Transformation of Minna Hargreaves, The (20 page)

That made me sit up. ‘Every week? Four o’clock?’

He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Yep. Cross my heart and hope to die.’

I flopped back against the wall. ‘Stir-fry. I want stir-fry with cashews.’ He might do it and he might not. Only time would tell. But some of the unsettled feeling I’d had dispersed.

The first day of school and the first encounter with Lizzie happened the same day.

A sample of the shit I got handed:

Ooh, look! There’s the telly brat!

Can I have your autograph?

How much money did they pay you?

You swear a lot.

Here comes Miss Celebrity. Where’s the red carpet?

But I actually preferred that to the kids who yelled and rushed me because they really did want my autograph.

I ignored the lot of them and walked into the hall with Jax and Addy where we would discover what
classes we’d been put into.

Silas Jensen moved a couple of seats away from me. ‘Can’t sit too near the celeb. She’s got a nasty temper, this one.’

Then came Lizzie’s voice. ‘Get over yourself, Silas, and don’t be such a dick.’ She pushed past Jax and Addy and plonked herself down beside me in the space Silas had left. ‘Great to see you, Min.’ She gave me a hug. I didn’t hug back.

‘Lizzie,’ I said. ‘I can stand up for myself. And I’ll choose my friends.’ I eyeballed her. ‘Personally, I prefer people who are not two-faced, selfish cows.’ I turned my back on her.

‘Wow!’ Silas hissed. ‘Cat fight!’

But I wasn’t going to fight Lizzie. I simply wasn’t going to have anything to do with her.

The dean came in and gave us our timetables. I was in the same English class as Jax. The same Maths class as Addy. We were all three in the same Science class. But Lizzie was in every one of my classes except Science.

It could be an interesting year. I wondered how long it would take her to get the message that our friendship was history.

Dad bought a house ten minutes’ walk from our house. So far, he hasn’t missed a Wednesday dinner. I can now cook stir-fry and lasagne but he still can’t master the art of the pavlova. He and Mum have teamed up enough
to make sure Noah can’t slide back into drug world. Dad’s even got the holidays covered — it’s back to the island for both of them and me if I want to go — which I might, especially if the baby turns out to be a screecher.

My half-brother was born by caesarean section at 1.30 in the morning of 7 February. Mum asked me to phone Robert. I sent him a text.

She called the baby Arthur.

‘Mum! You can’t!
Arthur?
’

‘That’s his name,’ she said. ‘Arthur Aveson.’

There was a bit of a media flurry when he was born. Cara said we had to let her do a follow-up because it was in the contract which was news to us, but we checked it and she was right.

The good thing about that was we got a truck-load of free gear for Arthur from firms who thought seeing their stuff on the programme would be good advertising. And Mum sold five paintings afterwards for what she called grossly inflated prices, but if people were stupid enough to pay that much, then she wasn’t going to stop them.

Arthur is okay. Well, actually, he’s quite sweet. Cute. He squeaks a bit, but he smiles a lot. Jax and Addy are his fan club. I wanted to take him with me on a duty visit to the Hargreaves grands, but Mum wouldn’t let me. She said there was a fine line between being my usual provoking self and being deliberately unkind.

Robert is bearable. He doesn’t try and be all pally with me and Noah — full marks for that. And he does adore the Wee Squeaky Brat. He’s got a girlfriend now and she goes completely gaga whenever she sights the WSB. Mum doesn’t seem worried about not being able to bring him up, but I think it helps that she knows Robert’s around.

In the follow-up programme, Cara asked me how the island had changed me. I shrugged. ‘I can cook now. And I can do things I’d never dreamed I could do.’

She leaned forward, her eyes shouting out
Yay! At last, something deep and meaningful from Minna Hargreaves
. ‘That’s very interesting, Minna. What sort of things?’

I smiled at her. ‘I can use a spider-infested, long-drop toilet without screaming.’

She gave up at that point. Full marks to Minna.

But I should have remembered that it’s never a good idea to think you’ve outsmarted Cara. She got an interview from Gran H, who was her usual free and frank self. ‘That child was a sulky brat before she went to the island. I have to admit that there’s been quite a transformation.’ And she would be right, because she’s always right, about everything.

But one thing makes me laugh every time I think of it. Because of the programme, chooks became the ‘in’ pets to have. People gave them to each other for Christmas, for birthdays, to keep their kids happy. But the problem is that when a chook is just a chick it’s very hard to tell if it’s an Arthur or a Martha. Therefore all over the city, as the sun rises, you can hear crowing and cock-a-doodle-dooing. The pet column of the paper is full of ads saying:
Rooster, free to a good home
.

Brilliant.