Zodiac Girls: Brat Princess (15 page)

Jake leaned over and whispered, “If what Leonora
is saying is true or even half true, best play along – not
let on that we know they need locking up right?”

Mark, Marilyn and Lynn quickly nodded and
assumed their usual blank expressions.

“It’s all true!” boomed Mr O. “We are the planets
and Leonora is Zodiac Girl. Every case is different
depending on the needs of the girl in question, but
never before has someone so ruthlessly rejected our
help!”

“Okay. So what does Leonora need then?” asked
Jake. “Maybe we can help.”

Mr O glared at him for a second as if doubting his
sincerity, but then he sat down cross-legged by the fire.
“Only she can discover that,” he said. “I was only here
to guide and advise. But if she won’t listen what can
I do?”

“I’ll listen,” I said. If listening meant breakfast, I
could do that easy-peasy plus I had genuinely grown to
like Mr O, mad or not. “And I’m sorry if I’ve been rude.
Yeah. I am. Really.”

Mr O looked at me very closely as if trying to gauge
if I was being sincere. I looked back at him and smiled.

He looked taken aback, but smiled in return.
“Hmm,” he said.

“So please, what’s next on my zodiac agenda?” I
asked.

“Neptune,” he said.

“Neptune. That’s a new one. I don’t think you’ve
mentioned that before,” I said doing my best to look as
enthusiastic as I could.

Mr O still looked a little suspicious.

“So what’s Neptune all about then?’ I asked.

“You really want to know?”

I nodded.

“Mystery,” said Mr O. “Illusion. Neptune governs
the realm where nothing is quite what it seems. The
realm of dreams, in fact.”

“Can’t wait,” I said. “And when will I get to meet
him or is it a her?”

“Him,” said Mr O. “Tonight. Neptune is in
conjunction with Pluto at an angle to—”

“Two of them. A double whammy,” Lynn
interrupted. “Lucky you, Leonora.”

“So what’s Pluto about?” asked Marilyn with a sly
wink at me. I winked back. Mario Mars couldn’t
accuse me of not being a team player now. We were
backing each other up brilliantly.

“Pluto is the planet of transformation,” said Mr O.

“Impressive,” said Jake.

“He is,” said Selene. “Depending on where Pluto is
in your birth chart, can mean matters of life or death.”

“Life or death huh?’ said Lynn. “Sounds ser…ious.”
She almost blew it on the last line by laughing but
checked herself just in time.

“So are these guys coming to the lodge then?” I
asked.

“It is up to them how or when they choose to make
themselves known to you,” said Mr O.

“Sounds spooky,” said Marilyn. “You just give us a
shout if you need a hand, Leonora.”

I felt touched by her offer to help. It was the kindest
gesture she’d made since I had arrived at the lodge.
“What did you get in your package?” I asked, and put
on my best “I am really interested” look. Mr O
continued staring at me, so I turned and winked at him.
He looked more confused than ever.

Marilyn showed us the photo of her mum. She was
about forty, with short dark hair and a kind but sad face.
Marilyn looked wistful as she showed it, and I
wondered if she was regretting how she’d behaved
towards her mum in the past, just as I was beginning
to regret the way I’d acted with my parents.

And then it was my turn. I so hoped that Mum or
Dad didn’t say anything that gave anything away.
Poppy was my secret and, even after all that had
happened, I wasn’t ready to share her with the group.
They hated me enough as it was. They’d only hate me
more when they found out what I’d done. I took a deep
breath and turned on the DVD player.

Mummy and Daddy’s image filled the seven-inch
frame.

Mummy looked tearful, then she also took a deep
breath and began to speak. “Darling Leo. We’ve only
been given a minute to talk to you on here so I’ll make
it quick. I just wanted to say that I love you very much.
And I always will.”

Next to her, Daddy nodded.

“We regret that we had to take such severe
measures,” Mummy continued, “but felt we had no
option. None of us could go on as we were.”

“And, Leonora,” Daddy interrupted, “we want you
to know that we don’t blame you. We never have. It
wasn’t your fault and you mustn’t blame yourself. We
love you now and we have always have and—”

“—we hope to see you very soon,” Mummy finished
for him.

For a few seconds, it felt like I was home, where I
belonged, but then the screen went fuzzy then black and
I was back around a camp fire with a bunch of
strangers outside a lodge in the middle of the moors on
Christmas Eve on a cold, cold night. The sense of
belonging that I had felt earlier faded away like warm
breath in the air on a freezing night and I made myself
put my inner wall back up stronger than ever.

