead. ‘You have one strange family, Max Remy.’
    They then walked away, swooning over how gorgeous Dr Shannon was and what they’d give to be his new stepdaughter.
    Max stared at her muffin and lost her appetite for the second time that day. She put it back in her lunchbox and pushed hard on the lid. The bell was about to go so she slowly made her way past clutches of whispering students towards class.
    Until she was slapped with her next idea.
    â€˜Georgie! Wait for me.’
    The three princesses turned around with aconfused, why-is-Max-talking-to-us look on their faces.
    â€˜How would you like Doctor Shannon’s autograph?’
    Grace squealed yes but Georgie simply stared at Max. She’d learnt early in life that whenever she was offered anything, there was always room to increase the offer to something better. ‘On a photo?’
    â€˜Sure.’ Max guessed this was possible, considering how much Aidan enjoyed pictures of himself.
    â€˜What do you want in return?’
    â€˜I need Toby’s home number. Do you think you can get it?’
    Georgie’s mum worked in the school office, where Georgie spent most of her time after school trying to look important.
    â€˜Why do you want Toby’s number?’
    â€˜If you want the autograph, you won’t ask.’
    Max could see this was torture for Georgie, who lived for gossip, but she wanted the signature more, so she gave in.
    â€˜I could do it in my sleep.’ She eyed off the office with a slowly rising