Peppermint Kiss (10 page)

“Hi and nice to meet you,” they chanted together, and burst into giggles.

“Hi,” Ben mumbled, then stood there looking about as embarrassed as when his mum had started the whole Famous Abbie thing. He obviously decided he'd suffered enough for one day, because he mumbled an excuse about getting back to help out with Gabe's lunch and made a sharp exit.

“That was Ben, one of my new mates that I told you about, not that he'll dare come round here again,” I snapped. “Thanks for making him feel so welcome! Why couldn't you just be nice like normal people?”

Grace rolled her eyes, and Saff went, “Oooohhh! Don't get your knickers in a twist, sis! Fancy him, do you?”

“No, actually,” I huffed. “If you must know, I'm into someone else.”

Saff was all ears then and even Grace looked up from her costings spreadsheet, but I did the zipping-my-lips sign. “Dream on! As if I'd tell you
anything
after that performance!”

“Ooooh, sorry, miss!” Saff teased.

“Right, let's get this table cleared and set all the stuff out,” I said, ignoring her. “As soon as Mum gets back we need to start sorting out the smoothies and getting these products done.” When neither of them moved I gave them death stares and started clearing the table myself. Among the debris, there was an open letter to Saff from the college. “Oh, you've got your interview next Wednesday – why didn't you say?” I asked her.

“It's no big deal,” she said, trying to sound casual. “Even if I do okay in it, and the practical assessment, they won't be able to tell me for sure if I'm in until I get my GCSE results.”

“Oh, Saff, you mustn't worry about—” I began but Grace cut in. “How many GCSEs do you
need
to file someone's nails, anyway?” she said snottily.

“There's much more to it than that!” Saff snapped back. “I told you, the course includes massage and make-up, and I can take a business module alongside it too so I can help make Rainbow Beauty a success.”

Grace sat back in her chair and folded her arms. “Hang on, isn't this the course you said was rubbish?” she asked.

“Well, I was wrong about that. It's…I—” Saff looked completely exasperated, like she could cheerfully strangle Grace, and to be honest I felt like helping her. It was so obvious she really wanted to get into college now, and that she was terrified her grades would let her down.

“Lay off her, Grace,” I warned. Then I said to Saff, “Wait and see, perhaps you did better than you think in your exams. And even if you didn't, maybe they'll be a bit flexible if you show them how keen you are.”

“Yeah, thanks, Abs,” said Saff, giving Grace a wounded look. “I think I'll go and have a look at what I've got to wear for the interview.”

“Typical,” snorted Grace. “That's your first thought, what you're going to wear. It's not about how you
look
, Saff.”

“Oh, just do one,” said Saff, sticking her fingers up at Grace as she walked out of the kitchen.

As soon as she was out of earshot I turned on Grace. “Why are you being such a cow?” I demanded. “You know how much Saff wants to get on that course now. Why aren't you supporting her?”

Grace just shrugged. “She needs to be realistic, that's all. She made zero effort for her GCSEs and she still expects to get what she wants. It doesn't work like that.”

I was just about to tell her I thought that was really harsh, but then Mum and Liam walked in the door, piled up with bags and boxes. My stomach flipped over with excitement at actually
seeing
all the stuff and I started opening the box of stainless steel saucepans straight away. “Right, I'll get these washed out—”

“Sterilized,” Grace, self-appointed queen of the health and safety guidelines, corrected.

“Sterilized,” I continued. “Grace, you can cut up the soap base and Mum—”

“That can wait until tomorrow,” Liam said, with a mischievous look on his face. “After the week you've all had, you need some R & R. It's a gorgeous day and we're going to the beach.”

Yes! I was so excited, and Mum and Saff were too. Grace grumbled that she still had all the product budgets to do, and a heap of forms to fill in for the cosmetic testing, so she couldn't possibly spare the time. But when it came down to it, she didn't want to be left in the flat on her own either, so she came with us, stuffing her sheets and files into her bag.

In the rush to leave Ealing, Mum, Grace and I had forgotten to pack our swimming costumes, but luckily Saff had grabbed about six bikinis from her drawer and shoved them into her case, so she shared them out between us. I bagsied the blue spotted one, and the top was a bit big on me – okay, a
lot
big – but it was better than nothing. (As in the phrase! Not that I would actually wear NOTHING!)

Luckily Liam's van was that kind with a small back seat before the actual storage bit, so we all managed to fit in, just about. Saff and Grace were still fighting so I made sure I sat in between them to keep the peace.

When we arrived and spilled out into the car park, I couldn't help smiling. It was wonderful – a strong sea breeze, the fresh ozone smell, the sun blazing down. It was like standing in a holiday postcard. There were some loos and a few food stands and that's when we realized it was lunchtime.

