Stolen Girl Read Free Page A

like to be me – we understood each other. I don’t know why the other girls didn’t like us. They never said but they made it perfectly clear we weren’t allowed in their gang. Instead, whenever we walked by they’d sneer and whisper. Then they’d fall around laughing as if sharing a secret joke, which it always was. It made me paranoid and fearful. And, without Lauren by my side, I felt even more isolated.
    Sometimes, even with the nicest packed lunch in the world, I’d have no appetite. I’d watch the other kids and wonder what I’d done wrong. I never knew why they left me out, why I wasn’t good enough to be part of their gang; I only knew the door was closed to me. It hurt me deeply and sometimes I’d catch a sob deep down inside my throat but I’d always refuse to let it surface. Not here, not in front of them. The bullies would never beat me. I’d never let them see me cry because I knew if I did, they’d make my life ten times worse.
    Lauren and I were in different classes but we would always arrange where to meet before lunchtime so that we knew where to find one another when morning lessons were over. Usually, I was the first one there waiting by the playground wall because I was so eager to escape the loneliness of the classroom.
    Lauren never meant to be late but often the queues and the chattering children would hold her up. I hated sitting around because, apart from a solitary skipping rope, everything in the playground needed more than one person. Games alwaysinvolved a group of kids. Instead, I’d sit there forlornly, waiting for my friend, trying not to catch anyone’s eye in case they turned on me.
    Even though she’d often be late, I didn’t mind because as soon as I saw her running out of the school hall my face would light up. Once outside we’d run off together into a far corner, where no one would find us. Then we’d be back – safe in our imaginary world, where I was Claire and she was Lisa. We were Steps and no matter how mean the bullies were, we didn’t care because together we’d sing and conquer the world! However, first I had to conquer my times tables. Maths was my worst subject. I knew it and so did the teacher, but most of all, so did all the other children.
    ‘Hey, dumbo, why didn’t you know that one? It was easy!’ A boy shouted across the class at me one day when I got a simple question wrong. The others soon joined in.
    ‘Idiot!’ another mouthed in my direction.
    ‘No,’ a girl hissed, ‘she’s as thick as pig shit!’
    I tried to hide at the back of the classroom hoping the teacher wouldn’t notice me. I convinced myself if I hunched my shoulders and kept my head down then maybe I could make myself invisible. If she couldn’t see me then she wouldn’t be able to pick me out to ask me anything, but she always did.
    One day she asked me the answer to a simple maths question but I didn’t have a clue.
    ‘Katie, I asked what is eight times eight?’ The teacher tapped her fingers impatiently on my desk, waiting for an answer.
    Suddenly, my heart beat furiously and my mouth went bone dry. The middle of my palms pricked with perspiration and I felt clammy with sweat as I tried to think of something,
anything
to say. But the harder I thought, the more my mindwent blank. By now, all eyes were on me. I felt them burning into me, all waiting for an answer I didn’t have. My head felt light and dizzy as the room began to spin. Everyone was watching me. I saw them but at the same time, I saw no one, only the teacher standing there, waiting. But I didn’t know my times table. I didn’t have a clue what eight times eight was. Maybe I could just say a random number and make her go away? For a split second I considered it. A random number came into my head but what if it was too high or too low? Then I’d look even more stupid; the teacher would know that I’d guessed and I’d be in even worse trouble.
    ‘Err…err…’ I stuttered, trying to think of