Centre Stage: A Novel

replied in an uptight voice.
    I hesitated. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about what had just happened. I didn’t blame her. I would have been mega-embarrassed if it had been me. Harriet continued to stare at the floor.
    ‘It’s French next,’ I said, saying the first thing that came into my mind. ‘Have you learnt your verbs for the test?’
    Stupid question. After all, when had Harriet ever not done the work for a test?
    Harriet nodded but she didn’t say anything.
    ‘I hope it’s not too difficult,’ I babbled, wanting desperately to fill the silence. ‘Miss Rogers is really strict. Jessica says she gives out detentions all the time.’
    ‘Yeah, Emily’s had a detention from her before,’ Harriet said. I saw her shoulders relax slightly and she even glanced at me. ‘Emily said if you get less than seven out of ten she makes you do another test the next day and if you don’t hand your homework in you get a detention. No warning or anything.’
    I felt relieved. Harriet seemed to be recovering. The bell rang. ‘Come on,’ I told her. ‘We’d better not be late.’
    ‘Oof!’ I said as Ally nudged me hard in the ribs.
    ‘That’s Nathan from my class,’ she hissed, nodding towards a boy with brown hair who was walking into the room. ‘He’s cute, isn’t he?’
    I nodded.
    It was lunchtime and we were in one of the large rooms in the Maths block. A long row of chairs had been lined up by the blackboard for everyone who wanted to be considered for the under-fourteen quiz club. Harriet was sitting there and so were Kelly, Leanne and Rachel — and Ben. I noticed that Kelly had managed to get the chair beside him.
    Ally and I were sitting on desks at the back of the room with the other people who had just come along to support their friends.
    ‘I really think he likes me,’ Ally went on, still looking at Nathan. ‘He was sitting at the same table as me in art and he kept smiling at me.’
    Normally I would have been really interested but right now I had something else on my mind. I wanted to talk to Ally about Harriet being teased after PE. ‘Ally…’
    Just then a girl with dark curly hair and lively hazel eyes stopped beside us. ‘Hi, Ally! Can I sit here?’
    I recognized her as the girl from Ally’s class who had been signing up for the art club at the clubs’ noticeboard.
    ‘Sure, Eve,’ Ally told her, budging up on the desk.
    ‘So, how come you’re here?’ Eve asked, squeezing in beside her.
    ‘Sophie and I are watching our friend Harriet,’ Ally said, glancing at me. ‘Sophie and Harriet are in 7GD.’
    ‘Oh, right,’ Eve said, smiling at me. ‘Hi. I’m here to watch my friend Sasha. She’s in 7NR. That’s her, sitting over there,’ she said, nodding to a girl at the end of the row. ‘She’s really brainy. I’d never be clever enough to do something like this.’
    ‘Me neither,’ Ally agreed.
    ‘I’d have thought Ruth and Ellie would be here,’ Eve said.
    ‘Yeah,’ Ally said. ‘They’re two girls in our class,’ she explained to me. ‘They’re really clever.’ She turned back to Eve. ‘Nathan’s here, though. I wonder if he’ll get in.’
    ‘He’s really fit, isn’t he?’ Eve giggled. ‘But I think he’s quite shy.’
    They started talking about Nathan and about some other people in their class. It felt weird listening to Ally talk about people I didn’t know. I almost began to feel left out. I looked at Harriet. She was looking nervous but I was sure she was going to be OK. I gave her the thumbs-up sign and she smiled back gratefully.
    A few minutes later, a sixth former stood up and clapped his hands for silence. Like most of the clubs, the quiz team was being organized by sixth formers.
    ‘I think we’re ready to start,’ he announced. ‘My name’s Andy. I’m the quiz master.’ He turned to the people at the front. ‘We’re going to split you into four teams and ask you questions. Put your hand up if you think you know the answer. If your team gets the answer right you get a bonus question just for your team. It doesn’t really matter which team wins; we just want to see how well you react under pressure and, of course, how much you know.’
    The quiz started. Harriet answered loads of questions — and got them right. Which was more than Kelly did. She answered about four questions and only got one right. Leanne and Rachel didn’t put their hands up at all. Ben was really good. He answered more questions than