The Honeymoon Sisters (12 page)

I frowned, realising that she was actually confiding in me more than she ever had before. I was amazed by how much warmer towards her that made me feel.

‘But if you hated Linda so much, why didn’t you just
tell
your social worker you didn’t want to stay with her?’ I asked her softly. ‘They’d have found you
some
other place to go, wouldn’t they?’

‘I didn’t hate her
then
!
OK
, so she could be a bit of a pain, but at least it was better than going to live with people I didn’t even know!
Then
I found out what she was really like … I’m telling you,
she’s
the one who should be put in prison – not my dad!’

‘Why? What did she do?’ I asked.

‘She had all this really gross stuff she’d inherited from her rich old aunt. I nearly threw up the day I first saw it and I told her I wasn’t living in the same house as a load of murdered animals, but she just laughed at me and said I was being melodramatic.’

‘Sadie, slow down! What are you talking about?’ Now I was really confused.

‘Her great-aunt’s husband was into hunting and she’d inherited all his stuff. She had all these old photos of him
with his gun, standing beside some poor animal he’d just killed. It was disgusting. And she had loads of her aunt’s old fur coats and jackets and a handbag made of crocodile skin and even an old bearskin rug. The most valuable thing was an antique chess set carved from ivory. Linda said she was going to sell that and I said she should donate the money to this sanctuary for orphaned baby elephants that I’d found for her on the internet, but she said she was keeping the money. Then she said she was going to wear the coats because real fur is back in fashion. I tried to get her to change her mind but she wouldn’t listen, so I told Alison and she said the only decent thing to do was to cremate the whole lot on a bonfire. I knew Linda was going out straight from work that Friday, so I arranged to meet Alison and the others after school. I took them back to the house and we cleared out everything she was storing in the spare room and threw it in a pile in the garden. Linda got back before we could set fire to it all though.’

I was stunned. ‘Wow,’ murmured. ‘No wonder she kicked you out.’

Sadie glared at me. ‘Whose side are you on?’

‘Mine and Mum’s! ‘You threatened to do the same thing to
us
, remember!’

‘Oh yeah,’ she admitted, with a sudden grin. ‘So I did. Only it turns out you don’t have any fur coats or bearskin rugs or ivory chessboards. Luckily for you …’

I gaped at her as she put her earbuds in and walked the rest of the way to school without speaking to me. Though she did stay close enough to grab half of the space under my umbrella when it started to rain.

Chapter Seventeen

It seemed to rain more or less non-stop for the rest of the week.

At morning breaktime on Friday it was still wet so I headed straight for the canteen. I was really looking forward to going out with Dad and Kristen that evening and I had the
Just William
book wrapped up in posh paper inside my schoolbag. (Don’t ask me how long I searched for the perfect wrapping paper because I’m not going to tell you!)

I was feeling happier than I had in a while. With the threat to our house no longer present, all I needed to do was prove that Sadie’s accusation about Mum was a lie and there would be nothing left for Sadie to blackmail me with.

The only thing spoiling my happiness (other than the rubbish weather) was that our visit to Amy in her
new home the following day had just been postponed because Amy had chickenpox.

I told Anne-Marie about it as I caught up with her outside the canteen. ‘You know, I feel really bad that Amy has chickenpox and we aren’t there to look after her,’ I said gloomily.

‘Her new mum and dad will look after her,’ Anne-Marie said (which was exactly what Mum had said as well).

‘I guess,’ I grunted, though I still wasn’t convinced that anybody could do as good a job as Mum and me at cheering up a sick preschooler.

‘So when will you get to see her?’

‘Next Saturday, hopefully, if she’s better. Look, there’s a table … let’s grab it.’

There was a really big queue for the tuck shop and the room was full of people escaping the rain.

‘So how’s it going with Sadie?’ Anne-Marie asked as we sat down.

‘
OK
, I suppose. It’s better, but she’s different every time I talk to her. And Mum still seems to be on her side all the time.’ Lenny was coming round with Sadie’s social worker at four o’clock that afternoon, and at first I’d been afraid Mum would want me to be there and that I wouldn’t be allowed to go out with Kristen after school.
But in fact Mum was so cool about it that I started to wonder if she’d arranged the social work visit today on purpose, grateful that I wouldn’t be there to put my foot in it.

