Show No Mercy (3 page)

Chapter Seven

The lie

"Why're you cheering for?" Sophie asked, puzzled.                                                                                                               

"You're getting married, ah ha, ah ha, you're getting married, ah ha, ah ha!" Mr. Sandalwood started dancing with Christie all around the room.
                                                                                   

"Me? Getting married? To who?" Sophie jumped at the thought that Mr. Sandalwood was going to propose to her.                                         

"To Adam Attenborough, of course," Bessie cheered.
                                                                                                 

Sophie looked at them all, dumbfounded. She suddenly realized what was going on. They had eavesdropped at her conversation with Mike at the wrong parts. However, she didn't want to ruin their good mood. So she went along with the chat.
             

"You should
so
agree to the marriage," Bessie gushed.                                                                                   

"Hmmm. Maybe I should. I mean, we've been dating for ages." Sophie coughed, smiling modestly. She was starting to tell stories now.
                           

"Really?" Mr. Sandalwood said, now looking even more excited. "Why didn't you tell us?"                                                                                                               

"Because I was embarrassed. I thought you'd laugh at me, 'cause I'm dating some business boss," Sophie shrugged casually.
                                                                                                 

"Why would we laugh? Oh, you're so lucky lucky lucky!" Bessie chanted. "I've wanted to get married for ages, but I'm not much of a looker, am I?"
                                                                                                               

"Well, do the looks matter?" Sophie smiled. "It's what matters on the inside."
             

"You're
so
right," Mr. Sandalwood said, as if he were joining in a girly chat.                                                       

"But you're still really pretty, Soph'," Bessie insisted. "Men nowadays don't really aim for the ugly ones.”                                                                                   

"Stop feeling so bad about yourself," Sophie said. "You're a really sweet girl. I don't aim for looks when I'm choosing who to be mates with, do I? Take Christie, for example. I'm not mates with her, I'm enemies with her."
                           

"Right," Bessie said, and she shut up talking about how her appearance was ugly. She giggled. “But Christie’s not nice on the inside, or the outside, is she?” Her and Sophie laughed together, whilst Christie’s face went red in fury.                           

"Why do you always have to talk about me when it comes to your personal life?" Christie tormented. "We only hate each other because I've got a better role than you when we're producing our adverts." She paused. “Mr Sandalwood would kick you out if you put another toe out of line.”                           

"You just shut up, Christie," Sophie shot back.                                                                                                                             

"Who's gonna make me? You're just a warty faced ugly spiteful turnip who I just happen to have to work with."
                                                       

"Enough!" shouted Mr. Sandalwood, spraying spit all over Christie's face. Christie was lucky that she didn’t scream at the bacteria that had just been dribbled on her face. "Don't upset Sophie, OK? She's got a big decision to make right now."
                                                                                   

"Phone Adam, Soph'," Bessie suggested. "Tell him that you agree. That Mike bloke gave you Adam's card, didn't he?"
                                                       

"Yeah, phone him," Mr. Sandalwood smiled encouragingly.
                                                                                                 

"Well, OK," Sophie gulped. What was she going to do now?
                                                       

Everyone thought that Adam was offering her marriage, not housing benefits. What would she say?
             

She started dialling the number ever-so-slowly on her phone.                                                                                                 

"Oh, hurry up," Mr. Sandalwood said impatiently, as if it was him getting married and not her. "Look, I'll do it for you."
                                         

He snatched the card off Sophie, dialled in the number, pressed the green phone button and handed the phone back to Sophie.
                                         

"Yes?" someone said at the other end.
                           

"Is this Adam Attenborough?" Sophie mumbled.                                         

"No. I'm Cameron, his work colleague. Who are you?"
                                                                                                               

"I'm Sophie Steele."
                                                                     

"BLOODY HELL! WHY WON'T YOU AGREE TO THE HOUSING BENEFITS?" Cameron literally roared. It was lucky that the phone wasn’t on loud-speaker, because then Mr. Sandalwood would have heard and the penny would have really dropped.                                                       

"I thought I was supposed to tell Adam whether I agree or not." Sophie shrugged even though Cameron wouldn’t be able to see her doing this.                                                                     

"As Adam doesn't even happen to know you, I don't think that will be necessary. Now, you can tell me."
                                                                                   

"I agree."
                                                                                                 

"FINALLY! Thank you." Cameron grinned and was about to dial off but couldn’t because Sophie was going to first.                                                       

"Bye." She pressed the red phone button abruptly.                           

"We didn't manage to catch what Adam said on the other end. What
did
he say?" asked Mr. Sandalwood.                                                                                                 

"Oh, when I said
I agree
, he just couldn't stop telling me how over-the-moon he was," Sophie replied.                                                                                                 

"Oh, that's fantastic!" Bessie cried.
                           

"This calls for a party," Mr. Sandalwood announced.

Chapter Eight

Mr. Sandalwood’s work party

The caterer quickly put snacks on the table because he didn't have time to make a proper meal.                                                       

The snacks were crackers and cheese, pineapple juice, orange juice from concentrate, chocolate bars, big bags of Cofresh chilli crisps, mini bags of Walkers crisps, rainbow sweets, leftover jelly babies, and loads more snacks.
             

