by Gwyneth Rees
Monday was our first day back at school after the Easter break. I rolled my eyes at my brother when I came downstairs and saw him trying to scrape off a bit of breakfast from his school tie. At least the rest of his clothes – dark grey trousers, white school shirt and grey V-necked jumper with our school logo on it – still looked freshly washed and ironed though I knew they wouldn’t stay that way for long. Sean looks a lot younger in his school uniform, though I know better than to tell him that.
Helensfield High has a very strict uniform policy – even Leo says that whoever wrote it was clearly a bit obsessional. The rules include wearing your tie with ‘at least three double stripes visible below a small neat knot’ and wearing skirts of a length ‘no more than two inches above the knee’. Wearing make-up is a total no-no, though I once wore some of Mum’s mascara to school to test out Lily’s theory that my eyelashes are so short that mascara only makes them look normal. (And unfortunately it turned out she was right, because nobody noticed.)
Lily, Clara and Hanna came up to talk to me the second I walked into the playground.
‘Sasha, we’ve all been talking,’ Lily began, ‘and we really want you to hang out with us today.’
‘You do?’ I’m ashamed to say that I actually felt quite flattered. Right up until they started their recruitment spiel, that is.
‘Yes,’ Hanna said. ‘Because Lily’s got a point about how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.’
‘Its cover?’
‘Yeah.’ Lily explained hastily, ‘I was telling them how you might not look as if you’d fit into our group, Sasha, but how all that surface stuff isn’t what’s important. I mean, you’re pretty cool on the inside. That’s what I keep saying.’
‘Not that it wouldn’t be fun to do one of those total makeover things on you,’ Clara added.
‘Pardon?’
‘Nobody’s saying you need a makeover, Sasha,’ Lily said as she glared at Clara.
‘Not unless you want one,’ Hanna put in – which made Lily glare at her too.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Priti waiting for me on the other side of the playground. I decided it was time to join her, but before I could, Raffy suddenly appeared beside us. ‘Lily … Dad phoned home after you left for school. They’ve got to cancel their weekend away. Dad’s got to work.’
‘Oh no!’
‘We need to tell everybody we invited to the party. If anyone turns up on Saturday night, we’re dead.’
Lily, Hanna and Clara all started talking at once.
‘Hi, Raffy,’ I greeted him shyly as he turned to go back to his friends.
Raffy glanced briefly at me and then, to my horror, his gaze shifted down to my totally unflattering school shoes.
‘They’re my granny’s,’ I blurted out stupidly, just in case he thought they were my own choice.
‘You’re wearing your granny’s shoes?’ He was grinning, looking at me like I was a complete idiot.
‘My granny’s choice, I mean … not her actual shoes …’ I was blushing furiously. ‘She took me shopping and …’ I only just stopped myself from launching into the whole sorry story where the shop assistant had told Granny that these ones provided the best support for growing feet and Granny had flatly refused to let me have any others. Honestly, what was wrong with me? I shouldn’t feel like I had to justify my shoes to Lily’s brother.
‘Catch you later, Sasha.’ Raffy gave me a big smile, almost as if he didn’t think I was the dorkiest girl in the playground.
I watched him return to his friends. I felt a bit weak at the knees as he strode away from me, his blazer flung ever so casually over one shoulder. I thought he could easily be a model in a TV advert for school uniforms or something.
I left Lily and her friends to sort out their party drama and hurried over to join Priti.
‘I saw you ogling Rafferty just now,’ she teased, putting away the Jane Austen novel she’d been reading.
‘I was not,’ I protested.
‘Then why have you just gone bright red?’
Priti was giving me a funny look, which made me go even redder, and I quickly turned my face away.
‘It’s OK, I won’t tell anyone. I promise,’ she said, still grinning. ‘Hey, Mum’s going to make samosas again when you come over on Friday since you raved about them so much last time.’
‘Cool.’ Priti’s mum is a brilliant cook.