‘Maybe it’ll get better the more you get to know her. Do you know where she gets her hair cut, by the way? I think it looks really cool.’ After I replied that I didn’t know, Anne-Marie pulled a magazine from her bag. ‘Look. I found this great quiz that you can use to work out your face shape. It gives you tips on the best way to put on make-up and your most flattering hairstyle and stuff.’

‘Let’s see.’ I have to admit I love doing these sorts of quizzes.

‘I’m heart shaped!’ she added with a smirk.

‘Trust you,’ I said. ‘
OK
, let’s do mine.’ I started to read the instructions. First you had to look through some diagrams and tick the ones you thought looked most like you. ‘This is a bit difficult if you don’t have a mirror,’ I complained.

‘Ta-da!’ Anne-Marie produced a small mirror from her bag and gave it to me. ‘Wait.’ She grabbed my hair and pulled it back off my face as if she was putting it in a ponytail. ‘Now look.’

‘What are you two doing?’ Sadie arrived at our table and sat down without being invited.

‘It’s just a quiz to work out your face shape,’ Anne-Marie said. ‘You can have a go after Poppy if you like.’ She’d been a lot more friendly towards Sadie ever since Sadie had shown such an interest in her animals, though I still had an uncomfortable feeling about that.

‘I’ve done one of those before,’ Sadie said, sounding a bit dismissive. ‘Anyway, you can see just by
looking
at your face what shape it is. Mine’s oval. Poppy’s going to be rectangular – or maybe even square.’

‘Shut up,’ I snapped at her. But by the end of the questionnaire, when I had scored ‘Mostly B’s’, I realised she was right.

‘Told you so,’ Sadie said with a smirk.

‘No way do I have a square face!’ I protested.

‘You know, you actually
do
,’ Anne-Marie added seriously. ‘Your jawline is definitely angular … isn’t it, Sadie?’

‘Definitely,’ Sadie said with a grin. She pointed to the diagram of the most obviously square face, which was far and away the least attractive of all the faces on the page. ‘I’d say that’s the closest.’

Anne-Marie tactfully flipped the page over. ‘Look at this, Poppy!’

There was a whole section on glasses.

‘Let me see!’ Sadie made a grab for the magazine. ‘So what type do they say go best on a square face?’

‘Oval or round,’ Anne-Marie said, grabbing it back.

‘There you go!’ Sadie sat back, looking at me triumphantly. ‘That explains why your glasses look so
wrong
on you, Poppy.’

‘It says here that rectangular glasses like yours are best suited to round or oval faces,’ Anne-Marie added gravely. ‘Too bad your mum won’t let you get new ones, Poppy.’

‘Hey, maybe you could alter your face shape instead,’ Sadie said.

‘Oh yes!’ Anne-Marie joined in. ‘My mum is always complaining that whenever she goes on a diet she loses loads of weight from her face before she loses it from anywhere else.’

‘Losing fat won’t help,’ Sadie said. ‘It’s her bone structure that’s the issue and there’s no changing that. Well … not without a chisel!’ She giggled.

To my horror I found myself feeling a bit wobbly inside, like I might be going to cry. I know this is going to sound pathetic but I’d honestly thought I had a pretty nice face up until that moment. Mum has always praised my high cheekbones and I’ve always been happy enough
with how I look in photographs. Usually Mum comments on how photogenic I am. But I guess everyone must have just been keeping quiet about the squareness.

‘It doesn’t really matter about your glasses since you don’t need to wear them outside of class,’ Anne-Marie was saying in a consoling voice. I think she had just realised that I wasn’t finding this at all funny. ‘Let’s see what hairstyle you should have instead. Oh, look, Poppy! That’s just like yours already.’

‘Except her hair should be longer to divert attention away from her jawline,’ Sadie pointed out.

And at that point I had had enough. Anne-Marie started to say something else, but I was already standing up and glaring at both of them through alarmingly blurry vision that had nothing to do with my short-sightedness. ‘I’m off! I’ll leave you two to admire your perfectly shaped faces together, shall I?’

‘Poppy, don’t be daft –’ Anne-Marie began, but I was already turning my back on them and stalking off as the first tears began to fall. There was no way I was going to let them see how stupidly upset I was.

Maths was our next lesson that morning. Miss Benkowski had written some questions up on the whiteboard
so I had to wear my glasses. I immediately felt self-conscious.

I soon noticed Julia and Katy, who sit at the next table, giving me amused looks. I felt myself flushing as I resisted the urge to take off my glasses before I’d even read the first question.

