Cherry Blossom Dreams (5 page)

After Zack had left – checking his watch and swearing when he saw the time because apparently his parents were really strict about him being home at whatever time they said – I turned and yelled my brother’s name. I was ready to murder him. How
could
he bring Zack here without even asking me? This was where we came when Mum was moody or we needed to escape. It was the only place where Sean and I really talked together like we used to. And to actually let Zack bring that snake …

Sean and I were walking back to our house in icy silence, when I spotted Lily in the distance.

She was walking towards us with Clara and Hanna, two of the popular girls in our year who she hangs out with. Needless to say they are both super confident and good-looking. Clara is tall with short dark hair and she’s already pretty busty. After school she always hikes up her skirt to well above her knees to show off her super-long legs. Hanna is shorter and slimmer with a mop of bushy red hair, and the only reason she doesn’t do the same with her skirt is because she’s scared her mum will find out. I prefer Hanna to Clara, but to be honest both of them make me feel like some sort of social misfit.

I knew Hanna had just spent her Easter holiday in Poland with her grandparents, leaving Clara and Lily to hang out together at home. Which was a pity because Clara is my least favourite of all Lily’s friends and now she had her arm around Lily’s shoulder as if she owned her.

‘There’s Leo’s car,’ Sean said as we approached our house. ‘Mum said he was bringing pizza. I hope he’s remembered extra pepperoni on mine.’

Just then Lily saw us and waved. I waved back.

‘You’re honoured today, Sasha,’ Sean teased. ‘Looks like the A-list might be going to pay you a visit.’

‘Shut up, Sean.’

I had a sudden horrible thought that maybe Lily had told the others about Mum and Leo getting engaged. But I told myself to stop being stupid. Lily likes a good gossip, so you have to make it clear when something you tell her is a secret, but if she promises not to tell, then she never does. At least she never has so far.

I saw Lily glance at Leo’s car. I knew that she knew it was his. Did the other two? Mum was always reminding Sean and me that if anyone spotted Leo at our house I was to say that he and Mum were friends and that we knew Leo because he’d been Sean’s tutor.

I stopped to readjust my flip-flop while I waited for them to reach me. If we had to have a chat, then I didn’t want it to be right outside my front door. Sean had already gone on ahead.

I really hoped Lily wasn’t about to embarrass me in front of her friends. Not that she’d do that on purpose. It’s just that Lily isn’t always very subtle in the way she goes about things. I know she
means
well when she tries to demonstrate to her other friends that I’m not actually as dorky as they think, but she usually just makes things worse.

‘Hi,’ I said, standing up straight as the threesome approached. ‘What are you lot doing here?’

Oops! I’d been aiming for super-casual but it had clearly come out kind of aggressive, judging by the way Lily frowned at me.

‘Don’t worry – we’re not calling in for
you
, Sasha,’ Clara replied sharply.

‘The girls called round for me just after you left,’ Lily told me quickly. ‘We’re on our way to Ellie’s house. Did you know she lives at the other end of your street?’

I shook my head. Ellie is new to Helensfield High. She joined midway through the previous term and I don’t really know her since I’m not in any of her classes.

‘Ellie’s mum’s a beautician,’ Hanna informed me. ‘Isn’t that cool?’

‘Sure,’ I said. One of Mum’s friends was a beautician and had promised to help if I had trouble with my skin when I hit my teens. ‘It’s handy knowing a beautician,’ I continued, trying my best to have the sort of conversation I thought Lily wanted. ‘Especially when you have bad skin.’

The three of them just stared at me.

‘Oh … no … I didn’t mean any of
you
have bad skin. I just meant …’ I trailed off as Clara self-consciously touched a spot on her chin and gave me a glare before stalking off with Hanna. Not that they stalked very far when they saw Lily wasn’t following.

Lily snapped, ‘Sasha what is
wrong
with you? Why do you have to sound so snotty?’

‘Sorry … it just came out wrong,’ I whispered. ‘They make me nervous …’ I’m pretty sure Lily’s new friends don’t rate me very highly, even though Lily tries to deny it, which is one of the reasons I always avoid hanging out with them. I prefer to stick with the people I feel comfortable with, and who I know like me just the way I am, even if that does make me a bit of a nobody on the social front.

Before I knew it, Lily was reaching into my jeans pocket where she knows I keep my phone, pulling it out and slamming it into my hand. ‘You never check your texts either. I sent you one half an hour ago.’

‘Sorry …’ I started to fumble with my phone and saw that she was right about the text. I looked at Lily questioningly after I’d read it. ‘A party?’

To be honest I was feeling a bit miffed. How come my best friend had made party plans with Clara and Hanna rather than me?

‘We only just decided,’ Lily told me as if she could read my mind. ‘It was Raffy’s idea. I mean, it’s his party really.’

‘Raffy’s?’ I felt myself getting a tiny bit more interested when I heard that.

‘Yeah, we just found out that Mum and Dad are going away next weekend,’ she told me. ‘It’s just for one night and for the first time ever they’re actually going to leave us on our own. Raffy’s in charge and Auntie Jo is going to pop in to check up on us. But, basically, we’ve got the place to ourselves.’

‘So it’ll be an “empty”, you mean?’ I couldn’t imagine that Lily’s mum would give her permission for this. I knew Mum would freak if Sean and I ever held a party like that behind her back when she wasn’t at home, and I don’t think I’d even want to. Call me boring if you like, but I just can’t see the attraction of risking your house getting trashed or the entire Sixth Form turning up, smoking and drinking and refusing to leave.

‘It’ll be mostly Year Tens,’ Lily explained, ‘but Raffy says I get to invite some of my friends as well. So … do you want to come? I need an answer now so I know how many other people I can invite. Raffy is being very strict about the numbers. He says he doesn’t want too many little kids hanging around. I said we’re not little kids. But anyway, he says if we have too many people it could get out of hand.’

