The Girls Read Online Free Page A

narrowed her eyes at them.
    ‘No.’
    ‘You look like twins. Are you sure you’re not twins?’
    ‘Positive,’ said Grace.
    ‘I know someone at Mount Elizabeth. She says you’re allowed to smoke. Is that true?’
    ‘No!’
    ‘Or maybe she said swear. Are you allowed to swear?’
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    Pip tried to think of something to say. But Tyler had lost interest, and was scouring the gardens from left to right. She stopped when she saw a boy in the distance; then she pressed her feet to the pedals and propelled the huge bike across the garden towards him, her hair blowing out behind her.
    Pip watched for a while. It was the good-looking boy, the tall one with bobbly golden-tipped Afro hair and green eyes. The boy’s gaze fixed on to Tyler. Pip watched him pull off his school tie and absentmindedly roll it into a ball which he tucked into the pocket of his posh school blazer. Tyler said something to him and dismounted from the bike. Then they walked slowly in the opposite direction, towards the square of benches at the furthest end of the garden, Tyler wheeling the bike, the boy strolling with his hands in his pockets, the pair of them deep in conversation.
    Pip and Grace looked at one another. Grace shrugged. ‘What was that all about?’
    ‘Maybe she was just being friendly?’
    Grace shook her head. ‘Weird.’
    ‘She’s pretty.’
    ‘Skinny,’ said Grace dismissively.
    ‘I guess.’
    Pip stared into the anemone-shaped head of a clover flower growing by her feet. She pinched it between her thumb and index finger and then brought the honey smell to her nose. A sharp breeze circled the half-moon of the garden, feathering the tendrils of weeping willows, biting through the wool of Pip’s jumper. The last slice of setting sun fell behind a chimney stack and the temperature dropped.
    ‘I’m going in,’ said Grace.
    ‘Me too.’
    Pip turned briefly to look at Tyler and the boy again. They were sitting side by side on a bench. The bike lay flat on the grass, its back wheel still turning lazily. Tyler’s legs were pulled up into her body and the boy was laughing at something she’d said. Pip wondered how old he was, where he lived, if they were boyfriend and girlfriend. As she watched, the back gate of one of the flats across the lawn opened and three tall, thin girls emerged. One after the other. It was the strange sisters with the weird hair. They walked in height order, louchely, scuffing at the gravel on the path with old sneakers. The smallest one picked up her pace as she neared Tyler and the boy; the other two trailed behind. And then, virtually telepathically, they arranged themselves into a horseshoe huddle around the bench, a silent choreography. Pip saw Tyler nod in their direction; the boy and the sisters all turned to look at them and then they looked away again.
    ‘Come on,’ said Grace. ‘I’m cold.’
    Pip followed her big sister back across the lawn and down the gravelled path that led to their back gate, and as she did she heard the garden whisper in their wake. It talked to itself about the things it knew, the secrets it held close within its pathways and crannies, its bowers and corners. It whispered about the people who lived behind the closed doors and the insular group of children on the bench, and of the days yet to come when the warmth of summer would bring it all back to life.
    Clare watched her girls through the kitchen window. It was the first time they’d gone out into the garden without her, just to hang out. She’d seen a young girl come and talk to them. Hard-faced. Pretty. It had looked like something of an interrogation. Not exactly friendly. Then the girl had cycled away and joined up with her little gang at the other end of the garden, three slightly alternative-looking girls who looked like sisters and a tall, mixed-race boy in a dark school uniform. She saw her girls now, casting backward glances at the gang on the benches, then heading back indoors. The