Read Girl, 16: Five-Star Fiasco for Free Online

– because it’s Valentine’s, of course.’
    ‘Oh no!’ gasped Jess. ‘I hadn’t thought of that! Of course ! But we’ve got to find somebody.’
    ‘Don’t worry,’ said Fred nervously. ‘There are still loads to try: Frenzy, Goldilocks, The Car Crusher, The Evil Toads . . . How are you getting on organising the buffet?’
    ‘Was I supposed to be organising the buffet?’ Jess felt a cold thrill of fear all across her scalp.
    ‘Well, you know how useless I would be at that sort of thing,’ said Fred.
    ‘Didn’t Jodie say she’d give us a hand?’ Jess racked her brains for a reason to be cheerful.
    ‘Have you tasted her beefburgers?’ enquired Fred. ‘They’re like an industrial accident.’
    There was a horrid pause, during which Jess began to panic so deeply her hands went dead.
    ‘Never mind,’ said Fred. ‘If it all goes pear-shaped, we can elope to Vegas.’
    This wasn’t terribly reassuring.

Chapter 7
     
     
     
    While Jess was having breakfast the next day, a text arrived from Flora. BTW, DON’T TELL JODIE ABT BEACH WEEKEND AS SADLY NO ROOM FOR HER. BUT SHE’S TROUBLE ANYWAY SO WHO CARES?
    ‘Oh, Mum,’ said Jess with a careful smile, ‘by the way, Flora’s invited me for a weekend away at Jack’s family’s place by the sea.’
    ‘Where exactly?’ asked Mum in an alert, pouncing kind of way.
    ‘Oh, I’m not sure.’ Mum always wanted details, which was irritating. ‘Jack’s mum and dad are going to be there, though, so it’s nothing to worry about.’
    ‘But where is this? How are you going to get there?’ Mum was now on Red Alert.
    ‘It might begin with a D . . . Devon? No, ah, Dorset.’
    ‘Dorset!’ Granny beamed. ‘There was a wonderful murder there once. They made it look as if this chap had thrown himself off the cliff but, actually, he’d been pushed!’
    Mum went pale. Jess silently cursed Granny’s ability to whip Mum up into a frenzy of survival anxiety.
    ‘Oh my goodness, those cliffs!’ gasped Mum. ‘When was this murder? How horrible!’ The weekend in Dorset, which had up till now seemed a heavenly prospect, was acquiring ghastly homicidal overtones.
    ‘It was only in a book, dear,’ said Granny soothingly. ‘One of Agatha Christie’s, I think.’
    Mum didn’t look at all reassured that the clifftop plunge had only been fictional – after all, sometimes life does imitate art and Jess had always been strongly influenced by literature.
    ‘Who’s driving you down to Dorset?’ enquired Mum urgently, staring at Jess with panic-stricken eyes. Jess knew she had already imagined the crash site in gory detail. ‘It’s not Jack, I hope!’ One of the really cool things about Jack was that he’d passed his driving test and already had his own car, whereas Fred only had a skateboard.
    ‘I don’t know! Maybe! Jack’s passed his test and Flora says he’s a totally safe driver!’ Jess was beginning to get hot and bothered. She’d had five hundred versions of this conversation with her mum in the fevered privacy of her mind – she’d known it was going to be an issue.
    ‘Flora’s hardly a good judge!’ snapped Mum. ‘Her father thinks he’s doing Formula One!’
    ‘Well, if it makes you happy, I’ll go by train!’ shouted Jess. ‘Or bus!’
    ‘It’s only because I love you, Jess!’ Mum seized her hand, abandoning her cornflakes and giving in to a full-blown panic. Jess knew she had started imagining a train crash, or the bus brakes failing on a long hill running down to the sea.
    ‘I’ll walk, then!’ she yelled, though she knew even this gesture would not reassure her mother, who sometimes seemed convinced that Jess could be involved in a crash even when lying peacefully in her bed at home. Indeed whenever a plane went low over the house, Mum ran outside and looked up desperately, as if she was planning to catch it if it plummeted down, and to throw it over the fence into the Jones’s next door.
    ‘There’s no need to shout,’