Strawberry Crush

Strawberry Crush
Jean Ure

A brand new story of crushes, first love and friendship from the original Queen of Tween – Jean Ure!When Maya falls off her bike and into the arms of Jake Harper, her cousin Mattie thinks the crush that follows will be as short-lived as the rest – especially as Maya is a Year 8 nobody and Jake is a Year 12 god. Mattie’s pretty sure that Jake's taken, anyway.But if Jake’s got a girlfriend then why does he keep offering Maya lifts around town? And why does Maya accuse Mattie of being jealous of her? Perhaps there’s more to this crush than meets the eye…

Copyright (#ulink_d15fcf65-fe85-5ca8-9e30-2e208721b336)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2016

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Copyright © Jean Ure 2016

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Illustrations © Shutterstock.com

Jean Ure asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007553969

Ebook Edition © January 2016 ISBN: 9780007554027

Version: 2016-01-29

Contents

Cover (#u868d0bd9-9691-5ab5-9d1e-cc85bb7c2549)

Title Page (#ufea82f83-7a7e-5d2b-b211-510c8472b77b)

Copyright (#u1fb25f6c-31b9-5c37-a418-1adc6fbbc083)

Chapter One (#u13a6d4e8-6553-51b2-babe-6b7dcdb85222)

Chapter Two (#u36b0769d-6c34-5e3b-a0b6-830e27633f16)

Chapter Three (#ud7eccc36-0d2f-54ed-a600-cfa044955726)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Jean Ure (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

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I was there the day it all started: the day Maya fell off her bike straight into the arms of Jake Harper.

Well, not actually straight into his arms. But practically right in front of him.

It was the start of the summer term and we were on our way back from school, cycling up Layhams Hill, two abreast cos there wasn’t that much traffic around. We were busy talking – as usual! – when Maya suddenly gave this great wobble, lurched into the kerb and slid with a startled squawk over the handlebars.

I have to admit it looked pretty dramatic, but I wasn’t particularly alarmed. Maya was always coming off her bike. Unlike me, who is quite chunky and solid, Maya is a tiny little creature, almost elfin, but she’s the one who is forever tripping over her own feet or shutting her fingers in the door. Still, we were both wearing helmets so I reckoned she couldn’t have done that much damage.

I skidded to a halt and turned back to look at her. “You OK?”

I was sure that she was. She’d already started to pick herself up, so obviously nothing was broken and I couldn’t see any blood. But then a car pulled in on the other side of the road, the driver’s door was flung open and Jake came rushing across.

“Do you need any help?”

Honestly, it was like some kind of magic spell. Some kind of automatic reaction. Before I knew it, Maya had sunk back on to the pavement and burst into heart-rending sobs. I felt so embarrassed! I mean, it was just so obvious.

“Are you OK?” Jake had squatted down beside her and put an arm round her shoulders. “That looked painful!”

Oh, please, I thought, don’t encourage her!

“Have you done any damage?”

Maya, weeping piteously, held out one of her hands. She’d grazed it on the pavement, but it was hardly gushing blood.

I shook my head. Un-be-liev-able! Shameless, in fact. Talk about a drama queen.