Recipe for Rebellion (Zodiac Girls)

by Cathy Hopkins

  I got my astrology book out of my rucksack and looked up Mars.

  To do with physical energy, stamina or goals, it said. Often depicted as the warrior. Well Mario fitted the bill perfectly.

  From my bench, I watched people cruising up and down the street, stopping to gaze in windows, going in and out of the shops. Going into Europa for a takeaway sandwich. Going about their lives. Girls from my school. Some with their mates. Some with their mums. Suddenly I felt like I was going to cry. I didn’t even have a mum to go shopping with, never mind a dad who didn’t seem to care what I did.

  Up above the sky was growing darker, threatening rain and I realized that I was cold. I only had a fleece on as the weather had been mild when I’d set out this morning. I got up to go home then realized that I couldn’t. PJ was there doing the makeover.

  Nowhere to go. No-one to talk to. The song that Joe had sung when I first met him ran through my head. “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, think I’ll go and eat worms. Big ones, small ones, fat ones, thin ones, see how the little one squirms.”

  At that moment, I spotted a worm wiggling its way along the ground. It looked so pathetic. And so small. I felt like picking it up and taking it home to look after. Don’t worry, I said out loud. I won’t eat you. Then I thought, God I am sad. Now I’m talking to worms!

  I sat on the bench a while longer and tried to decide what to do. I could call my mates back home on my normal mobile. But they’d probably all be out having a life. Hanging out and enjoying the half term. Speaking to them would only make me more homesick. As would talking to Mrs Wilkins. I didn’t want to go back to the deli in case Joe asked how the martial arts class had gone and I couldn’t bear any more criticism. I scanned the shops opposite. The magic shop? I could pop in and see Uri? No. He’s too wacky. Not in the mood for him. Mars, Joe had said. He must have seen an encounter with Mario in my chart. Definitely not in the mood for him either, so no way am I going back to his class.

  At that moment, my zodiac phone beeped that there was a message for me. I looked at the screen. “Transformation is a process. Before the butterfly comes the caterpillar and the cocoon.”

  Another of Joe’s riddles, I thought as I got up and stomped some warmth into my cold feet. Pff, well I hate riddles and I hate astrology, and I’m not going to let it or them control my life.

  Suddenly I had a brainwave. Okay, so maybe some of the planets were around in human form. Well I was going to pick and choose who I wanted to see, not the other way around. Pentangles. The hair and beauty salon. That was it. It was run by the beautiful blonde lady who had been in the deli on the day that I met Joe. Unlike Mario, she looked gentle. Joe had said she was Venus and at the time I’d thought he was barking mad. Well I knew better now. I found the page on Venus in my book. Planet of love, harmony and beauty, it said. And about as opposite to Mars as you could get, I thought. Just what I needed. Joe might say Mars. Well I say Venus. I would go in there and treat myself to a manicure or a facial or something. A bit of pampering in a warm environment. Heaven. Fran, Annie, Bernie, Jane and I use to play DIY beauty salons on Sundays when it was raining and there was nothing else to do and I’d always enjoyed our sessions. I had some spare money that Aunt Esme had left me and it would be an enjoyable way to keep out of the flat until the decorators left.

  Feeling much happier now that I had decided to take back control of my life, I got up and made my way over to the salon.

  A young girl with spiky red hair was behind reception when I opened the door and stepped inside.

  “Er… is the lady with the blonde hair in today?” I asked.

  “Nessa? Nah. She’s gone down the suppliers with Trace,” said the girl as she looked me up and down. “What do you want doing? Yer ’air? S’a bit of a mess innit?”

  “No. I wanted a mani…” I caught sight of myself in the mirror. My hair was a bit of a mess. More than a bit. The front had gone all frizzy in the rain and my dreadlocks looked… dreadful, like straw-coloured cigars stuck to the side of my head. I looked like a mad girl. No wonder no-one wanted to be my friend. “Yes. My hair.”

  “Okay,” said the girl. “Suppose I can do it for yer.”

  I glanced back at my reflection in the mirror and took a deep breath. “Yes. Okay. Thanks.”

