Free Charm School by Anne Fine

being so spiteful about the smell of her perfume. She leaned towards Bonny. ‘When you said that people who don’t eat get all tearful and crabby, Angelica said, “Better than getting all fat like her”.’
    ‘All fat like who?’
    Everyone was silent. Even Araminta was watching now. And Angelica looked very embarrassed.
    Bonny looked down at herself. ‘Do you mean
me
?’
    Still no-one spoke. Bonny pushed back her chair and looked at herself. She was the exact same shape she’d been when she left home that morning. She wasn’t built from match-sticks, it was true. Her legs weren’t thin glass rods. You couldn’t have spread your hands round her waist and touched your own fingers.
    But she wasn’t fat.
    She was perfectly normal.
    Pushing her chair back even further, Bonny looked round the table.
    ‘You should stop worrying about how much you have on your bodies,’ she told them. ‘And start worrying about how little you have in your heads. No wonder the tea boy calls you all Twinks.’
    ‘
Twinks?
’
    ‘Toby?’
    They were outraged.
    ‘He does
not
.’
    ‘Don’t listen to her. She’s just saying mean things to upset us.’
    Bonny pointed a finger at Lulu, who was the last to speak. ‘Oh, no, I’m not! Toby agrees with me. He thinks you’re all silly and vain. And you
are
,’ she added fiercely. ‘You spend your whole lives trailing round shops, and parked on your bums trying to look prettier than the person beside you, and strolling round being spiteful to one another. So why should anyone think you have more than half a brain between you?’
    Now Cristalle was shaking her finger back at Bonny. ‘You’re wrong!’ she snapped. ‘Quite wrong! Toby actually thinks that we’re something rather special. That’s why he spends as much time as he can watching us through the glass window.’
    ‘Oh no, it’s not,’ said Bonny. ‘He watches you because he can’t get over how daffy you are.’
    ‘How wrong can you get, Miss Clever Sparky? I tell you, Toby
likes
us.’ Cristalle gave an arch look across the table to Sarajane. ‘Especially
one
of us,’ she added meaningfully. ‘There does happen to be one of us he
really
likes …’
    At this, everyone turned to look at Sarajane, who blushed bright pink. But Bonny barely noticed. ‘
You’re
the ones who’ve got it wrong,’ she was too busy insisting. ‘He doesn’t
like
you all. You just
amuse
him.’
    Sarajane’s blush turned fiery red, and Esmeralda said loudly to no-one in particular, ‘Talk about other people being spiteful! She should try listening to
herself
.’
    There was another giggle and more whispering at the other end of the table. This time Bonny was quicker swinging round, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Araminta dart a look at her, then hastily shut her mouth and wipe an amused smile off her face.
    Bonny was astonished at how upset she felt – as if a real, true friend had turned against her. She felt tears gathering and her voice was shaky. ‘I suppose
you’re
being nasty about me now.’
    Araminta looked horribly guilty. But it was Lulu at her side who broke the awkward silence. Putting on that sugared poison voice Bonny had heard so often that morning as people said their horrid things, she explained very kindly to Bonny: ‘Oh, no. Minty was trying to be
nice
. You see, she was explaining to us all why you can’t help being so rude and disagreeable.’
    Minty! They all had one another as friends, and she had none! Miserable as she could be, Bonny said crossly, ‘Oh, really? Why is that, then?’
    As she spoke, she tried looking Araminta straight in the eye, but Araminta hastily stared down at the table. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she mumbled very uncomfortably. ‘I’ve quite forgotten what I said.’
    Once again, Miss Pass-on-the-Spite Serena pitched in to help someone who’d lost her memory. She leaned over to Bonny.
    ‘
I
haven’t, though. Minty was just explaining that you were simply