Love Changes Everything by Rosie Harris Page A

Trixie’s eyes widened.
    â€˜Yes,’ Ivy laughed, ‘and Jake also said that the bosses at the factory would be so angry that they’d sack the lot of us if we tried to do anything like that so the best thing we could do would be to find ourselves another job.’
    â€˜If I could find another job away from Fred Linacre I’d take it tomorrow,’ Trixie agreed as they began to walk on again. ‘There’s not much chance of that happening, though, because, as my dad is forever telling me when he’s laying down the law, here in Liverpool there’s a dozen after every job that comes vacant.’
    â€˜Yes,’ Ivy sighed. ‘I suppose the only thing we can do is put up with Fred Linacre and ignore the way he rants and raves as much as we can.’
    â€˜At least we get a bag of broken biscuits to bring home at the end of the week.’
    â€˜True and that was something that didn’t happen at the tin-can factory,’ Ivy agreed with a grin.
    â€˜And we always have something to talk about when we go out together,’ Trixie added.
    â€˜What we can’t change we have to put up with, I suppose.’ Ivy shrugged. ‘Anyway, let’s get the next boat back and talk about something else; something much more exciting.’
    Trixie looked puzzled. ‘Like what?’
    â€˜Like going dancing? Do you think that you can get your mum to put Cilla to bed and so on so that we can do that?’ Ivy asked quickly.
    â€˜Of course she will, but I can’t dance.’
    â€˜Rubbish. Anybody can dance. Once you hear the music then your feet will know what to do.’
    â€˜Yours might, because you’re Irish,’ Trixie laughed. ‘Are you going to teach me?’
    â€˜There’s no time because it’s next Saturday. Don’t worry about it, though, because Jake will be your partner and he’s a smashing dancer and he’ll teach you in no time.’
    â€˜Jake?’ Trixie’s face lit up. ‘You mean he’s coming with us?’
    â€˜My mum wouldn’t let me go to a dance on my own, even though I’m seventeen,’ Ivy laughed. ‘This is special. There’s a group of us all going together: Jake, his best friend Andrew, Sid, another boy they knew at school, and Sid’s sister Katy; it’s her twenty-first birthday.’
    â€˜It sounds as though it will be good fun, but I’ve never been to a dance so I’ve nothing to wear.’
    â€˜None of my things will fit you,’ Ivy frowned, ‘hasn’t your mum got a dress you can borrow?’
    Trixie shook her head. ‘I shouldn’t think she’s ever been to a dance in her life either.’
    â€˜Hazel’s party dress would fit you,’ Ivy said thoughtfully. ‘Mum made one for her and one for me just before Hazel left home. In one of her rash moments she’d bought these two dresses from an old clothes stall in Paddy’s Market because they were so lovely. She altered them to fit us but we hardly ever wear them because they looked so posh.
    â€˜Won’t your sister mind me borrowing it? It seems a bit of a cheek since she’s never even met me.’
    â€˜Our Hazel isn’t likely to mind; she left it behind when she left home and now she’s married and living in Canada,’ Ivy laughed. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll ask my mum first,’ she promised when she saw Trixie looking indecisive.
    â€˜You get all ready except for putting on your dress and then come round to our place and I’ll help you to put it on and make sure it looks all right on you,’ Ivy told her.
    It all sounded so wonderful and the thought of dancing with Jake so exciting that Trixie couldn’t wait to get home and ask her mother if it was all right for her to go with them.
    â€˜You’d better wait and see if this dress that Ivy is lending you fits you before you make up your mind,’ her mother cautioned.