Free Gypsy Girl by Kathryn James Page A

dropped open. I could read her mind. She thought I was being arrested. Her perfect face crinkled up. Her eyes narrowed, her voice became all trembly. “You know something about this. What did you do to him?”
    Stupid girl. I wanted to shout at her, tell her I would never attack anyone. But I didn’t. “Nothing. I was helping him.”
    She came closer, her eyes going sparkly as well as narrow. “Helping him! You—”
    But the policeman pushed her away. “Please, stand back. We’ll find out all the facts soon.”
    One of the waitresses was tugging on her arm. “He’s right, Alice, get away from her!” she whispered, in a voice loud enough for me and everyone else to hear. “It’s her. Cooper told us about her.”
    “Does it matter who I am?” I said, glaring from one to the other. “Gregory’s hurt. Shouldn’t you be worrying about that?”
    That shut them up. Alice gave me one last glittery look and hurried over to the paramedics, who were helping Gregory into the back of the ambulance.
    “Can I go with him,” she pleaded. “I’m his girlfriend!”
    His girlfriend? My heart missed a beat. Miss Kitten Face, with the delicate ballet shoes and the perfect, shiny blonde hair, was his girlfriend. I watched as she climbed into the ambulance with him. And I listened to the whispers starting up close by. It seemed as though all the teenagers in town had jobs at the hotel. I recognized Gregory’s dark-haired friend, Cooper. He was standing with one of the waitresses.
    “That’s her. The girl from Gypsy’s Acre!” he hissed. “What’s she got to do with it?”
    “Chef says she attacked him!”
    “What? Like a mugging? No way. Her sister’s wedding’s costing a fortune. They don’t need to mug people.”
    “Not a mugging. She just attacked him.”
    Another girl joined in. “I love her look.”
    “What? Slutty tart?”
Thanks, Cooper
.
    “Shut up. She can hear. She says Milo did it.”
    “He’s a dick, but why would he attack Greg?”
    “I don’t know. Why would she attack him?”
    “She was giving him these looks yesterday…” Cooper again. “maybe they got it together, and then he dumped her…”
    “No. He wouldn’t do that to Alice.”
    “You didn’t see them together, the way she was looking—”
    I swung round as best as I could with the policeman still holding me. Soon as they saw me looking, they shut up. It didn’t sound like any of them were on my side, but I wasn’t going to explain to them. Let them think the worst of me. I knew the truth. If I hadn’t searched for him, Gregory would’ve lain there for longer and the crimson pool that still glistened on the tarmac would be bigger.
    But he’d only been attacked because he’d come out to check on me
.
    A moment later, the whispering started up again, but that was because Rocky was pushing his way through, shouting, “What’s going on? Someone said there’d been a fight.”
    Rocky is like me, he gets pulled towards danger. Most of the whisperers would know him. He’d probably been at school with some of them. And once you met Rocky, you never forgot him.
    No one answered. Everyone looked at me.
    “Gregory Langton got beat up,” I said.
    “Langton? Why would anyone fight with him?” asked Rocky as the doors closed and the ambulance eased its way out of the car park, taking Gregory and Alice off to the hospital.
    I shrugged. “I found him. They think I did it, but it was Milo Scarret.” I watched the ambulance disappear down the street. “Him and his brothers attacked me yesterday.”
    The policeman heard this. He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t look like someone who’s been attacked.”
    “I beat them,” I said.
    Rocky groaned and made faces at me, trying to get me to shut the hell up. People didn’t understand about the Smith strength. The policeman definitely didn’t. “You’re saying you fought the three Scarret brothers? On your own?”
    I looked him straight in the eyes, my chin up. I let him see I