Celebrity Shopper Read Online Free PDF

corner of the stairs and decided to duck into his mother’s office. That was a nice enclosed space, he could shut the door, the babies could crawl around and he would keep an eye on them while he took a peep at the official Annie V website.
    Owen was proudly in charge of his mother’s website. She trusted him to post her updates, answer any uncomplicated email with simple replies and flag up the more complex requests to her.
    As Owen switched on the computer and logged on, keeping half an eye on Micky and Minnie as they crawled about the office floor looking for interesting things to explore, he had to admit that he was enjoying all this responsibility.
    Here he was age thirteen, in charge of two small babies and a website. It puffed up his chest and gave him a feeling of power.
    About ten or so short emails downloaded, all along the lines of ‘Annie, I love your show’ to which Owen would answer with one of his mother’s kind but standard replies. Then there was a request from a jewellery designer who was hoping her bracelets could be featured on the programme; Owen would forward that on to his mother’s personal email account.
    Now, using his mother’s email address, Owen composeda message of his own to a well-known supplier of top-notch camping and hiking equipment.
    Two arctic sleeping bags, a duvet coat, one portable camping stove, waterproof trousers and hiking boots in size 7: these were the items he requested from the company, saying that the show was ‘considering’ an outward-bound special and would be ‘requesting’ items from several camping companies to ‘compare’.
    Just as he was about to power down and find the M and Ms something more exciting to play with than the dust bunnies they’d discovered under the radiator, an email dropped into the in-box.
    ‘No!’ Owen warned as Minnie picked up the bundle of dust with her tiny forefinger and threatened to put it into her mouth.
    ‘Dear Annie Valentine,’ the email began, distracting Owen once again from his baby duties:
I hope I’m not being rude but I’m a massive fan of your show and I’d just like to ask you a couple of questions. When is your birthday? How old are you? Where were you born? Are your parents still alive? Where did you go to school? I’m just being curious. Look forward to your reply, Vickie P.
     
    Owen didn’t give much thought as to whether he should or not. He just hit reply and bashed out:
Hi Vickie P, thanks very much for your message. My birthday is in July. Let’s just say I’m thirty-something. I was born in Bow, east London. Think that makes me a Cockney officially. My mother, Fern, is certainly still alive. No idea about my dad. I went to school in Hackney then when I was fourteen I went to a posh girls’ school for four years. Thanks for asking, lots of love, Annie xx
     
    Then he pressed send.
    ‘Micky!’ Owen called out. He sprang from his seat and went over to look at his baby brother. ‘What is that?’ he asked and managed to get his fingers on the little bit of yellow poking from Micky’s mouth.
    Out came a very soggy, very well-chewed corner of paper. It looked like the remains of a Post-it note; Owen wasn’t sure, but it was the right sort of colour.
    If it had been a Post-it, then two-thirds of it was gone, along with whatever may or may not have been written on it. Ah well. Owen gave a shrug; it couldn’t have been that important if it was down there on the floor.
    He popped the remaining piece into the bin and picked Micky and Minnie up again. ‘C’mon, let’s go play bouncy bouncy on the bed.’
    Both babies erupted into giggles at the prospect of this wild game.

Chapter Five
     
    Lana in her room:
     
    Black skinny jeans (Topshop)
Black and white stripy tunic (Warehouse)
High-heeled black wedges (Dune)
Bead bracelets (borrowed from Greta)
Total est. cost: £75
     
    ‘It’s just a bag of sodding potatoes!’
     
    Lana heard the ping of a message dropping into her in-box and put down the