The Honeymoon Sisters (21 page)

‘Mr Jamieson spoke to us too,’ Josh said. ‘I think Mrs Smee got to him. He told us our argument
for
zoos wasn’t presented nearly as strongly as the argument
against
, and
he wants all four of us to research both sides of the argument more thoroughly and write an essay on the topic.’

We all moaned about that as we finished tidying up the art room together.

Later as we walked out of school Sadie said she was delighted that the audience vote had gone in her favour, and she was going to text Alison to tell her about it just as soon as she got her phone back from Mum.

‘Alison will forgive me eventually,’ Sadie said. ‘I know she will. And it’s like Aunt Kathy says – it’ll be much easier for her to get by without having to look after me as well, and she’s bound to realise that sooner or later.’

I just nodded, hoping she was right, because I knew how much Alison meant to Sadie.

‘So is anyone up for bowling tomorrow?’ Josh asked.

‘I can’t. Mum and I are going to visit Amy tomorrow,’ I said. ‘
Finally
nobody has chickenpox.’

‘So have you found out yet whether you can keep in touch with Amy after tomorrow?’ Josh asked.

‘No,’ I replied, trying not to look too miserable about it. ‘I don’t know why they can’t just tell us.’

‘Maybe they’re waiting to see how your visit goes before they decide,’ Josh suggested.

‘That’s what Mum thinks as well,’ I said with a sigh.

I hadn’t said anything to Mum yet, but I was a lot more nervous about our day with Amy now that I suspected that any future contact with her depended on how it went. I knew there was no way I’d ever be able to relax and I just hoped I didn’t do or say anything terrible.

‘What about you, Sean?’ said Josh.

‘Still grounded until after the weekend,’ Sean told him. ‘Sorry.’

‘I’m busy tomorrow as well,’ Sadie piped up.

‘Busy being grounded!’ I teased.

She scowled. ‘Anyway, I can’t go bowling with you guys if Sean’s going to be there. He’s not allowed to hang out with me, remember?’

‘I’m working on that,’ Sean said with a grin. ‘Just stay on Leo’s good side at school for a bit and I bet I can get him to change his mind.’

Sadie and I walked partway home with the others, and when we were on our own, she said, ‘Yesterday Linda phoned my social worker. She wants to see me.’

‘Really?’ This was news to me.

‘Yeah. You know how your mum made me write Linda that letter of apology? Well, she got it and now she wants to talk to me about everything. Apparently she’s sold that ivory chess set and given the money to that
elephant sanctuary I told her about. And she’s actually offered to take me with her next time she goes to visit Dad.’

‘No way! So what did you say?’

‘About visiting Dad? Nothing yet.’

‘Well, I definitely think you should visit him with someone. Did you ask Mum, by the way?’

‘Yes. She says she’ll take me if I don’t want to go with my social worker or Linda.’

As we passed the park I remembered I still hadn’t switched on my phone. When I did I immediately found a text from Mum. There was a photo attached and I quickly tapped on it to enlarge it. The photo was of Amy in her new garden with her new big sister. They were both sitting on the bouncy spacehoppers Mum and I had given them as Amy’s goodbye gift. The text said:
Lenny phoned. Amy’s parents have agreed for us to keep in touch. They wanted us to know before our visit.

‘
YES
!’ I exclaimed. I was so happy at that moment I could have cried. ‘Amy’s new family are going to let us keep in touch with her after all,’ I told Sadie.

‘Oh, that’s
brilliant
!’

‘I know.’ I handed her my phone, my eyes brimming with happy tears. ‘That’s her – on the yellow hopper.
You’d never guess they’ve only been sisters for a month, would you? I mean, they look so sweet together.’

‘Yeah,’ Sadie agreed. ‘Almost as sweet as
us
!’

And before I could escape, she had thrown her arms around me in a melodramatic sisterly hug.
???

Acknowledgements

I want to thank
Kiran Singh
for allowing me to interview her about being a foster-parent;
Caroline Walsh
, who will have been my agent for twenty years this year; my wonderful editor,
Rebecca McNally
, and all of her fantastic team at Bloomsbury; and last but not least, my teenage advisors,
Rosie Duthie, Hannah Duthie
and
Ellen Tullett,
for allowing me to interview them on anything and everything.

