The Honeymoon Sisters (6 page)

I forced myself to get off my bed because, like it or not, I was beginning to worry a bit about Mum. The least I could do was go downstairs and check she was
OK
. After all, despite all my stories about her from school,
Mum couldn’t know what Sadie was really like now. I’d pointed her out to Mum a couple of times at school but Mum had been too nervous to approach her. Especially as Sadie had made it perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with us.

I walked into the kitchen to find Mum preparing a vegetable lasagne. She seemed surprisingly relaxed and there was no sign of Sadie.

‘Poppy – there you are!’ Mum said. ‘Now, darling … I know all this must have come as a shock, but –’

‘Where is she?’ I interrupted sharply.

‘She went to the loo. She’ll be back in a minute.’

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Sadie standing in the doorway. She was wearing jeans and a stripy red-and-white sweatshirt. It was the first time I’d seen her out of school uniform and she looked older and prettier. Her hair was especially sleek and shiny, as if it had just been washed.

‘Hi, Poppy!’ she exclaimed, sounding pleased to see me.

I just stared at her. What was she playing at?

Mum was smiling at her. ‘Did you find the loo, Sadie?’

I inwardly cringed as I waited for Sadie to give a sarcastic reply like, ‘No, I just peed on the floor’ or ‘Yeah, like it’s
so
hard to find because this is
such
a big house.’

I was shocked when she just smiled sweetly at Mum and said, ‘Yes, thanks. I like that dolly loo-roll-cover thingy.’

Mum laughed. ‘Really? I got it from a charity shop for 50p. It’s just like the one my gran had when I was a child. Poppy hates it, don’t you, Pops?’

I scowled, wanting to tell Sadie to stop sucking up to my mum. There was no way she
really
liked that thing.

‘Of course you two already know each other –’ Mum began.

‘Yes, though we haven’t told anyone at school that we’re cousins,’ Sadie interrupted politely. ‘It seemed better that way, didn’t it, Poppy?’ Before I could respond she put on an angelic smile, adding, ‘Anyway, thanks for letting me stay here. Otherwise I don’t know what would have happened to me. I was scared in case I ended up in some awful children’s home …’

I scowled, not at all affected by her ‘Poor Little Orphan Annie’ speech. Everyone knew that Sadie Shaw was as hard as nails and as tough as they come. Still … I supposed she might feel a little bit vulnerable not having her parents around any more, even if they
were
pretty useless.

‘We were glad to help,’ Mum answered, her voice oozing sympathy. ‘Weren’t we, Poppy?’

I nodded just to satisfy Mum. I knew Sadie was well aware that I wasn’t really the least bit glad.

‘Hey, is that a veggie pasta you’re making?’ Sadie asked Mum.

‘It’s vegetarian lasagne.’

‘Yum!’ Sadie looked genuinely pleased, almost as if she hadn’t expected Mum to make any special effort just for her.

‘Aren’t you going to ask Mum if she used vegetarian cheese?’ I asked.

‘Of course I did, Poppy!’ Mum answered, giving me a stern frown to warn me to stop stirring.

‘Linda … who I was staying with … she
never
remembered to get vegetarian cheese,’ Sadie confided. ‘She thought me being a vegetarian was a massive pain.’

‘Oh, I’m sure she didn’t, Sadie,’ Mum said.

‘Yes she did – she told me so herself.’

‘So, your social worker said that Linda was a long-standing friend of your dad … is that right?’

‘More like a long-standing on-off girlfriend really, but yeah …’

Mum just nodded as if she’d suspected as much. ‘But she’s never actually lived with you and your dad?’

‘Crikey, no! Though they’ve been on holiday together
a few times. I always stayed at my mate Alison’s place when they were away.’

Mum nodded again. ‘Poppy, will you please take Sadie upstairs now and show her where everything is?’

Thanks a lot, Mum
, I thought.
Just what I wanted – time on my own with Sadie.

As soon as we were out of earshot Sadie said sarcastically, ‘There’s no need to look so shocked, you know. It’s not like you aren’t used to having other people’s kids dumped on you!’

I gritted my teeth. How did
she
know what I was used to? But at least I was seeing the normal Sadie now that we were on our own. Which at least proved that I was right about her and that I wasn’t going completely crazy.

