Becky's Dress Disaster (4 page)

“Well, I suppose trying to talk to him's a good idea,” he murmured doubtfully, as they sat down in the classroom. Becky had made absolutely sure he was sitting next to her for this lesson. “I don't fancy your chances, though. I mean what did you think, he was suddenly going to decide everything was OK and you were all best mates?”

“Course not! I just reckon we ought to be able to talk to each other without starting World War III, that's all.” Becky sighed. That wasn't looking very hopeful now. Katie was still acting martyred and sulky – all Becky'd done was make her hate Max even more! “All right, I suppose it was dumb not to expect him to have a go at me.”

She looked quickly over at Max, who was sharing a table with Amy, Cara and Emily. Amy looked as though she was actually being nice to him. Great – that was just what they needed. Max and Amy had been known to gang up on the triplets before, and Amy was a champion stirrer. If anyone could make him hate Katie and the others more, it was her. Altogether, so far Becky's peacemaking plan looked to have been a complete and utter disaster…

Chapter Four

Mum was really, really upset with Katie when the triplets got home that night and she found out about the detention. She didn't say much, but it was obvious that she was very disappointed.

Becky nibbled miserably at her thumbnail as Katie tried to defend herself.

“I wasn't bullying him, Mum! Miss Fraser got the wrong idea. He'd been picking on Becky and I stopped him, that's all. You know what he's like!”

Annabel tried to join in here to help out, but Mum just snapped at her to be quiet and went back to Katie.

“It says here that you were bullying, Katie. Miss Fraser's not stupid, I don't see how she could get it that wrong. I really never thought I'd get a note like this about you.”

The triplets slunk upstairs. Mum hadn't been telling the other two off, but they did feel responsible, Becky especially, as she'd started the whole thing.

Katie threw herself down on her bed angrily. “It's so unfair! Why am I the one getting into so much trouble? Do you think you could manage to stay away from that idiot for a while, Becky? Or at least back me up with Mum next time I'm getting told off for helping you out!”

Becky said nothing for a moment. She couldn't remember feeling so at odds with Katie for a long time, and she wasn't looking forward to her sister's reaction to what she was about to say. She didn't think Annabel was going to be particularly impressed either, actually.

“Look, I'm really sorry you got into trouble.” Becky went over to the windowseat and opened the rats' cage, picking up black-and-white Cassie for a cuddle. She felt she needed the comfort of something furry to give her confidence a boost. “I just don't think you should have booted Max's jumper around the floor! You were really mean!”

“Oh great! Now you're having a go at me! Thanks a bunch, Becky, I thought at least you might have been on my side. What is it with you at the moment?”

“That's not fair!” Becky protested indignantly. “I know you were trying to help me out—” Here Katie gave a snort, but Becky ploughed on. “You were trying to help me out, and Max
was
being mean, but he didn't start it. I wanted to talk to him, 'cause I thought we should try and get on – what with everything that's been happening.”

Katie's face blackened. She so didn't want to talk about this. Annabel was looking as though she couldn't believe what Becky was saying either.

Becky started to speak faster – so as to finish what she was saying before Katie stormed out, which looked like it would be fairly soon. “And I think Max is feeling very miserable—”

“Good!”

“And we ought to be nice to him!”

Katie just shook her head in disgust. “You're crazy. He's been a nightmare to you ever since we started at Manor Hill, and now you want us to be
nice
to him? Don't you remember what he did? I missed the league final because of him!”

“I know! But if Mum's going out with his dad, then—”

“Then nothing.” Katie had never sounded so final. “It doesn't make any difference. I don't have to like him, and I never will.”

And with that she stalked out of the room, leaving Becky gasping, and Annabel looking as though for once she didn't know what to say.

That didn't last long though. “Becky, you can't seriously want us to be friends with him? Katie's right – you must be mad!” And Annabel walked off, shaking her head disgustedly.

Becky wasn't sure what to say to Katie after the fight. When they went down for tea her sister was pretty silent, but she didn't seem to be upset with Becky, particularly. It was just as if she was having a bad day all round. As Mum was still cross about the detention, it wasn't a very cheerful meal, and Annabel and Becky felt as though they were chatting through a forcefield of gloom.

