Best Friends Read online

  'I can't do it!' I wailed.

  'Yes you can,' said Biscuits. 'Keep practising.'

  'I am. Help me, Biscuits. Hold the bag with me and show me again. Please!'

  Biscuits sighed but he came over, put his big hands round mine and squeezed smoothly on the 160

  bag. I let him choose the words. He wrote: Gemma is rubbish

  at icing

  'OK, OK,' I said, struggling to take over. 'Well, give it me back. I'll have another go.'

  I wrote alone, slowly, wobbling all over the place: Biscuits is

  a great mate

  Biscuits' smile came back.

  He smiled and smiled and smiled.

  Fourteen

  It was great fun riding along in the Mercedes.

  Grandad kept calling me Lady Gemma and asking me if I'd like a drink or a sweet or a rug around my knees. We stopped at a motorway cafe around six o'clock. We both had a huge fry-up of sausages, bacon, baked beans and chips. Grandad let me squirt tomato sauce out of a squeezy bottle all over mine. I wanted to write

  Yummy nosh!

  but it took up too much room, so I settled for Yum!

  When we got back on the road Grandad tuned into a Golden Oldie radio channel and sang me 162

  all these old songs, telling me how he used to jive to them with Grandma. I sang too, but when the radio frequency started to fade I faded too.

  I curled up on the comfy leather seat, head on a cushion, rug wrapped around me, and slept deeply for hours and hours. Then I was vaguely aware Grandad was picking me up, still wrapped up in the rug like a big baby in a shawl. He was carrying me into a dark house and tucking me up in a little camp bed.

  I went straight back to sleep. When I woke up it was a bright sunny morning and I was in a totally strange bedroom, Grandad gently snoring over in the big bed.

  I got up and had a little wander round the room.

  I peeped out of the curtains, expecting to see mountains and lochs and hairy Highland cattle and men in tartan kilts. It was disappointing to see a perfectly ordinary street of grey houses and a video shop and a newsagent and a Chinese takeaway just like at home. There was a man coming out of the newsagent's with his paper and a pint of milk but he was wearing trousers, and they weren't even tartan.

  'What are you looking at, sweetheart?' Grandad mumbled.

  'Scotland. But it doesn't look very foreign,' I said.

  'You wait till I drive you to Alice's new house.

  It's right out in the country'

  'Can we go now?'

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  'Soon. After we've had breakfast.'

  It was a satisfyingly Scottish breakfast cooked by Mrs Campbell, the lady who ran the boarding house.

  We had our breakfast in a special dining room with the other guests. Grandad and I had our own little table for two. I plucked at the checked tablecloth.

  'Is this tartan?' I asked.

  'Aye, it is indeed, lassie. The Campbell tartan, I expect. They're a very grand clan – especially the ladyfolk,' said Grandad, putting on a very bad Scottish accent.

  Mrs Campbell didn't mind. She giggled at Grandad and gave us extra big

  helpings of porridge.

  'You're supposed to eat your

  porridge with salt when you're in

  Scotland,' said Grandad.

  He can have the salt, darling,

  but you can have brown sugar and cream,' said Mrs Campbell,

  giving me a little bowl and jug. 'But leave room for your smokies.'

  I wasn't sure what smokies were. They turned out to be lovely cooked fish swimming in butter. Mrs Campbell cut mine off the bone for me. Then she brought us lots of toast with a special pot of Dundee marmalade.

  'I like Scotland,' I said.

  164

  'Me too,' said Grandad, patting his stomach.

  'Hey, maybe we could live up here, Grandad. Just you and me. You could drive a car round here and I could go to Alice's school. It would be brilliant! I could keep house for you, Grandad. I'm getting to be a great cook. Biscuits' mum said my cake was absolutely tip-top, didn't she? I could make you a cake every single day. Wouldn't that be wonderful?'

  'What about your mum and dad and Callum and Jack and that mad dog?'

  'Oh, I expect I'd miss them a little bit, but I'd much sooner be with you and see Alice.'

  'Let's just deal with today first. I can't cope with long-term plans, not on a full stomach,' said Grandad.

  'Now, hush a minute while I have a look at the map.

  I've got to work out exactly how to get to Alice's.'

  It took longer than we'd thought. We drove right out into the countryside. Just as Grandad had promised, there were great stark mountains and blue lochs. I stared at field after field with perfectly ordinary cows – and then I suddenly spotted a fat hairy orange creature with horns.

  I screamed excitedly and Grandad swerved and swore.

  'For heaven's sake, Gem, what?

  I nearly crashed the car!'

  'A Highland cow! Look, Grandad,

  it really is!'

  165

  'Oh goodie, goodie!' said Grandad sarcastically, mopping his brow. But then he smiled at me. 'Sorry, sweetheart. I didn't mean to be grumpy. It's just . . .

  I'm beginning to wonder if your mum might have been right all along. I think I must be going nuts.

  What if Alice is out when we get there?'

  'She won't be, Grandad, I promise,' I said happily.

  'How can you be so sure?' said Grandad.

  'Trust me,' I said.

  'Well, supposing they are in, what if her mum and dad won't let you see her? They were so cross with you two for running away like that.'

  'Grandad, even Auntie Karen isn't going to tell us to bog off when we've driven hundreds of bogging miles.'

  'Hey, hey, you'll have to watch that mouth of yours, little girl.'

  'OK, OK. Don't look so worried, Grandad.

  Everything will be lovely, lovely, lovely'

  'Yes, but just suppose Alice isn't quite as pleased to see you as you'd like?'

  I stared at Grandad. It was as if he'd started talking a foreign language. He wasn't making any kind of sense. Maybe he really was starting to go a little bit nuts.

  'Of course Alice will be pleased to see me,' I said.

  We found their village eventually. We drove round 166

  it twice asking for directions and going up the wrong lane and round the wrong corner but finally we juddered the car down a long grassy trail with big trees and bushes on either side. We turned a corner into a clearing and there was the house.

  It was an amazing house too! I understood why Auntie Karen had got so excited about it. It was a big grey stone building, practically a palace, with lots of leaded windows and a large studded wooden front door. It was like one of those huge houses where you pay to have a guided tour.

  'This can't be Alice's house,' I said.

  'Blooming heck! They've certainly gone up in the world,' said Grandad. 'It must be their house though, because that's Alice's dad's car in the driveway.'

  'Look up at the top window! There's Melissa on the windowsill – see all her long ringlets?' Then I spotted another head. 'And there's Alice!'

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  She looked out of the window and saw Grandad and me down below in the car. She disappeared.

  Within seconds the large front door opened and Alice came hurtling out.

  'Gemma!'

  'Oh Ali, Ali, Ali!' I shouted, jumping out of the Mercedes.

  Then we were hugging each other hard, whirling round and round, laughing and crying all at the same time.

  'You two!' said Grandad, mopping at his own eyes.

  'Have you told your mum and dad?'

  I asked Alice.

  'I've told Dad,' said Alice.

  Uncle Bob came out of the house. I was so used to seeing him in posh suits I hardly recognized him. He was all dressed up for his new country life in a checked shirt and a big quilty wa