‘I can’t believe you even wanted to come here,’ I whispered.

‘Why not? Your mum’s really sweet. In fact, she’s a massive improvement on Linda. Shame I have to put up with
you
as part of the package!’

I didn’t respond. I knew she was trying to wind me up and I was determined not to let her.

Her phone beeped and she paused to check who it was. I couldn’t help seeing her screensaver – a photo
of her with her arm around another girl, both of them pulling silly faces at the camera. Sadie was smiling as she read her text. ‘It’s Alison. Telling me to keep my chin up!’

My curiosity got the better of me. ‘Is that her?’ I pointed to the picture on her phone.

‘Yeah,’ she grunted.

She swiftly sent a text back before following me the rest of the way upstairs.

‘Nice room,’ she commented when I opened the door to Amy’s bedroom … the spare bedroom now. She took in the pictures on the walls and the toys and books on the shelves and said, ‘You usually take in much younger kids, right?’

‘Yes,’ I said coolly.

‘Oh well, no matter. Your mum’ll just have to change the decor.’ She flung down her bag and sat on the bed, bouncing on it like she was testing out the mattress. ‘Not bad,’ she declared with a grin. ‘I’ll give it an eight out of ten. Have to take off a couple marks if lots of little kids have been sleeping here. It’s bound to have been peed on loads of times, right?’

I felt my face going warm. ‘We always have a waterproof cover on the mattress. It’s probably still there.’

‘That’ll have to come off. They make you sweaty, plus I don’t wee in the bed.’

‘That’s good to know,’ I snapped.

‘Oooh!’ She let out a little laugh. ‘Sarcastic, eh? You know what, Poppy? I’ve got a feeling you’re not nearly as angelic as you make out.’

I shook my head at her. ‘I just can’t believe you’re my cousin.’

‘Ditto. My mates are going to have a hard time believing I’m related to such a dork.’

‘You mean those kids you were with after school yesterday?’ I had to admit I was curious about them. ‘Hey, this “incident” last night that got you kicked out of your last place? Were
they
the ones involved?’

She touched the side of her nose to warn me to mind my own business. ‘Maybe I’ll introduce you sometime, now that we’re going to be sisters.’

‘We are
not
!’ I protested. ‘You’re only here on a short-term basis.’

‘Is that what your mum told you?’ Her eyes were sparkling wickedly. ‘Funny …’

And she stood up and backed me out of her room, shutting the door firmly in my face before I could ask her what she meant.

Chapter Nine

After Sadie had been with us for a few days I started to get a really bad feeling about this whole arrangement. We’d done some emergency foster care before and it had usually been a matter of days before a new placement was being discussed. Even if one hadn’t been available immediately, the social worker had been in touch a lot and there had been a very temporary feeling about the whole thing.

But it didn’t feel like that with Sadie. Yes, a social worker had phoned, and Lenny had been round to talk to Mum, but nobody seemed in any great hurry to find Sadie somewhere else to go. The suitability of our home as an emergency placement had already been established as far as I could work out. So why was Mum planning dates for future social work visits and talking with Lenny about giving Sadie time to settle in?

We didn’t tell anyone at school that she was staying with me, or that we were related. In fact, if anything we were interacting even less at school than we had previously. Some of the teachers knew of course, but they were keeping it to themselves. I certainly wasn’t going to tell Anne-Marie since I knew she’d never be able to keep it a secret. I did eventually tell Josh, who promised not to tell anyone until I said he could, and I knew I could trust him to keep his word. I’d been worried that he’d be cross because I hadn’t told him before about Sadie being my cousin, but he was cool about it.

‘It’s
OK
. You didn’t want to talk about it. I get it. Though it’s not as cool as the hitman story, is it?’

‘Hey, I’d much rather have an uncle who’s a crooked accountant than a hitman!’ I joked. But I was relieved he wasn’t angry with me. Maybe boys are different that way, or maybe it’s just Josh. But if the situation was reversed I know
I’d
be pretty miffed!

I came home from school ahead of Sadie on Wednesday and took the opportunity to talk to Mum.

‘Listen, you do realise Sadie’s only showing you her best behaviour at the moment, don’t you? What you’re seeing is so
not
the real her! And you did tell her this is only temporary, didn’t you?’

