Love Lessons Read Free Page A

are all embarrassingly awful.
    Mum used to make appalling matching knickers when we were little, threaded with very unreliable elastic. Our baggy shop-bought white pants are only one degree better. Still, I have proper underwear now. I used my maths tuition money to buy a wonderful black bra with pink lace and a little pink rose, and two matching knickers, wispy little things a tenth of the size of my plain girls’ pants.
    I locked the bathroom and tried them on, standing precariously on the edge of the bath so I could peek at myself in the bathroom cabinet mirror. I loved the way they looked, the way they make me look.
    I hadn’t dared wear them yet under my awful dresses because Grace could so easily blab. I’d have to wash them out secretly myself rather than risk putting them in the laundry basket.
    â€˜Do we look like freaks?’ Grace asked worriedly.
    â€˜Of course we do. Look at our clothes!’
    Grace considered. ‘I like my dresses, especially my pink one with the little panda pattern – it’s so cute,’ she said. ‘Would you have liked that material for your dress, Prue?’
    â€˜No! I can’t stick little pandas or teddies or bunny rabbits. For God’s sake, I’m fourteen .’
    â€˜Do you think I’m too old to wear my panda dress?’ Grace asked anxiously.
    There was only one answer but I didn’t want to upset her. ‘I suppose your pink panda dress does still look quite sweet on you,’ I lied valiantly.
    â€˜It’s getting a bit small for me now anyway,’ Grace sighed. ‘ All my dresses are tight on me. I wish I wasn’t getting so large and lumpy.’
    â€˜It’s just a stage you go through. Puppy fat.’
    â€˜ You didn’t,’ she sighed again. ‘Dad keeps going on about me getting fat. He says I shouldn’t eat so much. He says I’m greedy. Do you think I should go on a diet, Prue?’
    â€˜No! Take no notice of him. He just likes to nag, you know that. Anyway, you can’t diet just yet. I’ve got you a surprise.’
    I’d felt so mean spending all my tuition money on myself, though I knew Grace would never manage to keep any present I bought her properly hidden. The only way I could buy her a treat was to get her something edible, to be quickly consumed.
    â€˜A surprise!’ said Grace, clapping her hands.
    â€˜Ssh! I was keeping it a secret, to cheer you up the next time Dad goes off on one of his rants, but you might as well have it now.’
    I climbed out of bed and went to scrabble in my knicker drawer. My hands found the flimsy satin and lace of my new underwear. I secretly stroked them in the dark, and then searched again until my fingers slid over the crackly cellophane of Grace’s surprise.
    â€˜OK! Here we are!’ I slipped back into bed and thrust my present into her hands.
    â€˜What is it?’ she said, unable to see properly in the dark.
    I flicked the torch on to show her.
    â€˜Oh wow !’
    â€˜Shut up ! Do you want Dad to hear?’ I said, nudging her.
    â€˜Sorry. But, oh Prue, it’s so sweet !’
    There’s a special chocolate boutique in the shopping centre. It’s Grace’s all-time favourite shop even though she’s never even set foot inside it. Mum buys chocolate off a market stall. It’s always a funny make and past its sell-by date, but it’s cheap, and that’s all Mum cares about.
    I was going to buy Grace a pound of posh chocolates in a fancy box, but then I saw this big white chocolate bunny in the window, clutching an orange marzipan carrot. I knew she’d love it.
    â€˜What shall I call him? Peter Rabbit? Benjamin Bunny?’
    â€˜Can’t you ever make up your own names, Grace?’
    â€˜You know I can’t. You think up a lovely name for him.’
    â€˜There’s not much point. You’ll be chomping away at him in two seconds. Knowing you, there won’t even