The Honeymoon Sisters (15 page)

‘Anyway, Sadie’s got to be in more trouble than you,’
I said, trying to make him feel better. ‘She actually punched you. She’ll probably get suspended.’

Just then the door of the medical room opened and Mr Anderson came in. He looked worried and he frowned even more when he saw Sean. I can’t say I blamed him. The bruising was coming out pretty badly around Sean’s nose now.

‘I heard what happened. Are you
OK
?’ Mr Anderson squatted down in front of him, peering closely at his face and ignoring his protests as he lightly felt the bridge of his nose. ‘Looks like she packed quite a punch. I don’t think you’ll be living this one down in a hurry, mate.’ He turned to me. ‘Poppy, your mother’s just arrived. Mr Jamieson wants you to wait outside his office in case he needs to speak to you again.’

‘You heard
why
she punched me, right?’ Sean whispered, sounding nervous.

‘Oh yes, I heard, all right,’ Mr Anderson replied. ‘Mr Jamieson just hauled me into his office to inform me.’

Sean gulped. ‘Leo, I’m really sorry.’

‘Yes, well, we need to talk. But first we need to get your face checked out. Come on. I’m dropping you off at home. Your mother’s phoning the doctor to see if you can get an appointment this afternoon.’

‘What about you, Leo?’ Sean asked anxiously. ‘Did I get
you
in a lot of trouble?’

‘We’ll talk about it at home.’

And not for the first time I felt a rush of warmth towards Sean, because it was so obvious how much he cared. Unlike Sadie. I sighed. Why did she have to be such a troublemaker? And why did she have to be my cousin?

After ten minutes of sitting outside Mr Jamieson’s office on my own I was called in. Either Mum or Mr Jamieson or both seemed to be under the mistaken impression that when it came to getting Sadie’s cooperation I might have more influence over her than Mum.

Mum wanted Sadie to drop her complaint against Mr Anderson and they were engaged in a tetchy to and fro about it. Mum said Mr Anderson clearly hadn’t
deliberately
shared the confidential information with Sean. Sadie said he shouldn’t have shared it with his wife either. Mum said that husbands and wives couldn’t be expected not to talk to each other about their jobs. Sadie told her that was rubbish because lots of people with stressful jobs didn’t have a husband or wife to offload on to and they seemed to manage.

Mr Jamieson told Sadie that he accepted there was a confidentiality issue to be looked at, but that her assault on Sean was a far more serious offence and one that he intended to address as a priority. And that he was going to suspend her.

As soon as he said that Sadie pushed back her chair and jumped from her seat, shouting that we were all in this together and that she was done listening to any of us.

‘You’re all pathetic!’ she snapped. Then she told Mr Jamieson she was going to make an official complaint about the school to social services. ‘And you’re going to face disciplinary action for the way you run it,’ she added angrily.

Mum and I nearly fell off our chairs. Even Mr Jamieson, who never usually gets ruffled, looked slightly taken aback.

‘Sadie, that’s enough!’ Mum snapped, standing up along with her. It was the sternest I’d ever heard her when she was addressing my cousin.

‘You’re not my mum!’ Sadie yelled. ‘
YOU
can’t tell me what to do!’

Mum just sighed. I have to say that she’s always been good at ignoring any you’re-not-my-mum missiles that get hurled at her when she’s fostering.

‘Sadie, everyone here is trying to help you. Please stop fighting us,’ she persisted.

‘You don’t want to help me!’ Sadie screamed. ‘You just want to get rid of me!’ And before anyone could stop her she was out through the door.

‘Wait there. I’ll see if I can get her back,’ Mr Jamieson said, quickly following.

After he’d gone, Mum and I sat in shocked silence for a few moments. Mum had tears in her eyes.

‘Oh, Mum.’ I leaned across and put my arm around her.

After what seemed like forever, but was only about five minutes, Mr Jamieson finally came back. ‘I’m afraid she’s left the school,’ he told us with a worried frown. ‘She went out through the main gate. Hopefully she’s on her way home.’

‘I’d better go back and wait for her, then,’ Mum said. ‘I’ll call social services to fill them in.’ She met my gaze and gave me a little smile. ‘Well, Poppy,’ she said in a weak attempt at a joke, ‘I guess this means the honeymoon period’s over!’

