My Sister Jodie Read online

  ‘It’s for Dad too,’ I said quickly. He’d be softer on Jodie; he always was.

  ‘Mr and Mrs,’ said Mum, opening it.

  There was a letter inside and some sort of brochure. I peered at it as best I could. I saw the words boarding school. My heart started beating fast. Boarding school, boarding school, boarding school! Oh God, they were going to send Jodie to boarding school. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.

  ‘No, Mum!’ I said, my voice a little squeak.

  Mum was reading the letter intently, her head moving from side to side. ‘No what?’ she murmured, still reading.

  ‘Don’t send Jodie away!’ I said.

  Mum blinked at me. ‘Don’t be silly,’ she said, walking back into the living room. She flapped the letter in front of Dad’s face.

  ‘Look, Joe, look!’ she said. ‘Here it is in black and white!’

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  ‘Well I’ll be damned!’ said Dad.

  ‘I told you so!’ said Mum triumphantly.

  Jodie pushed her cornflakes bowl away and got up from the table, taking no notice.

  ‘Sit down, Jodie,’ said Mum.

  ‘But I’ll be late for school,’ said Jodie.

  ‘It won’t matter just this once,’ said Mum. ‘Sit down! You too, Pearl. Your dad and I have got something to tell you.’

  ‘What?’ said Jodie, sitting back on the very edge of her chair. ‘You’re getting a divorce?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’

  ‘You’re going to have another baby?’

  ‘Stop it now! Just button that lip of yours for two seconds.’

  Jodie mimed buttoning her lips. I copied her, zipping mine.

  Mum glared. ‘Now, don’t start copying your sister, miss! Shame on you, Jodie, you’re a bad example.

  It’s just as well you’ll be making a move. I can’t believe how badly you behave nowadays.’

  ‘You are sending her off to this boarding school!’

  I wailed.

  ‘ What boarding school?’ said Jodie, looking startled. ‘You mean you’re getting rid of me?’

  ‘No, no, of course we’re not,’ said Dad. ‘We’re all going. I’ve got a new job. We both have, your mum and me.’

  We stared at them. New jobs? At a school? Dad worked as a carpenter for a small building firm and Mum was a waitress at Jenny’s Teashop opposite the town hall.

  ‘Are you going to be teachers?’ I said doubtfully.

  Dad burst out laughing. ‘Heaven help any pupils 16

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  if I had to teach them their reading and writing!

  No, no, sweetheart, I’m going to be the school caretaker and your mum’s going to be the school cook.

  We saw this advert for a married couple and it seemed like we might fit the bill.’

  ‘It’s time for a move,’ said Mum. ‘We need to get you girls away to a decent environment where you can grow up into little ladies.’

  Jodie made a very unladylike noise. ‘We like it here, don’t we, Pearl? We don’t want to go to some awful jolly-hockey-sticks boarding school.’

  I picked up the school brochure. I shivered when I saw the coloured photograph of the huge grey Victorian building. My fingers traced the gables and turrets and the tower. It was called Melchester College, but it was just like my dream-world Mansion Towers.

  ‘Look!’ I said, pointing. ‘Look, Jodie!’

  Jodie looked too. She bit her lip, fiddling with the little row of earrings running down her left ear.

  ‘We’d live there?’ she said.

  ‘There’s a special caretaker’s flat,’ said Dad.

  ‘It’s got all the mod cons even though it all looks so old fashioned,’ said Mum.

  ‘So you’ve both been to see it? When?’ said Jodie.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us? Did you fix it all up behind our backs?’

  ‘Hey, hey, none of it’s been fixed up,’ said Dad.

  ‘We haven’t even been to see the college ourselves.

  We went to this interview at a hotel in London while you two were at school. We didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to get your hopes up. To tell the truth I never thought in a million years they’d take me on. I mean, I’m fine with wood 17

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  but I’m a bit of a botcher when it comes to plumbing or painting.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Joe, you’re a skilled carpenter and a fine odd-job man. What else could they possibly want?’ said Mum.

  ‘No, no, I think we got the job because of your cooking and management skills,’ said Dad, reaching out and patting her hand. ‘You were dead impressive at the interview, Sharon – the way you had that list of sample meals all sorted out, that was fantastic.’

  ‘Where is this Melchester College? Why can’t I still go to Moorcroft? I don’t mind a long bus ride,’

  said Jodie.

  ‘It would have to be a very long bus ride – it’s a good hundred miles away, right out in the country,’

  said Mum. ‘No, you’ll be moving, thank heaven.’

  ‘No I’m not,’ said Jodie. ‘I’m staying with all my mates at Moorcroft.’

  ‘I hate that word. It’s friends,’ said Mum. ‘And that’s the whole point of us moving away. I’m sick to death of you hanging around with that deadbeat crowd, acquiring bad habits. We’re moving in the nick of time, before you start seriously studying for your GCSEs and before Pearl starts secondary school. You girls need to make something of yourselves – and now we’re giving you a golden opportunity.’ Mum stroked the shiny brochure.

  ‘Melchester College,’ she said slowly and reverently, as if it was a magic word like Abracadabra.

  ‘Melchester College!’ Jodie mocked. She glanced at the brochure. ‘It looks dead posh. It says it’s for four- to thirteen-year-olds. Who could send a little kid of four to boarding school?’

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  ‘It’s a day school too; not everyone boards. It’s very select, naturally. It prides itself on the teacher/pupil ratio and the outstanding pastoral care,’ said Mum, quoting.

  ‘So what does that mean?’ said Jodie.

  ‘It means it’s a very good school,’ Mum snapped.

  ‘It costs a great deal of money to send a child there.

  It’s a wonderful opportunity for you two.’

  ‘You mean we’re supposed to have lessons there?’

  said Jodie.

  ‘That’s the whole point!’ said Mum. ‘You’ve learned nothing this last year at Moorcroft. We’re going to have you repeating Year Eight, getting properly taught.’

  ‘I’m not repeating a year with a lot of posh kids all younger than me!’ said Jodie.

  ‘But given the right coaching, you could pass this Common Entrance exam and win a scholarship to one of the public schools,’ said Mum.

  ‘ What? Are you crazy, Mum? I’m not going. Ab-solute-ly no way!’ Jodie was shouting.

  ‘Hey, hey, Jodie, listen to me,’ said Dad. ‘We’ll be there all through the summer holidays so you’ll have lots of time to settle in. I know you’re going to love it when you get there.’

  ‘I won’t, I’ll hate it. I’m not going. You can’t make me.’

  ‘Of course we can. You’ll do as we say. You’re our daughter.’

  ‘I wish I wasn’t! Maybe I’m not. Maybe you adopted me and that’s why I’m so different and never feel like I fit in,’ Jodie yelled.

  ‘Don’t start, Jodie, you’re doing my head in,’ said Dad. ‘Don’t spoil it all. Like your mum says, it’s a 19

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  wonderful opportunity. We thought you girls would be thrilled to bits.’

  ‘Well, we’re not, are we, Pearl?’ said Jodie. She looked at me.

  I looked back at