Girl Next Door - Alyssa Brugman [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1 BELT-TIGHTENING
Chapter 2 EMBARRASSING
Chapter 3 PUNTING
Chapter 4 THE C-WORD
Chapter 5 POLITE
Chapter 6 SHORT ODDS
Chapter 7 NOTICE
Chapter 8 GHOSTS
Chapter 9 HYPO
Chapter 10 WAITING
Chapter 11 WOLVES AT THE DOOR
Chapter 12 A GOOD QUESTION
Chapter 13 THE OTHER C-WORD
Chapter 14 HANSEN'S DISEASE
Chapter 15 THE SIEGE
Chapter 16 JENNA-BELLE SHARES HER MOTHER'S VALUES
Chapter 17 COCKFIGHT
Chapter 18 100 POINTS
Chapter 19 TEXTS
Chapter 20 DIRTY LAUNDRY
Chapter 21 THE PLOUGH AND PEANUT
Chapter 22 ROMANCE ME
Chapter 23 PINEAPPLE-HEAD
Chapter 24 BARBS
Chapter 25 JUST LIKE J'ADORE
Chapter 26 JOKE JEOPARDY
Chapter 27 THIRTY-EIGHT DOLLARS AND SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Chapter 28 TWENTY-FOUR DOLLARS AND FORTY-FIVE CENTS
Chapter 29 WOMBAT CROSSING
READING GUIDE
About the Author
GIRL
NEXT
DOOR
Alyssa Brugman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
The Girl Next Door
ePub ISBN 9781864714586
Kindle ISBN 9781864717136
Original Print Edition
A Random House book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
www.randomhouse.com.au
First published by Random House Australia in 2009
Copyright © Alyssa Brugman 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia.
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.com.au/offices
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Author: Brugman, Alyssa, 1974–
Title: Girl next door / Alyssa Brugman
ISBN: 9781741663389
Target audience: For secondary school age
Dewey number: A823.4
Cover and internal design by Blueboat
Cover photographs by Getty Images
Typeset in 13/20pt Adobe Garamond by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound by Griffin Press, South Australia
For Chrissy, who makes it all possible
1
BELT-TIGHTENING
'I could die tonight. This might be the last time we see each other. I just want you to know what an important friend you are to me.' Declan blinks at me with moist eyelashes and sighs. 'I never saw Buenos Aires.'
'After I finish school I'll take a year off and go to South America in your honour,' I tell him, patting his forearm.
We're sitting in the narrow alleyway between Declan's house and my house, where nobody can hear us. It's about ten minutes to dinner. Well, until Declan's dinner. My family doesn't do that meal any more. My mum car-pools into the city with Declan's dad, and he's some kind of hot shot, so she's usually home late. She's home tonight though. She has an appointment.
A car pulls up in front of our house. A thin man in a short-sleeved shirt checks himself out in the rear-view mirror and then gets out.
'There's a man walking up your front path,' Declan says.
'Yes, I can see that.' He would be the appointment, I'm guessing.
Declan flicks his head. He does this a lot because he likes to wear his hair over his eyes. He's bleached and dyed it so many times that it's brittle and coarse.