Keep the Faith (22 page)

‘Mum!’ I screeched. ‘Granny’s stealing from us again!’

‘Again?’ Jim asked. He was starting to look a bit uncomfortable.

‘It was a misunderstanding about some silver spoons,’ Granny said.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Granny misunderstood when Mum said she wasn’t allowed to steal them.’

Granny started wittering on about how she was collecting for a jumble sale and it was all for a very good cause. And she’d packed these things up when she was here yesterday and no one had
even noticed. Fortunately, Mum’s growling abilities came to the fore and we got back all our stuff.

I actually felt a bit sorry for Granny in the end so, when she and Jim were leaving, I slipped her the bag with Mum’s dreamcatcher collection in. ‘And you can have these.’ I
handed her a horrible pair of bunny slippers that I’ve never taken the tags off. The rabbits look like they’ve got myxomatosis.

Granny’s smile faded. ‘I gave you those,’ she snapped.

I didn’t let my smile slip. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘and isn’t it wonderful to think of someone else owning them and getting to experience the same joy that I
did?’

She poked me in the neck with her umbrella.

That’s what you get for being charitable.

Megs was meeting Cam in the park after school today. Since it’s sort of on the way to Skye’s house, I walked with her. But when we got there he had Ethan with
him.

‘Did you know he’d be here?’ I hissed to Megs.

Megs didn’t answer, which is a clear admission of guilt to me.

Ethan was looking at me with his big dark eyes. He said, ‘Hi.’

I said, ‘Hi,’ back, but I think it was obvious that I didn’t mean it. I turned round to leave.

‘Faith! Wait a minute,’ Ethan said.

‘I’ve got a job to go to,’ I said. ‘I’ll be late.’

Megs and Cam were drifting away to give us some privacy, even though I was giving Megs a look that clearly said that I didn’t want any.

‘What is it?’ I asked Ethan.

He looked a bit uncomfortable, which is a first for Ethan.

‘Look, I’m sorry if I interfered at debating club.’ He said it in a rush. It was obviously hard for him to get the words out.

‘OK,’ I said.

There was a pause.

I remembered how relieved I was when he offered to take Finn’s place. ‘It was nice of you to say that you’d do the speech at the last minute,’ I said in a stilted
voice.

‘Wow,’ said Cam. ‘Steady on, you two. Any more of your sweet talking and I’ll be sick.’

Everybody laughed.

Ethan and I sat on the swings for a bit.

‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I’ve always found myself to be delightful company, but apparently I can be a bit of an idiot sometimes, so if there’s anything else that
I’ve done or said that’s upset you . . .’ He looked right into my eyes and I couldn’t help thinking about that time I thought he was going to kiss me and I wondered if he
was thinking about it too.

‘. . . Then I’m sorry about that too.’

It wasn’t a very specific apology, but at least it shows that he realises he’s been a bit mean to me recently.

‘I assume that there’s some sort of cash compensation,’ I said.

‘As soon as I win my court case against my History teacher for defamation, I’ll give you a cut.’

‘I think I’d get a better deal if I fine you a pound every time you say something sarcastic.’

‘Oh, that’s a
marvellous
idea.’

‘I’ll put that on your tab.’

I wanted to hang around joking with him, but I really did have to get to Skye’s.

I’m pleased that things are better with Ethan.

When I got home this evening, Mum asked me how babysitting went. I said, ‘Do you know? I quite like Toad now. In a way. I think I’ll keep up the babysitting
even though I’m not so desperate for the money any more.’ Then I realised that actually I never did get round to mentioning that holiday I was planning to take with Finn, so I quickly
went on. ‘And I’ve come round to your way of parenting.’

Mum smiled. ‘You mean you managed to create a loving, supportive environment with the freedom for self-expression?’

I snorted. ‘No, I mean I put his snack on a tray and turned on the TV.’ I gave her a suspicious look. ‘And what was that freedom stuff you were talking about? That wasn’t
my childhood.’

‘Yes it was!’ She pushed her straggling locks out of her face. ‘Well, that was always my intention. If I didn’t quite succeed, it was probably because you were a
difficult child.’

‘Definitely didn’t happen to me. Probably something you read in a book,’ I said.

