The Honeymoon Sisters (17 page)

‘Anne-Marie lives in Percy Street,’ I said at once.

‘So maybe Anne-Marie asked her round?’

‘This is the day she told us Anne-Marie and her family were going to visit her aunt – remember?’ I was getting a bad feeling now – a very bad feeling … ‘Come on. Let’s follow her.’ Then I felt myself blushing as I realised the assumption I’d made. ‘Oh … sorry … of course, you don’t have to come with me.’

‘No, it’s
OK
. I’ll come after I’ve delivered Mum’s coffee. You go after her and I’ll catch you up. But Poppy, what is it you think she’s about to
do
, exactly?’

When I told him I thought she might be going to let out all of Anne-Marie’s animals from their cages, he just gaped at me in disbelief. ‘We’re talking about Sadie, right? Animal-loving Sadie who wants to ban all non-living fur and feathers from the school premises?’

I nodded.

‘And you really think she’s going to do
that
? You don’t think she’s just going to padlock herself to the rabbit hutch or something!’

I knew he was trying to cheer me up but I couldn’t
seem to even squeeze out a smile. ‘No. That’s why I have to catch her in the act and talk her out of it.’

‘Well, you go ahead. I’ll see you in a minute!’

I walked on, keeping a good distance between us. If she spotted me I was afraid she would just deny everything and postpone the whole thing to a time when she knew I wasn’t around.

Sean caught up with me on the other side of the railway bridge. Sadie had just turned the corner into Anne-Marie’s street. While we were relatively safe from being spotted I asked Sean if I could borrow his phone to text Mum, but in the end I couldn’t think what to say so I just handed it back to him to switch off.

‘Now I’m breaking another one of Leo’s rules,’ he told me. ‘
Always have your phone switched on when you’re out and about.
’ He grinned. ‘You know he worries far more than Mum about that kind of thing. We had much more freedom when it was just her.’

At his mention of Leo I remembered there was something I badly wanted to ask him. ‘Sean, is it true what Josh said … that you’re not supposed to hang out with
me
outside school any more, just because I’m Sadie’s cousin?’

Sean pulled a face. ‘Yeah … Leo says Sadie’s a
troublemaker and even though he knows you’re not, he doesn’t want
me
getting drawn into whatever trouble Sadie draws
you
into.’

‘
What
trouble?’ I said dismissively.

He laughed as he replied, ‘Well, I guess the sort that’s happening right now!’

Chapter Twenty-Four

We watched from across the road as Sadie walked up to the front door of Anne-Marie’s house and stood there ringing the bell as if she was calling in for her. After a moment or two she walked confidently round to the side gate.

‘Come on,’ I said to Sean. ‘Time we joined her. We’ll just act all normal, like we’re calling in for Anne-Marie too.’

‘Josh always said you weren’t as timid as you seemed,’ Sean said, grinning. ‘You’re actually pretty feisty, aren’t you?’

I rolled my eyes at that.

As we stood in front of Anne-Marie’s house there was no sign of anyone being at home and I quickly tugged Sean towards the side entrance.

We entered the back garden and straight away I saw
Sadie letting out the guinea pigs.

‘Sadie!’ I hissed, and she turned round, looking startled.

‘What are
you
doing here?’ she snapped.

‘Sadie, you can’t do this!’

‘
You
followed me from the cafe, didn’t you?’ Sadie was glaring at Sean. ‘You’d better leave now if you don’t want another punch on the nose.
Both
of you!’

I stepped forward, struggling to keep calm. I knew I had to if I wanted to get her to listen. ‘Sadie, what are you trying to do exactly?’

‘What does it look like?’ she retorted. ‘I’m freeing these poor animals.’

‘Sadie, listen!’ I said. ‘This isn’t the same as what you did at Linda’s. These aren’t fur coats! They’re live animals!’

Sadie snorted. ‘Thanks, Poppy, but I
can
actually tell the difference.’

‘Sadie, these are just pets! They don’t even know
how
to live in the wild,’ I tried again.

‘Yeah,’ Sean joined in. ‘All you’re doing is killing off a bunch of innocent little furries!’

‘I’m not
killing
them – I’m giving them a chance to have a proper life!’ Sadie snapped.

