A Date with Fate Read Free

going?”
    â€œFantastic, thanks,” said Lila, giving Josh a warm smile. “You know, for a Monday morning. What are you two talking about?”
    â€œBears and tigers, mostly,” said Josh.
    â€œNutter,” said Lila, laughing.
    Eve realised with some horror that Josh’s ears had turned pink. It was suddenly as clear as crystal why Josh was permanently single. The girl he liked was already spoken for.
    Josh liked Lila.
    Eve wanted to stamp on Lila’s foot. First Ollie, then Ryan, now Josh! How come she got all the boys’ attention? She wasn’t even that pretty. OK, she was, but there were more beautiful girls at Heartside High.
    Eve put her arm possessively through the crook of Josh’s elbow. He looked a little startled, but didn’t pull away.
    â€œThis chit-chat is all very nice,” she said waspishly, “but we have a class to get to. Shall we keep walking?”
    Lila grinned. “How stupid of me to forget,” she said. She gave a little bow, extending her hand in front of Eve. “After you, your Royal Highness.”
    Eve raged internally all the way to maths, practically towing Josh beside her like a dog on a lead. Lila Murray wanted to play, did she? Well, this time the new girl didn’t stand a chance.

THREE
    Eve ate lunch as quickly as she could. At a table near the door, Josh was finishing off a sandwich and packing up his bag. The moment he left the canteen, Eve followed as closely as she dared.
    A number of kids left the school building in lunch break. Eve blended in with the crowd jostling through the double doors. Josh was already some way ahead of her, his long legs striding easily down the steps outside the school building and away down the high street.
    Eve snatched a quick glimpse of herself in a shop window. There was no point in any of this if she didn’t look good. The warm breeze had brought a flush of colour to her pale cheeks, but her lips were dry and her hair a little messy. She could live with the hair, Eve decided, but had to sort her lips out. Boys liked soft, inviting lips. She whipped out her favourite gloss and applied it with a swift one-two swipe of the wand. Much better.
    To her dismay, when she looked ahead again, she realized Josh had vanished. Eve jogged up and down the high street, peering inside the shops and checking her gold watch, feeling jumpy. Time was passing too fast for comfort. Soon she’d have to be back in class. Where had he disappeared to?
    Eve turned off the high street, feeling a little desperate. The sea wind hit her head-on, blowing her hair right back from her face. To her relief, she spotted Josh sitting on the beach, his rucksack by his side and his head bent over something.
    Making a mental note to keep her face to the wind – strands of hair sticking to lip gloss was not a good look – Eve straightened her shoulders and strode over.
    Josh was drawing. Eve stopped in the sand and gazed over his shoulder as his pencil drew the swift outline of a gull banking over the sand, flight feathers outstretched like fingers. It was so lifelike, she half-expected it to fly off the page with its usual seaside shriek. She was genuinely impressed.
    There was a portrait of a laughing girl on the facing page. Eve had hardly glimpsed it when Josh flipped the sketchbook to a clean page – but she’d seen enough to recognise the face.
    Lila Murray again.
    When would Lila stop getting in the way?
    I knows more ways to snag a boy than you’ve ever dreamed of, new girl, she thought, feeling the fierce flush of competition rush through her blood. By the time I’ve finished with Josh, he’ll be putty in my hands.
    Eve knew exactly how to hook someone like Josh. Scratch the surface on any boy, cool guy or geeky nerd, and they were all the same. If you played it right, in no time at all the boys rolled at your feet like puppies begging to have their tummies tickled. It was pathetic