Dress to Impress

I gawped down the classroom at Frankie. I couldn’t believe what he’d just done. It seemed totally out of character. Plus now, the cheeky devil wasn’t making any effort to help Mr Andrews pick everything up. Instead, he’d perched himself on the edge of Summer’s desk and was whispering something in her ear, making Summer and her mates all giggle. All my faith in ‘the real’ Frankie Wilson went pop. Mr Andrews was pretty boring, but what Frankie had done to him was plain nasty.

“There is no way we give him a second chance after that,” I announced when the bell went.

“He smiled at me,” Lucy said, looking confused. “Then he went and talked to Summer. What was that all about?”

“Boys,” Mel said. “More trouble than they’re worth.”

Frankie suddenly loomed up in our path like some kind of monster from Scooby-Doo. “Whoo!” he shouted. “Cheer up, girls. It might never happen!”

“It just did,” I said through gritted teeth as he zoomed off down the corridor. Summer, Hannah and Shona all followed, like hungry seagulls following a fishing boat. Pathetic!

We managed to avoid Frankie for the rest of the week. But avoiding his voice was a totally different matter. Everywhere we went, we could hear him gabbing on. He was full of his little brother Billy’s footballing talents, what a big house they had, how his dad had just bought a new car…blah, blah, blah – he just went on and on. It was amazing how much he had to say, and how loudly he said it. By the end of the week, the whole of Year Eight was in love with Frankie Wilson, it seemed – apart from us. As far as we were concerned, it was a relief to reach the weekend and escape.