Books by Gwyneth Rees

Cherry Blossom Dreams

For younger readers:

The Fairy Dust series

Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze

The Magic Princess Dress

My Super Sister

My Super Sister and the Birthday Party

Monday was our first day back at school after the Easter break. I rolled my eyes at my brother when I came downstairs and saw him trying to scrape off a bit of breakfast from his school tie. At least the rest of his clothes – dark grey trousers, white school shirt and grey V-necked jumper with our school logo on it – still looked freshly washed and ironed though I knew they wouldn’t stay that way for long. Sean looks a lot younger in his school uniform, though I know better than to tell him that.

Helensfield High has a very strict uniform policy – even Leo says that whoever wrote it was clearly a bit obsessional. The rules include wearing your tie with ‘at least three double stripes visible below a small neat knot’ and wearing skirts of a length ‘no more than two inches above the knee’. Wearing make-up is a total no-no, though I once wore some of Mum’s mascara to school to test out
Lily’s theory that my eyelashes are so short that mascara only makes them look normal. (And unfortunately it turned out she was right, because nobody noticed.)

Lily, Clara and Hanna came up to talk to me the second I walked into the playground.

‘Sasha, we’ve all been talking,’ Lily began, ‘and we really want you to hang out with
us
today.’

‘You do?’ I’m ashamed to say that I actually felt quite flattered. Right up until they started their recruitment spiel, that is.

‘Yes,’ Hanna said. ‘Because Lily’s got a point about how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.’

‘Its cover?’

‘Yeah.’ Lily explained hastily, ‘I was telling them how you might not
look
as if you’d fit into our group, Sasha, but how all that surface stuff isn’t what’s important. I mean, you’re pretty cool on the
inside
. That’s what I keep saying.’

‘Not that it wouldn’t be fun to do one of those total makeover things on you,’ Clara added.

‘Pardon?’

‘Nobody’s saying you need a makeover, Sasha,’ Lily said as she glared at Clara.

‘Not unless you want one,’ Hanna put in – which made Lily glare at her too.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Priti waiting for me on the other side of the playground. I decided it was time to join her, but before I could, Raffy suddenly appeared beside us. ‘Lily … Dad phoned home after you left for school. They’ve got to cancel their weekend away. Dad’s got to work.’

‘Oh no!’

‘We need to tell everybody we invited to the party. If anyone turns up on Saturday night, we’re dead.’

Lily, Hanna and Clara all started talking at once.

‘Hi, Raffy,’ I greeted him shyly as he turned to go back to his friends.

Raffy glanced briefly at me and then, to my horror, his gaze shifted down to my totally unflattering school shoes.

‘They’re my granny’s,’ I blurted out stupidly, just in case he thought they were my own choice.

‘You’re wearing your granny’s shoes?’ He was grinning, looking at me like I was a complete idiot.

‘My granny’s
choice
, I mean … not her actual shoes …’ I was blushing furiously. ‘She took me shopping and …’ I only just stopped myself from launching into the whole sorry story where the shop assistant had told Granny that these ones provided the best support for growing feet and Granny had flatly refused to let me
have any others. Honestly, what was wrong with me? I shouldn’t feel like I had to justify my shoes to Lily’s brother.

‘Catch you later, Sasha.’ Raffy gave me a big smile, almost as if he didn’t think I was the dorkiest girl in the playground.

I watched him return to his friends. I felt a bit weak at the knees as he strode away from me, his blazer flung ever so casually over one shoulder. I thought he could easily be a model in a TV advert for school uniforms or something.

I left Lily and her friends to sort out their party drama and hurried over to join Priti.

‘I saw you ogling Rafferty just now,’ she teased, putting away the Jane Austen novel she’d been reading.

‘I was not,’ I protested.

‘Then why have you just gone bright red?’

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi and Sydney

First published in Great Britain in March 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square, London
WC
1B 3
DP

This electronic edition first published in 2016

www.bloomsbury.com

BLOOMSBURY
is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © Gwyneth Rees 2016

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying

or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher

A
CIP
catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN
978 1 4088 5275 0

eISBN
978 1 4088 5276 7

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