‘I did try to give you creative opportunities—’

‘Or a film you saw.’

Mum frowned. ‘Stop ignoring me! I’m just saying that I’ve certainly always been supportive.’

‘A dream? Did you dream it?’

‘Faith, I don’t think that’s very funny. I did my best.’

‘Perhaps one of your mad friends told you about it?’

At that point she left the room. She even slammed the door a bit. Old people are so immature.

Today it was Westy and his partner Mei’s turn to debate. They were arguing that we should be able to leave school at fifteen.

When the boys arrived, Westy was looking pretty sick. He faffed about pulling everything out of his pockets. ‘I’ve lost the last page of my notes!’ he said to me. ‘I
can’t do it without my notes!’

I helped him sift through the bus tickets and chocolate wrappers from his pockets. ‘Don’t start panicking, Westy,’ I said in a helpful way.

‘I’m not starting,’ he said, tugging his tie. ‘I’ve been panicking for weeks.’

We found the screwed-up little bit of paper he was looking for, but actually he didn’t really need it because, once he got going, Westy didn’t stop for anything. His style of
debating is pretty much the same as his approach to everyday conversation, i.e. loud. You could tell which points he thought were particularly brilliant because he repeated them at an even higher
volume. But he was definitely enthusiastic, which must count for a lot because they won. When Mrs L-W announced it, Westy lifted Mei off her feet and she squealed. I was really pleased for
them.

When we were all hanging about at the gates, Ethan said, ‘Hey Faith, you did a good job organising this debating thing.’

Which surprised me because Ethan doesn’t praise people very often.

‘Well, you know me, I’m always trying to give young people opportunities to get together and be outshone by my linguistic skills.’

He smiled. ‘You are very good at talking. It’s one of my favourite things about you.’

I really wanted to ask him what the other things were, but someone yelled, ‘Ethan! You walking with us, or what?’

I looked up; it was Ryan, he was on the other side of the road with two St Minger’s girls. One of them was black-haired Dawn from my party.

‘Got to go,’ Ethan said. ‘Ryan’s lending me his amp.’

I just shrugged. He can walk home with whoever he chooses.

Anyway, when I was the last one left waiting for my tardy father, I decided that I wasn’t going to think about Ethan or any boy for at least a month. Which was difficult because Icky came
skipping over and started singing, ‘Finn dumped you because you’re so gross.’ In my ear.

But I found that the rhythm of me kicking her really took my mind off it.

Tomorrow is Lily’s birthday. I am in charge of making the cake for her bowling gathering. When I told Mum this, she started making faces and asked if I’d read
the recipe through very carefully. She obviously thinks I’m not capable of baking a cake. I don’t know why people make such a fuss about cooking. It’s really just stirring and
heating.

I don’t know why anyone ever cooks anything ever. It takes a lot of time and effort and in the end you might as well just buy it at Tesco. Except I have spent the
cake money on ingredients so Lily will not be getting one of those nice fluffy supermarket cakes with the perfectly smooth icing.

She will be getting my effort.

Which has more of a rustic look.

I heard Dad go into the kitchen and say, ‘Flaming Nora! There’s a dead animal in our kitchen!’

I assumed that it was a rat, attracted by my mother’s vast supply of beans and grains, but then he said, ‘It’s crawled on to a plate and died. I think it sneezed its guts up.
I’ve never seen so much slime!’ and I knew he was referring to my culinary efforts.

Maybe chocolate cake with green mint icing wasn’t such a good combination.

On our way to Lily’s gathering Megs said, ‘You and Ethan looked very friendly after debating.’

I shrugged. ‘Things are still a bit weird between us.’

‘Maybe you should unweird them. Then perhaps the rest of us won’t have to put up with all this nonsense.’

‘What do you mean nonsense?’

‘Faith, we all know that you’ve always had a thing for Ethan.’

‘No I haven’t! I mean, Ethan is a very clever young man. And he is good-looking. And there is something really appealing about his dark sense of humour . . . Oh all right, maybe I
have had feelings for Ethan in the past, but recently we haven’t been so friendly.’

‘Why not?’

‘Things aren’t quite the same as they were before. I don’t think he likes me any more. I think he thinks I’m an idiot for going out with Finn.’

