Read Remix for Free Online Page B

pleading intense laziness.” I loll further into my chair. “Don’t make me move.”
    Ruby shakes her head at me, tells me I’m lame. But that’s it. I get away with it. As soon as she’s clomped off up the hill, I nudge Owen with my toe.
    “Can I talk to you for a second?”
RUBY
    It’s nice ambling through the field. Everyone’s kind of settled in now, the camps all jumbled up and on top of one another. I pass a group of lads running down the hill with huge letters spelling out the word MOOBS in fluorescent body paint across their chests.
    “Moobs for the win!” I call out as they pass. “M” stops and turns to jiggle, making me laugh. It’s cool here. I feel like these are my people – even if my people vary wildly in age. The couple over there must be my parents’ age, although the woman’s wearing a Gold’ntone T-shirt, which makes her tons cooler than my mum.
    Not that this would be hard.
    Relations between us have kind of broken down after I rang home with my results. There was a moment of silence in which my mum was hoping she’d misheard before she said them out loud and my dad took the phone from her.
    “They’re not good enough, Ruby.”
    “For what?” Even though I knew exactly what he meant.
    “For staying on at St Felicity’s.”
    “I could change—”
    “Now’s not the time to discuss this.”
    Seems like we’re never going to. My parents are determined to book an appointment with the head next week. No mention was made of the alternative – a Kalinski kid in state education? Unheard of. If my parents have anything to do with it, I’ll be back to square one, back in my uniform and back in the classroom. And Kaz’ll be in the year above. Without me.
KAZ
    Owen knew that Stu was coming. He’d seen him at the Hydro gig Owen played two nights ago and they’d chatted about what they were doing for bank-holiday weekend: going to Remix.
    “Did you say about Ruby?” I ask.
    Owen looks miserable. “The matter of Ruby Kalinski provides a conflict of interest between me and Garside. I tend not to mention her unless I have to, so I didn’t. And once I’d decided not to say anything to one, it seemed best to stay quiet to the other.”
    “How quiet?”
    “Lee doesn’t know.” Owen nods across the campfire to where Lee is currently trying to throw marshmallows into the (generous) target of Dongle’s gaping mouth. “Lee has been blessed with many qualities, but discretion isn’t one of them.”
    The same could be said of his sister. Sometimes a little white lie saves a lot of hassle. “So do we
stay
quiet?”
    The movement Owen makes is neither a nod nor a shrug. “Maybe it’s better not to spread the drama. The others aren’t exactly matey with Stu’s lot and it’s not as if I’ll let them invite him over when Ruby’s here.”
    I’m about to point out that he won’t always be here, but my phone goes. It’s Tom, and all the other thoughts fall out of my head. I stare at his name on the screen before I remember that the done thing is to answer it.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey, Kaz.” His voice reminds me of all the times I lay in bed balancing my phone on my ear as we talked until we were half-asleep. “What are you up to?”
    Don’t make yourself too available, Karizma
, I can practically hear Naomi hissing.
    “Hanging out at camp with everyone. Owen’s friends. I think you know them. Dongle—”
    “Dongle Dave’s here?” Tom interrupts. “That guy’s a legend!”
    Unless legends are made from eating pointlessly large quantities of foodstuffs, I’m not sure how Dongle qualifies, but then Tom is proud of the fact that he can burp the alphabet. It’s probably a rugby thing.
    “Well, er, yes…” I’ve lost my nonchalance now.
    “Do you mind if I come over for a bit?” Tom says. “The lads seem to be pairing off with the girls next to our camp and me and Stella—” I hear a faint
“Your name is Stella, isn’t it? I haven’t just been making that up?”
and