Free Secret Girls' Stuff by Margaret Clark

and we were goingto the movies. she wasn’t allowed out with her boyfriend michael on her own and like, she had to take this cousin robbie too. she showed me a photo and robbie looked gorgeous so i got all dressed up in new jeans and a top, spent all my pocket money and guess what? it turned out robbie was in Grade Six! i felt like i had a toy boy. i’ll never speak to shona again and i’ll never go out on a blind date again i swear.
    I wrote back
    >From: Margaret
>To: Georgie
>Date:
    Dear Georgie,
    I know you feel stupid about being in Year Eight and going out with a boy in Grade Six, but it could have been worse. What if you’d been going to a party or a school prom and you’d had to dance with your chin on his head? Cheer up. Tell Shona no more blind dates with boys younger than you and look on it as a world experience. Blind dates are like lucky dips. Sometimes you get a great prize and sometimes it’s a dud. That’s the luck ofthe draw. Bye from Margaret (um, it’s spelt like this, not Marget.)
    This boy-n-girl thing is always fraught with drama when you’re starting off. Most girls go through a number of relationships with boys, but some don’t.
    One of my good friends, Gwen met Alan when they were both sixteen, got married at twenty-one and they are still together after about thirty-five years and they’ve never been out with other people on romantic dates. (Well, I don’t think so.)
    Sometimes love at first sight lasts; sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it doesn’t get much of a chance, as this extract from an email from Sasha, age fifteen, indicates:
    >From: Sasha
>To: Margaret
>Date:
    So, I’m on this holiday in America and it’s, like, freeeeeezzzzing there. We were just back from Disneyland and staying in this hotel. I went for a swim in the heated pool (it was snowing outside) And I met the BEST THEBEST THE BEST GUY. I mean, he was cuter than the cute guy from White Squall, cuter than the guy whose hair snaps off, but he’s not hot anyway, cuter than Brad Pitt and everyone else who is supposedly cute, they are ugly compared to this guy. YIIPPPPEEEE. A total babe.
    AGGGHHHHHHHH. I’ll give you his details. Okay, he’s my height and a bit taller (yay) and he’s 16 (my height and 16, wow), has gorgeous sexy green eyes, blond hair that he spikes up (drool!!), a FANTASTIC smile, perfect teeth (I almost fainted every time he smiled at me), hot AS body, he’s so funny and smart and nice and totally GORGEOUS!!!!! The only downside is his name, not that it’s bad, just different. I had to get him to say it four times, very embarrassing. But it’s Esra, it sounds like a girl’s name. And worse, when I told my parents later and they were trying to figure out the spelling, my sister pointed out that it spelt arse backwards. Yes, ARSE. Bloody typical Sigh. My family had a great time with THAT. grrrrrrr. But his name isn’t that big a deal.
    It’s pretty cool. Anyway, I was swimming in the pool and this god of a guy surfaces next to me, and I’m like, whoa, is he HOT. So I went and hopped in the spa and watched him for awhile, playing with his brother.
    Then my sister wanted me to get back in the pool and we had the usual splashing fight. Then she started spitting in my face and pulling my hair, and I was like, ‘That’s ENOUGH’ and I was just standing there when Esra swam up with his brother clinging onto him and pulling his hair and goes, ‘Don’t you just hate younger sisters and brothers’, and I’m like, Omigod, he SPOKE to ME and I go, ‘Yup.’ Then we sorta swam round together for a while and talked about life and about where we live, what we like to do … and I found out he lives in California and liked snowboarding and surfing and plays basketball and soccer. And we talked about movies and music we like, and we liked THE SAME STUFF. We were meant for each other. Then we hopped in the spa (both our siblings were in the pool) and we were just holding hands and talking and he kept