‘She wants to know which kind you liked best. It was the veggie ones, right?’
‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘but she doesn’t have to make them especially for me.’
‘Don’t be silly. Mum loves cooking for my friends.’
‘Wish I could say the same for mine,’ I joked, trying not to cringe as I remembered the last time Priti had come for tea. Mum had sent Sean out to buy fish and chips after making a big thing of enquiring if Hindus ate fish and gushing on about how interested she had always been in other cultures and religions. Afterwards I’d told Mum she’d sounded over the top and insincere and that she had embarrassed me, and Mum had told me I was over-thinking the whole thing as usual, and that she had just been trying to make Priti feel welcome.
As the bell rang I told Priti about Lily’s party and how it wasn’t going ahead after all.
‘Good,’ she murmured.
I gave her a sharp look.
‘Well, you were going to get caught for sure. You would have got into loads of trouble. Lily was stupid to think she could invite all those people and get away with it.’
I sighed. She was right, I guess. But I suspected the real reason Priti was so unsympathetic was because she hadn’t been invited to the party herself.
The rest of the day at school was pretty uneventful. It wasn’t until we were leaving at half past three that I spotted my brother standing with Leo in the playground. That was unusual, since they generally tended to avoid each other in school.
Then I realised Sean was getting told off – not that it seemed to be having much effect on him. He had his tie wrapped around his head like it was fancy dress and his mates were sloping off.
‘Chill, Leo, your boss isn’t even in school today, remember,’ I heard Sean say cheekily as I approached them. Our gruff Scottish headmaster was away.
‘Which is why I’m the one speaking to you about this and not him!’ Leo snapped. ‘Now get that tie off your head and back round your neck before I’m tempted to strangle you with it!’
‘Yeah, yeah, don’t get your trunks in a twist,’ Sean said. I couldn’t believe he was talking to Leo like that at school.
‘Listen, Sean, I suggest you think hard about your attitude,’ Leo said calmly. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’
He broke off abruptly when Lily appeared alongside us.
My stomach just about dropped to the floor as she smiled knowingly at Leo and said, ‘Hello, Mr Anderson. Did you have a good Easter holiday?’
Leo delayed just a couple of seconds more than usual before answering, ‘I did, thank you, Lily. What about you?’
‘It was fine, though I missed Sasha.’
‘Lily, come on,’ I hissed, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away from them before this whole conversation in the middle of the school playground could get any more embarrassing.
I glanced back to see my brother putting his tie back on while Leo stood watching him.
‘Hey, you’ll never guess what I heard today,’ Lily said as we walked out of school. ‘Guess who fancies you, Sasha!’
I instantly felt my cheeks flame. Oh my God! Surely she couldn’t mean … ?
‘Zack!’ she declared with a huge grin.
I gaped at her. She had to be kidding me, right?
‘Cross my heart,’ she continued when she saw the disbelief on my face. ‘I mean, I was shocked too. I thought Zack was only into reptiles and creepy-crawlies, but apparently he really likes you too.’
‘Come off it, Lily! That’s rubbish! He’s best friends with Sean, and Sean’s never mentioned it.’
‘Well, it’s true! One of Raffy’s mates’ sisters is friends with Zack’s sister and she told me. I can get Raffy to find out for sure if you like.’
‘No way!’ I said fiercely. ‘Don’t you dare say anything to Raffy. I mean it, Lily!’
She held up her hands defensively. ‘OK, OK … But I thought you liked Zack. I mean, you were very quick to defend him when I said I didn’t want him at my party. You could’ve invited him if you’d really wanted to, by the way. I’d just have explained it to the others.’
‘Lily, shut up!’ I almost yelled at her. ‘I don’t fancy Zack, OK? And don’t you dare tell any of the others!’
She was grinning. ‘OK, OK … keep your hair on! We’ll just have to find you a boy who you do like …’
I gave her a little shove. ‘Oh yeah? Well, what about you? Maybe you should find a real boy to fancy for a change! One who doesn’t sing in a band!’
