The Honeymoon Sisters (2 page)

I’d quickly made a new best friend called Olivia in Year Seven, and Anne-Marie had been jealous, which was awkward, but then Olivia had moved away just before we started Year Eight. Anne-Marie had said I could have another chance to be her best friend if I wanted, even though she had other friends now, and I have to say it made me see that loyalty in a friendship is important too – it’s not just about how ‘close’ or ‘in tune’ the two of you are.

I miss Olivia though. Anne-Marie and I don’t always see things the same way and I have to be a lot more
careful what I say to her. Plus she really embarrassed me one time in Year Seven by broadcasting something I’d told her in confidence.

She had asked me and some of the other girls to vote on who was the cutest male teacher in our school, getting us to fill out a silly questionnaire in which we had to give marks out of five for each attribute she’d named. One was ‘Cuteness of bum’ and she wanted to know why I hadn’t given Mr Anderson 5/5. So I had truthfully said that I’d knocked off a mark because when he’d taken off his jacket the day before I’d noticed that, compared to some of the other candidates, he had quite a chunky bum. And that if I was giving 5/5 to the compact muscly bottom of Mr Christie, our
PE
teacher, then I couldn’t in all fairness give the same mark to our English teacher.

Anne-Marie had thought that was hilarious and repeated it to loads of other people. Then Julia Munro – who can be really bitchy – related the story to Mr Anderson in front of the whole class a few days later. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment that day, and even now just thinking about it makes me blush. Olivia hadn’t wanted me to be friends at all with Anne-Marie after that, but Anne-Marie was so persistent in trying to win me back that I’d eventually agreed to forgive
her. And I suppose I was glad I had when Olivia told me her dad had got a new job and they were moving away in the summer holiday.

‘What’s wrong, Poppy?’ Anne-Marie asked me now as we walked out of the classroom with Sadie hot on our heels. ‘You’ve been looking miserable all day.’

‘It’s nothing,’ I lied, not wanting to mention Amy while Sadie was listening in.

‘It’s probably something sappy like her pet hamster died,’ Julia said as she came up behind us.

Anne-Marie whirled round instantly. ‘That’s not funny!’ she snarled. ‘
My
hamster died last week and I was really upset!’ Anne-Marie is a real animal lover and for as long as I’ve known her she’s always kept loads of pets.

‘Katy told me you had a funeral in your back garden and that you even made a little gravestone for him,’ Julia said scornfully. ‘What does it say?
Here lies Hammy
.’ She started to laugh.

‘His name was Squeaky and he was like one of the family. And it’s perfectly normal to have a funeral for a pet! Isn’t it, Poppy?’ Anne-Marie looked at me for support.

But before I could speak Sadie said a little piously, ‘It’s normal for
humans
to have funerals. Having one for a hamster is unnatural and pretty silly if you ask me.’

‘Yeah – well, I didn’t ask you!’ Anne-Marie snapped.

‘Maybe you should’ve got it stuffed instead, Anne-Marie,’ I suggested coolly.

Anne-Marie had to rush off at that point so as not to be late for the piano lesson she has after school on a Friday. That left me alone with Sadie.

‘So who’s Amy?’ she asked before I could get away from her.

I sighed. Maybe I should give her a chance. Maybe if I told her, I’d discover that she
did
have a heart underneath all those tough layers.

‘Amy’s the little girl my mum’s been fostering,’ I explained. ‘She left this morning. She’s being adopted.’

‘Oh …’ She looked quite thoughtful and just for a second I thought she might be going to say something sympathetic.

But of course I was wrong.

‘My dad told me that your mum takes in other people’s kids.’ She paused. ‘So why’s that, then? Isn’t she happy with the one she’s got?’ And she gave me a mischievous grin before flouncing off.

Chapter Two

As I walked out of school a good twenty minutes later I was still thinking about Sadie. It’s just really hard to believe sometimes that we’re cousins.

Sadie is absolutely
nothing
like me – not in appearance, not in personality, and certainly not in the way she behaves. I mean, here I am with my mid-brown unruly hair which never sits nicely, my increasingly spotty face and my alarmingly growing boobs. (I’ve had to start wearing a bra recently.) Plus I’m always blushing these days and I seem to get embarrassed a lot more easily than I did when I first started secondary school eighteen months ago.

