For Ages
12 to 99

Ellie finally meets a boy. The right boy. And she wants to spend all her time with him. Her curfew is way too early, but if
her stepmother doesn’t tell, her father will never know she’s been out late. It’s not like anything bad is going to happen, and her father doesn’t need to know what she does every minute of every day. As long as she brings her friends along, everything should be all right. Too bad the best laid plans often go wrong!

An Excerpt fromGirls Out Late

girl time

We're going out tonight, Nadine and Magda and me. It's not a Big Night Out. We're certainly not going to stay out late. We're just going on this little after-school shopping trip. No big deal at all. We'll meet at half past six at the Flowerfields Shopping Centre. Wander round the shops on their late night. We'll eat in McDonald's, then home by nine like good girls.

I don't bother to dress up or anything. I change out of my school uniform, obviously, but just into my black baggy trousers. They've been in the washing machine one spin too many times so that they're now technically not black at all, more a murky gray. Still, they're just about the only trousers in the whole world that are big without making me look enormous. They almost give the illusion that there's a weeny little bum and long lean legs hiding under all that bunchy material.

I try my newest stripy pink top but I'm not too sure about it now. It's a little too bright to be…