Polly Plays Her Part (9 page)

The friend2friend home page was still there and all my answers had been saved. I knew I should go to bed and get some sleep, but I was dying to see what would happen next. I entered my username as “Marcia2” and clicked on the Ruby door and as the screen cleared a new message appeared. It said: “Welcome to the Ruby room, where you get to choose your perfect friend. Answer these few simple questions and we'll find you the
best
best friend ever!”

I couldn't believe it…
more questions…
but these ones were easy. I knew exactly what kind of best friend I'd love to have: someone who wanted to be with me all the time; someone I could share everything with – all my secrets and hopes and dreams; and someone who understood me – no matter what.

I forgot all about how tired I was and how gutted I was about Mum leaving. I described all the exciting things me and my perfect friend would do together; sleepovers and shopping and double dates. Camping and horse riding and West End shows. The list was endless. I was still typing away when Dad called up to say Mum was at the door.

Mum had never been round to Diane's – not since Dad had left her to move in here – and for a fraction of a second I wondered if she'd come round to tell me she'd changed her mind about going to Spain after all. I bolted out of my room and down the stairs two at a time.

She was standing stiffly on the doorstep looking horribly uncomfortable.

“Hello, Polly, love,” she said, her lips so thin they'd almost disappeared. “Busy practising your lines?”

I nodded, barely able to breathe, waiting for her to say the magic words; just waiting for her to make everything okay again. She took a tissue out of her bag and started to dab at her eyes.

“I've just popped round to let you know that I'm actually packing up today. Remember that nice couple Mr. and Mrs. Bay, who came to look round the house a couple of weeks ago? Well, they're moving in tomorrow, so I need to be out of the house by six o'clock this evening.” She dabbed at her eyes again and I could see she was trying so hard not to cry in front of Diane. “I'm only going to be over at number 20. Tracy says I can stay there for a couple of nights, but the thing is, we really need to sort out Cosmo.”

“That's fine,” said Diane, quickly. She was standing behind me looking just as awkward as Mum. “Why don't you pop along with your mum and get him now, Polly, and then you can spend the rest of the day settling him in.”

I carried Cosmo up the road, talking to him all the way. He started to wriggle and squirm as we came up the path to the front door at number 11, but I held on to him as tightly as I could, trying to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. The second we got inside he scrambled out of my arms, shot through the door into the living room – and straight under the sofa. He stayed under there for the rest of the day.

I spent ages lying on the floor trying to convince him that it was safe to come out, but he wouldn't budge. I even slid a bowl of his favourite food under the sofa to tempt him out – but it didn't make the slightest difference.

“Just give him some time,” said Diane. “He'll soon learn to trust us. You know, I popped in to see the vet during the week and he said we should put some butter on his paws.”

I looked up from the floor. “He said
what
?”

“No, seriously, Polly. I told him about Cosmo coming to live with us and he said if we put butter on his paws, he'd lick it off – and then, when he wanted more, he'd find his way straight back to where he first got it.”

“And he knows that for a fact, does he?”

“I really don't know if he knows it for a fact,” said Diane, slowly, as if she was talking to a two-year-old. “But I think it might be worth a try, don't you?”

It probably was worth a try but it was going to be impossible unless Cosmo decided to come out from under the sofa. In the end I left him there and went back upstairs to the computer. I finished describing my perfect friend and entered the details. A few minutes later a message popped up in my friend2friend mailbox. It was from someone called Skye. I had no idea who she was but we started chatting.

Skye said she was my special friend2friend friend. That the computer had matched us up because we were so similar. She asked me loads of questions but I didn't tell her about Mum leaving, or Diane trying to suck up, or Cosmo quivering under the sofa. I was Marcia2 and I lived with my mum and dad and my twin sister, Phoebe, and everything about my life was just about perfect.

Cosmo stayed under the sofa for the next two days. We knew he was venturing out at night because each morning his food and water bowls were empty. And we could tell by the awful smell that he'd managed to find the cat-litter tray in the downstairs loo.

Diane was trying to be patient about the litter tray but I could see it was getting on her nerves.

“We'll give it a few more days,” she said at breakfast on Tuesday, “but after that he'll have to start going out.”

“But he might not be ready,” I said. “If you force him out before he's ready he might not come back.”

She screwed up her face, shuddering. “I'm sorry, Polly, but it's just not hygienic; not with Jake crawling around putting everything into his mouth.”

“Don't worry, Di, love,” said Dad. “I've bought a cat flap and I'm going to sort it out as soon as I get home from work today. That way he'll be able to come and go as he pleases. No more poohs, I promise. The only poohs we can cope with at the moment are yours, aren't they, little Jakey cakey.”

Jake kicked his legs and blew a big raspberry. I felt like blowing a big raspberry myself – right at Dad and Diane – but I kept my mouth clamped shut and sat there in silence.

After school I went round to see Mum. She was leaving the next morning and Tracy had invited some of her friends over for a bit of a send off. I wanted to see Mum off by myself – to say goodbye properly, but she said Tracy had been so wonderful to her she couldn't really leave her own leaving party.

“
Hola,
Polly!” she cried when she opened the door. She pulled me inside and threw her arms round me. “I'm going to miss my little girl so much, you've no idea.” She pulled a crumpled-up tissue out of her pocket and started dabbing at her eyes, half-laughing, half-crying. “She's so fantastic, this girl of mine,” she announced suddenly to all her friends. “She's only gone and got the biggest part in her new show at drama.”