‘A very
short
proper life!’ Sean argued. ‘I’d say most of
them will be dead by tonight. They’ll either end up as roadkill or the foxes’ll get them. And that’s if they don’t get squashed by a train first.’ As if on cue a train rattled by along the tracks that ran behind the back garden fence, sounding alarmingly close.

‘Better to have one day of freedom than a lifetime trapped in a cage,’ Sadie shouted above the noise.

‘But these are
pet
rabbits!’ Sean protested once the train had passed. ‘They’ve
always
lived in a cage. They probably like it!’

‘Oh, so you can talk to the animals now, can you, Doctor Doolittle?’ Sadie said.

‘Don’t be daft –’

‘Well, how do
you
know what they like?’

‘Sadie, the rabbits have got babies!’ I reminded her as she took a determined step towards one of the big wooden hutches.

‘I know. How would
you
like to be born in a cage and spend your whole life there?’

‘But Sadie,
these
baby rabbits won’t get any life at all if you let them out. It’s not like they’ve even got a burrow to protect them. The mothers will probably get scared and run off and the babies will be terrified.’

‘Yes,’ said Sean. ‘First they’re going to be petrified and
then they’re going to have really disgusting deaths being ripped apart by some fox.’

Sadie looked uncertain – and a bit like she might be going to throw up – and I made sure I took advantage of the moment. ‘Sadie, if you leave now I promise I’ll set up that zoo debate for you,’ I offered. ‘I’m chairing it, remember. Just before it starts I’ll announce that we’re doing the zoo one instead of school uniforms. You’ll be able to get your point across to the whole assembly hall and change loads of people’s minds about zoos – and you won’t be hurting any real animals.’

It was a good argument and I had definitely got Sadie’s attention. Suddenly Sean said, ‘Hey! The man next door is looking out of his upstairs window. I think he’s seen us.’

Sadie ignored him, still looking at me fiercely. ‘You’ll really fix that debate?’

I nodded. ‘Absolutely. You can argue against zoos all you like.’

‘You promise?’

‘Promise.’

‘
OK
.’ Just for a second I thought she looked relieved as she cast a last glance over the rabbit hutches, where two of the babies were playing together in the straw. She
turned to go, calling back to Sean and me as she reached the gate, ‘Come on, then!’

‘In a minute,’ I called back. ‘I want to catch the guinea pigs first.’

‘Well, it’s your funeral.’ And she disappeared from view.

‘Sean, did you really see the neighbour?’ I asked him the second she’d gone.

‘No. I keep expecting to though. Come on. Let’s find those guinea pigs and get out of here.’

‘Their names are Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. They get to run around in the garden quite a bit so they’re used to it. They like eating dandelion leaves. Look. There’s Mr Darcy.’ I went over to him slowly, making friendly noises before I managed to scoop him up and put him back in his enclosure.

Sean was looking around for the second guinea pig but not having much luck. ‘We’d better go, Poppy. I know I made it up about that neighbour seeing us, but I really don’t want to get caught here.’

‘We can’t just leave Elizabeth. Anything could happen to her.’

‘Listen, I don’t know about Elizabeth, but I know what’s going to happen to
me
if I’m picked up for trespassing!’

‘You can leave if you want,’ I said as I stubbornly went to check under another bush.

‘I’m not even meant to be hanging out with you,’ Sean continued as he came over to help me. ‘You do realise this is just proving Leo right about you being a really bad influence?’

‘I just said you could go, didn’t I?’

But he didn’t go, and we searched together for another half an hour before Sean suddenly spotted the missing guinea pig in a patch of long grass in the neighbour’s garden. All I had to do was climb over the (thankfully low) fence to fetch her.

‘All present and accounted for now, right?’ Sean said after we’d returned Elizabeth to Mr Darcy and checked that their enclosure was escape proof.

‘Yes, thank goodness.’

‘Good. So let’s go!’

We sneaked out through the side gate and started walking back together along the road.

‘I wonder where Sadie went,’ I said.

‘Don’t worry about
her
,’ Sean grunted. ‘If you want to worry about someone, worry about
me
.’ He had switched on his phone and he showed me the missed calls from his mother and also from Mr Anderson. There were several
texts, including one from his sister that said,
THEY KNOW U R AWOL!

‘Sorry,’ I said guiltily. ‘This is all my fault.’

‘No, it’s not. I didn’t
have
to come with you.’

‘So … why did you?’ I couldn’t help asking. ‘I guess you must really like animals, right?’