Chapter Twenty-One

At home time all I knew was that I had to speak to Josh.

I texted him as I walked across the playground, but got no reply. Then I spotted him walking slowly out through the gates a short distance ahead of me, talking on his phone. As I caught up with him and waited for his conversation to end, I quickly picked up that he was speaking to Sean.

‘How is he?’ I asked after he’d finished the call.

‘Nothing’s broken, apparently. His mum’s feeding him some soup and some painkillers the doctor prescribed and tucking him up in bed as we speak.’

‘So he’s
OK
?’

‘Well, he’s pretty upset about what happened. He says his mum and Leo are really angry with him for eavesdropping, never mind for blurting out
what
he overheard. Leo’s got to go and see Mr Jamieson after school. How
much further it goes will depend a bit on Sadie, I guess.’ He paused. ‘Leo’s told Sean he has to keep away from Sadie in future – and he doesn’t want him hanging out with her or
you
outside of school.’

I gulped. ‘
Me?
’ I hadn’t seen that one coming.

‘Yeah … Leo says you and Sadie are like sisters now and that Sean can’t avoid her if he’s still seeing you.’

‘We are not like sisters!’

‘Well, that’s how Leo sees it, apparently. He knew the four of us were planning to go bowling together. That’s never going to happen now, obviously.’

‘Right …’ I felt stunned.

‘You sound almost as disappointed as Sean,’ Josh said in a teasing voice. He grinned. ‘You do know that he fancies you, right?’

‘Huh?’ For a moment I wondered if I’d heard him correctly.

‘You’re on his
Top Five Cutest Girls
list.’

‘Josh, don’t be stupid!’ I declared, scowling at him.

‘I’m dead serious, Poppy! He asked me if I thought you’d go out with him.’

I just gaped at him. Mind you, I couldn’t deny the flutter of excitement I felt as well.

‘So would you?’ Josh prompted me.

Would I? I really liked Sean, and I suppose I’d have to admit that I was enjoying his company more and more. But did I fancy him? Did I want to go out with him?

‘That depends …’ I looked at Josh carefully, trying to work out what
he
thought about me dating his best friend. I was remembering what Anne-Marie had said about how you can’t have a boyfriend
and
have a boy as your best friend because the two of them will get jealous of each other.

I didn’t ask Josh what he thought about that because it was too embarrassing. But I did remind myself that no way was Anne-Marie always right about stuff like this.

Sadie wasn’t back when I got home and Mum was starting to worry.

‘Maybe we should go out and look for her,’ she said.

‘Where would we look, Mum? She could be anywhere. Just wait and she’ll come back.’

Mum phoned Lenny, who said to give it a bit longer before we started worrying because Sadie had gone off on her own a lot of times before and so far she’d always returned the same day.

‘I think I’ll try her phone again,’ Mum said after another half hour had gone by.

‘I expect it’s still switched off,’ I warned her.

Mum tried it anyway and I was right.

I made her a cup of tea and got her to sit down. She refused the chocolate biscuits I put in front of her, which I knew meant she must be really nervous. When Mum’s feeling upset she comfort eats like mad. It’s only when she’s truly scared about something that she can’t eat anything. She can’t sit still then either and she fidgets a lot like she was doing now.

‘Mum, can I ask you something?’ I said, thinking now was as good a time as any to bring this up.

‘Of course.’

‘What if you found out that you couldn’t manage to look after both me and Sadie? Would you want
me
to go and live with Dad?’ I hoped she wouldn’t get upset with me for asking. I just needed to know the truth. Or rather, I needed to hear that if it ever came to a choice between Sadie and me, then she would choose me, no matter how many alternative homes I had available to me.

‘What?’ She was clearly taken aback by my question. ‘Poppy, I can’t imagine
why
you’d think you needed to ask that. I’d never want you to live full-time with your father instead of with me.’

‘But what if me and Sadie don’t
ever
get along?
She’s
got nowhere else to go, has she? I have.’

‘Poppy, you’re my daughter! I would never take in another child if it meant that I couldn’t keep you!’

‘Not even Sadie?’

‘Of course not even Sadie.’

‘Oh.’ I gave her a relieved smile. The way she said it left me in no doubt that she was speaking the truth.

