Becky's Dress Disaster

by Holly Webb

  The triplets waited for more, but that was all Mum said, and when they got home she went up to her room and stayed there – and Becky was sure that she could hear her crying.

  Chapter Nine

  Becky decided, right there on the landing, that enough was enough. She stormed into their bedroom, and grabbed Annabel, who was gloating over the newly decorated dresses.

  “C’mon,” she snapped, and swept her confused sister downstairs, and out to the garden, where Katie was practising dribbling round a line of pot plants.

  Becky booted the ball over to the other side of the garden, leaving Katie gaping (she hadn’t known Becky could do that!) and headed down the path, still dragging Annabel, and calling over her shoulder, “You can practise later – we need to talk. Come on!”

  She shooed both sisters into the guinea-pig shed. This was for two reasons – it was well away from Mum, so they wouldn’t be overheard, and it was Becky’s own territory. If she was going to stand any chance of bossy Katie and mouthy Annabel listening to what she had to say, she needed to be somewhere she felt confident. She slammed the door and leaned against it, breathing fast. The other two were giving her an identical funny look – a “what’s she playing at?” look. Becky didn’t do things like this.

  She scowled back. “I’ve got something to say, and you two are going to listen to me without arguing, or interrupting, or telling me to shut up and stop being stupid, which is what you’ve been doing for the last fortnight. You just keep on ignoring me!”

  Katie and Annabel gaped back at her. What had got into her suddenly? She sounded more like Katie than Katie did sometimes.

  “Do you know where Mum is?” Becky had her arms folded, and she was doing a scary impression of Mr Hatton, their monster French teacher.

  “Um, no…” Katie ventured.

  “Bel?”

  “Er, upstairs?”

  “Uh-huh. She’s upstairs, in her room, crying – because of us! Because we made her split up with Max’s dad!”

  “No, we didn’t!” argued Annabel automatically.

  “OK – so why do you think she did it then?”

  Annabel shrugged. “Irreconcilable differences, I suppose.” It was what one of her favourite actresses had said last week about her marriage breaking up.

  “Yeah – and you’re one of them. They split up because we couldn’t get on with Max. Lunch today made them see it was never going to work.”

  Annabel shuffled her feet, guiltily. But Katie wasn’t so easy. “So what were we supposed to do? Pretend it’s fine that she’s dating Max’s dad, and he’s our best mate? I’m not going to lie, Becky.” She assumed a virtuous, smug, totally annoying expression.

  Becky took a deep breath, to stop herself wanting to throw a guinea-pig hutch at her sister’s head. “I’m saying, why don’t you stop being so selfish and start thinking about other people for once!”

  Katie rolled her eyes. “Here we go!”

  “You’re only making out that I’m being stupid because you’re too scared to listen,” said Becky flatly.

  Katie’s eyes snapped back to her. “Go on then!”

  “Right. Well, for a start, you’ve made Mum really miserable, and in case you hadn’t noticed, she was looking happier than she had for ages – maybe she needed somebody, you know! It’s not up to you who she goes out with. And second, I know you hate Max, and I don’t like him either, but this is worse for him than it is for us.”

  “Oh, come on, how do you make that out?” scoffed Annabel.

  “You know his Mum died?”

  “Well, yeah…” Annabel muttered – it wasn’t fair of Becky to bring that up. You had to give someone automatic sympathy when something as awful as that had happened to them, which was difficult when you hated their guts.

  “This is the first time his dad has dated anyone since then, and he feels like his dad’s forgotten all about his mum. OK, so we miss our dad and we don’t get to see him that often, but nothing so awful has happened to us. Has it?” She rounded on Katie, who was still scowling. “And I don’t care what you say, you’ve been just as bad as he has lately!”

  Katie shrugged, but she looked embarrassed, and maybe ever so slightly ashamed of herself. “So what do you want us to do then?” she muttered.