He gave me a cheeky grin. ‘Animals are
OK
– but I really like you!’

‘Oh.’ I felt myself flushing bright red and I couldn’t look at him. ‘Listen, I didn’t mean to get you in trouble,’ I mumbled.

‘Hey, it’s
OK
. I’m always in trouble of some kind or another. Mum calls me the trouble magnet.’

‘Does she?’ I paused, sneaking a look at his face again. ‘You know, you don’t talk about your mum as much as you talk about Leo.’

He shrugged. ‘Oh, well … I take her more for granted, I guess. She’s the one who’s always been around. I never have bothered much about what she thinks of me. Whereas with Leo … well, I guess I worry more about … well … about …’

‘About not disappointing him?’ I suggested. At that moment I felt as if we were perfectly in tune with each other – like we were on exactly the same wavelength.
‘Because that’s how it is for me too,’ I continued. ‘Dad’s the one I’m always trying to make proud of me. I don’t live with him and I wish I could see him a bit more than I do. Mum’s the one I take for granted. At least –’ I broke off abruptly as I realised something.

I used to take her for granted. Before Sadie came to live with us.

Sean’s large dark-brown eyes were full of sympathy. He also had really gorgeous thick dark eyelashes, I realised. ‘So do you think you might want to come bowling with me sometime, or to the cinema or something?’ he asked in an ever-so-casual tone.

‘Sure,’ I croaked, cursing my voice for not doing what I wanted it to. ‘But aren’t you banned from seeing me ever again?’

‘Not
ever again
– just until Leo calms down. Don’t worry. He always does. He’s just mad because this whole thing with Sadie made him look stupid at work.’ He frowned. ‘I do feel bad about that. I can be so dumb sometimes.’

‘I don’t think you’re dumb,’ I blurted out. ‘And I think it’s really sweet the way you care about him so much.’

Uh-oh. Why did I go and say that? Now his ears are going red.

‘You know what?’ he retaliated with a bit of a grin. ‘
I
think it’s sweet the way you just blurt out really uncool stuff that nobody else would ever say. It makes you … well … different from just about any other girl I know!’

We chatted about all kinds of stuff the rest of the way back.

‘So what are you going to tell your mum about where you were?’ I asked as we arrived outside the estate agent’s.

‘I’ll just say I met you and decided to hang out with you for a bit. I won’t mention Sadie!’

‘But you’re not meant to be seeing me outside of school. Aren’t you going to get in a lot of trouble?’

‘It’s
OK
. Mum’ll probably leave it to Leo, and Leo will just be all stern and launch into his “you’re pushing the boundaries again, kiddo” speech. Apparently that’s what you do when you’re testing out a new stepdad. Leo’s been reading loads of parenting books since he married Mum and he’s got quite into the whole psychology thing …’

I giggled. Actually what he’d said sounded quite similar to the kind of stuff Mum and Lenny are always talking about.

‘Well, thanks for coming with me,’ I said. ‘And for
staying to help me catch Elizabeth. I might still be there looking if you hadn’t spotted her.’

He grinned. ‘Next time remember to bring your glasses.’

‘Oh, did I tell you I’m getting new ones?’

‘Cool.’

‘With oval frames.’

‘Right.’

I suddenly wondered if he’d noticed I have a square face.

Chapter Twenty-Five

To my surprise, Sadie was waiting for me at the corner of our street. She was on her own.

‘I sent you a text to see where you were and Aunt Kathy called me back,’ she said. ‘Boy, is she mad! What an idiot, leaving your phone behind!’

Ignoring that, I said, ‘Listen, she’s going to want to know where we’ve been. Sean’s promised not to tell and neither will I, but we have to make sure our stories match up.’

Sadie looked incredulous. ‘You’re actually going to cover for me? Are you sure? You’d probably get in a lot less trouble if you told your mum the truth.’ Her phone beeped and she looked down at it quickly. ‘Alison again. Hang on a minute.’

I waited while she texted back. ‘Alison knew what you were doing today, didn’t she?’ I murmured.

‘Yeah. She thought it was a bit daft, to be fair … I told her about your offer to change the debate and she thinks it’s a really good idea. But she says she can’t change her coach tickets so she needs to leave tomorrow night. Did I tell you she and Joe are leaving town? He’s just got himself a job in the Midlands and –’