Sadie, on the other hand, always looks perfect. She’s got sleek reddish hair cut in a swingy bob, striking blue eyes and of course she’s got perfect vision too. She never has a single spot and there isn’t an ounce of fat on her.
And she hasn’t got embarrassingly noticeable boobs yet either. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her blush and she’s always super quick to say something smart to put other people down. It’s not even like she needs to most of the time, because in most subjects she easily holds her own despite having gone to a pretty rubbish school (according to her) before joining ours. As for art – well, there she makes everyone else’s work look like nursery school stuff.

‘Hey, Poppy!’ yelled a familiar voice.

I turned to see Josh coming out of school behind me. Josh and I have known each other since we were babies and now Olivia’s left I definitely consider him to be my best friend, even though I know I’m probably not his. Mind you, he never tries to hide the fact that we’re friendly. His mum and mine met at some baby and toddler class, where they became really good friends, and since he was an only child like me, we played together a lot when we were little.

I was thirteen last month and Josh is actually only six months older than me, though he’s in the year above me at school. Mum often comments on Josh’s looks – his big brown eyes and cute freckles in particular – and I know there are plenty of girls in our year and his own who fancy him something rotten. Occasionally I get to hang
out with him and his Year Nine mates, which makes Anne-Marie really jealous.

‘So … what are
you
still doing here?’ Josh asked me.

‘Oh, just had some stuff to do,’ I muttered, not wanting to say I’d been wasting time in the toilets to avoid leaving the building at the same time as Sadie. ‘What about you?’

‘Had to go and get my phone back from Mrs Smee. She caught me and Sean texting each other in class again.’ Sean has been his best mate since the start of this year. I don’t really know Sean that well, but because he and his twin sister, Sasha, are Mr Anderson’s step-kids I suppose I’ve taken a bit more of an interest in him than any of Josh’s other mates. It was about this time last year when the news spread about Sean’s mum dating our English teacher, and then they got married in the summer holiday. It was a pretty major gossip-fest for a while.

‘Mrs Smee’s really got it in for you two, hasn’t she?’ I said with a grin.

Josh pointed at my brooch. ‘Amy make you that?’

‘Yes. She was
so
sweet to me this morning.’ I tried not to get too emotional as I remembered how she’d hugged me, her strong little arms firmly clamped around my neck. Amy had been really skinny and delicate when she’d first come to us – not the solid little thing she was now.

‘My mum says she might not have been able to settle in to any other family if you guys hadn’t helped her so much,’ Josh said.

‘I know. And I’m happy for her. It’s just … it was really hard saying goodbye.’

‘But you’ll see her again, right?’

‘We’re going to visit her in two weeks, but after that it depends on what her new parents decide.’ Sometimes we get to keep in touch with the children we foster and sometimes we don’t. It all depends on their adoptive families – or their birth families if they end up going back to them. Mum had told me she didn’t want me getting my hopes up this time because Amy’s adoptive parents were in two minds about it.

‘Well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed,’ Josh said.

‘Thanks.’

We walked on in silence for a bit until Josh asked, ‘So are you seeing your dad this weekend?’

‘Yep –
and
I’m finally getting to meet his new girlfriend.’ I pulled a pained face.

‘She’s probably just as nervous as you are.’

‘Doubt it. None of Dad’s girlfriends are the nervous type.’

He grinned. ‘So what type are they, then?’

‘The super-confident type … plus they all have long legs and blonde hair …’ I was grinning too.

‘Wasn’t the last one really clever with some kickass job?’

‘You mean Penelope. She was the director of a pharmaceutical company. Mum and I called her the ice queen.’

Suddenly something caught my attention on the other side of the road. Some older teenagers were hanging out at the bus shelter, shoving each other about and laughing loudly. A couple of them were smoking. There was one younger girl in school uniform standing in the middle.

‘Isn’t that the new girl in your class who everyone’s talking about?’ Josh said as his gaze followed mine.

‘Yeah … Sadie.’

