Strawberry Sisters (19 page)

Then there was a bit of a row while Chloe and Lucy debated whether various gifts they’ve given each other, including a tin of cat-shaped spaghetti, a selection of pebbles and a home-made
jelly mould, were worth anything at all.

When we actually got to the shops, I was already quite tired.

We worked our way up the high street and by the time we reached the clock tower we were all carrying several bags. Mum said she needed a break so we were heading up in the lift to the
café in the department store when the doors opened and Mum’s ‘friend’ Greg got in.

‘Louise!’ he said to Mum. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’ He tore his eyes off her to notice the rest of us were there and said, ‘Hello, girls!’ His eyes widened as
if he couldn’t quite believe how many of us there were. Although he must have known how many kids Mum’s got because obviously she must talk about us all the time. Maybe he
couldn’t quite believe how much space we were taking up. That’s because Lucy had insisted on bringing her entire hedgehog family in a huge old hiking rucksack of Dad’s. That, plus
all our shopping and Chloe’s ginormous behind, pretty much filled the lift.

‘How are you, Amelia?’ he asked. He seemed pleased with himself that he’d remembered my name.

‘I’m shopping with my little sisters,’ I said. ‘So obviously I’m in heaven. Any second now I’m going to break into an uplifting musical dance
number.’

He snorted. It’s nice to finally meet someone who appreciates sarcasm.

‘You won’t think it’s funny when she actually does start singing,’ Lucy said.

‘You must be Lucy,’ Greg said.

‘Of course,’ Lucy said. ‘What would you buy a hedgehog for Christmas?’

‘Er . . .’

‘I’m Chloe,’ Chloe said, elbowing Lucy out of the way. ‘I’m getting an England shirt for Christmas. Did you know that I helped to persuade the Chiefs to set up a
girls’ youth squad?’

‘I did not know that. Congratulations.’

‘Thank you. If there’s something you think is really sexist, you can write to the newspaper about it if you like.’

‘Oh.’ His eyes slide sideways to Mum. ‘Well, I’ll certainly consider that.’ He turned to Ella. ‘Have you bought anything nice?’

Ella nodded and turned bright pink.

There was a long pause while everyone waited for Ella to tell him what she’d bought, but she didn’t, so eventually Mum said, ‘Which floor did you want?’

‘Ah, the third. I’m looking for gloves for my sister.’

So Mum pressed the button and up we went again.

‘Gloves wouldn’t be very good for hedgehogs,’ Lucy said scornfully as if Greg had suggested them.

‘No,’ he agreed. ‘A scarf might be better for a hedgehog.’

The lift stopped and the doors opened. Greg smiled at Mum. ‘Best get on then.’

‘Yes, nice to see you.’

‘I hope you find your hedgehog scarf,’ he said to Lucy. ‘And good luck with the rugby . . .’ He hesitated. I think he’d forgotten Chloe’s name.

‘Thanks,’ Chloe said.

‘Sorry to miss that musical number, Amelia.’

I grinned. I couldn’t help being pleased that I was the one whose name he got right.

He stepped out of the lift and turned back to look at Ella. ‘Enjoy your shopping.’

Ella said nothing.

‘Ella,’ hissed Chloe.

But still Ella didn’t say anything.

‘Right,’ Greg said. ‘I’ll, er, OK, so . . . bye again.’ And he backed away, giving a little wave, until he bumped into a mannequin dressed in a fluffy coat.

Lucy cackled with laughter.

‘Lucy!’ Mum said in a low voice.

‘I’m just laughing. You can’t keep laughs in. Or farts. If you do, you explode.’

‘
Shhhh
,’ I said. Seriously. My sisters are so embarrassing. Fortunately, at that point, the doors finally slid shut.

‘At least I say things,’ Lucy snapped at Mum, who was holding a hand to her forehead. ‘Ella didn’t say anything. That’s actually really rude.’

Ella was staring at the floor. ‘Perhaps Ella was feeling shy,’ Mum said. ‘Now who thinks we should have a doughnut in the café?’ My mum is very good at changing
the subject. If you mention doughnuts, no one in my family can think about anything else.

When we finally got home, I watched Chloe stowing her presents away under the bed.

‘Do you think Ella hates Greg?’ I asked her.

