To Be Honest (20 page)

We hot-foot it back through the packed hall that’s nearly stopped hearing James Payne’s soliloquy. Kids are waking up, like flowers after rain. I pass Miss Mint. I stop. I bend down and I say,

“You’re not pregnant.”

“I know!” she whispers earnestly. “I told you the truth before. Didn’t you believe me?”

I just nod and smile. I can breathe again. Must be the wind that’s blown in through the windows. James Payne opines that,

“... conscience doth make cowards of us all,”

I slip up up to the platform and stand just as tall as I can in my Marilyn dress and short hair.

There’s a crack in the sky. The rain pours down on Fairmere. I look at Kai and he looks at me, and we look at the clock that reads just gone three, then I look for the chair Miss Mint’s been sitting in.

She’s not there.

She’s on stage.

And there’s laughing. Kids rattle and roll with the thunder: Miss Mint dressed as Marilyn Monroe! That’s so cool! And they love it. And it dawns on me that I love it too. I love it more as Lisi than I would have as her. As Phoebe I mean.

‘Cos my teacher’s on stage and I’m watching Miss Mint, singing
Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend
.

I’m not sure I agree. But it’s her now, not me. Which is how it should be, to be honest.