  “I don’t want you to do anything,” Becky replied irritably. “There’s no way you can pretend to suddenly like Max now. You’re just going to have to stay out of his way. I’m going to talk to him at school tomorrow, and we’re going to get Mum and his dad back together.”

  Katie scowled, but didn’t disagree – Becky’s harsh words had had their effect.

  Becky looked at Annabel, who was also frowning.

  “You’ve really thought about this, haven’t you?” Annabel asked. “I mean, I’ve just been trying to forget about it and hoping it would go away – but it just isn’t. I suppose you’re right. I hate that you are, but I think we’re going to have to go along with it. Is talking to Max about all this a good idea though?” she added doubtfully. “I mean, look what happened when you tried to talk to him last time – a massive bust-up.”

  Becky folded her arms, and looked determined – in fact, she looked exactly like Katie. “The mood I’m in right now, I don’t care what he does. He’s going to listen. Anyway, what were the chances of me talking you two round?”

  Katie and Annabel looked sheepish.

  “So if I can get you two to do what I want, I reckon I can sort out one Max. Although it might be quite nice if you weren’t far away, just in case he tries to tear me into little pieces…”

  Becky had been expecting to have to fight her corner all over again the next morning, when Katie and Annabel had had a bit more time to think up some good arguments. Surprisingly, though, they didn’t say anything, and Becky noticed Annabel watching Mum worriedly as she stirred her coffee over and over again at breakfast.

  Katie brought the subject up on the way to school. “So, when are you going to talk to Max then?” Her voice didn’t sound as though she exactly approved of the plan, but she wasn’t saying it was over her dead body.

  “Not sure. What do you think?” Becky asked, hoping to get Katie involved in the planning – surely that would make her less angry about it?

  Katie just shrugged, and wandered moodily on. Becky directed a despairing glance at Annabel, who rolled her eyes. “I reckon you’d better talk to him in the playground. Try and find him before school. That way you won’t have people crowding all round you, like you would in the classroom – you don’t want Amy and her lot eavesdropping, do you?”

  Becky shook her head – no, this was going to be embarrassing enough already. “You will come and hover, won’t you? I don’t want you to talk to him for me, or anything, just wait round the corner or something.”

  “Course,” said Annabel putting an arm round Becky’s shoulders. “Won’t we, Katie?”

  Katie’s grumpy march ahead was carefully calculated so she could still hear everything that was going on. “S’pose,” she muttered.

  But her reluctance seemed to melt away when the triplets reached the school gates, and spotted Max sitting on the steps to the dining hall, gazing into space. She moved in close to Becky, and said, “Just don’t let him get away with anything. We’ll be watching, remember? If he starts being a prat we’ll come and get him.”

  Becky smiled at her, and nodded. There was no point saying that “getting” Max was part of the whole problem – Katie was making a big effort as it was.

  She walked over to Max, fiddling nervously with the strap on her rucksack, and stood in front of him until he looked up aggressively. He seemed to be angry with everyone these days. “You again!” he snarled. “Get away from me, you stupid dumb blonde.”

  Becky ignored this, and the temptation to say that stupid and dumb were the same thing. She stared back at him, trying to thi
nk herself strong. Remember making Katie and Bel listen to you! Remember Mum’s face this morning!

  Max had obviously been hoping she’d just scuttle off as soon as he opened his mouth. His face darkened, and he stood up, still on the steps so he towered over her. “Get – out – of – my – face!”

  “No,” Becky said calmly. “I need you to listen, then I’ll go.”

  “You listen! I’m not talking to you, any of you. Me and my dad don’t want anything to do with you!”

  “That isn’t true.”

  “What?” Max sounded confused.

  “We don’t like you, and you hate us, but your dad and our mum really like each other. They only said they’d stop seeing each other because we were fighting so much.” She paused. “I’m sorry. I know it’s really awful for you – with your mum and everything…” She trailed off as Max’s eyes blazed.

  “What do you know about my mum?”

  Becky faltered. It was so difficult to talk about this – what was she supposed to say to him?

