Girls' School - The Ed Affair (eBook)

The Super-glossy Enlagerment (S. 8-9)

Breathlessly, Melissa tells me what she tried to tell me last night when I was too busy waiting for Ed’s text – Becks has “stolen” a photo of Josh. And not just any old photo. It’s one of Josh after winning the cup for rugby. (Josh is a sports god at St Dougan’s, one reason why Becks loves him so much.) And the photo was an “8 x 10 super-glossy enlargement”.

(That’s 8 inches by 10 inches, for any Europeans out there. Say that in centimetres! I feel like shouting. It’s 2008!) I don’t, I just nod. Melissa loves her photos, especially her enlargements – the one of Almonds that sits by her bed is about 30 x 30. Centimetres. “It was definitely in the drawer of my bedside table, but when I looked for it last night, it was gone. I’d bought a frame for it and everything.” Melissa points at Exhibit A – an expensive-looking photo frame, sitting empty on her bedside table. “So I just asked Becks if she’d seen the photo any where. She turned bright red and couldn’t speak!” Melissa says this last sentence as though it proves absolutely everything.

This is all very silly, of course, but quite exciting, too. I feel a bit like Richterin Barbara Salesch or one of those courtroom-TV judges I always watched when I was homesick from school in Berlin. Im Zweifel für den Angeklagten! Isn’t it possible that Melissa just lost the photo? Melissa shakes her head firmly. No way. And then she sums up the case against Becks, walking up and down the dorm like a real TV lawyer: The “thief” could have chosen other photos of Josh – at Christmas or on the beach, for instance – but chose one of him playing sport. The only other people who could have taken the photo are Olga and me. And why would either of us want to take a picture of Melissa’s brother? Why indeed?

Melissa’s right, of course. If the photo’s really gone, it must have been Becks, for the simple reason that it wasn’t Olga or me. I look over at Olga, who’s sitting on her bed by the window. She has the face of an angel and now, with the sun shining behind her blonde hair, she looks even more innocent.

And she already has a boyfriend, back home in Florida, where her parents live: Taki, glamorous, suntanned and rich. Olga’s not interested in sweaty English rugby boys … So, unless I did it while sleepwalking or we really did have a zombie invasion last night, it must have been Becks. Schuldig! It’s stupid of her not to just give the photo back. She’s crazy in love, I suppose. Perhaps Melissa will show her some mercy. Melissa “No Mercy” Kerr folds her arms across her chest: “Until I get the photo back and Becks says sorry, I’m not speaking to her. It’s basically robbery. She went through my things!”