My Sister Jodie Read online

  I flicked through to the end of the book and found a picture of Clara standing upright, miraculously recovered after breathing in the fresh air of the mountainside. I could see why Mrs Wilberforce got so irritated by all the old storybooks.

  Jodie was asleep now, her magazine tossed to one side. I put the light off and read several chapters by torchlight but I got worried when I reached the haunted house part. Jodie had made the ghost in the tower too real.

  I put the book on the floor and went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard little whimpering sounds. I bit my lip, listening intently.

  I leaned up on my elbow, peering over at Jodie. She had the duvet over her head.

  I slipped out of bed and pattered across to her.

  ‘Jodie?’ I whispered.

  She didn’t answer.

  I wriggled under her duvet and cuddled up to her.

  She was very hot and her face was wet with tears.

  ‘Oh, Jodie,’ I said, cuddling her close.

  She didn’t say anything, just wept on my shoulder. I held her and stroked her while she sobbed a little more. Then she sniffed fiercely, wiping her face with the sheet.

  ‘I’ve got a tissue somewhere,’ I said, mopping her.

  ‘Thanks, Pearl,’ she whispered, her voice still all jerky with crying.

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  ‘Are you crying because of Mum or the badger or Jed?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Jodie. ‘I just felt like crying, OK?’

  ‘But you hardly ever cry.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I see why. It just gives you a splitting headache. Let’s curl up and go to sleep, Pearl. Sorry, I’ve got the pillow all wet. Do you want to go back to your bed?’

  ‘No, let me stay with you a bit.’

  I stayed holding her in my arms until she went to sleep. I lay listening to the sound of her breathing. She was still a little wheezy from sobbing. I needed to go to the loo so I eased myself carefully out of her bed and crept to the bathroom.

  As I tiptoed out of it again, my bare foot touched a little scratchy edge of paper caught between the bath and the mat. It was just a tiny scrap, part of an instruction sheet that had obviously been torn into shreds. But it still had two words clearly showing.

  Pregnancy test.

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  ‘My goodness, you’ve still got this old thing!’

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  I asked Jodie outright the next morning.

  ‘Do you think you might be going to have a baby?’

  ‘What?’ She stared at me as if I’d gone mad. ‘Of course not, idiot!’

  ‘I found this little bit of paper in the bathroom. I think it’s from a pregnancy testing kit.’

  ‘Well it’s nothing to do with me,’ Jodie snapped.

  I peered at her. I was never sure when Jodie was lying, she was so good at it.

  ‘I just thought maybe you and Jed . . .?’

  ‘You have to be joking!’

  ‘Well, you kissed him, you said you did.’

  ‘Oh, Pearl!’ She took hold of me by the shoulders and gave me a little shake. ‘You are such a banana!

  You don’t get a baby from kissing.’

  ‘I know that,’ I persisted. ‘I was just scared you and Jed might have done more than kissing.’

  ‘Will you shut up about me and Jed! You’re 319

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  getting boring. I don’t want to talk about him any more. You’re giving me a headache going on about him.’

  ‘You’ve got a headache because of all that crying in the night,’ I said.

  Jodie stuck her chin out at me. ‘What crying?’ she said.

  I gave up. There was no point persisting. I kept an eye on her for a while, peeping at her stomach, but it stayed as flat as always. I listened hard when she was in the bathroom. She was never sick. I realized it was a ridiculous idea. Of course she wasn’t pregnant. No wonder she’d been cross with me. Someone had used a pregnancy test kit, but maybe it was a while ago, before we came to Melchester College. Or maybe it was Tiffany, slipping into our bathroom for privacy. She had a big stomach all right – and great big boobs and bum too.

  We saw her sitting on the back wall with Jed. He was cupping her hand, lighting a cigarette for her.

  She was looking up into his eyes, laughing. Then they both saw us. We were in our school uniform.

  Mum had forced Jodie to scrape her hair back into plaits, as if an old-fashioned style could somehow counteract the purple.

  ‘Oh my Lord, what a sight!’ said Tiffany, rolling her eyes.

  She whispered something to Jed. He roared with laughter and then deliberately put his arm round her plump shoulders. Her black bra strap was showing beneath her tight sleeveless T-shirt. Jed fingered the strap. Jodie marched past, pretending not to notice.

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  ‘I’m sorry, Jodie,’ I said, when we were in the bedroom together.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Jodie angrily.

  ‘Well, Jed was being horrible, playing up to Tiffany. He doesn’t really fancy her – any fool can see that. He was just doing it to annoy you,’ I said.

  ‘As if I care,’ said Jodie.

  She stalked off. I tried to follow her but she yelled at me to leave her alone.

  So I wandered off by myself and met up with Harley. We went for a little walk in the woods, though neither of us had the heart to try badger-watching. I told Harley I was worried about Jodie.

  ‘How’s she doing in class now?’ I asked.

  Harley sighed. ‘She’s weird. Sometimes she joins in and suggests stuff and she’s fine, but other times she still messes around and takes the mickey out of everyone, especially Mr Michaels.’

  ‘And she hasn’t made any friends?’

  ‘Well. She’s got me, sort of. I sit next to her now, and I always get her to be my partner if we have to work in pairs, but she’s not exactly thrilled about the situation. Whenever I say stuff, she starts yawning like I’m sending her to sleep. I sometimes see why all the others can’t stick her.’

  ‘They’re so mean to her.’

  ‘Yes, but she asks for it, she really does.’ Harley took a deep breath. ‘Still, I’m not going to go on about it. I don’t want to fall out with you again, Pearl. We’re still friends, aren’t we?’

  ‘Of course we are.’

  ‘Even though I didn’t punch that prick Jed for killing our badger cub?’

  ‘What?’

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  ‘I keep replaying it in my head. When Jed throws back his head and grins, I stride over and go wham-biff-bash like a comic book. Jed’s front teeth fall out and he grovels away from me, saying, “Don’t hit me any more, Harley, I swear I’ll never hurt another living creature ever’’ – yeah, as if!’

  ‘I think you’d probably lose your front teeth if you tried to punch Jed,’ I said gently.

  ‘I think you’re probably right there. And I don’t actually see the point of being violent, even to idiots like that. But there’s still a bit of me that hankers after being Superhero Harley, this tall geeky kid who can suddenly swoop upwards and fell a hundred Jeds with one blow.’

  ‘Maybe your feet could grow big and you could just go splat and trample all the Jeds into the ground.’

  ‘Or my head could blow up like a giant balloon and I’d pucker my lips and spit on all the Jeds and drown them in the torrent.’

  ‘What about me? Can I be a comic-book hero too?

  I’ll be Pearly Girly and I’ll do the opposite. I’ll shrink down down down until I’m like a tiny insect but I’ve got this big big sting. I fly through the air and sting Jed on the end of his n