  “Well, that she – that she—”

  “Died. You can’t even say it, can you?” Max sneered.

  “I’m sorry,” Becky whispered, feeling terrible. She tried to summon back some of the strength she’d had moments before. She was sure that she was doing the right thing – she just had to get the words out. “Look, I heard what you were saying to Lucky yesterday.”

  Max went rigid. “What? When?”

  Becky shuffled in embarrassment – after all, she had been spying. “When you were on the stairs, holding him.”

  What little colour had been in Max’s face drained away entirely. He looked as though he wanted to kill her. It ran through Becky’s mind, very quickly, as she tried to stand her ground, that he had been crying, and he knew she’d seen him, and that was what he couldn’t stand.

  Max was balling his hands into fists. His face was so angry that Becky actually wondered whether he was going to hit her, or grab her by the shoulders and shove her over, just to get her out of his way. Then suddenly he seemed to sag, and he slumped down on the steps as though he didn’t care any more.

  Becky looked worriedly at him. He seemed so wretched, but he wasn’t going to want sympathy from her – was he? She decided she had to go with her instincts. She sat down beside him on the steps. Katie and Annabel, who had been watching from round the corner of one of the classrooms, where they were mostly out of sight, gaped at each other. Until now they hadn’t really been able to see what was going on, although they’d nearly dashed over to help out when Max jumped up looking so angry.

  Becky continued to speak to Max in a low, soothing voice. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have been listening, but I heard Lucky whining, and he’s so cute, I wanted to say hello to him. And then I heard you – it was an accident.”

  Max sniffed.

  “It’s true, you know, about our parents. They do like each other. They still will, even if we make it so they can’t go out – they’ll just be really miserable as well.”

  Max muttered something, and Becky bent closer to hear. “Don’t want him to go out with anyone.”

  “Mmm, I know, nor do we. Our mum, I mean.”

  Max said nothing, but the atmosphere between them wasn’t uncomfortable. They sat silently thinking for a moment, and then he said, “Dad didn’t even notice when I fed Lucky toast this morning. Normally he goes ballistic if he sees me doing that.”

  Becky nodded wisely, thinking of Mum stirring her coffee at the breakfast table as though the triplets weren’t even there.

  “What are we going to do?” Max seemed to have given up.

  “You have to get your dad to come to the wedding.” Becky knew that Katie and Annabel weren’t going to be too happy about this, but it was the perfect opportunity. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to come. Just your dad – I’ll talk to my aunt about it, it’ll be fine. We don’t tell my mum, she just sees him there and she’s all surprised.”

  Max sniffed again, as though he didn’t think much of the plan, but Becky felt it was more for show than anything else. “Just because we’re doing this, it doesn’t mean I actually like you, you know. I’m just doing this to make my dad happy.”

  Becky nodded – she wasn’t looking for a friend either. “Will you talk to your dad?”

  He shrugged. “Mmm.”

  “Good. So tell us tomorrow what he said. I’ll phone Auntie Jan.” And Becky got up decisively and headed back to her sisters, feeling incredibly proud of herself. She noticed that David had arrived and was standing with them, and speeded up slightly. She’d just had a good idea of how he could help out too – it might take a little persuasion though…

  As Becky had expected, Katie and Annabel weren’t pleased about Mr Cooper coming to the wedding – but at least it was only him and not Max. They were still so surprised by Becky coming over all bossy that they only complained half-heartedly.

  They phoned Auntie Jan that evening, and when she realized who it was, she seemed a little strange, as though she was annoyed. Becky guessed that Mum had been crying on her shoulder.

  “Is it important, Becky? I’m still at work.”

  Becky took a deep breath. “Yes, it is. Very. You have to re-invite somebody to the wedding.”

  “What?”

  “Mum’s friend – Jeff Cooper. She’s probably got you to take him off the list, hasn’t she? Well, you have to put him back on.”

