Read Glitter for Free Online Page A

has to separate the culprits and abandon the game.
    “You’re right, Cali,” I say, when we’re in the changing room, “nothing like this ever did happen at my old school. But I don’t know how you can call this place a graveyard. Madhouse, maybe, but graveyard, never!”

Chapter 9
like Pride and Prejudice and stuff…
    A t lunchtime things get really bad. I stick close to Cali and she shows me how the canteen works. I make sure I get a big helping of Friday fish and chips and a double helping of sponge and custard for pudding. I don’t know if there’ll be anything but coffee and margarine for supper when I get home.
    “Hi Cali,” says Dylan, coming to sit with us and unloading his lasagne from his tray. “Who’s your new ladi-da friend then?”
    “This is Liberty,” smiles Cali. “Libs for short and give her chance Dyl, she’s learning fast.”
    “Hello Dylan,” I say. “Pleased to meet you.”
    Then he cracks up laughing and sticks his nose up in the air and starts talking in a funny voice, “Oh, sorry, I’m so very pleased to meet you too, Liberty. Perhaps later I might take you for a lovely wander in the rose garden?”
    Then he starts laughing again until tears squeeze out of his eyes and I don’t think he can stop.
    “You’re like something out of one of them Jane Austin stories,” he laughs, “like Pride and Prejudice and stuff. My mum loves them.”
    “I’m not really,” I say, blushing and feeling awkward. “I just speak differently, I guess. It doesn’t mean anything though. Not really. I can’t help it.”
    “‘It doesn’t mean anything though,’” he mimics.
    “Calm down, Dylan,” says Cali, “she’s not that funny. Why don’t you turn your attention to helping her instead of laughing at her?”
    So Dylan and Cali spend the rest of lunchtime attempting to teach me how to easy up my accent.
    “I can’t do it,” I say, after trying really hard. My whole face starts glowing red with embarrassment. Their sounds feel weird in my mouth and however hard I try, my tongue keeps getting all twisted around them.
    “You’ll just have to try a little bit harder then, won’tyou?” says a very big boy from the end of our table.
    “Accents don’t mean anything,” I shriek, turning towards him. I can feel myself losing it again and I can’t control myself. My rage is bubbling up inside, threatening to boil over. Alice’s words about taking responsibility for my feelings are spinning around my head but I don’t know what she means, I don’t know how to take responsibility. “Just because you think I have a posh accent,” I scream, “it doesn’t mean you know anything about me or about my life. You know nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nobody does!” I throw my cutlery down so hard it breaks my plate in two. Cali puts her head in her hands.
    “It means you’re rich,” the big boy shouts back. “Loaded, by the sounds of it. Listen to yourself. What you doing in a place like this anyway, poor little rich girl? Shouldn’t you be out on your pony with Mummy? Rich girl, rich girl, poor little rich girl.”
    And then like a wave rippling through the dining hall the whole school joins in and chants, “Rich girl, rich girl, poor little rich girl.”
    Their loud words tumble over and over me and I’m drowning in a sea of noise. I hate them all. They know nothing about me or my life. If only they really knew whatmy life was really like and how much it’s fallen to pieces in the past twenty-four hours, then they’d have nothing to shout about. But they haven’t even given me a chance. I wish I could run away and disappear.
    Cali starts sighing and banging her head on the table again.
    “What is it with you?” she shouts above the noise. “You really let him get under your skin didn’t you? You gotta learn to keep yourself under control here Libs otherwise you’re gonna end up in deep, deep trouble. You gotta learn to stay cool, stay easy.”
    Everyone’s still chanting and