Grace seemed to have cheered up a bit, though I knew if anyone pointed that out she'd go all grumpy again. “I'm thinking fresh-made doughnuts,” she said.

“I'm thinking fish and chips,” said Saff.

“I'm thinking seaweed wraps,” I muttered to myself, staring out at the low rocks covered in bladderwrack that dotted the beach.

“What?” Saff spluttered.

“Oh no! Not to eat!” I gasped, giggling. “I mean, we could make seaweed body masks and offer a full wrap treatment at Rainbow Beauty. I made a batch of them once before, remember, with that seaweed powder, and you all thought they were really good.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Saff. “Nice idea.”

“And I could make up a clay mask too,” I said then, thinking aloud, “if we can find a good organic supplier who's not too expensive. And, hey, I know – we could create a Rainbow Beauty signature one as well, with layers of delicious creams and oils and then a wrapping to really let it sink into the skin. Maybe with rose oil lengthened out with geranium, and we could add wheatgerm for dry skin—”

“Abbie!” Liam cried, grinning. “I bring you for a nice day out and you're seeing work everywhere!”

I smiled back. “I can't stop my mind from coming up with stuff. Anyway, it's not work, it's fun.”

“You won't be saying that when you're hauling those filthy desks out of the shop!” said Grace, but she was smiling too, for a change.

We settled on fish and chips in the end, with doughnuts and steaming coffee in cardboard cups for afters. Mum and Liam sat on the shingles, Mum with her big silk scarf draped round her, over her bikini, so that she actually looked
more
dressed than she did in her clothes. Liam kept pointing out fit guys to her and she kept insisting she was off men for ever, and he was saying things to make her laugh, like,
Oh goodie, more for me, then
.

Saff immediately stripped down to her bikini, slathered herself in sun cream and began to read her magazine, pretending not to notice all the boys deliberately walking past so they could check her out.

And Grace and I went swimming in the sea. It was exactly what I needed – the cold briny water really cleared my head (and washed off my make-up so it didn't look like I
had
a head, but never mind). As I floated on my back, rocked by the waves, watching the sun shimmering on the water, I felt happiness flood into me for the first time since all this happened. I had a nice school and lovely friends, our rent was paid up and our business was getting under way. Maybe this new life could really work out for us.

But then I felt instantly guilty for even thinking that. I mean, what about Dad? We hadn't spoken to him for almost a month. He didn't have Mum's new number and we had no way to contact him. I knew his mobile would have been cut off too, the same as ours. He was probably stuck in a dodgy B&B somewhere, or sleeping on a mate's sofa, with no money, no job and no family around him. Us four had each other, but he had no one.

Suddenly it felt like we were the ones who'd abandoned
him
, not the other way round. But I knew I couldn't say that to Mum or my sisters. They'd go mad – he was the bad guy, after all. And anyway, when I thought about what he'd done, I stopped feeling sorry for him and started feeling angry again. We
deserved
a fresh, new start after all the pain he'd put us through, and I was going to do everything I could to make sure we got one.

On Sunday morning we got to work creating our range of beauty products, juices and smoothies. We'd settled on holding a grand opening, with free samples, canapés, juices and mini-treatments, in two weeks' time (which Liam said was possible, just!). That would coincide with the beginning of the summer holidays, so that Grace and I could be there too, to look after reception, make the smoothies and keep things clean and tidy.

Mum had bought a surprise for us – pink-striped aprons like we had when we were little (but from the pound shop, not Whisk, this time!). It was strange, thinking that the last time we were all together wearing aprons like this and making yummy beauty stuff, I was sitting on the counter, the smallest little girl, being given the easy jobs and not allowed near the stove. And now I was in charge, directing everyone.

First we started on some little soaps. It was strange, scrubbing our hands and arms right up to the elbow, putting on hairnets (which we had hysterics over!) and sterilizing all the equipment before we started. It really made it feel like a proper professional business.

The scale was different too – instead of making, say, ten little star soaps, we were doing fifty. And where I sometimes guessed quantities, now I was having to weigh and measure everything out carefully, to make sure we stuck to the budget for each product. As Grace (aka the new Alan Sugar!) told me sternly, there was no point in making things that cost more to produce than we could sell them for. The other thing that soon became clear was that, if we were going to have any chance of getting as much as we hoped done before midnight, we'd have to work as a team. We weren't doing all the products in one day, of course. But we planned to make a good selection, and then we could add to that later in the week if we had time, as well as making up all the fresh face masks at the last minute. The masks only had about a three-week shelf life in the fridge, so we wanted to leave them as late as possible.

I set Saff to work on a couple of oranges and lemons with a grater, to get the strips of peel I wanted to put in the soaps, and Grace was in charge of squeezing the oil out of their skins, to give the soaps a really fresh, zesty smell. I melted the soap base myself because you have to be careful to get the temperature right or it goes all cloudy and brown, and then I added the orange or lemon oil. Mum was in charge of pouring the liquid soap into my cute little star moulds and adding a few strips of peel to each one before leaving them to set.

