Page 2

I got up an hour before everyone else to get ready for school, because my need to be flawless didn’t just apply to football.

Hair, make-up, uniform. And the Blackport uniform was so ridiculous that it needed its own thirty minutes.

Sometimes I even re-ironed the shirts that Mum had sent out because I needed them to be absolutely perfect.

Dad was away for work, and this time Mum hadn’t gone with him.

Over the last year, since me and Niall turned seventeen, she’d started going away with him on his work trips, spending time walking around European cities.

And shopping, of course. But occasionally, she stayed behind, and when she did, she was always up early, like she was scared we’d forget something if she wasn’t hanging around the kitchen making sporadic comments about things that happened weeks ago in school.

I came down to her making crepes in her satin dressing gown.

‘Morning. No sign of Niall yet?’ she asked over her shoulder and giving a little yelp as she turned a crepe.

‘Nope. Not yet.’ I got a saucepan out and filled it with water, putting two eggs in to boil.

‘No crepes, Lex? You used to love them.’ Mum sounded disappointed.

‘Sorry. Protein for breakfast. I’m in training. But, sure, I’ll take one as well.’ I smiled and Mum’s face lit up as she handed me a plate with a crepe on it.

Niall snorted as he walked in, tie wonky, shirt tails hanging out, hair sticking up everywhere. And this is where me and Niall differed. I couldn’t leave the house like that, never mind go to school.

‘In training for what?’ He walked over to Mum, sliding the plate of just-made crepes across the counter before drowning them in maple syrup.

‘I’m making the first team this year,’ I said. I’d told myself I was going to talk about it. Put it out into the universe in the hope that would help make it come true.

‘Oh really?’ The food in his gob didn’t hide the sarcasm.

‘Yes, really.’ I resisted the temptation to throw an egg at him.

‘Fair enough,’ he agreed with a nod, and I felt a flash of joy. ‘Meg was saying Sadie’s gone all boss bitch this season.’

Meg? Only I called her ‘Meg’.

‘Yeah, what’s wrong with that? It’s the way it should be. It’s Westing FC not Ferndale United,’ I snapped. I didn’t get everyone’s problem with taking things seriously. If you don’t want to put the effort in, go to another club.

‘Nothing. Harrison’s the same; said there’s some new kid joining this week too. Better keep his hands off my position.’

‘Oh, I’m sure he won’t be as good as you, Niall,’ said Mum, Niall’s biggest fan.

‘Thanks, Mum.’ My brother directed his smug smile right at me.

‘Bet Yamal doesn’t eat maple syrup,’ I said, checking the time for my eggs.

Niall responded by shoving the rest of the syrupy crepes in his mouth.

‘When’s Dad back?’ I asked. I needed my own cheerleader home.

‘Not until Wednesday,’ Mum said.

I rolled my eyes, took out my eggs and sat down opposite Niall. ‘You missed the match last night. You should have seen the goal Aitana scored. Free kick.’ I kissed my fingers. ‘Where’d you go after leaving Meg home anyway?’

‘Hunter’s.’

‘Oh, wow, proper bromance now,’ I teased.

‘Nah, he just wanted to show me his new football shirt. Venezia. Class.’ Niall was scrolling through his phone. He smirked at the screen.

‘What’s so funny?’ I asked, leaning over to see, but he slid the phone into his pocket.

He pulled a face then flicked my ponytail. ‘None of your business.’

I sighed, fixed my hair, then lowered my voice so Mum wouldn’t hear. ‘Did you do the maths homework?’

‘Shit!’ Niall whispered. ‘I meant to do it last night – completely forgot. Fuck.’ Then he gave me his innocent begging look that worked for all the girls in our year.

It also worked on me, but I had to at least hesitate before I said yes.

He was just lucky that I didn’t want our name dragged through the mud any more than he’d already managed with his rubbish grades.

Not that mine were amazing or anything, but they were better than his.

‘You can borrow mine.’

‘Thanks, I owe you. Best twin ever!’ He disappeared to look for my homework.

After breakfast I looked in the mirror again, checking my slicked-back ponytail to make sure Niall hadn’t messed it up. I’d added a last-minute hairband to match the berry lip gloss I was wearing. I smoothed down my skirt and picked some fluff from my jumper.

