Free The Real Rebecca by Anna Carey

Harrington. ‘Now I know all about what you and your friends get up to, Rebecca!’
    As soon as she said that, my friends stopped looking sympathetic and started looking appalled. Ha! Now they know how I feel.
    ‘Well,’ I said. ‘I mean. It’s not like it’s actually about us. I’m nothing like Ruthie whatserface.’
    ‘She’s really not,’ said Cass.
    Mrs Harrington laughed like this was the funniest thing in the world. ‘You can’t fool me, girls! I read that report in the paper where Rebecca’s mammy said she based it on her and her sister’s antics. I’m not going to ask who won the competition, though!’
    I thought I was going to get sick. And then, as if this wasn’t bad enough, Karen Rodgers said, ‘What competition?’
    Now, my friends haven’t read the evil book yet, but they know what it’s about because I told them just how awful it was. So when Karen Rodgers said this, Alice and Cass and Ellie and Emma all stared at Mrs Harrington like they were trying to hypnotise her into shutting up.
    It didn’t work, of course.
    ‘Haven’t you read it yet?’ said Mrs Harrington in a surprised voice, like she couldn’t understand why everyone in the world wasn’t queuing up to read Mum’s stupid books. ‘It’s great fun. It’s all about girls who have a competition to see who will get a boyfriend first – not a good idea, girls!’
    Of course, everyone in the class started laughing, not just Karen Bitchface Rodgers. ‘But Ruth and her friends learn a valuable lesson in the book – and what’s that, Rebecca?’
    ‘What?’ I said. ‘Um, I don’t know. How to be complete idiots who are always horrible to each other?’
    Mrs Harrington laughed as though this were a joke. ‘Oh, I can see you’ve inherited your mother’s wicked sense of humour! No, the girls learn that the most important thing is friendship. And that nothing is worth losing your friends over, not even a perfect boyfriend. Isn’t that right, Rebecca?’
    ‘I suppose so,’ I said nervously.
    ‘So I know all you girls are going to enjoy this book,’ Harrington went on. For a dreadful moment I thought she was going to announce that we were going to be studying it in class instead of Great Expectations . I wouldn’t put it past her. But she just said, ‘It certainly made having the flu more entertaining!’ and then actually started talking about ordinary English class things.
    After class, of course, everyone found it hilarious to talk about the book. It wasn’t like they were being mean about it (apart from Karen, of course), but it was very annoying.
    ‘You didn’t really have a competition, did you?’ said Jessie McCabe.
    ‘Of course we didn’t!’ said Cass.
    ‘She’s just saying that because in real life none of them actually won,’ said Karen Rodgers. ‘I haven’t seen them with any gorgeous boyfriends, have you?’
    ‘I haven’t seen you with one either,’ said Cass. ‘You’re obviously too busy spying on us.’
    Karen snorted through her nose at this like a baby pig, but she went off with Alison. Alison looked back at us slightly apologetically. I bet she’s a bit embarrassed by Karen’s rudeness sometimes. She’s not that bad, really. But I’d like her a bit more if she ever actually stood up to her so-called best friend.
    Luckily, there are more exciting things in my life to distract me from all this rubbish. We spent all of lunchtime talking about the band. We haven’t come up with a good name yet. The good thing is that Cass is much more enthusiastic about it now.
    ‘You just put me on the spot,’ she said. ‘I don’t want you two relying on me to be really good, because I mightn’t be. But I’ll give it a shot.’
    ‘I bet you’re much better than you think you are,’ said Alice. ‘I mean, Rebecca’s never even played the drums at all, so you’re bound to be better than her. No offence, Bex.’
    ‘I’ve played the pencils,’ I said. ‘I know how to keep a beat.’
    ‘You