And then the inevitable questions came.

“What mustn’t you blame yourself for?” asked
Lynn.

“What did you do?” asked Mark.

“What don’t they blame you for?” asked Jake.

“Nothing. For being a pain probably,” I said. It was
a half-truth. I couldn’t tell the whole story. No-one
knew that. Not even Mummy and Daddy. And no-one
would ever understand.
Mummy and Daddy can say that they
don’t blame me,
I thought as the fire grew dim and the
others grew sleepy,
but they don’t know what really happened
on the day that Poppy died. Only I know that and I can never
forgive myself
.

When I got back to the dorm, I wrote another letter.

Dear Mummy and Daddy

I am miserable. Please let me out. Everyone hates me. I hate
myself. I know I am bad, but I will try to change. I am sorry
about everything.

Yours,

Leonora

I was in a hospital room. There was an empty bed. A
man and a woman were putting clothes and bits and
pieces into a suitcase. Where was I? In the hospital
where Poppy was? No. It wasn’t there, although the
man and woman looked familiar. Not my mum and
dad, though. No. It was
Jake’s
mum and dad. What was
I doing watching them? How did I get there? And
where was his younger brother?

A man with a white beard and what appeared to be
a broom walked in. “You’re dreaming,” he said, and
his broom turned into a trident, like the one that you
see the king of the sea carrying. Least you do on the
bags that Mummy used to get our fish and chips in
when we lived in England in our country house. The
shop she used was called Poseidon. I think he was the
king of the sea. It was then that I remembered why the
village of Osbury had seemed familiar when we had
driven through it on the way up to the lodge.
Of course.
That’s it!
I thought as it came back to me. It was where
Mum used to go to do her shopping and get her hair
done. I
knew
I had been there before.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“The planet Neptune,” he said.

“Ah yes. I was told to expect you. You rule the realm
of dreams, yeah?”

The old man nodded.

“Cool. I’ve met some of your mates already,” I
continued. “So where’s Jake’s brother then?”

Neptune shook his head. “He didn’t make it.”

“What do you mean didn’t make it?” I gasped.

Neptune acted out someone’s throat being cut.

“You mean kaput?” I asked.

He nodded and disappeared then a moment later,
another figure appeared. He looked like a handsome
goth prince. Younger than the king of the sea. He was
tall, dressed in black with a pale long face and hair tied
back in a ponytail. He bowed. “Leonora. At your
service. I’m PJ.”

“Pluto?”

“Indeed. Some call me PJ, but I am also known as
Pluto, ze great renewer.”

“Excellent. And I’m dreaming apparently. Is that
why Jake’s parents haven’t noticed me?”

PJ nodded. “Zey can’t see you.”

“So why are you here?”

“I’ve been sent to help wiz your transformation.
To show you a few things.”

“Like what?” I said. I was enjoying the encounter
with him and Neptune. I felt as if I was floating and
everything was unreal.

“Like your future.”

“Oh. Okay. But what about Jake’s brother? Is what
happens to him part of my future?”

“Zat depends on you.”

That made me feel confused and I tried to make
myself wake up, but it didn’t seem to be happening. PJ
beckoned for me to follow him out of the room.

It was weird. I walked out through the door, but
instead of finding a hospital corridor we were out in a
small room in what appeared to be a shabby hotel. I could
see through a grimy window that it was raining outside.
In a room of the hotel there was a family eating a
takeaway pizza. They also looked familiar. I soon
recognized them. They were Mark’s family, complete
with cat, but they didn’t look as happy as they had on
Mark’s video phone. Even the cat looked fed up. A
middle-aged lady looked like she had been crying and the
man with her who I presumed was Mark’s dad looked like
he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. It made
me feel sad just looking at them.
It’s a dream, a dream
, I told
myself, although it was beginning to feel more like a
bad
dream.
Not my responsibility. Thank God my family at least has
a home, several in fact, and food and lots of money
.

“Hey, PJ, my man,” I said. “Charming though you
are, why are you showing me the future of my fellow
inmates but not what’s ahead for me?”

“Look, Leonora, look again. Zeir future iz tied wiz
yours.”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “I don’t think so. Me rich.
They poor. I will be going home to a very nice house
with staff and these people… well…”

“Homeless,” said PJ in a flat voice. “Zey are in a
hostel for ze homeless.”

“Whatever. So what’s next on the agenda? The
starving people in Africa?”