I never wanted to be a ‘Blackport girl’. It’s one of the only private schools in Northern Ireland and the only reason we went there was because there was no chance in hell that Niall was getting into St Anne’s with his AQE score, and we hadn’t wanted to split up.

It might sound like a kind of twin cliché, but Niall genuinely felt like an extension of me.

I remember when he went on the school ski trip in P7 and I stayed behind because I’d wanted to study.

I’d never felt so lost. I got no studying done and cried when we went to pick him up at the airport.

So separate schools seemed completely unthinkable.

And there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with Blackport.

It had better grounds and sports facilities than any of the other local schools, but it didn’t even have a football team. Boys or girls. Whatever, I had Westing.

Niall stuck his head into the kitchen before heading for the front door. ‘Right, done. Thanks, Lex. Oh, and I said we’d pick up Megan this morning, so drive by Meadowview too?’

‘Bye, Mum!’ I called, then followed him outside. ‘She didn’t say anything to me,’ I said, confused. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah, she just asked last night when I was leaving her home.’ Niall got into the passenger seat of my car. The brand-new BMW 1 Series that Dad had bought us both on our seventeenth birthday, mine white and Niall’s black.

When we pulled into Megan’s drive, she was already at the window waiting. Weird. She was a late person. Always. No matter how hard she tried, she was never on time.

She got into my car in a cloud of Ariana Grande perfume.

‘You smell good,’ I said, pulling out of her drive.

Megan sat forward so she was pretty much sitting between us. ‘Thanks.’

‘Trying to lure a date for V-Ball?’ I joked.

Of course my best friend already had about five offers of dates to V-Ball, all of which she’d turned down.

She said she was ‘waiting for the right one’, but from where I was standing, she could have her pick.

V-Ball was Blackport’s Valentine’s ball, the insanely huge budget black-tie event of the year.

Megan lived for it. I, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about it.

To me it was time wasted, when I could be practising football.

‘I saw Hunter looking at you in a perverted way the other day,’ I confessed.

‘Hunter’s always looking at me in a perverted way. And you. I saw him staring at your tits on Friday. Don’t blame him, though – your mum did you a solid with those.’

Niall made a retching noise and Megan laughed. ‘Sorry, Niall, but your mum and your sister are hot. Deal with it.’

‘Please stop.’

At school everyone was congregating on the steps by the maths block as usual. Hunter was telling everyone about how amazing he was in his last football match, as usual. Zoe and Amina were looking at something on Zoe’s phone. As usual.

I sat down beside Zoe. Megan and Niall were chatting to each other, ignoring Hunter.

‘We’re talking V-Ball, Lexie – who’s your date?

’ Zoe was staring at me with her perfect almond-shaped eyes, her auburn hair tied up in a high ponytail with a white bow.

She was smiling. Zoe was always smiling.

I wondered if someone could smile too much.

Like, do smiles become worthless if they’re there all the time?

‘Earth to Lexie?’ Zoe waved her hand in front of my face, and Amina laughed.

‘Sorry, em, nobody. Haven’t had any time to think about it.’ I shrugged. I mean, that wasn’t entirely true. I did think it was a bit of a waste of potential football practice hours, but at the same time, it wasn’t like I was drowning in date offers.

‘Oh my God, let us find you a date. We’ll get you someone really hot,’ Zoe said enthusiastically.

‘Oh, and you’re coming to my party on Friday, yeah?

’ Zoe nodded at me, like I didn’t actually have any choice in the matter.

But it worked because I nodded back, even though it was the first I’d heard of a party and hadn’t had a chance to think it through.

‘But I will find you a date. I’m making it my mission. ’

‘No, it’s fine, really.’ I tried to laugh it off, but Zoe had already turned away to talk to Amina.

My heart was racing now. The one thing worse than not being asked by anyone, was Zoe Parker asking people on my behalf and being rejected. I glanced up to catch Niall sharing a look of sympathy with me.

I tried to get Megan’s attention, throwing a ‘save me’ look across the steps to where she was sitting beside Niall. But she wasn’t looking at me; she was laughing at something Hunter had said.

‘You’re going. Leave it to us.’ Zoe turned back. She put her hand on my leg and grinned at me. ‘Don’t worry Lexie, we won’t let you down.’ She squealed and clapped. ‘I just love playing cupid.’

Great.