‘You are an idiot for going out with Finn, but I don’t think that Ethan has gone off you. Anyone who has a strong enough stomach to get keen on you in the first place isn’t
going to be scared off by your first bit of nonsense.’

‘And I’ve been meaning to tell you what a great girl you are too, Megs.’

‘Don’t get stroppy; I’m just telling it like it is. You really ought to sort things out with Ethan.’

I wasn’t expecting to have a great time bowling, but I decided to make sure that Lily enjoyed herself because that’s what counts when you give up on your own happiness and just live
for others.

Lily wore a T-shirt with a picture of a dog and a cat getting married. She really doesn’t seem to care about looking glamorous around Arif. The general effect of this seems to be that he
adores her.

Ethan turned up late. I didn’t mean to be pleased to see him, but I really was. I ended up having a lot of fun. I love the way that Ethan and I can build on each other’s jokes. It
makes me feel smart and funny, and like I’m part of a secret club. I’ve got to admit that I may have started wondering what it would be like to touch his lovely messy curls, but then
Megs spoiled everything by taking a good look at us and saying, ‘Why don’t you two come out with me and Cam next Saturday?’

Obviously, that was too much because Ethan said, ‘Sorry, I’m busy next week.’

And after that he was a lot less chatty.

I could kill Megs.

I didn’t do brilliantly at knocking down pins, but fortunately Angharad is a bowling wonder and you can always rely on her to keep the girls’ average score up. She was making yet
another strike when Megs said, ‘Isn’t that Icky over there?’

It was. Two lanes over Icky and her gang of brainless followers were posing and shouting and generally bringing down the levels of attractiveness in the place. They were accompanied by about
twenty boys.
Twenty boys
. Not only is Icky mean, she’s also greedy.

I tried to ignore them, but it was pretty difficult. Icky was strutting about in a pair of bright pink jeans as if she owned the place. She obviously thought that she was important enough to
ignore the rules because instead of proper bowling shoes she was wearing a pair of spike heels almost as ugly as the ones she wore to the club night.

I watched Westy dancing about like a ballerina, but still only managing to take down one pin, then I saw the guy from behind the counter tap Icky on the shoulder.

‘You can’t wear street shoes in this area,’ he said.

‘It’s all right,’ Icky said in a stupid throaty voice. ‘I’m not bowling.’

‘If you’re on the lane, you wear the shoes.’

I nudged Megs, but she was already watching. I nudged Lily instead.

‘Do I really have to?’ Icky simpered. Her whole crowd was watching this exchange and I really think she thought she was going to charm him into letting it go.

‘It’s the rules.’ He was starting to sound seriously annoyed.

Icky batted her eyelashes. ‘But you’re not wearing bowling shoes.’

‘I work here.’

By this point, an awful lot of people had stopped bowling so that they could watch what was going on.

Icky pouted. Things weren’t going her way and she didn’t like it. ‘It doesn’t really matter; the floor’s all marked anyway. This isn’t exactly a world-class
bowling alley, is it?’

The guy shook his head in disgust. ‘Put the shoes on or leave. Now.’

Icky scowled. ‘Fine! I didn’t want to stay in this disgusting place anyway.’ And she turned her back on him ready to strop off. But she really shouldn’t have spun round
so hard in shoes with no grip because she lost her footing, staggered backwards with her arms windmilling and landed smack on her behind with her legs in the air.

As Mrs Webber is fond of pointing out, I’m unable to let the opportunity to say something smart go by so, while other people were sucking in their breath or giggling, I dashed forward and
grabbed Icky by the ankle.

I screwed up my face. ‘Phew! Don’t worry, Vicky, even if you’re not wearing bowling shoes, your feet still smell like you are.’ That got a loud laugh and while people
were clutching at each other I planted a smacker on Icky’s foot.

I leant down to her level. ‘That’s my side of the bet kept. You wanted an audience, you got one.’

She was absolutely seething. I think she’d been hoping for a situation where she wasn’t the one who looked like a total idiot, but there was nothing she could do because I had
definitely completed my forfeit. Her face turned the same colour as her jeans. I thought her head would go off like a party popper.

Everyone agreed that it rounded off the birthday celebrations nicely.