Chloe picked her stuffed gorilla up off the floor and returned him to her pillow. ‘Dunno. Ella doesn’t normally hate anyone.’

‘But she won’t talk to him.’

‘She doesn’t like talking to strangers.’

‘I know, but she does do it normally; she says “yes” and “no” and “school is lovely” and all that sort of thing.’

‘Maybe she was just in a bad mood. Shall I tell Lucy that I’m only getting her stupid hedgehogs presents if she buys one for Bananas Gorilla? And that he only likes chocolate? Real
chocolate, otherwise she’ll just draw a bar of chocolate. She did that the year I wanted money.’

But I was still thinking about Ella. It seemed like either she hated Greg or she was just being spectacularly rude, but neither of those things seemed very Ella-ish. I’m not always great
at understanding other people’s feelings. I thought I knew how Mum felt about the divorce and that she hated Dad, but it turned out that I was mixing up my own feelings in there. I think I
sort of expect people to think the same way I do; but not everyone’s like me.

I remembered Ella’s face in the café. She was obviously unhappy about something. She’d even let Lucy finish her doughnut so there must be something wrong.

I left Chloe attempting to juggle two pillows and Bananas Gorilla and went into Lucy and Ella’s bedroom.

Ella was lying on her bed, holding a book, but I don’t think she was really reading it.

‘Are you worrying about Crystal?’ I asked.

‘No,’ she said.

‘Really? You can tell me if you are. Has she been mean to you?’

‘No, honestly, she hasn’t said anything to me and I’m glad I told her the truth.’

If it wasn’t Crystal then it had to be Greg.

‘Ella, I’ve got a problem; I want to help someone, but I don’t know how. You’re the best person I know at understanding people, apart from Mum, and I can’t ask her
about this so I need your advice.’

‘You want me to advise you?’

‘Yep. So there’s this girl. This really nice girl who’s kind and polite and hard-working. She’s totally lovely. Sometimes she’s so good that it makes her evil big
sister feel a bit queasy, but basically she’s nice.’

‘
Okaaaaay
,’ Ella said slowly.

‘But recently this girl has been a bit rude to her mum’s new boyfriend.’

‘He’s not her boyfriend!’ Ella said. ‘She called him her friend. He’s not her boyfriend, is he?’

‘Do you mind if he is? Don’t you want her to have a boyfriend?’

Ella squirmed with misery. ‘It’s not that I don’t want her to have a nice time.’

‘I know. You’re always telling her she should go out more.’

Ella scrubbed at her eyes with her fists. ‘When I said that, I thought she’d go shopping with Susan or visit the museum with one of the other teachers.’

‘Why do you mind if she goes with a man instead? You don’t mind about Dad having a girlfriend. You like Suvi.’

‘I do like Suvi.’ She hesitated. ‘But,’ she lowered her voice, ‘I wasn’t sure at first. I’ve had time to get used to her.’

‘Well, you’ll get used to whoever Mum picks as a boyfriend. It might not even be this one; she might try lots of different ones.’

Ella looked like she might be sick. ‘Do you really think she’s going to have loads of different boyfriends? Will they all come round and have coffee? In our house?’

‘Why do you care if they visit our house?’

She looked at me and I stared back at her. I was lost again. I could understand that Ella might not like Mum having a boyfriend, I still wasn’t super keen myself, but I didn’t see
what all this business was about our house. It’s not as if Ella liked to lie around in her underwear, eating tuna straight from the can like Chloe did.

‘I don’t know what to say,’ I said eventually. ‘I’m trying to cheer you up, but I’m not doing a very good job, am I?’

Ella took a deep breath. ‘It’s hard to explain. If Mum really has to have a boyfriend, I’d rather she did it at a restaurant. Our house is for us.’

‘He’s not going to move in or anything.’

Ella’s eyes widened in horror.

‘I just mean that if any of Mum’s friends come round they won’t be here for long and you’re right, it is our home, so we can just carry on doing whatever we want
to.’

Ella pressed her lips together.

Then I got it. Ella can’t be herself when there are strangers around. ‘Do you feel uncomfortable when there are other people in the house?’ I asked.

‘Sort of. I mean, I don’t mind Susan or Lauren, I don’t even mind Thunder so much now because he’s not as scary as he looks, but . . . when Greg was here, I just sort of
froze.’

