Cassie's Crush by Fiona Foden Page B

I? Anyway, I’m going closer to find out what they’re talking about.”
    â€œA load of rubbish, probably,” Evie said, rolling her eyes.
    â€œWell, let’s see, shall we?” I jumped down from the seafront on to the sand. Marcia and Evie leapt down behind me and we hurried along towards the rocks. I felt more positive now, and my nervousness had all disappeared. The Leech could flirt all she wanted but I was doing something much smarter. I once read that the best thing is to get to know a boy as a friend first, and then see what develops. And what better way to make friends with someone than to turn up at their little beach party?
    From behind the rocks, we could peep over and observe them close up. “The Leech is there!” I hissed as she ran towards the boys from the sea.
    â€œWhy did he invite her?” Marcia whispered.
    â€œMaybe he didn’t,” I said. “She might’ve just turned up…”
    â€œLike us,” Evie pointed out. She was right, of course. It was a dumb idea, I’d started to worry about Mum finding out I’d lied, and the wind was now gusting the smoke from the fire straight at us. I tried to hold in the cough, but started to splutter, and Evie and Marcia were coughing and rubbing their eyes too. “I can’t see anything,” Evie complained. “My eyes are in agony .”
    â€œLet’s go back,” Marcia hissed. “This is stupid.”
    â€œOK,” I mumbled, and we all stood up and started to hurry back to the seafront.
    â€œHey, girls!” Joey yelled after us. “Wanna join the party?”
    We all stopped dead. “Er, what party?” I asked, as if I hadn’t noticed anything going on at all.
    â€œOur party,” he said, laughing.
    â€œAll right,” I said with a shrug, hoping to God that he assumed we just happened to be lurking about on the beach in the dark, and not spying.
    We tried to look casual as we strolled towards them. The boys had stopped messing about and I felt loads of eyes boring into me. “Hey,” Ollie said with a big, heart-flipping grin. “No need to be shy, girls. You should’ve just come over.”
    Well, this just shows what a brilliant idea Operation SOOP actually is. Not only were we invited to the beach party, but we were also given toasted marshmallows that were as sweet and melty as I felt inside. Ollie kept looking at me. I’m sure he did. And every time his eyes swivelled in my direction, the Leech grabbed his arm and started shrieking something like, “Toast me a marshmallow, Ollie. Mine keep burning or falling off. You’re sooo good at it!”
    It was sickening, really. But I clung on to the hope that she was getting on his nerves, because once I saw him screw up his face in annoyance (or maybe some smoke had just gusted into his eyes). Sam came over and sat by me and we hung out and chewed our marshmallows. “You all right?” he asked, spotting me glancing in Ollie’s direction.
    â€œYeah, yeah,” I said quickly.
    â€œWanna paddle?”
    â€œWhat?” I laughed. “It’s winter, Sam, in case you hadn’t noticed. It’ll be freezing!”
    â€œSo what?” He was already rolling up his jeans and striding towards the sea. “C’mon,” he said, grinning. “Dare you.”
    Well, I wasn’t going to be some pathetic girlie, so I rolled up my jeans too and scampered after Sam. The sea was freezing, colder than anything I’d ever felt in my life, and Marcia was yelling, “Cassie, you’re mad! You’ll freeze to death!” But it also felt surprisingly nice – icy and tingly and sparkling from the glow of the lighthouse out on Bear Rock. We paddled about, letting the waves rush in and out around our feet, and maybe because I was enjoying that, I forgot about Ollie for about 0.5 seconds. “What are you two doing?” he called out, waving