Cal rolled his eyes from the seat next to me as Peter brought the car to a halt at some traffic lights. Reporters had been gathering around the school since lunchtime, hoping to catch me on my way out, so Mum had made sure Peter was there to drive me back. Cal usually just mills about the hotel after school, waiting for his dad to finish work, so I selflessly offered him a lift to the Royale with me after the newspaper meeting, with absolutely no hidden agenda, just out of the kindness of my heart.
But if he didn’t agree to cut Ella from his newspaper team, then he could walk home.
‘That’s not how it works, Flick.’
‘She’s trying to make you all think I’m a horrible person! She’s never even spoken to you before and now suddenly she wants to be your best friend!’
‘She doesn’t want to be my best friend; she wants to do fashion pages for the paper. She’s trying to get an internship at a fashion magazine, so this would look good on her CV.’ Cal sighed. ‘She didn’t say anything about you in the meeting before you arrived.’
‘Cal, I’m telling you, I don’t trust her. Why else would she volunteer to work on your newspaper?’
‘I don’t know, Flick,’ Cal said, looking hurt. ‘Maybe she doesn’t have a secret plot and just maybe she thinks me launching a newspaper is actually a really good idea.’
‘You know I didn’t mean . . . Cal, I think the newspaper is a great idea. But I’m supposed to be your friend.’
Cal looked taken aback. ‘You are my friend.’
‘Not if Ella has anything to do with it! Didn’t you hear what she said this morning? According to her, I’m bad news for your future!’
Cal shook his head. ‘If you think that I would ever let someone like Ella make me think badly of you —’
‘She’s determined to show everyone that Nancy Rose is right about me.’ I looked down at my hands. ‘And you already think I’m a bit of a diva.’
‘Oh, come on,’ Cal said, sounding exasperated. ‘We were joking about that stuff ! We love that —’
‘I don’t understand why you’ve let her join your team. Now you’re going to be spending all your time with her.’
‘Flick, do you think that maybe you’re overreacting slightly?’ Cal raised his eyebrows. ‘Since Nancy Rose’s vlog went up, you’ve seen Ella twice and have decided that she’s out to get you.’
‘Because I know what she’s like. What about the coconut water?’
‘What?’ Cal looked baffled. ‘Why are you talking about coconut —’
Peter cleared his throat loudly. ‘Sorry to interrupt but we’re home.’
The car door suddenly swung open on my side and I looked up at Matthew and one of the doormen, who had both battled their way through the paparazzi and were waiting to guide us back up the main steps. While Cal was still undoing his seat belt, I thanked Peter in my most gracious, un-diva-like voice and then jumped out of the car and under the doorman’s protective arm before Cal could say anything else.
Fritz was waiting for me on one of the purple velvet chairs in the lobby. When he saw me come round the heavy swivel doors, he jumped down and scrabbled across the marble floor eagerly.
‘Hey, boy.’ I laughed, scooping him up in my arms and letting him lick my chin. ‘Are you ready for your next Instagram post?’
I plonked him on top of reception and immediately got a telling off from Matthew as he came in, shielding Cal from the paparazzi.
‘You know Audrey’s rule, he’s not allowed up here,’ he scolded, tucking his hands under Fritz’s belly and passing him back to me. He quickly got out a dust cloth and began squeaking it across the surface. ‘No paw marks on reception please.’
I plopped Fritz back down on the floor and let him rush around reception back to the door to greet Cal.
‘Your son is being very irritating,’ I told Matthew, while he finished polishing the desk and then began to polish the gold buttons on his dark green uniform. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Matthew with a hair out of place.
‘You two had a scrap again, have you?’ He laughed.
‘Flick’s annoyed because she hasn’t got her way,’ Cal informed him, rolling his eyes and tickling Fritz behind the ears which made Fritz’s tongue loll out happily.
‘That’s not true! It’s the principle!’ I snapped. ‘You know how upset I am about what happened with Nancy Rose and now this just makes it all ten times worse!’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t take any notice, Flick,’ Matthew said, straightening his jacket. ‘Nobody bothers to read those lists anyway.’
Cal and I exchanged a confused glance.
‘What list?’
Matthew’s eyes grew wide. ‘Oh! Nothing! Sorry, I thought you were . . . talking about something else. Don’t mind me, carry on!’
‘We were talking about Ella joining the school newspaper,’ Cal said. ‘What were you talking about?’
‘Matthew, what list?’ I asked again.
‘I . . . maybe you should . . .’ he began, flustered, but was saved by Audrey emerging from her office, typing into her phone.
‘How was school?’ she asked brightly, spotting me and Cal. Then she noticed Matthew’s face. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘What’s this about a list?’ I asked, putting my hands on my hips.
‘Oh.’ Audrey put her phone down. ‘You haven’t seen it.’
‘Seen what?’ Cal asked.
‘It’s a load of rubbish,’ Audrey said, sighing. ‘So don’t get upset.’
‘Okaaaaay? Can someone PLEASE just tell me what’s going on?’ I insisted.
Audrey nodded and typed something into her phone before holding the screen up for me to see. It was a tweet sent by Nancy Rose about an hour earlier.
@NancyRose
BREAKING: @FlickRoyale DROPPED from ‘50 Heirs to Watch’ list due to be published tomorrow! Source close to heiress told me EXCLUSIVELY, ‘It’s time everyone knew the REAL Flick Royale.’
Audrey and Matthew watched me with expressions of concern as I read the tweet several times.
‘Are you OK?’ Audrey asked carefully as I handed her phone back.
‘They dropped me from the top fifty? But I’ve been forty-nine for years!’
‘You are number one in our eyes no matter what,’ Matthew said firmly. ‘And nobody even reads those—’
‘It’s been retweeted thousands of times,’ I said, feeling numb.
I took out my own phone and went on to Twitter, turning my notifications back on. After receiving nasty comments about the handbag vlog from plenty of strangers, I’d muted my social media for the day. I had completely missed all of this.
My phone immediately started vibrating as all the comments, retweets and likes came flowing in, thanks to Nancy Rose tagging me in her original tweet.
‘Block her,’ Cal instructed me sternly. ‘And don’t read anything else.’
‘Who gave her that quote? What “source” close to me?’ I shook my head. ‘What does that even mean, the “real” Flick Royale? It sounds like I’m pretending to be someone I’m not.’
‘She’ll have made all that nonsense up to get more clicks,’