Pretty Twisted (27 page)

‘Not bad. I’m taking music now – I dropped further maths. There was a load of work to catch up on, but I’m up to speed now. They’re OK, some of the kids in my class. They’ll never be my best friends but at least I have people to hang out with.’

‘That’s great!’

He laughed. ‘Would you believe it, I wrote a song the day after we found Freya, and now I can’t stop scribbling stuff down. Maybe it’s a good thing she broke my heart. Half the songs you hear are about love screwing you over, so I reckon I’m on to a winner there.’

I thought about saying something about how much I’d been drawing since everything had happened, but decided not to. Even for that inspiration, I couldn’t bring myself to say having my heart broken had been a good thing.

‘It’s funny,’Jonathan said. ‘I thought Freya would leave a huge hole in my life, but it hasn’t been that way. Guess I’ve realized I don’t need her any more; I can get by just being me.’ He paused. ‘Actually, I’ve been missing you a whole lot more than Freya.’

I beamed; I couldn’t help it. ‘I saw Freya a little while after everything happened. Hugh called round and she was with him. They went off arm in arm – they looked happy, I guess.’

‘Yeah, I heard that she’s still seeing him. Kind of amusing. Her mum used to moan about me when we were going out, saying I wasn’t good enough for Freya, and now suddenly I’m her favourite person, cos there’s someone new to complain about. Hey, am I imagining it, or are you growing your hair?’

He noticed. ‘Yeah, I thought I’d give it a go. I don’t do myself favours, having it cut like a boy’s.’

‘I don’t do myself favours by having mine cut like a girl’s. Someone called me “miss” last week. Talk about mortifying.’ Jonathan paused. ‘I saw the police again, just after the whole Student Snatcher thing got wrapped up. They told me – off the record – all about Brian. Far as they can tell, it’s pretty much what the newspapers are speculating – that classic pattern of meeting someone new, things going well, then something going wrong that led to him wanting to make them pay. Apparently Brian doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong – it’s
their
fault for rejecting him! He must be insane. Crazy that we were mixed up in all that, isn’t it? I mean – us!’

I nodded. ‘It’s all pretty twisted.’

We turned into my road.

‘Want to come in?’ I asked. ‘You don’t have to dash off somewhere, do you?’

‘Got to meet Mum and Dad at seven; we’re going to the theatre, but that’s not for a while. Will your dad mind? I know he’s a bit off about Internet people.’

‘Jono, you stopped being an Internet person a while ago.’

‘Weird that out of all the billions of people I could have ended up talking to it was you, isn’t it? Scary if you think about how improbable it all is. But I guess what it does prove is that just sometimes, strangers aren’t your enemies.’

He was right there. I glanced up and down the road, though there was no one listening. For a moment, I remembered the first time I shared my thoughts with Jonathan – only I hadn’t known his name then, or that we’d ever speak on the phone or meet in person, or that we’d become friends. Back then my biggest concerns had been that I was losing the only mate I had and feeling that no one saw me for who I was.

I wasn’t worried about either of those things any more.

‘I’ve something I want to talk over with you actually.’ It sounded abrupt, but there was no easy way to bring this up. ‘Mum called yesterday. She wants to meet up.’

Jonathan whistled. ‘OK, agony uncle at the ready . . .’

GINA BLAXILL
lives in London. She has an English degree from Cambridge University and now works in schools liaison, helping teenagers puzzle out the mysteries of higher education. Between the ages of eleven and fifteen she wrote an epic thirty-six-part story featuring over 1,000 characters – she still remembers most of their names!

Pretty Twisted
is Gina’s first novel for young adults.

Acknowledgements

Pretty Twisted
and myself have been on a very long journey together, but luckily for both of us we’ve definitely not been travelling alone. There are a number of lovely people I’d like to thank:

My agent, Becky Bagnell, for invaluable help and advice, but most of all for seeing potential in my script in the early days; the uber-helpful team at Macmillan, especially my ever-enthusiastic editor, Emma Young; my friend Matt, who talked me through CCTV; my own ‘not an Internet friend any more’ pal, Irina, who read the first draft and has kept interested ever since; everyone at the three workplaces I’ve been at since I started the book, for being so excited and optimistic on my behalf (especially team EdLi and honorary EdLi members – you know who you are!);Rudi,who didn’t know I was writing a book and wouldn’t have been to able to read it anyway, but provided constant, silent support; my brother, Luke, who in his usual last-minute fashion thought up the final twist; and, above all, my parents, Sheila and David, for putting up with my endless book angst for almost three years and helping me find solutions to every problem – without your love and support I’ve no doubt
Pretty Twisted
wouldn’t have made it.

First published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books

This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-0314-8 EPUB

Copyright © Gina Blaxill 2011

The right of Gina Blaxill to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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