  Auntie Jan’s voice was noticeably warmer as she said, “But she told me they’d split up.”

  “I know, and it was all our fault. Did she tell you about it? About the thing with Max?”

  “Yes. She was really upset, Becky.”

  “I know! But we’re going to sort it out. I talked to Max, and he’s going to ask his dad to come. We’ll make it a surprise for her. Please, Auntie Jan!”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “We do, we really do, honestly. We’re going to sort it all out.”

  “OK, then. But he’d better turn up, Becky. I’m not having my seating plan mucked up!” Auntie Jan was laughing as she said this – she was obviously really pleased about their idea. Becky did have a slightly worrying thought as she hung up though. Auntie Jan had been joking about the seating plan, but she was being a bit of a control freak about her wedding – just what was she going to think of the new-look bridesmaids’ dresses?

  Chapter Ten

  Max’s dad agreed to the plan practically before Max had got the words out, he reported grumpily the next day. His dad was delighted that the triplets had decided to try and sort things out, and really keen to get back together with their mum. Max was talking only to Becky, and doing his best to pretend that Annabel, and even more so Katie, just didn’t exist.

  “Good. So what are you going to do on Saturday? Are you going to stay with someone?”

  Max’s scowl deepened. “My grandma. I’ll be looking at my cousins’ baby photos all day. Dad had better be grateful.”

  Becky turned to David, who was standing behind her looking shifty, and gave him a meaningful stare. He rolled his eyes at her, but the stare only intensified.

  “Oh, all right,” he muttered. “Max, my mum says you can come over to ours on Saturday afternoon if you want. She said maybe we could go to LaserQuest. Don’t feel you have to, or anything…” He trailed off, trying not to sound too inviting. He didn’t really get on with Max, and he was only doing this because Becky had begged him, and then threatened, and then begged again.

  Apparently, even LaserQuesting with someone who was clearly not that eager to have you was better than endless photos of baby cousins. Max agreed as keenly as his dad had.

  Becky grinned at them both happily. Finally it felt like she’d done everything she could to make the wedding a success, and make things up to Mum – now, hopefully, all they had to do was enjoy th
e day.

  It felt weird and exciting waking up on Saturday morning in a hotel room. Becky scrambled out of bed and dashed to the window. Yes! Perfect blue sky, just a few little puffball clouds. She looked out over the hotel gardens, which were so tidy she would have sworn the gardeners cut the grass with nail scissors. The wedding photos were going to be beautiful here. There was even a peacock stalking across the lawn as though he owned the place.

  Annabel joined her at the window, yawning. “It’s not raining, is it?” she asked worriedly.

  “No, look – Auntie Jan’s so lucky. We haven’t had a day this nice the whole year so far.”

  “I said it would be,” pronounced Annabel smugly. “I suppose we shouldn’t start getting ready quite yet, what do you think?”

  “Bel! The wedding’s not till three! At least can’t we have breakfast?” Becky protested.

  “Mmm. S’pose.”

  Breakfast turned out to be a bit of a trial. Katie had hardly moaned all week about the dressing up she was going to have to do (well, only a couple of times a day, anyway), but now she was sitting across the table from their gran, Mum and Auntie Jan’s mum, who was not being particularly tactful. Even their grandad was trying to signal with his eyebrows as Gran prattled on.

  “Oh, it’ll be so lovely, seeing you three in little matching frocks. There’s nothing prettier than my little granddaughters when you’re dressed right. Proper dresses, not jeans and those horrible football shirts. I haven’t seen you in a dress for years, Katie dear.”

  Katie, wearing jeans and a football shirt, was looking less and less like someone who would be happily walking down an aisle in a pretty dress a few hours from now. She laid her half-eaten piece of toast on her plate and glared at Gran.

  Grandad diplomatically intervened by prompting Gran to tell Auntie Jan which hat she’d decided to buy in the end. The answer, together with full descriptions of all the hats Gran hadn’t bought, took the rest of the meal.