Being Me (21 page)

‘Mum, you’re not Cinderella,’ I tell her, ‘Your car won’t turn into a pumpkin when the clock strikes twelve.’

‘But what about school?’

‘Duh. It’s half term, remember?’

‘But Anthony’s alone!’

‘He’ll live. Unfortunately.’

Mum still dithers.

‘Mum,’ I say, ‘you’re allowed to have fun. Go to Mr Moreno.’

She kisses me then dives into the melee. I check my phone.

Tune!
from Marcus. I think he’s being sarcastic. I text him back.

Mum had a good time, that’s what matters.

Tru. Wen I c u agen?

He didn’t add even one kiss to the end of his last message so I don’t reply.

Mum returns all flushed in a bit of a stampede of others. She’s waving her signed Fever programme. ‘He kissed me,’ she says. ‘Tony Moreno kissed me!’

‘Amazing, Mum.’

‘Then he did some moves with me and everyone cheered. Oh and a piece of plaster fell off the ceiling and everyone has to leave. We brought the house down! Me and Tony Moreno have brought the house down! Come on, we have to go.’

We drive home to her now personal friend, Tony Moreno’s Fever sound track. Even when she’s wandering in and out of her bedroom, she’s still doing the moves, singing and la-la- la-ing where she can’t remember the words. When I check on her again, she’s snoring, face up on the bed in a frozen star jump. She’s still dressed in her Tony Moreno outfit.

It’s been ages and I’ve got credit, so next morning I phone Mikaela. It rings and rings and rings but eventually she picks up.

‘How’s you?’

‘I’m good,’ Mikaela replies.

‘Why didn’t you play the match?’

‘Wasn’t in the mood.’

‘Fam?’

‘I thought if I left the house, I’d be returning to a crime scene.’

‘That bad?’

‘It’s World War One. Except I’m the one trapped in no-man’s land.’

‘But they’re in the house together?’

‘Dad spends all day under his car, Mum out in the garden cutting dead flowers off bushes. They don’t speak. Mum asked me what I think about moving out with her. I don’t want to move out. Where to?’

I’m listening for a sigh, but nothing comes.

‘That’s bad, Mikay.’

‘At least I got double pocket money this week because Mum didn’t ask Dad if I’ve been given any already. Kerching!’

She does this cold laugh down the phone.

‘Your dad back yet?’ she asks me.

‘He’s phoned a couple of times, talking to Mum. And they’re not yelling. I think he expects Mum to wilt but she’s holding up OK. I just don’t want her to go back to drugging.’

‘Not every dancing cow brings you milk.’

‘Mikay?’

‘It means beautiful things can be dangerous.’

I still don’t understand her. I hear her mum shouting at her: “Come off the phone, Mikaela, you’ve been on it all day!”

‘I’ve got to go, Dell,’ she says.

‘We have to meet up this half term.’

‘Course.’

‘Soon though.’

‘OK ... Laters.’

‘Gators.’

I’ve never heard Mikaela sound sadder. I can just see her staring out of her window twisting up her hair as her mum snaps away at bushes with a pair of giant scissors and her dad yanks at big lumps of metal under his car. It has to be bad because Mikaela’s never missed a match before.

I spend the rest of the day practising football in the garden, trying not to think about Mikaela. In the evening, Mum starts hesitating about going to Disco Revival. She thinks maybe her old friends were just being nice to her and they don’t really want her there.

‘Go, Mum, you’ll enjoy it. You get to wear your platforms and dance like you’re saving the world from a giant octopus invasion.’ I mime Mum’s octopus-duel dancing.

Mum laughs. ‘You sure?’

‘Yes. It’s a command. Go!’

Ten minutes later she spins out in full Moreno outfit, fighting octopuses.

I text Marcus.

What u doin

The Shuffle

Huh?

Will vid u

There’s a minute wait, then a video starts buffering on my phone.

It’s of Marcus. He’s cutting up a rug in his living room, doing dance moves. He’s good until his phone falls off something at the end. I text him back.

Not bad but watch

I balance my phone on my bedroom dresser and press record. Then bust some moves. I send it him:

Am way betta dan u

Neva watch agen

I wait. Another video starts buffering.