  She led me to a chair, sat me down and tutted as she examined my hair. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…”

  “Can you just comb it out?”

  The girl looked doubtful. “It could take hours.”

  “I have the time if you have.”

  “Sorry dahling but yer ’air’s ruined. It’s too far gone.”

  I looked at my reflection in the mirror. After months of being happy to look how I felt – the odd one out – suddenly I couldn’t bear it a second longer. I wanted to look like me again. Dee. Normal.

  The girl must have seen my look of disappointment.

  “Look love, tell you what. I have an idea but you’re going to have to trust me. I’ve just been on a course and learnt this fab new technique. You’d be perfect for trying it out on.”

  I glanced up at her. She looked sincere. I nodded, closed my eyes and a few minutes later, all I could hear was the snip snip snip of scissors cutting hair.

  “Sorted,” said the girl a short while later.

  I opened my eyes and shrieked. “OMIGOD! Ohmigod! Bat poo and a half! What have you done?”

  If my appearance was strange before, it was even stranger now. I looked like I’d just joined the army and been given a number one cut. There was hardly any hair left on my head. “What’s this supposed to be? The hedgehog look? I look like a bristle head. I thought you said you’d learnt a fab new technique?”

  The girl looked offended. “I ’ave. And it looks betta than it did and…”

  I got up from the chair and ran for the door.

  “Oi. I ’aven’t finished,” the girl called as I ran out. “And you ain’t paid…”

  I didn’t care. I looked awful. I ran for the bus and kept my head down until it drew up. Once on, I made a dash for the back and prayed that I didn’t see anyone that I knew. I felt in shock. At least with the dreadlocks I looked like I had some style, some edge. Now I looked like I had just had the worst haircut ever. Which I had. My plan was to get back to the flat and hide in my bedroom for the next few years until my hair grew back.

  Life cannot possibly get any worse, I thought miserably as I let myself into the front door half an hour later.

  The flat looked like a bomb had hit it.

  “Oh noooooooo,” I wailed. “What happened?”

  Floorboards were up revealing the joists underneath. Walls were stripped of paper, exposing the plaster and electric wires underneath. Units in the kitchen had been pulled off the wall leaving ugly gaps in the paint and it even looked like someone had attempted to knock down the wall between the kitchen and the living room.

  “Holy crapoley. I’m a dead girl,” I moaned as I surveyed the disaster that was left of Aunt Esme’s flat.

  PJ appeared out of the bathroom. “Oh you’re back,” he said cheerfully as he checked out my hair. “Hhhhm. Interesting haircut.”

  “I wish I could say the same for your decorating,” I said as I slumped to what was left of the floor and surveyed the wreck. All the fight had gone out of me. I didn’t care about anything anymore. My life was over.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Visitors

  “Break down to break through,” said PJ who didn’t seem phased at all by my reaction. “Transformation is a process…”

  “Before the butterfly, first the caterpillar and the cocoon,” I finished for him. “Can’t you guys come up with any original sayings of your own?”

  PJ looked hurt. “But iz true and that iz my saying. Everyone’s alvays using my sayings,” he said with a pout. “Iz because I say such vise things about life and death all ze time…”

  “Never mind that. The place is a mess. What am I going to tell Aunt Esme when she gets back?” I demand
ed as visions of Aunt Esme in full freak out played through my head.

  “You von’t need vords,” said PJ who was clearly still feeling sulky. “The flat vill speak for itself.”

  “Oh yeah? And what’s it going to say? Er… had a bit of a party while you were away. Sorry about the holes in the wall… and the ceilings…and the floors.”

  PJ flounced off. “You ’ave no faith. Just you vait and see. And if you’re crossing ze room, be careful to walk on ze joists and not to stand on ze areas between ze joists as ze plaster isn’t solid and you’ll go straight down to ze floor below.”

  “I’m not stupid, PJ,” I said as I tiptoed along one of the joists like a professional tightrope artist to see what they had done with my room. At least the floor in the hall and my bedroom was still intact although half of the ceiling had been taken down and someone had painted great daubs of different paint colours on the walls. When I caught sight of myself in the little mirror above the chest of drawers, I quickly turned it back to the wall then got onto my bed and snuggled under the duvet where I intended to stay until my hair grew back.

