Free Bhangra Babes by Narinder Dhami Page B

months.”
    “Is that any better?” Jazz asked.
    We sat there in silence again. Now I was thinking about Kiran
and
Mum, and feeling much the worse for it.
    “We'd better decide what we're going to do,” I said,
    swallowing down a hard lump in my throat. “I suppose we ought to try harder with Kiran.”
    Jazz fidgeted around on the duvet. “I don't want to seem callous and self-centered,” she muttered, “but what about Rocky?”
    “Oh, I reckon that bad feeling between him and Kiran will all blow over in a couple of days,” I said, with more hope than confidence.
    “And besides, I don't think we can get
too
friendly with Kiran too quickly,” said Geena thoughtfully. “She might get suspicious. And then Mr. Arora would get into trouble for telling us.”
    “So we try to get to know Kiran slowly and we keep Rocky sweet in the meantime.” I grinned. “If anyone can do that, we can.”
    Overconfident? Us?
    When Monday morning came round, we were all fired up and ready to do the best we could. But the first obstacle we had to overcome was Kim. Along with her new assertive nature, she had also developed a nose for intrigue to match that of a tabloid journalist.
    “There's Kiran,” Jazz whispered as we sat in the playground before morning lessons. “Should we go over?”
    “No, just wave and smile,” instructed Geena.
    We waved and smiled. Kim stared at us, and Kiran looked startled. She nodded ever so slightly and turned away.
    “What are you doing?” asked Kim.
    “Just saying hi to Kiran,” I said nonchalantly.
    “Come off it,” Kim replied. “What's going on?”
    “Nothing,” I said with mock amazement.
    “You've got an extremely overactive imagination, Kim,” added Geena.
    “I need to have, to keep up with you three,” Kim said rudely. “Come on. You couldn't stand Kiran last week. What's changed?”
    “All right, if you must know.” I sighed. “Mr. Arora told Auntie about Kiran, and Auntie had a go at us for not making more of an effort. So there you go.”
    Kim still looked suspicious. “Your left eyebrow's twitching.”
    “What?” I put my hand up to my face.
    “It always twitches when you're lying,” said Kim. “What's the
real
reason?”
    Casually I covered my eyebrow with my hand. “That's it,” I said. “Nothing more to tell.”
    “She's coming over!” Jazz hissed.
    Kiran was indeed coming toward us.
    “I found your
Julius Caesar
notes, Kim,” she said, handing them over. “They'd fallen down behind the book cupboard.”
    Kim looked pleased. “Thanks.”
    “How are you doing, Kiran?” I asked in what I hoped was a friendly but not overly chummy voice.
    Maybe I overdid it a bit because Kiran looked surprised. “OK.” She grinned. “Sorry about your date with lover boy on Saturday being ruined.”
    She was getting right up my nose, as usual. “You
    really do look sorry,” I snapped. “And it wasn't a date. Ow!”
    Geena and Jazz had both elbowed me discreetly in the ribs. Not that discreetly. It still hurt.
    “Don't mind her,” Jazz said. “She got out of bed on the wrong side this morning.”
    “Yeah, sorry.” I managed to force the words out. “I didn't mean to be a grouch.”
    Kiran stared at me. Next she turned her attention to Geena, then to Jazz. For the first few seconds we stood up under her intense scrutiny, then we began to wilt. We blushed. We cleared our throats, shuffled our feet and tried not to look guilty. That never works, does it? You just end up looking
twice
as guilty.
    Kiran sighed. “You know, don't you?”
    “Know what?” I asked lightly.
    “You know what I mean,” Kiran said tensely. “And if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you.”
    “What's going on?” asked Kim, looking confused.
    “We don't know anything,” Geena jumped in.
    “But if we did know something, we wouldn't tell anyone anyway,” said Jazz anxiously.
    Kiran shrugged. “I know you know,” she said simply. And she walked away.
    “Well, I don't