 

Mum had obviously made a big effort to put the problems with Katie and Max out of her mind by the next morning, and Katie seemed to be dealing with the whole situation by pretending it had never happened, so it seemed like just a normal Tuesday. Underneath though, Becky felt as though she could sense all the problems and stresses bubbling away, like some horrible poisonous stew, just waiting to boil over. It didn't help that Max spent that whole day taking every opportunity to spit insults at whichever triplet was nearest. By the end of school on Wednesday, Katie had taken to digging her nails into the palms of her hands to stop herself snapping back at him – she really didn't want to get into trouble and upset Mum again, however much she knew she was right…

Becky was still a bit worried about Katie and the wedding as well. She'd almost forgotten about that, with the whole Max nightmare, but then she got a nasty reminder on Thursday evening. She was sitting on the sofa watching a vet programme on TV, and vaguely listening to Mum on the phone in the background. Becky shuddered as she heard Mum enthusing to Auntie Jan about her latest date with Jeff Cooper. Things were going really well, apparently. Mum sounded really happy. Oh, why couldn't she have found someone to date who didn't come with added disgusting boy? It wasn't fair.

Mum and Auntie Jan were now discussing the exact shade of lilac tulips for her wedding bouquet, and it was just then that Katie wandered into the room, heard something about the merits of lavender ribbons versus silver, gave a disgusted snort and stomped out again. Becky gazed after her worriedly, and decided maybe it was time to try asking Annabel for help.

“Bel!”

Her sister was practically sitting in Mum's lap, trying to hear both sides of the phone conversation. “Ssshhhhh!”

“Bel, I really need to talk to you about Katie – do you think she's going to be OK when Auntie Jan comes this weekend?” Auntie Jan was coming for the day on Saturday so that they could go and pick up the bridesmaids' dresses together, and choose all the finishing touches, including the jewellery.

“What do you mean? Why shouldn't she be?”

“Well, she wasn't exactly a bundle of laughs at the last fitting was she? What if she loses it and upsets Auntie Jan?”

Annabel flapped a hand distractedly – the words
crystal drops
had just been mentioned, and she was terrified that she was missing something important. “Oh, Becky, stop fussing!”

But Becky couldn't. Now that Katie was bottling up everything with Max, she had a horrible feeling that a weekend of dresses and wedding chatter just might make her even worse. Annabel was obviously going to be useless though. She was so excited about the wedding – which was only just over two weeks away now – that it seemed pointless trying to get her to help. She certainly wasn't the right person to distract Katie from dresses, when she was spending all her time at school discussing them with Saima, and at home drawing more and more complicated and expensive-looking creations of her own.

The thing was, apart from her worries about Katie, Becky was really looking forward to the weekend – she was almost as desperate as Annabel to see the finished dresses, and going to the florist with Auntie Jan to choose flowers for their posies sounded great. The smart country house where the wedding was being held was close to Stallford, so Auntie Jan was using a florist in the town.

Becky was determined not to let her niggling worry about Katie spoil all the fun. Maybe the excited weddingy atmosphere would get to her by Saturday? Becky tried to banish it from her mind, and by Friday she was nearly as excited as Annabel, spending most of their Geography lesson peering over her shoulder with Saima and Fran, looking at her sister's elegant jewellery designs. It was unlikely that the wedding budget would run to that number of diamonds, but it was fun to dream!

“Can I borrow that a minute?” Fran hissed, flicking a quick glance at Mrs Travers, their super-dull Geography teacher, who was drawing very complicated and boring diagrams of rock-formations on the whiteboard. Amazingly enough, Katie actually seemed to find them more interesting than the diamonds.

“Sure.” Annabel sounded a bit surprised, but she slipped her little notebook over to Fran. “You want the pen as well?” It was one of her best metallic ones, a gorgeous silvery colour.

“No, I'll use pencil, then you can rub it out if you want.” And Fran started to sketch round Annabel's stunning choker and tiara design.

“Oooh,” murmured Becky, as she realized what Fran was drawing. “That's so cool! Which of us is it?”

Fran looked a bit embarrassed, and stared down at the pretty face she'd drawn in wearing Annabel's jewellery, which did look remarkably like one of the triplets. “All of you. Oops. Sorry, I know you hate it when people do that. I didn't think.”

