Secrets of a Teenage Heiress by Katy Birchall (22)

There was a knock on my bedroom door.

‘Come in.’

I looked up from my homework to see Mum leaning on the doorway.

‘Working again?’ She nodded towards the books piled up on my desk.

She had every right to be surprised – it was a Saturday and exactly two days before the end of term, and a week before the Christmas Ball. We had hardly any homework to do and school lessons mostly involved watching Christmas films or working in groups on pointless projects. Considering I had never cared about homework before, I guess it seemed odd to Mum that I would care about it now, when I had a real excuse not to do any. And the lead-up to the Christmas Ball was always my favourite time of year – usually I’d make Ella or anyone who was available come to a hundred different shops with me, and I’d spend all day enjoying their envious looks as I twirled around in various gowns, musing on which shoes would go with each one.

Not this year, though. Ella was still not talking to me. But now, I actually didn’t care, because no one was really talking to her either. Things had been way more relaxing without her insisting on being the centre of attention all the time. She still had a few minions worshipping her every move, but since her public telling-off, Ella had been much more low-key, avoiding us like the plague. And, as Olly hilariously pointed out when I was over at his and Grace’s house for a movie night, she seemed to strut less when parading down the hallway.

‘So do you, though,’ he added, when I giggled at his observation.

‘Huh?’

‘You strut less than you used to.’

‘I never strutted!’

‘You did.’ He laughed. ‘You properly strutted.’

‘I did not!’

‘I’m with Olly on this one, you had a strut going on,’ Liam added, throwing up a kernel of popcorn and catching it in his mouth.

‘Grace, back me up!’

Grace hesitated. ‘I guess there was a teeny tiny strut . . .’

I gasped. ‘Et loo, Caesar?’

They all exploded with laughter and Liam began choking on the popcorn.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘You got that so wrong,’ Olly said, knocking Liam on the back. ‘It’s “Et tu, Brute?”’

I snatched the bowl of popcorn from Liam. ‘I did not strut.’

‘Whatever you say, Shakespeare.’ Olly grinned, reaching for a handful of popcorn and pressing play on the controller.

I didn’t miss Ella but I sort of missed the other person who was still not talking to me. As Cal was older, he wasn’t in any of my classes and he mostly kept himself to himself during break times. One afternoon after school, I had been on an errand for Mum, taking some files to Audrey’s office and Cal was leaning on the reception desk reading, I assumed waiting for his dad. I took a deep breath and went over to him.

‘Hey.’

‘Hey.’ He looked back down at his book.

Uh-oh. I hadn’t thought about what I was going to say after ‘hey’. I had no idea where to go from there. Why hadn’t I thought this through?

‘Did you know butterflies taste things through their feet?’

OK, not the most winning line but I decided to go with it.

‘Yeah, I did.’

‘Oh. Good. Interesting, right? I was watching Planet Earth repeats the other day.’

He didn’t reply so I decided I should probably call it a day. Butterfly facts? Really? That’s the best I could do? I turned away, disgusted with myself, when he spoke.

‘I heard about Grace. Telling Ella off in front of everyone.’

‘It was pretty cool.’

‘And hotheaded. You must be rubbing off on her.’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

‘Whatever you want.’

I paused, watching him turn the page of his book. ‘You know, Cal, I really am sorry. About what I said at the party.’

‘It’s cool,’ he replied, not looking up. ‘I get it.’

‘Get what?’

‘That you were trying to impress whatever his name is. The vlogger.’

‘I wasn’t trying to impress him. I just –’

‘I don’t know why you worship that guy anyway,’ Cal snorted, turning another page.

OK, no one reads that fast, not even nerds like Cal. He was totally doing the page-flicking thing to make me think he didn’t care and to rile me up. And it was not working. Not one little bit.

‘Would you STOP turning the pages like that. It’s so annoying.’

(Fine, it was sort of working.)

‘My page-turning is annoying you?’ Cal finally looked up with this stupid bemused look on his face. URGH he was the worst!

‘Look, I do not worship Ethan Duke. I like him. He’s very nice and hard-working. You have no idea what he’s like.’

‘I know he cares more about his appearance than anything else.’