  I must have nodded off because the next thing I knew was the sound of Rosa’s voice.

  “Dee, Dee, you is in there? Is time for eatings.”

  “Go away. I’m not hungry.”

  “Aunt says Dee must eat. Aunt phoned.”

  I stuck my head out. “Aunt Esme phoned?”

  Rosa’s expression on seeing me reminded me how bad my hair looked. I darted under the duvet again. “What did you say to her?” I asked from beneath the covers. “You didn’t tell her about the flat makeover did you?”

  “Best no I am thinking. Is great messingness out there. What is happening with the hair?”

  “Oh disaster, Rosa,” I said as I poked my head out. “You might as well see properly. Bad, bad haircut.”

  Rosa calmly surveyed what was left of my hair then her face broke into a smile. “Is better I am thinking. Can seeing the face more. You be pretty girl.”

  I sighed. “Except for the fact I look like a boy.”

  “Growing back it will,” said Rosa. “Coming to eat. Kitchen is no more for cooking. I got pizza.”

  At the mention of food, my mouth began to water. “What about the flat destroyers? Have they gone?”

  Rosa nodded as I got out of bed. “Back morning time,” she said then she giggled. “More destroying then.”

  “I don’t think there’s much left to demolish,” I said as I followed her into what was left of the flat to eat our supper amidst the chaos.

  Later that night, I settled down in my bed and Rosa went off to Aunt Esme’s room where she was staying in her absence.

  Because I had slept so soundly earlier, I felt wide awake. As I tossed and turned, I became aware of the night sounds. The whistle of the wind in the windows. A train rattling past in the distance. A dog barking. Somewhere down below someone shouting. A car alarm going off. And then silence. Not even the sound of a clock ticking. Only my breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Then the sound of… what was it? Footsteps. On the stairs. Someone trying to be very quiet but not succeeding. Probably the people upstairs had a late night, I thought. But no. The steps had stopped. On our floor. I waited to hear a key in the lock and the sound of the door to the flat opposite open and shut as the lady who lived there went inside. But she was away too wasn’t she? I seemed to remember Aunt Esme saying something to Rosa about it. And come to think of it, the footsteps hadn’t sounded like hers either. She always wore high heels and they made a clickety click noise on the concrete stairs. These footsteps were more solid and they had sounded like a couple of people. Males. I strained to hear anything else. My heart began to pound as I heard a scraping sound in the hall outside. At our door, I thought as I sat bolt upright. Omigod! Someone’s trying to get in!

  I held my breath so that I could hear every minutia of sound. Yes. There it was again! A scraping fumbling sound. It would start and then stop. I decided to get up and go and see if Rosa had heard anything and was awake too. I got out of bed and tiptoed across the room. I opened the door as quietly as I could and crept into the hall. There was definitely someone outside. The scraping sound was louder in the hall, like someone was trying to pick the lock. My heart was pounding like a drum as I crossed the hall. Who could it be? Maybe Aunt Esme back early from her trip. No. She had a key. Maybe whoever it was thought that the flat was empty. With all the activity of the day that was highly likely. People who lived round here were always telling stories of workmen having their tools and equipment stolen on unmanned sites. Empty flats broken into when occupiers were away. I heard the murmur of conversation outside so strained to listen. Whoever it was talking in whispers but I knew the voices. It didn’t take me long to place them. It was that bully boy, Trev and his stupid friend, Bazza. Anger flooded through me. How dare they try to break into where I lived! I crept into Aunt Esme’s room where I could see the dark shape of Rosa asleep in the bed.

  “Rosa, Rosa,” I whispered but she was dead to the world. Outside in the hall, the rustling noise continued. If one of them was picking the lock then they might succeed any minute and what would they find? A young woman who hardly speaks English and a puny-looking girl with a bad haircut. Oh I wished I’d stayed in Mario’s class and learnt some self-defence techniques, I thought as my heart continued to pound in my chest and my mind began to fill with terrible images of what might happen. Maybe this is why Joe sent me to the class. Maybe he’s not so bad after all. He must have known we were going to be burgled and was trying to ensure that I could protect myself. Oh nuts. Why didn’t I do as I was told? I could just see the newspaper headlines: Teen with strange name and haircut murdered in her own bed by local assailants. She fought back but like a girlie wuss.