Mum stood up after putting a vegetable casserole in the oven and gave me her full attention. ‘Stop worrying so much. I think everything is going very well under the circumstances.’

‘But you’ve got to see that all this being super nice to you and complimenting you on your cooking and saying she likes that stupid loo roll cover … it’s all fake!’

‘Poppy, there’s always a honeymoon period at the start of every new placement, and I’m not expecting this to be any different.’

I sighed. ‘Mum, this isn’t the same thing.’

‘Of course it is!’

I shook my head and sighed again. Most of our foster-kids are perfectly behaved little angels when they first arrive because they’re desperate for us to like them. With Amy that lasted about three weeks. This is what Mum means when she talks about the ‘honeymoon period’. Sooner or later though, that always changes. In fact, quite often they go to the other extreme. The best way I can explain it is to repeat what Mum and Lenny told me after Amy crayoned all over my bedroom walls one day while I was at school. They said that most children who get taken into care have already lost at least one home and family, so as soon as they start to feel safe in a new one,
they worry about losing
that
as well. So without really being conscious of why they’re doing it, they begin to test just how ‘safe’ their new home is by misbehaving to see if they get kicked out. And often they’ll keep testing us in different ways for quite a while.

‘I really don’t think this is the same,’ I insisted with a frown.

‘How do you mean?’

‘It’s just more … I don’t know … more
manipulative
than that, like she really knows what she’s doing.’

Before Mum could respond we heard the front door opening, and moments later Sadie was calling out a hello from the hall.

‘I’m just going up to my room to start my homework,’ she told Mum as she briefly stuck her head into the kitchen. ‘By the way, Poppy says you’re going to buy me new curtains but I think the curtains in my room are super cute. Did you really make them yourself?’

I rolled my eyes at her blatant sucking-up. The curtains in that room have got teddies on them so Amy had really liked them, but the seams are coming unstitched and they don’t quite hang right because they were the first thing Mum made at a sewing class she went to a long time ago.

Mum just smiled and thanked Sadie for her compliment.

‘Do you want me to set the table or something before I go?’ Sadie asked sweetly.

I pulled a face, not that I let Mum see it. Honestly, the more helpful Sadie got, the more I wanted to hit her.

‘So, Sadie, how do you like your new school?’ Mum asked as the three of us sat down at the table an hour or so later. ‘Are you settling in
OK
?’

‘I guess so. The kids there aren’t as streetwise as I’m used to. Still, I guess that’ll help keep me out of trouble!’

She laughed and Mum joined in. I scowled and stabbed my fork extra hard into my dinner. ‘I’m getting a bit sick of vegetables,’ I said, but neither of them responded.

‘The art facilities are fantastic!’ Sadie went on, and I saw her smirking as she glanced around at the various childish paintings and pictures I’d done over the years, which Mum still insists on keeping up in the kitchen.

For the first time I noticed the gaps on the fridge door where Mum had taken down Amy’s pictures so she could take them away with her. Mum had kept only two – a funny self-portrait and a scribbly one Amy had drawn of
me. Beside them Mum had stuck our copy of Amy’s most recent nursery school photograph, where she was smiling happily, her black curly hair tied in pigtails with two yellow ribbons.

Sadie had a funny look on her face as she gazed at a childish painting of daffodils I’d done for Mother’s Day when I was six, that Mum had actually framed. For a moment I thought she looked jealous, but I told myself that was ridiculous. After all, why would Sadie be jealous of anything
I
had done, when she was easily the best artist in our year? In fact, she was probably one of the best artists in our school.

‘Poppy tells me
you’re
a very talented artist, Sadie,’ Mum said as if she could read my mind.

‘Oh yeah, well … it kind of runs in the family,’ Sadie mumbled.

‘Oh yes. I remember your dad used to be a very good painter.’

‘He still is.’ She sighed. ‘I guess he’s the one I get it from.’ She looked at Mum a little shyly. ‘Unless my mum … ?’

There was an uncomfortable pause.

Sadie’s mum just wasn’t talked about in such a casual way in our house.

Mum seemed to let out a breath she’d been holding. ‘Oh no … Kim was never the arty type,’ she said. ‘None of our family was very good at that sort of thing.’

There was another awkward silence as Sadie seemed to digest this information. It must be strange not to know such an ordinary thing about your own mother, I thought.