‘That is not true! If you talked to him –’

‘I don’t have to talk to him, I can tell from his vlogs.’

‘You have watched Ethan Duke’s vlogs?’ I had to admit I was kind of taken aback by this information. Cal was not really a vlog-watching kind of person.

‘Just a couple of them recently,’ he said defensively, shifting his feet. ‘Did he even talk to you properly at the party?’

‘Yes!’ I lied. ‘We had loads of deep and meaningful conversations! About . . . lots of stuff.’

‘Sure.’ Cal shut his book. ‘If you see my dad around, tell him I’m waiting for him outside.’

After that, I wondered why I missed him at all. He was so pompous and self-important. ARGH. He made me so angry, up there on his high horse as though he was some kind of wise old man in a lame fairy tale, lurking at every corner ready to tell you what to do and make you feel guilty about everything.

I decided to try to avoid him around the hotel, so I spent most of the time in the flat with Fritz, attempting to keep myself busy. Which is how Mum found me doing homework on a Saturday morning. ‘You know,’ I said, holding up Lord of the Flies as she leaned on the door frame, ‘this book is actually quite good.’

‘I’m sure William Golding would value your opinion.’

‘I mean it. I’m redoing my essay on it.’

Mum gave me a strange look. ‘Voluntarily?’

‘Sort of. I got an E on the last one but I hadn’t actually read the book then, so Miss Weatherton said if I wanted to have another shot, she’d mark it. I have to get it in before the end of term though.’

‘What’s with the sudden work ethic?’ Mum went to sit down on my bed and I swivelled to face her.

‘Nothing.’ I shrugged. ‘Olly was just talking about Lord of the Flies the other day and he said that there –’

‘Olly?’ she interrupted.

‘Grace’s brother.’

‘I see.’

‘He said he thought I should try reading it. Him and Grace are really into books and music and stuff. They’re both super-intelligent. I don’t really understand what they’re talking about most of the time, so it would be nice to join in at least one conversation.’

She nodded. ‘Well, tell him thanks from me. So, do you think you might give yourself a break for a few hours?’

‘How come?’

‘I need your help with something.’ She looked at her watch. ‘I need you ready to go in five minutes. I’ll tell Jamie to look after Fritz today. We have an errand to run.’

A while later we were walking down Bond Street and Mum was telling me about the time she’d had to solve the dilemma of two high-profile guests each demanding the same room.

‘The key is to make every guest feel special. Their stay at Hotel Royale is a personal experience. Just like you did with Skylar Chase. You made her feel like she was the most important guest at the hotel.’

‘She was the most important guest at the hotel.’

‘No.  Every guest is the most important guest at the hotel. Does that make sense?’

‘I guess.’

She stopped in the middle of the pavement and looked down at me with a serious expression on her face.

‘Flick, do you know why the Christmas Ball is so important to me?’

‘Yeah! Because it’s the biggest and most famous social event of the year,’ I replied confidently.

‘Well, that’s certainly true, but it’s not the reason why it’s so important to me personally.’

‘Is it because you love Chef ’s Christmas chocolate mousse?’

‘Another excellent point, but not quite right.’ She smiled. ‘It’s because it’s important to you.’

I looked at her blankly.

‘When your father and I split up all those years ago around this time, I was terrified that you would start hating Christmas. Did it ever occur to you that the first ever Royale Christmas Ball was that same year?’

I shook my head.

‘Matthew and I had the idea to put on the most magical Christmas event we could think of, so you would have a wonderful night. And you did. It’s your favourite event of the year, right? Because the Hotel Royale Christmas Ball is all for you. It always has been, right from the start.’

I couldn’t believe what she was saying. That her and Matthew had been in it together from the very start just to make me happy seemed completely baffling. It was the nicest thing ever. I felt so overwhelmed that my eyes began to fill with tears at the thought of it all.

Which is lame but we were totally having a moment so whatever.

‘Mum,’ I whispered, ‘I never had any idea.’

She smiled down at me.

‘Well, as you’ve been so brilliant recently, and as it is, after all, your party . . .’ She turned round and pointed up at the shop name under which we were standing: Lewis Blume. ‘I think we had better go and pick up your dress.’