The Girls from See Saw Lane Read Online Free PDF Page A

his wife. I didn’t have to tell her I was going of course, but me and Mum were very close and I didn’t like going behind her back.
    Ralph noticed my hesitation.
    â€˜You could think about it, Dottie,’ he said. ‘You don’t have to decide right now.’
    â€˜She doesn’t have to think about it,’ said Mary. ‘We’re going.’
    I frowned at her. She pulled a face back at me.
    â€˜Are you mods or rockers?’ said Elton, leaning back in his chair so that it balanced precariously on two legs.
    â€˜We’re neither,’ said Mary.
    â€˜Well, you must be one or the other,’ said Elton.
    â€˜Why?’ asked Mary.
    Elton righted the chair, banging it against the table as is landed back on four legs so that all our coffees slopped onto the saucers.
    You could see that Elton was lost for words. ‘Because everyone is,’ he mumbled.
    â€˜Well that’s the whole trouble,’ said Mary. ‘We don’t want to be like everyone else. Me and Dottie are individualists.’
    This was news to me, but I liked the idea of being an individualist and I was really proud of Mary for saying it instead of trying to impress Elton.
    â€˜What are you then?’ said Mary.
    â€˜A rocker, of course. You wouldn’t catch me dead wearing those poofy mod clothes and riding those pathetic excuses for bikes.’
    I looked at Ralph. ‘How about you?’
    â€˜Oh, I can’t afford to be either.’
    â€˜He’s a rocker in his heart,’ said Elton, draping his arm around Ralph’s shoulder.
    â€˜I just can’t afford the uniform,’ said Ralph sticking out his bottom lip and trying to look pathetic. We all laughed, even Elton, which made him look friendlier. ‘So, what clubs do you go to?’ said Elton.
    â€˜We don’t,’ I said, ‘we just come down here to the cafe.’
    â€˜Not very with it then.’
    â€˜We’d sooner be without it, thanks,’ said Mary.
    â€˜But you’ll try to come to the Whisky on Saturday?’
    â€˜Why not?’ said Mary.
    â€˜And you, Dottie?’ asked Ralph. ‘Are you ready to branch out?’
    â€˜Of course she is,’ said Mary. ‘If anyone is in need of a bit of branching out, it’s Dottie.’
    â€˜Good,’ said Ralph, smiling at me.
    I smiled back and my heart gave a little jump. I felt my cheeks flushing with heat, and had to stare down into my cup, but I couldn’t stop the happy feeling bubbling up inside me. 
    â€˜Can anyone smell fish?’ asked Elton.

Mary’s Diary
    Dear Diery
    Today I met a girl called Dotty. Shes got a rownd face and rownd glasses She shared her sweets with me
    She is going to be my bestest frend forever and ever till the day I die
    I am not going to die for a long time I mite be a hundred
    Tatty bye diery
    Mary Pickles
    Aged 8 and a half.

Chapter Four
    I ’d been Mary’s best friend and she’d been mine since we were both little girls. People used to laugh at us, the big fat kid in the glasses and the tiny little one who looked like butter wouldn’t melt. I was usually described as ‘no oil painting’ and Mary was so pretty that complete strangers used to come up to her and tweak her cheeks and call her a ‘little angel!’
    The differences between us never bothered Mary and me. We never even thought about them. It was like that from the first day we met. 
    It was the start of the summer holidays and my dad had given me a handful of coins and sent me off to the rank of shops on the edge of the estate to buy a packet of Woodbines for him. He’d said I could get myself some sweets or a comic with the change. I was jingling the coins in my pocket and skipping a bit and thinking about what to buy with my windfall. I’d just got to the top of the twitten, which is the alleyway that runs between our road and the road that backs onto it, when I saw this girl