It seemed to take ages to do those, but we soon got into our stride and started turning out batches of Rose & Geranium Bath Bombs, and then lavender ones, which we named Luscious Lavender. Next we made a huge pan of Peppermint Kiss Lip Balm, which we tinted pink with alkanet root and put into the sweet coloured-glass pots I'd ordered, to set.

After a quick sandwich lunch, Mum and I tackled the Zingy Lemon Zest Foot Scrub, the Olive Grain Scrub and the Grapefruit Foot Lotion, and I let my sisters loose on the body butters. Grace was in charge of the avocado and mandarin varieties, while Saff did the cocoa butter and olive ones. For once, they just got on with it and didn't start arguing. Saff even managed to say that Grace's mandarin one smelled really scrummy, and Grace let her try some. The finished butters looked beautiful in their little pots, with the handmade labels in my swirly writing stuck onto their lids.

We finished off by inventing some bubble baths, and when they were all done we came up with names for the gorgeous yellow, purple and pink liquids in their tall, stoppered bottles – Zesty Zing, Lovely Lavender and Spicy Delight. Saff tied ribbons round their necks and attached pretty silver star decorations, while Grace cut out little card labels to tie on too. I wrote the names on the cards, and added
Handmade
With Love by Rainbow Beauty
on each. We even came up with a slogan to put on our leaflets while we were working:
Rainbow Beauty – beauty from the inside out
. Nice, huh?

Then, later in the afternoon, seeing as everything was going so well (and we were really thirsty by then), we made a start on the juices. On the way back from the beach, I'd got Liam to pull up by a field so I could collect a big pile of nettles. They aren't at all yucky like you'd think – they don't sting your tongue (though I had to borrow his builders' gloves to pick them!), they're super immune-boosting and, best of all, they're free! And using them would reduce the amount of spinach we'd need to put into our green juice, so we'd save money there too.

Mum was in charge of creating the red and yellow juices, Saff chose orange, and Grace took green, so that left me with purple and blue. After lots of peeling and chopping, Grace chasing Saff round the room with a nettle and then the two of them having a small scrap over who was next to use the juicer, we set our inventions out on the table.

Me, Mum and Saff each made a couple of versions of our juices, to find the best ones, but Grace had insisted that her green one was the perfect recipe and that she only needed to make one version because as soon as we tried it we'd love it.

We tried Mum's first, and they were all really yummy, but we chose the one with peach, pear, lemon and strawberry for the red juice and the one with grapes, pears, apples and pineapple for yellow. Then it was my turn, and they all said they liked my carrot, apple and beetroot one for purple, even though they hadn't expected to (actually, Saff said, “Erm, Abs…drinking beetroot? Have you lost your mind?!”). Grace said it was extra good because it balanced out the cost of me choosing lots of the more expensive ingredients for my blue one, which was a vitamin burst of blueberries, melon, passion fruit and mango.

We were all in hysterics when we tried Saff's first version of the orange one. I mean, urgh! Mum squealed and made a sucking-a-lemon face, Grace said it would be fine to use as a window cleaner and I managed to gasp, “Maybe you could tone down the lime and ginger a bit. Okay, a
lot
.” Luckily her second attempt, with much more carrot and orange, was really tasty.

Then it was Grace's turn.

“Right, this recipe is deliberately designed to be full of immune-boosting vitamins and minerals,” she said proudly. We all took a sip and, well, it was such a shock that I couldn't help coughing and spluttering, and nor could Mum. Honestly, it was so disgusting I thought my tongue might drop off. Predictably, drama queen Saff rushed across the room and spat it down the sink. “Erm, Grace,” I managed to gasp, “how on earth did you get
that
taste from the ingredients we had?”

My sister was frowning now. “I added my own,” she stuttered. “I was going by that chart we've got about which foods are full of which vitamins. I wanted to make something to cleanse the digestion, so I added some cabbage and leeks from the fridge as well, and didn't bother with the carrots and apples.”

“Urgh,
cabbage
juice?” groaned Saff. “That explains why it smells so bad! It's like drinking liquid farts!”

“But the carrots and apples are what give it a sweet taste, love,” giggled Mum. “You can't just leave them out.”

“I do think maybe the leeks make it a bit acidic,” I wheezed, thumping my burning chest.

“You got loads of vitamins in,” cried Saff, “you just forgot to make it taste good!” With that, we collapsed into giggles.

All except Grace.

Instead she looked furious. “Oh, typical, all laugh at me!” she snapped. “Well, thanks very much!”

