Whatever Love Is Read Free Page B

been,’ Frankie admitted.
    ‘You’ve never been ? ’ Lulu gasped. ‘You live practically next door to one of the best music festivals in the whole country and you haven’t been?
What’s that all about?’
    ‘It only happens every other year and last time I was down visiting Mum. Mind you, I don’t think my uncle would have been too keen on my being there, judging by the way he yelled at
the others for going,’ she said. ‘He doesn’t approve of the festival – says it’s a blot on the landscape and ruins the environment.’
    ‘Well, we’re going whether he likes it or not,’ Lulu said firmly. ‘It’s the only upside of moving here. And while you’re at it, you can make sure you drag
that cousin of yours along.’
    ‘Ned?’ Frankie felt herself bristle inwardly.
    ‘No, silly, the other one – James. OMG, that guy is so fit!’
    Frankie giggled. ‘You fancy him!’
    ‘Too right,’ Lulu said. ‘Has he got a girlfriend at the moment?’
    ‘That’s like asking whether a leopard has spots,’ Frankie replied. ‘He changes them more often than most people change their socks.’
    ‘Great!’ Lulu laughed. ‘That means he hasn’t found the right girl yet. But then again, he hasn’t met me!’
    Recalling that conversation now, Frankie couldn’t help smiling and feeling more than a little envious of her friend’s confident, anything-goes nature.
    ‘Hey look, it smiles!’ Jemma teased. ‘So the thought of Nick’s party isn’t so horrendous after all?’
    ‘I don’t know, I —’
    ‘Honestly, you’re hopeless!’ Mia sighed. ‘I just don’t get why Ned kept on at me to check you’d be there. You’re a right party pooper!’
    ‘Ned?’ To her annoyance, the word came out as a squeak. ‘But he’s in Wales.’
    ‘Yes, well, I guess even he isn’t so saintly that he’d miss out on the kind of party the Rushworths throw just to camp with a load of kids from some inner-city sink
estate,’ Mia said, zapping the sound on the TV. ‘He’s done some sort of swap and he’s leaving early. He’ll be home tomorrow.’
    Frankie fought to keep her face expressionless. Ned was the opposite of his twin, Mia; he detested flashy parties as much as Frankie did and no way would he cut short his placement with Kids Out
There, or KOT, the charity that was his passion – unless . . .
    If he was coming back early, it could surely only mean one thing: he had missed her as much as she had missed him.
    ‘OK, I’ll go,’ she murmured. ‘I guess it would be rude not to.’

CHAPTER 2
    ‘She regarded her cousin as
an example of everything good and great.’
    (Jane Austen, Mansfield Park )
    From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Congratulations!
    Dear Frankie,
    Congratulations!
    I am delighted to inform you that your short story Look Again has been selected by our panel of judges as the winning entry in our Writers of Tomorrow competition. The judges found
your story both imaginative and moving and were particularly impressed by your use of metaphor and irony. As you know, the prize consists of £250 plus free entry for the duration of the
M-Brace festival at the end of the month. I would be most grateful if you could telephone me as soon as possible to arrange a time to visit our offices and be photographed receiving your
prize.
    Once again, congratulations.
    Belinda Painter
    Editor, Nene Chronicle
    Frankie couldn’t stop smiling as she printed off the email. She put it into the box on the top of her wardrobe, along with her private journals and the collection
of photographs which her brother William had emailed from the cruise liner Sea Siren , on which he was now, as he proudly told her, photographer’s assistant to the assistant
photographer. It had been a photograph taken with a disposable camera that had won William Best Photo (Portrait) Under Ten in a schools’ competition years before and set him on course for
what he hoped would be a successful