Under My Skin Read Online Free PDF Page B

to be Audrey.’
    Melody didn’t look like she was expecting that response. ‘Well . . . good. Because you won’t be.’ She turned and stormed off with a flick of her mane. Sally caught a whiff of whatever fragrance she’d sprayed all over herself that morning; it was vanilla-tinged and sickly.
    Sally waited until Melody was out of sight before breathing again. As much as her mum wanted her to be in the production, Sally wasn’t sure a) it was worth it for two months of rehearsal time with Melody, and b) whether she had the guts to do it. First rehearsal was tomorrow after school. She had until then to pull out.
    By the time she’d spent five minutes psyching herself up in front of the mirror in the girls’ toilets, she only had a second to check in with Mrs Flynn, her form tutor, before she had to race to first period. She arrived at maths even more sweaty and dishevelled than usual. Eyes fixed on the floor, she tried to slip into her seat as inconspicuously as possible, but the rest of the class was already seated and Mr Pollock ready to teach.
    Sally took a space next to Dee, a lesson friend known for her frizzy strawberry blonde hair and face full of freckles. She greeted Sally with a smile. ‘Congrats on the play,’ she whispered.
    â€˜Thanks. H-how did you know?’
    â€˜I’ll give you one guess.’
    Melody. Word travels fast. Luckily, as far as Sally could ascertain, Melody couldn’t count beyond ten, so Sally was safe in her A-Level maths classes. Sally had always loved maths; solving the problems and looking for the patterns. You could rely on numbers too. However you played with them they always behaved in a predictable way. Numbers were numbers.
    And then something truly weird and entirely magnificent happened. From the next table over, a handsome – like off-the-TV handsome – guy turned to face her. ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about Mels. Just give her some time to cool off. And congrats.’ He was Todd Brady and he was Melody’s boyfriend.
    Sally’s first reaction was,
Who is he talking to?
Her brain cogs turned too late, leaving a vast, cavernous silence after he’d finished speaking. ‘Oh. Erm. Yeah. Thanks.’
    Todd grinned and turned back to face Mr Pollock. Sally’s brain was whirling. On the one hand Todd represented everything she should despise. He was from a rich family in Mulberry Hill, he was genetically blessed in every possible way, he was co-captain of the football team
and
he dated the worst person on earth. TV shows do not look kindly on his type of character.
    Todd was an OK guy, but his friends were buffoon jocks of the worst order – mean, racist, homophobic bullies who dominated the school, and, as everyone knows, standing back and watching evil happen is its own kind of evil.
    However
, as a heterosexual girl with eyes, Sally couldn’t help but wonder what he was like under his shirt. His football shirt gave just enough of a hint as to how sculpted his chest was, and his arms were huge. Alone in bed at night, she often dreamed about what it would be like to lie wrapped up in those arms, his skin on hers. He was an exact mixture of Zeke and Dante – the former’s blue eyes and the latter’s thick chestnut hair.
    God, she loathed herself. She had never told
anyone
, not even Jennie, how she felt about Todd. He had only ever spoken to her once before: two years ago he had said, ‘Sorry, mate,’ after he’d bumped into her on the top corridor. She remembered every detail of it. It had been
so
hot.
    This was one for the deathbed. If this information ever leaked, two things would happen. Number one: she’d be a laughing stock for about thirty seconds before number two: Melody ripped her still-beating heart from her chest and ate it publically in the centre of the courtyard.
    â€˜Miss Feather?’ It was Mr Pollock. He looked at her expectantly.