“Hey, come on now,” Mum cried. “We were just having a bit of fun.”

“Yeah, everyone cracked up about my juice and
I
didn't mind,” said Saff. “Why do you have to take everything so seriously?”

That's when Grace lost it. I mean, properly lost it. “Well I'm sorry I'm not as creative as you lot!” she shouted. “It's not nice being the odd one out, you know! You three are in your cosy little world, coming up with ideas all the time, being so pretty and sparkly and making new friends just like
that
.” She clicked her fingers. “Well, lucky you. But not all of us find everything so easy.”

We all stared at her in shock.

“You'll make some friends soon, honey,” said Mum gently.

“No I won't!” Grace yelled. “It's different for me. I can't just walk up to people and start talking like you lot can. It took me years of junior school to get close to Bella and Jayne, and now I've had to leave them behind. Everyone's got their own groups at Cavendish.”

I suddenly realized how lucky I was to have made friends so quickly. And I felt terrible that I hadn't noticed Grace was struggling. “You can hang out with us,” I offered. “You've met Ben, he's really nice, and you've talked to Summer at the gate, and Marco's cool.” I felt my stomach flip over, just saying his name out loud.

I'd thought Grace would be happy about that but instead she just gave me one of her death stares. “Thanks for taking pity on me,” she said sarkily, “but I don't need my little sister coming to my rescue. I don't need anyone. I don't like anyone at school anyway, and they don't like me, so I'm better off on my own!” And before any of us had a chance to speak, she stormed off to her and Saff's room and slammed the door.

Mum looked horrified. “Why didn't she tell us she was feeling like that?” she gasped. “I could have gone into school and had a word with her form teacher.”

Saff grimaced. “That's probably
why
she didn't say anything. Then she'd look like even more of a loser.”

“She's not a loser,” I said automatically.

“
I
know that,” said Saff, “but you have to admit, she doesn't exactly help herself. She judges people so quickly. She doesn't give them a chance.”

I didn't say anything to that, but secretly I agreed with Saff. Mum went down the hall and tried to talk to Grace but she wouldn't open the door. Saff and I tried too, and it was awful, because we could hear her sobbing and sobbing, but she just kept telling us to go away. In the end Mum said, “Come on, let's give her some space.” I could tell she was really worried, we all were – but what could we do?

It was only when Mum and Saff had popped over to Liam's to talk about the shop fit that Grace shuffled into the kitchen. I'd finished off the fresh face mask samples I'd wanted to try out by then and I was washing up for the millionth time.

In silence she picked up the tea towel and started drying stuff for me. Her eyes were red raw and I felt really bad for her. I tried to give her a hug but she wouldn't let me, so we just did the dishes for a while. Then, “I'm sorry about before, Abs,” she said in a whisper. “It was really nice of you to offer to hang out with me, but it made me feel like even more of a sad case than ever.”

“Just because you're not as outgoing as us, that doesn't make you a sad case,” I insisted. “You're so clever, and you really care about things, and people.” Grace smiled a little at that, so I carried on. “It's fine if it takes you a while to make friends,” I told her. “You don't want to go round with just anyone, do you? You'll find people you really get on with. You need a bit of time, that's all.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” said Grace, still looking deflated. “But, like I said, everyone's got their groups, and anyway, I don't fit in anywhere. That's not the only problem, though. I don't think the level of Maths is all that good, and we can't afford a tutor any more. How on earth am I going to get into Cambridge at this rate?”

“Have you thought about telling your Maths teacher your ambition?” I asked. “It's Mr. Hayes, isn't it? I had him on Thursday when Mrs. Croft was ill. He seems quite nice. Maybe there's extension work you could do.”

Grace smiled grimly. “Thanks for the idea, but everyone thinks I'm enough of a geek already, without me asking for extra work.”

I felt suddenly protective. “Did someone
say
that to you?”

She sighed. “No, but I can tell that's what they're thinking. This girl Richanne and her lot look at me like I'm something they've found on the bottom of their shoes.”

I tried to look upbeat, whilst vowing to find out who this Richanne was. “Well, if they think you're a geek already, you've got nothing to lose then, have you?” I countered. “Don't give up on your dreams, Gracie. Not because some girl looks at you funny. Not for anyone. After all we've been through, you can't let something like this drag you down.”

She looked at me then, straight
at
me, and there was a new steel in her eyes. “Yeah, you're right,” she said at last. “This is my whole future we're talking about, after all. Thanks, Abs.”

“No problem,” I said. “Now, can you please dry something else because you've been doing that cup for the last five minutes.”

Grace looked down at the mug in her hands and giggled in surprise.

When Saff and Mum got back a few minutes later, Grace was waiting for them. “Saff, I'm sorry for not being very supportive about your interview,” she said. “I really hope you get a place, and good enough grades to take it up.”