Geek Girl (Geek Girl, #1)(66)

“Hey, Manners,” he says, looking up.

I look away quickly. Sugar cookies. “Y-yes?” I stammer, trying to look as nonchalant as possible.

He gestures towards the coffee table. “It’s low, but if you really squidge, you might be able to do it.”

Is that all he’s going to say? After we held hands and everything? “I have grown out of my table-hiding days as it happens,” I tell him in a cold voice. “It was a childhood phase, that is all.”

“That’s a shame. If we lived somewhere with lots of earthquakes, you’d be a really good person to know.”

I glare at him. For somebody so gorgeous, he really knows how to be annoying. “Actually, there have been nineteen earthquakes in the UK in the last ten years,” I snap. “Which makes me a good person to know right now.”

“It does,” he agrees, grinning at me and going back to his doodle.

I grind my teeth and feel my cheeks get hot. What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m a good person to know, but only nineteen times in ten years? That’s not a very good ratio.

“Now then, my little Squabbling-beans,” Wilbur interrupts. He pushes a little bit of plastic in my ear, pulls the wire under my collar and pops another bit of plastic in a pocket at the back of my dress. “We don’t have time for all this adorable Darcy and Lizzie tension, Kitten-cheeks. Let’s get you on air so that your stepmother can stop texting me at three-minute intervals, Harriet. She’s extremely anxious that we get you to school on time today.”

I nod. I am too, actually. I don’t want something to go horribly wrong later in life because I’m supposed to know about metaphysical poets and don’t.

I notice that the little green light on my hearing aid has been switched on. I look at Nick. “Do you have one too?”

Nick and Wilbur both laugh.

“Harriet,” a cold voice in my ear says. “This is Yuka Ito.”

I look around, trying to locate her. “Don’t look around trying to locate me,” she snaps. “I’m in the production-control room.”

“Can you see me?”

“No. I just know that’s what you’re doing. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready,” I say as clearly as I can. Nick is standing just behind me, yawning and rubbing his face with the sleeve of his grey jumper. How come Yuka Ito isn’t shouting in his ear like the little caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland?

“Just say what I tell you to,” Yuka says, “and everything will go as planned. And please, Harriet…”

“Yes?”

“Try and behave yourself this time.”





’d always assumed that on TV, when it looks like the presenters are in a living room, they’re actually, you know, in a living room. With a nice painting, a fireplace and maybe a few bookshelves for perusing while the cameras weren’t rolling.

But it’s just a stage with a few sofas, and a big open black space full of wires and intense-looking people. Frankly, I can’t help but feel a little cheated.

“Good morning, sweetie,” the chirpy blonde presenter says as I perch nervously on the edge of one of the sofas. “I’m Jane. I bet this is early for you, isn’t it?”

I nod, even though I’m not quite sure what Jane’s talking about. It’s 7.30am – precisely the time I’m normally shouting at Dad to get out of the shower.

“And I’m Patrick,” a slightly older man says, leaning forward to shake my hand, and then leaning a little further to do the same to Nick. “Don’t be nervous, guys. This is just a bit of fun, right?”

“You know,” Nick says in his slow drawl, “I just can’t remember when I’ve had more.” Patrick nods enthusiastically.

Yuka clears her throat in my ear. “Tell Nick that if he doesn’t stop being facetious, he’s doing his next show in a dress.”

I lean forward and pass the message on.

“Awesome,” Nick says, laughing. “Tell her to make sure it has sequins on it this time.”

I keep looking anxiously into the dark space, but I can’t see Nat, or Dad, or Annabel, Wilbur or even Toby. What was the point in stuffing themselves into that taxi if nobody’s here now? Where’s my stalker when I need him?

I look at Nick with my eyes wide. “Remember,” he whispers under his breath. “No biggy.”

I breathe out and can feel the panic starting to leave again. It’s only six minutes. Just six minutes of saying whatever Yuka wants me to say, and then I can go to school and be normal again.

“Getting ready to go live,” one of the cameramen shouts. “In ten, nine, eight…”

I look around the dark again.

“Seven, six, five…”

Where are they?

“Four, three, two…”

And suddenly – with the softest of shuffles – the five of them scoot into the room at the back. My entire body relaxes as if somebody’s just cut all of the cords holding me upright. Nat holds her thumbs up and Dad points dramatically to Annabel’s lower stomach, mimes going to the toilet and shrugs. Wilbur gives a little dancing move and then shoots me with the imaginary gun of his fingers. Toby simply stands there and grins at me.

“One,” Jane says. And I’m live on air.