Mira in the Present Tense (20 page)

When I walk out of school, Demi and Bo are hanging around by the gates.

“Are you and Jidé going out?” Demi shouts.

I just keep on walking, trying to wipe the smile off my face. The truth is I'm glad she shouted it out for everyone to hear. It's what I'd like to do myself.

Dad opens the door. He's hardly ever at home when I get back from school. It's turned out to be such a great day that I had almost completely forgotten about him coming out of Miss Poplar's office this morning.

“Hey, Mira. How's school?”

Always the same boring question.

“Fine.”

Always the same boring answer.

“How's Nana?” I ask.

“The same…I wanted to have a little chat with you. Sit down a minute, Mira.” Dad budges up on our kitchen bench. This does not feel like “a little chat” to me—this is more like family-conference territory, even though there's only me and him at the table.

“I dropped in to see Miss Poplar this morning.”

“I know, I saw you,” I snap back at him.

“Did you?” he asks, looking a bit taken aback. “Well, the thing is, your mum and I, we were a bit troubled by that project you told us you were doing about Rwanda, and what with everything that's going on with Nana…”

“Oh! For God's sake, Dad.”

“The point is, Mira, Miss Poplar told me that you're not doing a project about Rwanda and she also told me about the bullying incident and…you know, Mira, if you're struggling with anything, we just want you to know that you can always talk to us.”

He's waiting for me to say something, but I feel that spark of red-hot anger light up in me again so I keep my mouth clamped shut.

“Maybe it's because we've all been so focused on Nana—”

“Stop treating me like a baby. I've sorted it out myself. I don't need you wading in all the time.”

“That's good. Miss Poplar told me that you faced up to it, but if you'd have told us before, we might have been able to help you.”

My jaw aches with the effort of clenching my mouth closed tight.

“OK, I understand, you want to fight your own battles, but I don't understand why you lied to us about the research into Rwanda.”

“It's not a
project
, all right! For some people it's real life, Dad,” I yell at him, storming off upstairs and slamming my bedroom door so hard that a crack appears in the wood.

Unlucky for some.

At breakfast Dad watches my every move as if I might be ill or something. When the smoke alarm goes off
again
, I feel as if my head is about to explode. I am out of that door at 8:30 on the dot to find Millie striding along the pavement toward me. I am so pleased to see her after the blow-up with Dad that I feel like hugging her. I don't, but on the walk into school I do start to tell her about Jidé and me. Not everything, not about the texting—some things you just want to keep for yourself—but I tell her that he sat in her seat the day I faced up to Demi and I tell her how he came and sat on the wall with me yesterday.

“The cheek of it. Sitting in my seat! I was only away for two days and now you're going out with Jidé Jackson!” she laughs.

“I didn't say we were going out together.”

“What else would you call it?”

Ben comes meandering toward us with his funny, trying-to-be-cool, slope-y walk that he's adopted since we came to secondary school; it's the kind of walk where he looks like he's dragging an injured leg belonging to someone else behind him.

“You're back then?”

“Looks like it,” grins Millie, showing off her double row of braces with fluorescent rainbow-colored bands that glint in the sunshine. Trust Millie to choose the brightest colors.

“I should have brought my shades!” jokes Ben, shielding his eyes from the glare.

“Where's Jidé?” Millie asks.

“Dunno. He's not in today.”

“Probably lovesick,” Millie whispers, so I elbow her in the side.

Ben looks a bit awkward, like he doesn't really know what to do with himself. I suppose Jidé is to Ben what Millie is to me…One is lost without the other, or that's how I used to feel anyway.

“Written your adventure story yet?” Ben asks Millie.

“Yep, it's in my bag. Want a sneak preview?”

Ben nods.

So we sit together, just the three of us, listening to Millie read her story.

“
Lock Heart
by Millie Lockhart.” Just the way she reads the title makes you know it's going to be good.

“You'll have to dig deep,” he had said. Beatty didn't even know if she believed him. Could anything really stay hidden for all this time? As she dug into the cold soil, she heard what she thought was a voice calling to her, but it was only the sound of the wind whistling over the plain. Already a mound of earth about half the size of her own body mass was growing by her side, and with each spadeful it was getting harder for her to reach into the pit to clear more soil. Just as she was considering how, if she jumped into the hole, she would ever get out again, her spade struck something hard. She had to find a way of levering it out slowly so as not to damage it.

She tugged several times, but it kept slipping back into the soil as if it didn't want to be disturbed. Now there was no going back. So, without knowing how she would clamber out, she eased herself into the hole.

It was surprisingly cold in the earth. She leaned her back against one wall of the pit, her legs straddling the opposite side as she levered up the heavy silver box. She brushed off the mud and was just about able to decipher the remnants of a pattern on the lid. There were indents, which looked like they might once have held jewels, but now they were hollow like empty eye sockets. She tried to cleave open the box lid, but it was locked tight. She would have to wait till she got home. Her heart was beating hard with the excitement and the effort of digging.

Suddenly the pit grew dark and she found herself cast in a giant's shadow.

“I told you, Lockhart, if you dug deep enough, you'd find it. Now hand it over—”

Whenever you're getting really into something at school, the bell always interrupts.

“That's sick!” booms Ben.

“Thanks,” grins Millie.

“What happens next?” asks Ben.

“Your guess is as good as mine!” Millie laughs.

“Want to come up to the skate park after school?” Ben shouts, even though Millie's standing shoulder to shoulder with him.

She pulls a doubtful face. “I could
try
,” she says. I have to stop myself laughing, because the thought of Millie Lockhart in a skate park…well, let's just say she might not fit in. But probably that's what you do when you go out together…hang out, even if it's something you don't really get, like skateboarding.

At lunch break I decide to text Jidé, but there's already a message waiting for me in my inbox.

Missing you.

JJ xxxxx

Two words. Five kisses. So it's not that hard to text him back.

Missing you too.

Mira xxxxxx

Crystal's not in her bed and the curtains are drawn round Clara's bed. Nana is sitting propped up on her pillows. She smiles weakly at Doris as she walks out from behind Clara's curtain.

“Where is everyone?” I ask.

“Clara died early this morning,” Doris says gently. “Your nana sat with her all night, and Crystal's been moved to a private room.”

“Did Clara's son ever come to see her?” asks Krish, staring at her drawn curtain.

“Not a soul came for Clara, except maybe your Nana Josie,” answers Doris as she eases Nana into her wheelchair and pushes her toward the Staffroom. Krish and me follow behind them.

“You don't mind if we go to the Staffroom today, Josie?” Doris goes on. “It's all hotting up in the Family Room.”

“No, dear, I could do with a change of scenery,” sighs Nana, patting Doris on the hand to reassure her.