CHAPTER 2 LET'S GO TO THE MOVIE

That Friday, as usual, the girls too were watching the boys. The girls stood at one side. The boys tried to look manly loitering on the other side.

It was just a matter of who would make the first move. Sometimes, one of the boys would approach one of the girls. This happened more often.

Loud cheers and applauding followed when the girl accepted the boy's invitation. However, if he is rejected, sounds of“boo” were heard. The boy had to hold his head up and walk back to this side.

When the girls were tired of waiting for the boys to approach them, they would browse the shop windows. They liked to wander into Times Bookshop to look at the magazines on the shelves.

But mostly, the girls gathered in groups and talked or leant on the railings and looked down. Their favourite view was the ice-skating rink on the ground floor.

They could see the graceful bodies twisting and twirling on the ice. They could not help but marvel at the way these people skated.

They wished they could skate like those people.

Then, Peter from the “Diehards Boys”gang approached the girls. This group of schoolboys were from a nearby boys'school.

They were from Brooke School. They were well known for excelling in sports. Whenever the name of their school was mentioned, there would be talks about the football and badminton matches the school teams had won.

So, the boys would not hesitate to say they were from the school. And that was said with a lot of pride.

The girls teased Sally for they noticed Peter talking to her. For the last one month, Peter was trying to impress Sally with his tight jeans and red T-shirts.

That afternoon, he tried to catch her attention and invited the whole group to join his gang for a meal at “Fish and Chips” cafe. But, Sally pretended not to be interested. And her eyes did a butterfly flutter.

“Not keen, ” she shrugged. But, deep in her heart, she wanted to say “Yes”.

This gesture made Peter become bolder. He shoved his face forward at her but the girls pushed him gently away.

“Come to the movie with me, dear Sally, ”he pleaded.

On hearing this, Jenny who professed to be Sally's best friend gave him a sour look. This seemed to say he had the nerve to ask one of them out.

To Jenny, he was not of their class at all. And the girls only went out with boys of their class.

“No, ” Sally told him and then started giggling. She could not show her eagerness to accept his invitation in front of her friends.

Everyone watched the pair and laughed, wondering what would happen next. The girls' attention was now distracted by a tourist. He was taking pictures of them and the shoppers. They hooted with laughter. Soon, they were making faces at the camera.

Annoyed by this, the tourist directed his camera elsewhere. He did not want to take pictures of them anymore.