‘That’s sensible of him,’ I said, thinking that I really hoped Raffy didn’t think
I
was a little kid. ‘So how many people is he inviting?’

‘A hundred.’

‘A
hundred
?’ I gaped at her.

‘Raffy thinks they won’t all come and we can’t risk not having enough people there,’ Lily continued. ‘Anyway,
you’re
invited.’

‘And Sean,’ said Hanna, flicking back her wiry red hair as she came back over to join us along with Clara. ‘Tell him it’s going to be a really cool party.’

‘But you can’t bring any of your dorky friends from school,’ Clara told me. ‘And tell Sean not to bring Zack.’

‘What’s wrong with Zack?’ I demanded. (Goodness knows why I was sticking up for
him
all of a sudden.)

‘Nothing – apart from the fact he’s a total weirdo,’ Clara replied.

‘Sasha’s dorky friends probably wouldn’t want to come anyway,’ Hanna said matter-of-factly. ‘It wouldn’t be their scene. I mean, can you imagine Jillian or Priti actually enjoying themselves at our party?’

‘That’s true,’ Clara laughed. ‘It’d be way too much fun for them! In fact Jillian would probably bring her chess set.’

The others giggled.

I glared at them all. Jillian and Priti are two of the new friends I’ve made at Helensfield High. Jillian is super-bright and chess-mad. She’s been playing since she was three, and all her chess tournaments keep her very busy outside school. Priti is the new friend I’ve become really close to. She’s clever and quite studious and she’s always reading books and writing stuff. She wants to be a professional poet when she grows up. Leo is her English teacher and apparently he’s the only one who encourages her to be a poet, though even he says she’ll probably have to combine it with another career if she wants to earn a living.

‘You’d better be careful, Lily,’ I warned her shirtily. ‘You don’t want your neighbours calling the police, and let’s face it, with a hundred people partying in your house, then they’re probably going to.’

‘Oh … stop being such a killjoy, Sasha,’ Lily snapped.

‘Hey … right up until the police arrive I’m sure it’ll be a great party,’ I added with a smirk.

‘Ha. Ha.’

‘Remember, Sasha,’ Hanna said gravely, ‘you have to keep this a
total
secret. Clara and I are telling our parents we’re going to Lily’s for a sleepover. If you want to come then you’d better tell
your
mum the same thing.’

I glared at Hanna, feeling like telling her to stop being so patronising.

‘Oh, Sasha’s mum wouldn’t rat us out in any case,’ Lily informed them swiftly. ‘She’s more like a really cool big sister than a mum. Do you remember that time she took us with her to that cocktail party, Sasha?’ She turned to the other two, adding, ‘My mum nearly had a fit when she found out, even though we only drank non-alcoholic cocktails.’

I sighed. It was a story Lily never tired of telling.

‘Hey, I like your flip-flops, Sasha!’ Hanna suddenly said. ‘Did your mum get them for you?’

I glared at her. ‘No.’

‘Sasha actually has much better taste in clothes and shoes and stuff than you’d think,’ Lily told them.

‘Lily!’ I felt my cheeks flaming and I was about to tell her she could stuff her stupid party, but just in time I stopped myself.

‘I’ll
try
and make it to your party,’ I said frostily. ‘If you’re sure you wouldn’t rather have my
mum
instead?’

‘Don’t be daft.’ Lily was frowning, looking like she might be about to say more.

Before she had the chance I stalked off with my head held high. And if I hadn’t tripped on my loose flip-flop five seconds later, I reckon I’d have made a passably cool exit.

I can’t explain why I didn’t stand up for Priti and Jillian when Lily and her friends were so rude about them. I felt really disloyal afterwards, but at the time I was just flattered that I was invited to Raffy’s party. And after Lily called me a killjoy, I suppose I got a bit preoccupied wondering if she could be right.

Leo and my brother were both in the kitchen when I got inside. There were pizza cartons sitting on the table and the smell immediately set my stomach rumbling.

‘Hey, Sasha. How are you doing?’ Leo greeted me as he helped himself to a beer from our fridge. He pushed a chunk of dark unruly hair out of his eyes as he straightened up, adding, ‘Your mum’s had to go into work for a bit. She won’t be long but she said for us to go ahead and eat without her.’

‘Sasha, look! He actually
remembered
my extra pep- peroni,’ Sean told me with a grin, opening the lid of the top pizza box and inhaling dramatically.

I didn’t say anything. I still felt too angry with Sean to talk to him properly.

Leo went over and whacked the cardboard lid down on top of Sean’s fingers. ‘Paws off, greedy-guts. Now Sasha’s here we can sit at the table and eat in a civilised fashion.’

‘Or we could eat in an
un
civilised fashion in front of the telly,’ Sean quipped.

Leo laughed as he handed my brother the top pizza carton. Unlike Mum, whose mood tends to go up and down a lot, Leo is almost always cheerful. At least he is at home. At school he can be pretty serious and strict if you start mucking about in his class. Or so I’ve heard. Luckily, Sean and I aren’t in his class for English, though he’d told us on holiday that he was going to be standing in for our registration teacher for a couple of weeks after Easter. That was going to be weird. Even thinking about it made me feel a bit odd.

Just then the phone rang and Leo picked it up, clearly expecting it to be Mum.

Too late, we looked at the caller display. It was Granny.

Leo’s eyes narrowed as he listened to whatever our grandmother was saying at the other end. ‘Did she? I see … Well, sorry, but I’m afraid she’s had to pop out … Yes, I’ll get her to call you … Yes … OK …’ Leo was clearly planning to hang up the phone, but Sean snatched it from him.