Becky grinned. “It's OK. We'll all be wearing the same for once on the wedding day – it'll be the first time in years. It'll be fun.”

Annabel nodded and smiled too, but the smile hadn't quite got as far as her eyes, which were a little thoughtful. Did they really all have to look exactly the same? Couldn't their dresses be just a teensy bit different? She was sure there were ways she could improve on hers…

Then she leaned closer to Fran and added, “And if you give her a scowl it'll look absolutely spot-on for Katie…”

 

Mum and the triplets met Auntie Jan at Stallford station on Saturday morning, ready for a day of wedding shopping. Annabel could barely stand still for excitement, and Becky was bouncing on her toes, trying to see their aunt over the barrier. Even Katie seemed to have cheered up a bit – she really liked spending time with Auntie Jan. She wasn't trying to be dismal about the wedding, it was just that the idea of a whole day wearing clothes that were hard to walk in, and make-up that you could hardly talk in, in case it smudged, sounded awful. And it all seemed to take so long to organize. She liked dressing up occasionally, but her idea of dressing up was her nicest pair of velvet jeans and maybe just a tiny bit of Annabel's lipgloss. It did
not
involve curling irons, and there was no need for rosebuds whatsoever. It seemed stupid that Auntie Jan wanted the triplets to be a special part of her wedding, but they had to be super-perfect, unreal, china-doll girls, not the triplets themselves. Still, if that's what she wanted, Katie would do her best, even if she was secretly grinding her teeth the whole time…

“Auntie Jan!” Annabel had spotted their aunt heading through the crowd, looking crisp and fresh and beautifully turned-out, as usual. They hugged all round, and headed off to a coffee shop nearby so that they could plan the day.

“So where's Mark today?” Mum asked, as she sipped her cappuccino, and the triplets tucked into milkshakes.

Auntie Jan took a mouthful of her jet-black espresso (which Becky thought looked like tar) and sighed happily. “Oh, he's on his stag do, didn't I tell you? He and his mates have gone to Silverstone for a motor-racing day – they get to drive the racing cars and everything. Sounds awful to me, but it's what he wanted. I just told his best man that I didn't mind as long as he came home in one piece and they didn't do anything crazy like shaving his eyebrows off.” The triplets giggled, and Auntie Jan finished her coffee and pulled out a very organized-looking list. “OK. We're leaving the dresses till last, so we don't have to carry them around with us. And we need the florist, shoes, jewellery…”

Katie sighed – it was going to be a long day…

 

Becky reverently smoothed the dress-bag that was protecting her dress, and shut the wardrobe door carefully. The triplets shared a massive built-in wardrobe that filled one side of their bedroom. It was divided into three sections, one for each of them, but Annabel was currently using a good half of Katie's section as well as her own.

The dresses were now totally finished, and they looked fantastic. They'd had one last try-on in the shop to show Auntie Jan, with the dressmaker hovering worriedly in the background, in case anything was wrong, but their aunt had loved them, and she'd headed back to the station looking relieved. Now the dresses were to be stored away carefully until the big day. That was the plan, anyway. Katie had gratefully stuffed hers in the small section of wardrobe she could still get at, and disappeared off downstairs. Becky suspected that Annabel might have other ideas, from the thoughtful way she was eyeing the unzipped dress-bag lying on her bed.

She was right. Annabel was completely in love with her dress, and the idea of hiding it away for the next two weeks was torture. She didn't get a chance that day, but as soon as Becky and Katie were both well occupied downstairs on Sunday, she made a beeline for their bedroom and the dress.

She removed it gently from its bag and laid it carefully out on her bed to gloat. It was so lovely! She stroked the fabric gently, and gave the hem a thoughtful look. She'd really been hoping that when Auntie Jan saw the dresses yesterday she'd suddenly realize that there was something missing. The dresses just needed that extra bit of twinkle. But then Auntie Jan always wore very plain clothes, so she probably just hadn't spotted it, Annabel reasoned to herself. She wouldn't mind if Annabel added a little something, would she? And – Annabel suddenly grinned – this way, she would get to have a dress that was ever so slightly different from Katie and Becky's. She didn't have quite the same thing about identical clothes as Katie did, but it would be lovely to have an extra-special dress, one that was completely her own. She sat down next to the dress and started to plan…