But she clearly felt that she needed to say more. ‘Poppy, you are my only child and my greatest gift and you must never forget that!’ Then she added, ‘But I see
all
the children we look after as gifts, no matter where they’ve come from or how long we get to keep them. You realise that, don’t you?’

‘Of course, Mum.’ I understood what she was telling me. Yes, I was her only ‘forever’ child, which gave me the priority. But that didn’t mean that all the children we fostered meant nothing to her.

Mum said solemnly, ‘I see Sadie as a very special gift – and not one to be given up lightly.’

Not as lightly as you gave up Amy
. The thought just popped into my head out of nowhere.
Stop it
, I told myself.
This isn’t about Amy.
The Amy discussion can wait for another day.

‘Maybe we
should
go out and look for Sadie,’ I murmured. It was hard for me to view Sadie as a gift, but I realised even I was starting to worry a bit about where she had got to.

But it turned out we didn’t have to look, because right at that moment our ‘gift’ came walking back in through the front door.

‘I’m really tired and I’m going to lie down,’ she said in a very quiet, very reasonable voice.

‘Sadie, we need to talk about what happened at school today,’ Mum said anxiously. ‘Where did you go to? I was so worried!’

‘I’ve just been walking around,’ she said, avoiding eye contact with Mum. ‘Listen, I’ve got a headache. We can talk later, right?’ She went straight upstairs.

Mum still looked worried but she told me to take Sadie some paracetamol for her headache, while she phoned Lenny to let her know Sadie was back safely.

I walked into Sadie’s room without bothering to knock and caught her texting. ‘Who’s that?’ I asked.

‘None of your business.’ She quickly put down her phone where I couldn’t see it. ‘What’s that?’

‘Pills for your headache.’

‘I don’t need them.’

‘I know. Cos you don’t really have a headache, do you?’ When she didn’t say anything I added in as reasonable a voice as I could manage, ‘I bet Sean has one hell of a headache. Why did you have to punch him, Sadie? He hadn’t told a soul what he overheard about your dad.’

At least she had the decency to look a bit guilty. ‘Yeah, well, I’m sorry,
OK
? I have this problem with my anger. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been seeing Mrs Thomson … and I’m meant to count to ten and take deep breaths and stuff, but it’s hard when people wind me up about my dad. I just see red.’

‘Sean’s not allowed to see either of us any more – you
or
me! Josh just told me.’

‘Oops.’

OOPS? Was that really all she could think of to say?

‘Sorry. Still … it’ll just make your little romance all the more fun, won’t it? You and Sean will just have to see each other in secret – like Romeo and Juliet.’

‘Sadie, have you even
seen
that play? It’s got the most tragic ending ever!’

‘Has it? The only bit I know is where Juliet’s on the balcony going “Romeo, Romeo, where the hell are you?” ’ She giggled.

What was wrong with her?

‘Sadie, you are
so
annoying,’ I burst out, losing my fight to stay calm. ‘And what have you got against Sean? Even before you punched him, what you said to Anne-Marie about his dad was really horrible. It’s like you think
you’re
the only one who deserves sympathy!’

She had stopped giggling. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘You said it wasn’t sad that his dad died!’

‘I said it wasn’t
that
sad! And it’s not! I mean, at least his dad didn’t
choose
to go off and leave him, did he?’

‘Neither did yours!’

‘No, but
she
did! She even wrote and said we should think of her as dead! But she wasn’t dead! If she was, it wouldn’t have been so bad!’ Suddenly there were tears in her eyes.

‘Sadie –’ I hadn’t realised until then which parent she’d been thinking about. ‘Sadie …’ But I couldn’t think of anything to say.

‘Just go away and leave me alone!’ she snapped. Her phone beeped as a text came through, and she promptly jumped up and shoved me out of her room.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what Sadie had just said. It was true that if her mum had died then at least she’d have a story to tell that would earn her some
sympathy. Instead she was too ashamed of what her mum had done to want to tell anyone about it. I understood now why she was so angry all the time. In fact, if I was her, then I’m pretty sure I’d be permanently angry too.

No wonder she felt abandoned all over again by her dad, and that she didn’t really trust Mum yet, even though it sometimes seemed like she was trying to. And no wonder she was so short on sympathy for other people, especially people whose parents (or step-parents) clearly cared about them.