  Oh God, what should I do? I asked myself. “Rosa,” I whispered again and shook her ankles to wake her.

  She woke with a start. “Wha…?”

  “Shhh,” I hushed her. “Someone’s trying to get in the front door.”

  Rosa hid under the duvet. “Tell them go away. Go away now.”

  “But Rosa, you’re the grown up. You tell them.”

  “I scary. No like dark either. Tell them go away.”

  I could see that Rosa wasn’t going to be any good. It was up to me. I went into the hall. What to do? What to do? I didn’t want to say anything in case they realized that it was me and that I couldn’t fight back. “Get something to hit them with,” a voice in my head said. I tiptoed along to the living room to try and find a hammer or pickaxe. Unfortunately I forgot that the floor was up and there were only wooden joists across the room. I stepped onto an area between the beams and CRASH, my left leg went straight through the thin plaster.

  “Owwow!” I yelped before I could stop myself.

  Behind me, Rosa had crept into the room. She was carrying a torch and shone it in my face. “What you is doing?” she asked.

  “Taking a bath. What does it look like I’m doing? I’m stuck. Oh God. Rosa hold on to me.”

  Between the two of us, I managed to free my leg and climb onto one on the joists then get back into the hall where the floor was still intact. I glanced back in the living room, light was streaming up from the floor below. I knelt down and looked through the gap to see the corridor downstairs.

  Rosa began to giggle. “Good job not falling into downstair people’s beddings. They be getting heart attack if someone falling in from ceiling.”

  Her shoulders began to shake with laughter.

  “Shhhhh. Rosa. This isn’t the time for jokes. In case you’d forgotten, some idiot is trying to break in.”

  “Yes. Me having idea. Turning on light and noise. They thinking many people here.”

  It wasn’t a bad idea and I hadn’t thought of anything better and I could still hear the sound of someone fiddling at the door. Luckily there were three locks as Aunt Esme was very security conscious and had made the flat as safe as she could.

  “Okay, let’s go for it,” I sai
d and turned on the hall light. Rosa ran back into Aunt Esme’s room and reappeared with a radio which she turned on loud. Luckily it was a discussion programme, not music.

  I crept back to the hall and put my ear to the door. The fiddling scrapey noise had stopped. I listened. Rosa turned the music up then called out loudly, “Jacob, hurry up in the bathing room?”

  And then she replied to herself in a deep voice. “Be outing in a minute.”

  I gave her the thumbs up and listened at the door again. Finally, finally, I heard steps retreating.

  “They gone?” asked Rosa.

  I nodded and she came over to me and gave me a big hug. It was only then that I started shaking and Rosa had to put a blanket round me and make a mug of hot chocolate before it would stop.

  We both slept in Aunt Esme’s big bed that night but neither of us got much sleep.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Yes SIR!

  “Oh you again,” said Mario with a smug look when I got to his class the next day. I was first there and this time I was determined to stay no matter what insults he threw my way.

  “Yes SIR,” I said.

  He checked me over to see if I was messing about but I stared him back eyeball to eyeball and didn’t flinch once. I was dead serious and I think he got the message.

  “Okay. You can start by taking your cap off,” he said.

  “I…” I was about to object as I had worn a black baseball cap to hide my hair disaster. I took it off. I didn’t want him throwing me out for disobeying him.

  He didn’t even try to disguise his reaction. “Good God Almighty!” he gasped with horror. “What happened to your hair? Thinking about joining the army are you?”

  “No SIR,” I said. “Bad haircut SIR.”

  “You can say that again,” he said.

  “Bad haircut SIR!”

  He gave me another penetrating look to see if I was messing but once again, I met his gaze. “Nessa will sort that out,” he said. “Report to Pentangles one night after class.”

  “Yes SIR!” I said although I had no intention of going back in there. What could they possibly do to make it better apart from shave my head and fit me with a wig? No. I would wear baseball caps until it grew back.