Katy Read online

  Clover and Elsie and I looked on rather anxiously. We were all hoping we might have a cuddly toy too, though I was certainly way too old for such things, and probably Clover was too. The carrier bag was empty. Perhaps Helen thought we were too old for any kind of present.

  ‘I wanted to give you three something special,’ Helen said. ‘Come into my bedroom with me.’

  We jostled with each other eagerly and then stood before her in the library.

  ‘Elsie, I’d like you to have my silver hairbrush. You’ve got such pretty hair. You brush it every day as carefully as you brushed mine,’ said Helen.

  I had to swallow hard to stop myself crying out with envy. Helen was giving her beautiful silver brush to Elsie! She clasped it to her chest and declared she loved Helen forever.

  ‘Now you, Clover,’ said Helen. She reached for her bottle of perfume. ‘I thought you might like some perfume. But promise – just one squirt each day!’

  ‘Oh Helen, how absolutely lovely! It’s the most beautiful smell in the world. And every time I spray I shall think of you,’ said Clover, pink in the face with joy.

  Helen turned to me.

  ‘Now Katy. What have I got left to give you?’ she said.

  ‘You don’t have to give me anything, Helen,’ I said quickly. ‘You can’t give away all your pretty things. And I’m hopeless anyway. I’d lose your hairbrush or spill your perfume, you know what I’m like.’

  ‘I do know what you’re like. You’re a dear, loving girl who can be ultra careful when she tries. Look how deft you were with my necklace. So I’d like you to have it. Can you take it off for me and put it round your own neck?’

  ‘Oh Helen! Oh, I can’t take your beautiful seahorse necklace!’

  ‘Yes, you can. I’d love you to have it,’ said Helen.

  ‘Then I shall treasure it forever!’ I said.

  12

  I woke early again on Monday morning and lay happily thinking about the magical weekend with Helen. I reached out for the silver seahorse necklace on my dressing table and let it run through my fingers. I perched the seahorse on my nose, squinting at it, stroking its little curves.

  As soon as I sat up I clasped it round my neck and went and peered at it in the mirror. It looked so lovely. I felt a flood of fresh gratitude to Helen. I hoped Dad would take us to visit her really soon. Meanwhile it was the start of the summer holidays and I had six glorious weeks before I had to think of school. I did a little dance around the room as I made plans, whirling fast so that the seahorse bobbed up and down, dancing too.

  ‘Hey, you’re shaking the floorboards!’ Clover murmured sleepily from under her duvet. ‘It’s too early to get up. Go back to bed.’

  ‘I don’t want to! It’s the holidays, Clover. I’m making all sorts of plans. Come on, sit up and we’ll make a list together of all the things we want to do.’

  ‘Number one on my list is get more sleep,’ said Clover, and she wouldn’t budge out of her cocoon.

  ‘OK, see if I care,’ I said. I decided to make number one on my list a trip to Baxter Park. Only I had to find my confiscated skateboard first.

  I went downstairs and started rootling around in the cupboard under the stairs where Izzie sometimes stuffed forbidden things. I sorted through hundreds of welly boots and a toddler trike and a big coil of old washing line and boxes of broken stuff still waiting to be mended, but there was no sign of my skateboard.

  ‘Who’s in the cupboard?’ Izzie called sharply. She peered inside. ‘Oh Katy, I might have known. What on earth are you doing? Those wellingtons were all in neat pairs and now you’ve mixed them up!’

  ‘I’m looking for my skateboard,’ I said.

  ‘We took it away from you. You can’t be trusted with it. You really hurt Elsie,’ said Izzie.

  ‘I wasn’t aiming at her deliberately. She just got in the way,’ I said.

  ‘Katy, I’m not getting into an argument at seven o’clock in the morning. You can’t have your skateboard back and that’s that. Just learn to take no for an answer,’ said Izzie.

  ‘But it’s my skateboard. And I need it. I want to go skateboarding with Ryan in Baxter Park,’ I said.

  ‘You’re not going skateboarding with any boys. You’re not going skateboarding at all. Now stop this nonsense and put all the things back in the cupboard. Not like that! Neatly. And what have you got round your neck?’

  ‘It’s Helen’s necklace. She gave it to me, you know she did. You’re not going to steal that too?’

  ‘Don’t take that tone with me. And stop using ridiculous words like “steal”. I’m pleased for you that Helen was so generous – if a little misguided. You know what you’re like. You’ll either break it or lose it by the end of the holidays. Why don’t you keep it carefully in your treasure box and just wear it on special days?’

  ‘I want to wear it all the time because it’s so lovely. And today is special, the first day of the holidays, and if only you’ll stop being so mean I want to celebrate by going to Baxter Park. I’m not taking Elsie with me, so you needn’t worry that your precious little darling will get knocked over. I’m not even taking Clover. For once in my life I want to do something by myself. And I’m going to! You can’t stop me. You’re not my mother!’

  There was a little silence. Then Izzie said quietly, ‘Sometimes I wish I wasn’t even your stepmother.’

  She walked away and went into the kitchen. I had one more scrabble in the assorted rubbish but still couldn’t see my skateboard. I picked up the discarded washing line, momentarily distracted. The rope was frayed at the ends, but it still seemed reasonably strong. I might be able to fashion some sort of swing for my tree house. I tucked it under my pyjama jacket and smuggled it up to our bedroom.

  Clover was getting dressed.

  ‘What are you doing with all that rope?’ she said.

  ‘You wait and see.’ I sighed dramatically. ‘Perhaps I’ll hang myself with it. Izzie’s being so mean to me. She won’t let me have my skateboard back. She won’t even tell me where it is. She just wants to spoil all my fun. Well, I’m going to ask Dad. No, wait. You ask Dad, Clover. You’re much better at getting round people. Would you do that for me? Make out you’re desperate to learn to skateboard?’

  ‘So that you can then go off and hang round Ryan Thompson and all those boring boys in your class?’ said Clover. ‘What do you think I am?’

  ‘I think you’re my lovely, sweet, angelic sister who won’t mind doing me just this one little weeny favour,’ I said, putting my arms round her. ‘And you can come with me and I’ll show you how to skateboard and you’ll probably be a total whizz at it, much, much better than me. Go on.’

  ‘Then promise you’ll make bracelets with me this afternoon?’

  ‘Oh Clover, you’ve got armfuls of those silly bracelets already. But all right. If I must. If you get the skateboard.’

  So at breakfast Clover nestled up to Dad, telling him how happy she was that the holidays had started. She smiled at him and he squeezed her hand and then sniffed her wrist. Clover had sprayed herself with Helen’s perfume. Dad pretended to be overcome by the smell, while Clover giggled.

  ‘I’d really like to do heaps of different things this holiday, really make the most of it,’ said Clover. ‘I was thinking I ought to take more exercise. Don’t you think I’m getting a bit chubby, Dad?’

  ‘I think you’re just right, darling, but I’m all in favour of exercise.’

  ‘I want to ride my bike more. Maybe go swimming. And try something new too. I know … skateboarding!’

  Izzie stopped wiping Phil’s mouth and frowned. But Dad was oblivious.

  ‘That’s a good idea, so long as you’re very careful, and wear a helmet and knee pads. We’ve got some somewhere.’

  ‘Yes, we have,’ said Izzie. ‘We bought them for Katy. And then we confiscated them. And it’s perfectly obvious to me that this is a set-up job. Clover’s not the slightest bit interested in skateboarding. She’s just trying to g