‘It must be difficult for you,’ I said.

‘I just can’t help it. I don’t want him to think I’m mean. I’m sure he’s very nice.’

‘Yes!’ I said. ‘I bet he is and do you know how I know?’

‘How?’

‘Because Mum likes him and I think she’s a pretty good judge; she wouldn’t bring anyone horrible into our house. And you know the way that you got used to Suvi and Thunder?
That will happen with Greg too if he keeps coming round.’

‘Do you think so?’

‘I’m sure of it. You’re nice; he’s nice. I think eventually you’ll get along.’

‘But what about now?’

‘If you feel shy now, that’s OK. We know you’re shy. I think even Greg must have realised that. If you just try to say hello and goodbye to him, I promise you that your
big-mouthed sisters can fill in all the gaps for you.’

Ella smiled. ‘Thank you. I think that would be a big help.’

And the crease between her eyes finally disappeared.

‘How’s the concert coming on?’ Lauren asked.

I’d popped round to her house after an extra rehearsal on Monday afternoon.

‘Oh, you know, Mr Garcia has reached that point where he looks haunted and sweaty all the time. He kicked off with the usual, “In three days’ time, you’ll all be
onstage.”’

Lauren nodded. ‘Oh, I know that speech; it’s like he’s telling you all you’ve only got a few days left before you’re going to be publicly shamed by the worst
singing he’s ever heard.’

‘Yep. Then he moved on to, “Is there any possibility that you might be persuaded to exert the least bit of effort, Ms Strawberry? Mr Tarasewicz?”’

‘What did you say? What did Bartek say?’

‘He waited till Mr Garcia was finished with us and, when we were walking back to the hall, he jabbed me in the ribs and said, “Miss Strawberry, when are you going to stop flicking
your hair and do some nice singing?”’

‘He didn’t!’

‘He did.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I said, “Stop jabbing me or I won’t ask you to Olivia’s party.”’

Lauren gasped. ‘And?’

‘He stopped and I asked him to Olivia’s party and he said yes.’

‘Woooo-hoooo!’ Lauren bounced on her bed and I couldn’t help laughing.

‘So then Mr Garcia came to listen to the group songs and spent the rest of the rehearsal bellowing and stomping and we all had a great time. At least Bartek and I had a great time making
silly jokes. I think Mr Garcia might have actually ruptured an internal organ.’

‘He’ll be all right. He loves it when he’s conducting; his little face lights up like . . .’

‘Like his acrylic jumper has caught fire.’

Lauren snorted with laughter. ‘I wish I was at rehearsals,’ she said.

‘Me too.’

‘I can’t wait to watch you though. I might make one of those banners like people have at pop concerts.’

‘Brilliant. Please can it say,
Amelia Strawberry, you’ve got the voice of an angel and you have never (regardless of what Mr Garcia might have said) sounded like an enraged
walrus?’

‘That’s quite a lot to fit on a bit of old sheet. I might just put your face in a heart.’

‘Make sure it’s a good likeness.’

‘Don’t worry, monkey faces like yours are my speciality.’

When it was time for me to go, I left Lauren in her bedroom and went downstairs. Mrs Anderson stuck her head out of the sitting room.

‘Amelia,’ she said in a low voice. ‘May I speak to you?’ She motioned me into the sitting room. I sat down and crossed my legs neatly. It felt like when the teacher keeps
you behind at the end of a lesson. I hoped she wasn’t cross with me again. She didn’t look it. In fact, she started off with something that was very close to a smile.

‘As you know, the last few months have been very difficult for Lauren.’

I nodded hard. ‘It’s been really tough for her.’

‘I’d like to get her something really special for Christmas, but I’m afraid we’re rather stumped for ideas. Obviously, she’s got her new laptop and she’s not
had her phone long so I was hoping that perhaps you’d have some idea of what she might like?’

I thought hard. ‘I can’t think of anything she’s mentioned.’ Lauren isn’t like some people who always have a long list of things that they want. ‘Clothes
maybe?’

‘Perhaps.’

I realised that since Lauren doesn’t get to go out so much, clothes might not be the best choice. I wanted to think of something good, but my mind had gone completely blank.