The next day, Kuki met up with her new friends in home room. Today she sat with Ruth and Hattie rather than on her own. She looked at her timetable.
"I hate Math." She tutted. "I'm more of an English person."
Her timetable read that she had two frees, followed by triple English.
"I feel like going the mall." Hattie thought aloud. "Anyone fancy coming?"
They all nodded.
"After school?" Kuki asked.
The bell for period one rang.
Hattie chuckled as they all stood up. "No, now."
Kuki blinked. "But, we've got to stay here. We're not allowed to go out."
"So?" Hattie smirked. "They won't even notice."
Kuki decided to trust them and followed them as they escaped from the school grounds.
"So why don't we go to the bag and shoe shop? We can take a look for you if you want Kuki, unless you want to keep that rucksack." Hattie hummed.
Kuki nodded.
They looked around the shop. Ruth then picked one up. "I like this one."
Kuki looked at it and nodded. "It's real pretty."
Kuki brought it without another thought and was happy to have a hip bag.
The day went on. They crowded around the fountain with milkshakes that they had bought and sat on the edge as they laughed and joked.
"I'm going to look for a new dress for Friday." Hattie stated. Finishing her milkshake and throwing it in the trash. She stood up, Ruth followed her.
"You want to come to Forever 21 with us Kuki?" Ruth asked.
Kuki shook her head. "I'll stay with the guys...are you sure we won't get into trouble, we're missing English right now."
Hattie beamed. "We'll be fine. Anyway, if they say anything just say Bradley made us do it."
"Hey!" Bradley moaned.
"Shut up!" Hattie stuck out her tongue and walked into the shop with Ruth.
"Are you two like in love or something?" Kuki giggled. "One minute you're fighting, the next you're really close."
Bradley and Mark burst out laughing.
"She's my evil twin sister." Bradley explained.
Kuki went red. "Oh, but you don't look the same."
"We're not identical, thank Zeus for that." Bradley snickered.
Kuki grinned. They chatted about various subjects before Ruth and Hattie came out with two bags in each hand.
"I thought you went in for a dress." Mark gasped.
Hattie nodded. "I did, but I didn't know which one to get. Plus there was a sale."
"Yeah, 3 for 1 on jeans, shorts and skirts." Ruth replied.
Bradley and Mark rolled their eyes, Kuki just chuckled.
"Let's head home now anyway." Hattie told them. They all complied and stood up, walking out of the mall and waiting at the bus stop.
When the bus arrived they made their way to the back so that they could sit together.
"Wait till you guys see my dress on Friday, it's awesome." Hattie beamed.
Bradley scoffed. "Which one would that be?"
"I haven't decided yet." Hattie replied. "But they're all great."
"Did Michael invite you Kuki?" Ruth asked.
Kuki shook her head.
Bradley shrugged. "Just come along, he won't mind. He likes it when more people turn up."
Kuki smiled and shook her head. "I couldn't just gatecrash."
"Don't worry about it." Bradley replied. "You can be my date."
Kuki chuckled at him as he did a playful wink towards her and the others laughed.
"Here's my stop." Kuki said getting up. "Bye guys."
"See ya." They called as she got off the bus.
She smiled as she unlocked her door and walked into the house.
"Where have you been young lady?" Her mother snapped.
Kuki jumped, her mum wasn't due home for another two hours. "School? Where else?"
"I had a truancy call from your school so came home to see if you were here." Genki stated. "I'm so disappointed in you Kuki. Truancy!"
Kuki sighed. "Sorry mum, these guys just invited me to go with them to the mall and...I didn't want to be uncool. I was trying to fit in."
Genki sighed and shook her head. "I'll let you off this time but do it again and there's big trouble."
Kuki nodded. She went out and made her way to the tree house to see her friends.
She opened the wooden door of the tree house to see them all sat around one another comparing homework.
"Hey private school girl." Abby smiled. "We thought you'd abandoned us for your Lyons school friends."
Kuki smiled and walked in.
"How are you liking Lyons high Numbuh 3?" Nigel asked as she sat down.
Kuki shrugged. "Okay I guess, I'd rather be with you guys but my new friends seem pretty cool."
Hoagie smiled. "You haven't found a friend funnier than me right?"
Kuki grinned. "Is it really that hard to do it though?"
The kids laughed, except for Hoagie who just pouted at her.
"I kind of got into trouble today though." Kuki sighed.
Abby cocked an eyebrow. "Little miss goody two shoes Sanban got into trouble? What for? You forget your homework or something?"
"I bunked off." Kuki bit her lip.
They all gasped. None of them expected that from Kuki.
"You did what?" Nigel asked.
Kuki shrugged. "It's not like it's the end of the world. I just wanted to show them I was fun."
Abby shook her head. "Don't let them get you into trouble girl."
"I won't, it was just a little fun. We won't do it again." Kuki replied. "Oh, by the way, do you have a dress I can borrow?"
"What about your hundred?" Abby scoffed.
"I've got a party Friday and mine are all too childish." Kuki replied.
"Childish? You have some great dresses. Anyway Numbuh 5's not sure her dresses will fit you any more. You've got decent curves where as Numbuh 5's stuck in this stupid stick of a body." Abby said. "We can go look later though if you want."
Kuki nodded.
"Man, Numbuh 5's running out of outfits for this school, it's getting so irritating." Abby groaned.
Hoagie nodded. "Tell me about it."
"My mum's going nuts cause shes had to do so much laundry." Wally replied.
Kuki tutted. "At least you guys can wear what you want. I have to wear a bugly blazer."
"Bugly?" Wally questioned.
Kuki nodded. "Oh yeah, it's a word we made up for our blazers, it's like butt-ugly."
The team laughed at the word and continued to talk and converse.
Later on, the two made their way to Abby's house.
"I like this one." Kuki said, pointing at a dress in Abby's wardrobe. She pulled it out.
"Go try it on then girl." Abby smiled.
Kuki walked into Abby's bathroom. She pulled off her current clothes and tried to slip on Abby's dress, it was pretty tight as she tried to get it on. She wriggled and tugged. She suddenly heard a tearing sound and gasped. Pulling it off immediately she looked to see a rip on the back of it.
She looked at the size tag. It was a size 4 (6 UK). Kuki sighed, she was a size 8 (10 UK).
She opened the door and walked to Abby's room.
"How was it?" Abby asked, sat on the bed paining her nails.
Kuki looked down. "Numbuh 5, I'm really sorry."
Abby looked up at her. "What?"
"I'm so sorry, I tried to get it on and it was too small and it just split. I should have checked the size first and listened to you but..."
"Girl!" Abby interrupted her. "It's fine. Look, it's just the seam, we can fix it."
Kuki sat down on the bed and sighed sadly. "Sorry."
"Quit apologising girl. It's no biggie" Abby tutted. "Now give Numbuh 5 your nails so she can paint them!"