‘Hey, the boys in those bands are real people too! I bet they could do with going out with someone like me. I could help them keep their feet on the ground.’
I laughed. ‘Lily, you’re the last person to keep anybody’s feet on the ground!’
‘Hey!’ She shoved me back, laughing too, and I suddenly had a flashback to when we had first started infant school together. We’d had a very passionate love–hate sort of friendship back then, where we were always falling out and making up again. Lily had become much gentler with me after my dad died. Or maybe it was just that after that a lot of the fight had gone out of me and it suited me to trot around after Lily, doing whatever she said and letting her protect me from everyone and everything.
‘You know what my mum said the other day?’ Lily said with a giggle. ‘That she sometimes wishes she could go back to the time when I had pictures of ponies all over my bedroom. How icky is that?’
I laughed. ‘Remember when I had all those posters of kittens?’
Lily nodded. ‘That one of the kitten in the deckchair was really cute.’ She was smiling as she slipped her arm through mine. ‘I’m sure I’ve still got those pony posters in a bag up in the loft somewhere. We should totally get them down and have a look at them sometime …’
If anyone was going to tell me that they wished I still had kitten posters in my bedroom it would be Granny rather than Mum. Granny has always played a big part in our lives, so I guess I should tell you a bit more about her before I go any further.
Granny has been like a second mum to Sean and me ever since our dad died. She’s very different to Mum in that she’s always said that children should be allowed to be children, and I know she tried her best to protect us from having to grow up too fast. When she lived with us she was very hot on bedtimes and table manners and checking up on our day at school. At the same time she’d nag Mum to eat properly, take her medication regularly, keep her doctor’s appointments and get enough exercise. Mum argued with her sometimes, saying that she wasn’t a child and she didn’t want to be treated like one. Granny just ignored that and carried on running our little family the way she wanted it done rather than the way Mum did.
The only trouble with Granny is that she never wants to listen to anybody who disagrees with her. I think she genuinely believes she is always right and therefore far better qualified than everybody else to make most decisions. And I’m fairly sure she honestly thinks she could do a better job of running the country than the prime minister if only she’d chosen to go into politics. Granny is a very clever and strong sort of person. She grew up in quite a poor family and got a scholarship to a brilliant school and then became the first person in her family to go to university. And it wasn’t just any old university – it was Cambridge. Granny would have had a very successful career after that – as she’s fond of telling us – if she hadn’t met our grandfather and fallen head over heels in love with him.
Apparently our grandfather had already inherited quite a bit of money from his parents, which had allowed him to follow his dream of becoming a professional magician. When Granny met him, he was travelling all over the country, and even to other countries, doing magic shows. About six months after they met, Granny got pregnant and they got married. She hoped he would settle down and get a more conventional job, or at least give up the travelling so that she could embark on a proper career while he helped look after our mum. But though he made a lot of promises, in the end he never did get any other sort of job. According to Mum, Granny was so ashamed of what he did, she used to tell her friends her husband was a travelling salesman, because she thought it sounded more respectable. And whenever he came home, all Granny wanted to know was when he was going to keep his word and get himself some ‘useful employment’. Mum says they argued all the time and her father stayed away from home for longer and longer periods.
I think Mum really loved her dad. She told me she’d longed to travel with him in the holidays, but Granny had never allowed it. Even now Mum’s eyes will light up when she describes the mini magic shows he’d put on just for her when she was little – and how he always said she was his favourite audience. He’d magic shiny coins from behind her ears, golden eggs from her school satchel and strings of multicoloured scarves from her pockets. Once on her birthday he’d even produced a real live rabbit from his magician’s hat and she had been allowed to keep it as a pet.