Although Mum had told Josh’s mum about Sadie, I’d said that I didn’t want Josh to know. It wasn’t that I thought he couldn’t keep a secret. It was just that I didn’t want to talk about Sadie at all – not with anyone. And I knew that if Josh found out he’d definitely want to talk about it because he’s pretty curious that way. If he didn’t know, it was easier to pretend to myself that Sadie was just any other girl in my school.

‘So do you think her dad really
is
a hitman?’ Josh asked, as I quickened my pace to pass them.

‘Oh yeah … right … like she’d be at our school if he was,’ I said.

‘Even hitmen’s kids have to get an education
somewhere
,’ he said. Then he launched into a hilarious description of some gangster movie he’d seen where the main character was both a hitman
and
a struggling single dad.

Across the road we suddenly heard an angry shout and when I turned to look back I saw an older girl – she looked at least eighteen – walking rapidly down the road towards the others. She had short spiky black hair and wore jeans and a purple leather jacket. She looked furious. As soon as she reached the bus stop she grabbed Sadie by the arm and began to shake her. Then she smacked her over the head a couple of times while Sadie yelled ‘Ow!’ and ‘Gerroff!’ The other kids just watched and laughed.

Josh and I looked at each other awkwardly, wondering if we ought to try and help.

Just then a run-down old car pulled up at the bus stop and the driver (a boy who also looked at least eighteen) yelled at them to get in. The girl who’d hit Sadie let go of her abruptly and got into the front passenger seat while the others piled into the back. Sadie stood at the kerb scowling at them. I expected her to escape while she
could – in any case there was no more room in the car – but instead she waited there sulkily for a few more moments before squeezing into the front of the car to share the passenger seat with the older girl. In fact, it looked like she was sitting on her lap!

‘They are
so
going to get pulled over by the police,’ Josh said in an incredulous voice as the car screeched away, windows down and music blaring.

I just stared after them, wondering if Sadie’s dad knew what she was doing. I knew that
my
mum and dad would have two separate fits in their two separate houses if they found out
I
was hanging out with a crowd like that.

‘Come on.’ Josh’s voice suddenly broke into my thoughts. ‘Let’s go home.’

I briefly wondered if Sadie would get home
OK
. Not that I had any special reason to care …

Chapter Three

After I’d left Josh behind at the corner of his road I started to think some more about Sadie. She was so different to how I’d imagined her whenever Mum had mentioned her in the past. I mean, I don’t know about you, but if I’d just started at a new school where everyone else knew each other except me, I’d be doing my best to fit in and make friends. I certainly wouldn’t be acting the way Sadie had been acting ever since she’d arrived.

I’ve already told you about the whole anti-taxidermy protest she started up in art. Well, it turns out she’s also a very passionate vegetarian. Actually Olivia was vegetarian too, but the difference with Sadie is that she gets really angry at other people for being meat eaters. Whenever Olivia came to mine Mum always made a vegetarian lasagne or something like that. But at school I’d eat sausages and mash, or shepherd’s pie, and Olivia would still sit
next to me while she ate the veggie option. She never
refused
to sit next to a person who had meat on their plate, and she never glared at me as if I was a
murderer
if she spotted me eating a packet of smoky bacon crisps.

The worst time was two weeks ago when Sadie caused a huge scene at lunchtime. We were in the dinner hall standing in line with our trays and Sadie was only a couple of people ahead of me in the queue. Our school dinners are generally pretty good and there’s always a nice vegetarian option. Today it was macaroni cheese and I was just deciding whether to go for it or stick with the meat lasagne when there was a big commotion in the bit of the queue getting served. Sadie’s voice rose above the others, asking lots of questions about the cheese sauce that was on the macaroni.

‘If you can’t show me some proof that it’s
vegetarian
cheddar, then I’m not eating it,’ Sadie said forcefully.

Katy Clarkson told her to stop holding everybody up with her stupid questions. Sadie whirled round on the spot to glare at her. ‘It’s
not
a stupid question, Katy!
Non
-vegetarian cheese is made using the enzymes from calves’ stomachs – the enzymes that are meant to help them digest their mother’s milk.’

‘You’re making that up!’

‘No, I’m not! The poor little calves get slaughtered and the enzymes from their stomachs get put into cheese,’ Sadie said.