We spend the night battling dance moves.

Marcus signs off with:

I win. c ya gorgeous xx

I send him a spinning trophy and two kisses. Then I lie in my bed and wait for Mum to return. It gets past 11 pm. I thought Disco Revival finished at 9pm? At ten past midnight I finally hear her car drawing up. I get to the door just as Mum’s opening it. Mum’s drunk. I can see it instantly in her eyes. And there’s a man who’s not my dad on her arm.

‘Who’s he?’ I ask, not letting him past.

Mum turns to look at him like it’s the first time she’s noticed him. ‘Yes, who are you?’ she says.

‘My name’s Gerald,’ the man replies. I can see he likes mum and is concerned for her.

‘Well, off you go then, Gerald!’

‘Mum!’

The man hands me Mum’s car keys, nods courteously to me and even more politely to Mum, then leaves.

Mum collapses on the sofa and laughs her face off.

MTB puts his head in the room. I can tell he’s checking Mum’s OK but he does a “not bothered” sneer, heads past us into the kitchen then walks out again, feeling his puny biceps with one hand and clutching a protein shake with the other. Mum gets herself upright on the sofa and reruns her arrival doing all the voices.

‘Who’s he?’

‘Yes, who are you?’

‘My name’s Gerald.’

‘I didn’t know there were men at Disco Revival,’ I tell her.

‘Neither did I!’ says Mum and she starts laughing again. I join in, I can’t help it, it’s the way mum says it.

‘Those tablets, they’re not working are they?’ I ask her, when we’ve both got our straight faces on again.

‘No, they ... I forgot to take them,’ she says. ‘Remind me next time.’ She kisses me, then tries to get up from the sofa but has to sit down again. ‘I have a headache,’ she groans, ‘and this back tooth’s killing me, Adele. I need the tooth fairy.’ She falls asleep on the sofa arm with her hands pressed to one side of her jaw. I can’t move her.

I text Marcus.

If u eva wanna swap mums lemme no

Why

She drunk agen

Sorry x

Sok. Least she had fun x

Half term’s over and we’re in Form Class when Miss Fridge walks in. She nods to the form teacher then marches to the back of the class where me and Mikaela are. Mikaela’s in one corner, I’m in another because we’ve been sat as far away from each other as possible as a punishment. Miss Fridge hesitates a moment, then comes up to me and whacks a piece of paper on my desk. It’s a written-out contract. I read it:

I agree that I

   WILL NOT FIGHT ON THE FOOTBALL PITCH

   WILL NOT GET SENT OFF BY USING RUDE WORDS

   WILL PASS TO EACH OTHER PROPERLY

   WILL NOT ATTACK THE REFEREE, SPECTATORS OR OTHER PLAYERS

   WILL NOT LEAVE THE PITCH WHILE THE GAME IS ON

   WILL LISTEN TO THE COACH AND FOLLOW HER INSTRUCTIONS

She says we both have to sign it, else neither of us is playing in the Final this Saturday. I sign it. I want to play. Miss Fridge crosses the room to Mikaela. She slaps the paper down and stares at her. It’s slightly amusing as Miss Fridge doesn’t know that we’re actually friends again, she thinks we’re still enemies. Mikaela signs it.

‘This is a binding contract. There’ll be consequences if either of you break it!’ Miss Fridge glowers, waving the paper in the air. She turns and walks stiff-legged out of the classroom.

Later in the playground, I go up to Mikaela, thinking it’s good that we’re friends, but as I approach she rolls her eyes, then starts pointing at me in little stabs.
One more time,
I think.

‘What is the matter with you, Mikaela?’

‘The whole world can know, I don’t care. My mum’s sleeping with that whore you call your dad now. Slut. Runs in the family I bet!’

Everyone’s screaming “fight!” Mikaela grabs my blouse so I throw her down. We roll on the floor for a bit. I’m hitting her in the ribs, but she hardly fights back. I let go to see what she does. She puts her arms around me and squeezes my ribs, crying into my chest. I ask her what’s the matter and she says her mum has moved out now, and she’s only got her dad. ‘It’s a mess, Adele,’ she says. ‘It’s all fucked up.’