I turned round to look at Sadie, who was seated two rows behind. Her head was down and it seemed to me that she was avoiding catching my eye.

‘Poppy – unless you’ve got eyes in the back of your head, I’m not sure that’s such a good position from which to view the board,’ Miss Benkowski remarked lightly.

I turned back to face the front, self-consciously removing my glasses. Now I couldn’t read anything on the whiteboard but at least I wasn’t looking quite so hideous.

As the school day drew to a close I began to forget about my face as I looked forward to my evening with Dad and Kristen. The fact that Kristen was meeting me from school and taking me shopping first was an added bonus – not that I’d ever admit that to Mum. It’s not that going shopping with Mum isn’t enjoyable. It’s just that Mum always tends to go for shoes and clothes that are sensible and comfortable rather than fashionable. The
only exception is if we find something for a good price in a second-hand shop. Which I guess is another reason why I like shopping in charity shops so much!

Anne-Marie tried to make up with me a couple of times that afternoon but I kept ignoring her. Josh mentioned the bowling idea again, but I told him there was no way I was going anywhere with Sadie this weekend. So we agreed to postpone the bowling to another time. On my way out of school I pretended not to hear her when Sadie called out to me. Instead I whizzed out through the school gates and off along the road where Kristen had texted that she was waiting for me.

I spotted her straight away, leaning on the bonnet of her cream-coloured Mini. Her blonde hair was loose and half pushed back under a red beret. ‘Hello, Poppy,’ she greeted me cheerfully. ‘How was school?’

‘
OK
,’ I muttered, suddenly feeling shy.

She looked a little bit awkward too as she opened the door and invited me to get in.

‘Nice car,’ I mumbled.

‘Thanks.’ She smiled at me as she was pulling on her seat belt. ‘We’re meeting your dad at six o’clock at the Italian restaurant on the high street. It’s up to you what we do until then. Would you like to go and have a look
round the shops maybe? Or I could take you somewhere for a drink and a cake if you’re hungry?’

As she pulled out of the parking space I noticed that Kristen wasn’t asking me to twist round to look and see if any cars were coming. Mum is always doing that and I hate it because it makes me feel like it’s
my
responsibility to ensure nothing crashes into us.

I don’t know what possessed me to say the next thing. ‘Actually, Kristen, I really need some new glasses. Can I borrow some money to get them and I’ll ask Dad to pay you back?’

‘Oh, but don’t you want to choose them with your mum?’

‘She hasn’t got time and I’m really struggling at school with the ones I’ve got.’

‘Oh dear.’ She looked concerned.

‘Oh, I don’t mean struggling to see properly,’ I quickly reassured her. ‘They’re the right strength and everything. I mean struggling to cope with how dorky I look in them.’

‘I see!’ She laughed, and after that we started chatting away pretty easily. She told me she knew how I felt because she’d had to wear glasses as a kid and in those days they didn’t have all the nice frames they have now.

‘So are you wearing contacts?’ I asked, staring at her
perfect green eyes while trying to work out what shape her face was.

‘Oh yes. I couldn’t survive without them.’

‘I want them as soon as I’m allowed,’ I said. ‘But knowing Mum, that won’t be until I leave home.’

She smiled but didn’t join in with my gentle dig at Mum. I realised this was the first one of Dad’s girlfriends I’d ever joked with even a tiny bit about my mother.

We parked in the multistorey car park, where Kristen reversed into a space with the aid of her parking sensors. ‘I wish our car had those,’ I told her. ‘Mum hates reverse parking and she’s always making me get out of the car to check she doesn’t bump into stuff. Only then she just gets in a flap about bumping into
me
!’

Kristen smiled, saying carefully, ‘Well, I expect you’re rather precious to her.’

We went straight to the optician’s Kristen told me she uses herself, where they insisted on testing my eyes to confirm my prescription before showing us their range of frames. I spent ages choosing, and since I knew Dad would be paying I didn’t bother about the price. I told Kristen I had to get round or oval frames for my face shape and she didn’t tell me not to be silly (as I’m sure Mum would have done). When I’d chosen the frames
Kristen phoned Dad to check it was
OK
for her to buy them for me. She came off the phone with a smile after he told her to go ahead. I smiled too. I’d half expected him to cross-examine me about my reason for needing new ones before agreeing to anything.