Everyone cheered and said well done and Mum gave me another hug, and then she turned round to her friend Jaz and started blathering on about the little apartment she'd rented in Spain and how close it was to the sea. I could see she'd already forgotten all about me and my brilliant part in the show – and how she wasn't going to see me for weeks and weeks.

I didn't stay that long in the end. They were all drinking this Spanish drink called sangria. It was in a massive plastic jug with bits of fruit floating around the top and the more they drank the wilder they became. At one point they started dancing around Tracy's living room. “It's the flamenco,” Mum cried, grabbing hold of me and practically whisking me off my feet, but a minute later she was in tears again, telling me how proud she was and how much she was going to miss me.

Back at Dad and Diane's I was straight on the friend2friend website and in the Ruby room chatting to Skye. She wanted to know how I was and how my day had been.

“Fantastic!” I fibbed. “Phoebe and I organized this party for our mum and dad's anniversary and everyone drank far too much sangria. You should've seen my mum dancing the flamenco. It was so funny I nearly cried laughing!”

I logged back on as soon as I got up the next morning. Skye was an only child and she kept going on about how amazing it must be to have a twin to share everything with. I got so carried away telling her about Phoebe and all the exciting stuff we did together that I almost forgot for a while that it wasn't true.

We carried on chatting until it was time for school. “Log on later,” Skye said. “The more we chat the more points we get.”

I didn't know what she meant but I didn't have time to find out. I ran downstairs and told Dad I was going over to Tracy's to wait with Mum until she left for the airport.

“Sorry, Polly,” he said, shaking his head. “You can pop in for a minute, but I don't want you missing any school. I thought you said goodbye last night?”

I just couldn't believe my dad sometimes. “You do realize Mum is leaving the country for a whole year? And anyway, it's not as if missing one measly day of school is going to make the slightest difference to anyone!”

Dad looked across at Diane, but I stomped out of the kitchen before he could say anything else.

Mum was up and dressed when I knocked on the door.

“Come here,” she said, pulling me into her arms. “I'm so sorry about last night. I had far too much sangria. I think it must've been nerves.” She hugged me really tight and I buried my face in her shoulder.

“It's all right,” I whispered. “I know you're excited.”

She pulled back and looked at me. “I am excited, sweetheart, but I wouldn't leave you if I didn't think you were going to be fine at your dad's. You just concentrate on drama and learning your part and doing well at school and I'll be back before you know it.”

I clung on to her for as long as I could, fighting back tears. It hit me, suddenly, that she wouldn't be able to give me a hug for weeks and weeks, and I didn't want to let go. I'm not even the
huggy
type, but then I'd never been away from Mum for more than a couple of nights – and even then it was only up the road at Dad's.

The day dragged by: double science and then maths. At lunch everyone was talking about CRASH! Sam said she'd already learned all her lines, of course, and Ellie was moaning about how she'd lost her script for about the hundredth time.

“It turns out it was never in that bag I left on the bus – but now I've gone and lost it again so I don't know my part at all.”

“How about you, Polly?” asked Phoebe. “You must have loads to learn. Have you made a start?”

“Course,” I said. “I know most of Act One already.”

I hated lying to Phoebe but I couldn't tell her the truth in front of the others. Later on, when I managed to get her on her own for a second, I told her about Mum leaving and how upset I was. “She's probably on the plane right now.”

Phoebe knelt down and rummaged around in her bag. “I've bought you something, actually,” she said. “I knew you'd be feeling sad today, about your mum and everything.” She pulled out a small package. “I hope you like it,” she added shyly. The package was wrapped in delicate, silver tissue paper tied up with a sparkly ribbon.

“But it's not even my birthday,” I said, giving her a hug.

“Yeah, but I know how awful it would be if my mum went away for a whole year. Come on, slowcoach, open it – I'm dying to see if you like it.”

I started to untie the ribbon as carefully as I could but just then Sam and Ellie came bounding back over.

“You'll never guess what!” cried Ellie. “Sam just showed me her new socks and it triggered off something in my brain and I suddenly remembered where I left my script!”

“Down your knickers?” said Phoebe, giggling.

“Erm…in the dirty-washing basket, actually. I had five minutes to tidy my room the other day so I dumped it in there with everything else that was strewn across the floor.”

“Hey, we didn't know it was your birthday, Polly,” said Sam, spotting the parcel suddenly.

“It's not,” I muttered. Now I wouldn't get to open my present with Phoebe – on our own.

“It's just a little present because Polly's mum's leaving today,” Phoebe explained.

Sam sighed dramatically. “I wish my mum would go and live somewhere else for a year; she's driving me nuts at the moment. She's had this massive row with my big sister and it's put her in the worst mood ever.”

“Come on, Polly, open the present,” said Ellie, hopping about. “I'm dying to see what's inside.”

But I shook my head and stuffed it in my bag, still wrapped. I didn't want to open it in front of Ellie and Sam. “The bell's going to ring any second. I'll open it later.”

Phoebe's face dropped. “Don't you want to see what it is? I chose it specially.”

“I do, really, but I'll open it at home.”

The afternoon dragged by even more slowly than the morning. I tried to catch Phoebe at the end of the day. I thought we could walk home together, but she rushed off to netball practice with Ellie and that was that. An aeroplane flew over the playground and I wondered if Mum might be on it. I missed her already and she'd hardly been gone for five minutes.

I opened Phoebe's present the second I got home. It was the most beautiful photo frame with silver stars engraved all the way round the sides. She'd written a little card and put it behind the glass. It said, “
I hope you like your Star Makers photo frame, Polly – well done for getting such a great part. Phoebe x x x
”