Mr. Sandalwood removed the fake but gorgeous crown from Christie's head and placed it on Sophie’s. Christie gave Sophie an icy glare but daren't say anything.                                                                     

Sophie got to sit down on the biggest, comfiest, squashy chair.
             

Mr. Sandalwood fed her snacks as if she was a Queen. Sophie loved the attention she was getting, even though she had lied to get the party.
                                                                     

Then Bessie lifted her up from the chair and started dancing with her. Sophie couldn't dance to save her life, but dancing with Bessie was making it easier for her as her feet and legs and arms moved swiftly around the room.                           

"You won't forget us, will you, Sophie?" Mr. Sandalwood asked, as if he was about to cry. His voice was breaking.

What the hell,
Sophie thought.
Up until now, he’s always hated me, and now he’s acting as if I’m his favourite actor on the set. He needs to get his life sorted.
How am I going to explain to them that I’m not actually going to leave?
             

"Why would I?" Sophie laughed. "All you guys have been there for me through all of my life. You deserve to be remembered." Sophie paused. "Except from Christie, of course. She doesn't deserve to be remembered. But I don't think I'll forget her, either. She's my worst enemy."                                                                                                               

"Ha ha, very funny," Christie shook her head. "At least you won't be here. That way I can get on with my life smoothly without having to be bothered by you. So there."
                                         

"Come on, this is a party," Mr. Sandalwood shouted, to stop them from arguing. "Can’t you both get along for once? Let's have some fun!"                                                                                                               

"Whatever," Bessie shrugged. She let go of Sophie after giving her a hug, and went to the table to eat some chocolate.                                                        

"Fattie," Christie muttered.
                                                       

"Don't you dare call her fat," Sophie snapped, and then shocked herself by what she’d just done. She’d slapped Christie.             

Everybody gasped.

“You little bitch!” Christie roared, and then chased Sophie around the room. They began to fight with each other, ripping at each other’s hair.

“Stop it!” Mr. Sandalwood broke them apart, sweat beading on his forehead. “Please, just stop it!”

Sophie and Christie were both panting, red-faced.

“She started it!”

“No, you started it!”

“No, you!”

“ENOUGH! For God’s sake, you’re both like a pair of wild animals! Stay away from each other,” Mr. Sandalwood bellowed.

"Are you all right?" Bessie was crying. “This is all my fault.”

“I'm fine," Sophie shrugged. "Don’t ever let anyone put you down, babes."
             

Sophie hugged her best friend.                                                                     

"At least you’re getting married. And to the hottest guy ever. Adam Attenborough, man!" Bessie exclaimed.
             

"Whatever." Sophie couldn’t help the word escaping from her mouth.

Chapter Nine

Meeting the journalist

The following day at work, Sophie sat down in the same private room that Mr. Sandalwood had offered Adam's business men to talk in. An interviewer had came over from the local gossip magazine. Apparently, Mr. Sandalwood had called him over because he was an expert at gossiping about love stories and all that stuff. Mr. Sandalwood had advised this man, Dillon, to talk to Sophie, because she was getting married to Adam Attenborough. Sophie hadn't wanted the story to go too far, because she wasn't actually marrying Adam, she didn’t even know him, but anyway, she liked spreading it for her own joy and entertainment. She also liked all the attention she was getting. It had never been like this before.

Today she was planning on making the story very straightforward.                                                                      

Dillon entered the room, with a thick notepad in his hand, plus a pen and a copy of his magazine.
                                                                                                 

"Hi, I'm Dillon," he said breathlessly.
                           

"Pleasure to meet you, Dillon," Sophie said. "I'm Sophie."                                                                                   

"Yeah, I know that. So, this Adam Attenborough ... do you like him? Is he cute?"
             

"Yes and yes."              Sophie raised her eyebrows. He wasn’t really asking proper questions, to be honest, they had obvious answers.                                                                     

"Well, can you tell me how your relationship began?" Dillon asked, rushing into the main story.
                                                                                   

"Well, it sort of went like this: I was at the airport and this random bloke I didn't even know strolled up to me, one hand in pocket, one hand behind head. We started chatting, and then he asked me if I would marry him out of the blue. I said no, he asked a second time, I said no again, he asked a third time, in a proper begging mode so I said OK, fine," Sophie lied. She tried to make up a good story that would top the lists of magazine articles, because this was no ordinary romance.

"Interesting," said Dillon, scribbling down notes on his pad, exaggerating to make it more appealing to the audience. "Wanna say anything else?"
             

"Give Adam my love," Sophie said cutely.
             

"Oh, that's so nice," Dillon gushed, a lopsided grin taped on his face. He continued scribbling away in his notepad. "
You're
nice. No wonder Adam's in love with you."                                         

"And I'm in love with him as well,” Sophie corrected.             

"Yup."                                                                                                 

Sophie didn't even know Adam. She'd never even seen him, either.                                                       

"Oh, and here's a copy of my magazine, if you want to have a look,” Dillon offered.
                                                                     

"Thanks, but no thanks," Sophie shoved it straight back in his face.