Free Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie

dad’ll never know anyone’s been anywhere near it.’
    ‘But he has a password,’ Rachel stammered. ‘I don’t know what it is. Will you . . . I mean, how are you going to get past that?’
    I could see Max bristling. She hates it when people question her hacking abilities. ‘If I told you I’d have to kill you,’ she said, completely straight-faced.
    Rachel was now looking utterly freaked out.
    ‘Hah, hah,’ I said. ‘Hilarious, Max.’ I raised my eyes at Rachel. ‘Don’t worry. Passwords are one of Max’s specialities.’
    Max shook her head dismissively and shunted the laptop onto the desk. ‘I’m looking for emails between this Richard Smith guy and someone called Lewis. Yeah?’
    I nodded, ushering Rachel towards the door. ‘We’ll be back in a minute,’ I said.
    I took Rachel downstairs to Max’s kitchen. She gazed round the room, her mouth falling open at the sight of the dirty plates piled up on every surface. It was a bit of a mess. Max’s mum’s an artist. Spends most of her time in her studio, painting and stuff. She’s not massively into housework. And I doubt if Max even knows where the washing-up liquid is kept.
    I walked over to the sink and rinsed out a couple of glasses.
    ‘Water okay?’ I said.
    Rachel nodded.
    We sipped our drinks in silence for a few moments. Rachel was still looking around, frowning.
    ‘How . . . er . . . how do you know Max?’ she said. ‘Does she go to your school?’
    I laughed. ‘No way. Mine’s just a boys’ school. Max and I’ve known each other since we were at nursery. Our mums met when we were little. Max and I are . . . we’re like baby friends. I mean she’s a bit weird. But she’s all right underneath. Like my sister or something.’
    For some reason this made Rachel smile. A big smile that lit up her whole face. It was the first time I’d seen her appear anything other than worried or embarrassed. For a couple of seconds she looked really pretty. Then she blushed and dipped her head.
    The doorbell rang and the dogs started barking again.
    ‘I’ll go,’ I yelled, unnecessarily. Like Max or her mum would even hear the bell.
    I strolled down the corridor and restrained Perl and Java again while I opened the door.
    Jake stood on the other side. He grinned at me. ‘Both your birds here, then?’
    Fantastic. Jake in full-on, babe-magnet mode.
    Just what I needed.
    ‘Stop it,’ I hissed. But Jake pushed past me and the two dogs and strode over to the stairs. He had come with me to visit Max several times. I was pretty sure he had a fairly big crush on her. It was always hard to tell with Jake, of course, what with his habit of fancying anything that moved. But I knew he loved the way Max was always rude to him. Sometimes I wondered what Jake would do if a girl ever actually encouraged him. Probably collapse from shock.
    ‘Hey, Max,’ Jake called up the stairs. ‘Wanna game of Deathmaster Battleground later? Bet I can kick your arse at it.’
    ‘Yeah, right.’ Max’s shout dripped with sarcasm. ‘I’m quaking.’
    Undeterred, Jake spun round and mouthed, ‘Where’s Rachel?’ at me.
    I nodded towards the kitchen. ‘Be cool,’ I mouthed back.
    Rachel was sitting at the kitchen table – which was covered with magazines and pencil sketches and old mugs of coffee – still sipping her water.
    She looked up at Jake.
    ‘Hey there, Rachel,’ he said in what I knew was his attempt at a smooth and sophisticated voice. He slipped along the bench at the table until he was sitting directly opposite her. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘You have really pretty eyes.’
    For God’s sake .
    I shuddered and marched over to the sink to pour myself some more water. Rachel said nothing. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her staring down at the table. She looked embarrassed. I suddenly felt massively annoyed with Jake. It was all very well him making a prat of himself with girls we didn’t know at Starbucks. But Rachel was doing me a huge favour