Mum has a photograph up in her bedroom of Grandpa and her together, and he certainly looks like he was a fun dad. Mum was ten when that picture was taken and the two of them are standing inside a big dark blue trunk with gold stars painted all over it. The trunk had contained everything her father needed for his magic shows and had travelled everywhere with him. It had gone missing after he died and Mum suspected Granny might have got rid of it without telling her. According to Mum, Granny refused to talk about him after his death and seemed even angrier with him then than she had been when he was alive. ‘It was almost as if she thought he’d had that heart attack just to spite her,’ Mum told me once.
Anyway, soon Granny would be coming to visit us with the sole purpose of inspecting Leo. I had no doubt she was going to interrogate him thoroughly when they met and I knew Mum wouldn’t be able to stop her. Granny would stay for a few days and Mum had decided that she would take us all out to lunch so that the introductions could take place ‘on neutral territory’. Plus I think she was hoping that even Granny couldn’t make too big a scene so long as we had plenty of witnesses.
I’d arranged to meet Sean and Zack at Blossom House after school that day and as I let myself in the back door I can honestly say I didn’t feel at all embarrassed about seeing Zack. I mean, there was just no way Lily could be right about him fancying me.
I found my brother sitting on the floor of the upstairs front bedroom with Monty draped over both arms. The snake actually looked quite beautiful with the sun shining on its browny-gold skin.
‘Where’s Zack?’ I asked at once.
‘His mum wanted him straight home after school. His auntie is visiting or something.’
‘His parents are pretty strict with him, aren’t they?’ Sean and I had never had a lot of restrictions placed on us by Mum. She said that Granny had been unbearably bossy and over-controlling while she was growing up and she was determined not to be like that with us.
‘I guess …’ Sean murmured.
I went to use the bathroom but as I stepped inside I spotted the most enormous spider crawling over the floor.
I screamed. I couldn’t help it. It was one of those big dense crusty-looking spiders that seems to expand in size when it starts walking.
My brother rushed in from the bedroom to see what was wrong. ‘You’re such a wimp,’ he said with a grin. Then he told me to go and keep an eye on Monty while he rescued the spider.
I went back into the bedroom, where all I could see was the empty floor. There was no sign of the snake anywhere. ‘Sean, where is he?’ For a moment I wondered if my brother was playing some kind of prank.
‘What?’ He left the spider wh
ere it was and came back to join me.
‘Monty’s not here,’ I said with a frown.
‘He must be here. I left him right in the middle of the floor.’ Sean went over to the window and yanked back the curtains to look behind them. But Monty wasn’t there either. He also wasn’t lying along the curtain rail or, thankfully, dangling down from the lampshade. The cupboard door was closed so he couldn’t have gone in there.
Sean went to look under the carpet, which was completely loose at one edge of the room. ‘Uh-oh,’ he grunted as he pulled it back to reveal rotting green underlay and broken old floorboards with several holes in them big enough for a snake to squeeze through.
‘Oh God, Sean … what are we going to do?’ My mind was already racing ahead, imagining the worst possible scenario as usual … a ravenous Monty coming out from under the floorboards while Mum was showing someone round … Monty resurfacing in the toilet bowl while somebody was sitting on it … Monty’s head sticking out of the letterbox to greet the postman in the morning …
‘Don’t panic,’ Sean told me, knowing only too well the way my mind works. ‘He’ll probably reappear in a bit. If he doesn’t, we’ll call Zack.’ Though he sounded worried as he added, ‘Trouble is, Zack’s always moaning that his mum makes him switch off his phone whenever they’re having “family time”.’
Suddenly my heart felt like it was beating ten times faster as a brilliant idea came to me. ‘I know who we can ask to help.’
And before Sean could reply, I was already taking out my phone to call Lily.
When Lily and I were really little, Raffy had been obsessed with snakes. His parents had never let him have one, but he’d watched loads of nature programmes about them, had adopted a snake at a zoo and had tormented me and Lily with snake stories and videos. You’d never know to look at him now that he’d been such a geek when he was younger.
I’d told Lily that the side gate would be open and that she and Raffy should just knock on the back door when they arrived, but of course, Lily being Lily, she just walked straight in.