PJ gave me a filthy look. As if what he’d been
showing me was
my
fault. “Don’t you care, Leonora?”

“Yeah. Course. But for one thing, this is a
dream
. And
in real life, there are people who work to help the poor
aren’t there? Charities. Social workers. In case you
hadn’t noticed, I’m a fourteen-year-old girl. What can
I do?”

“More zan most fourteen year-olds, zat’s for sure,”
PJ scoffed, and I got a strong feeling that he didn’t like
me. I pulled a face at him as he beckoned me on. I was
glad that Mr O was my guardian and not this intense-looking
misery.

“I am so not interested. Come on, then, show me
something impressive. Show me
my
future.”

PJ paused for a second as if considering my request,
then he beckoned me on. “You asked for it,” he said.

We left behind Mark’s family, walked though the
door of the hostel and found ourselves in a shop. A
scruffy shop full of all sorts of things: clothes, shoes,
toys, curtains, pots, pans in fact, it looked like… a
charity shop! I’d never been inside of one before but
had seen them from the outside.
What am I doing in here
?
I wondered. It felt so peculiar.
Remember, you are dreaming
,
I reminded myself as I looked around and saw…

Noooooooooooooooo
! No. No. No. No. NOOOOOOO.

This time it wasn’t the people who look familiar. It
was the stuff on sale. Rails and rails of what looked like
MY
wardrobe. And my shoes! And people were pawing
over it like it was on sale!
No waaaaay
, I thought. Of all
the things I’d seen, this had to be the worst.

“These are
my
things!” I said as I tried to pull a pair
of shoes out of a woman’s hand. To no avail, my
hands went right through her. And then I noticed the
price on the shoes. Two pounds fifty!
Totally freaky
!

I fell to my knees. “Oh PJ please. Make this stop.
Come on, this isn’t a dream any more. This is a
nightmare
. Those shoes are labelled two quid. They’re by
Jimmy Choo and they’re worth four hundred!” I tried
to say,
noooo, leave my things alone
to the woman holding
the shoes but she couldn’t hear me. It was as if my
mouth was full of a huge wad of chewing gum. It was
only when I spoke to PJ that my words came out
properly and he looked like he was finding the whole
scene very amusing.

“Don’t you vonder vhy your clozing iz here?” he
asked.

“Yeah. No,” I felt confused. “It’s not real is it? Like
not really happening? Like, a dream yeah?”

“Sometimes our dreams show uz our future,” said PJ.

I felt a shiver of dread go up my spine. “And you’re
saying that my clothes will be on sale in some secondhand
shop? No.
Never
. Mummy and Daddy would
never allow it. Nooooooo. Why would they? Please. Not
this. Don’t show me this. Anything but this.”

PJ chuckled then beckoned me into a changing
room. I got up to follow him wondering what horrors
awaited me in there. Some tramp in one of my
“Chanel teen” range dresses? Some stinky poor person
in one of my Versace tops? It was too
too
horrible. But
no. PJ and I were in a church. There was the sound of
a choir. A few people in pews. In the centre was a coffin
covered with white roses.

These people were the most familiar of all. In the
front pew were Mummy and Daddy. A wave of joy
flooded through me.

“Mummy, Daddy,” I cried but they didn’t even
look up.

“Zey can’t hear you remember?” PJ reminded me.

And there were Shirla, Mason and Henry in the
second row. And my darling Coco, her fur back to its
natural white colour.

“Oh no. PJ, please. Don’t show me Poppy’s funeral.”

“Not Poppy’s,” said PJ and with a snap of his
fingers, we were outside. We were in a cemetery. My
parents were there again under a green umbrella that
almost blew inside out in the gale. Rain lashed down,
but it didn’t touch me. Shirla and Henry and Mason
were standing with my parents under a second huge
umbrella. I looked at the gravestone. It
was
Poppy’s
grave. I remembered it well. The engraving of her
name had been etched in my heart as well as on the
stone. Beloved daughters… WAIT a minute! Beloved
daughters
? As in plural! Poppy Hedley-Dent and…
Leonora Hedley-DENT!!!!!! Leonora. Hedley. Dent.
That was me.
That
was my grave! My name.
Nooooooooo. It couldn’t be. Not me. Not dead. Not six
feet under!
No. No. It’s a dream,
I told myself again.
Mr
O warned me. Neptune. An encounter with the planet where things
are not as they appear to be. And Pluto, the planet that deals with
life and death
.