Katy Read online

  Clover was already fast asleep. I switched my lamp off and huddled under the duvet, pretending to be asleep too. I even started making little snorty snoring noises when Dad opened the door.

  ‘Katy? I know you’re awake. Oh dear, oh dear! I hear you’ve been in big trouble today,’ he said quietly, sitting on the edge of my bed.

  ‘Oh Dad!’ I said, and I sat up and threw my arms round his neck. ‘Dad, it wasn’t really all my fault. Well, maybe the maths homework was. But all that swimming stuff – they were all laughing at me, Eva most of all. She said hateful things. She was practically asking for me to do something to get back at her.’

  ‘Oh Katy, stop the nonsense. And why couldn’t you wear your proper costume?’

  ‘Because – because I forgot to put it in the wash.’

  ‘Poor Izzie. She’s sure Mr Robinson thinks her a bad mother for not seeing you’ve got the right costume – and she tries so hard too.’

  I fidgeted. I didn’t want this to turn into a poor old Izzie conversation.

  ‘Katy, how about you trying a little harder?’ Dad asked softly.

  ‘I do try, Dad. I truly want you to be proud of me. But somehow everything always goes wrong,’ I said, clinging to him.

  ‘I don’t expect you to be absolutely perfect. But if you’d just learn to think first, it might help,’ said Dad, sighing.

  ‘I’ll try, Dad, I promise,’ I said.

  I really, really meant it. Only somehow I got into serious trouble the very next day.

  6

  School was fine on Tuesday. I made a serious effort to join in every lesson and make Mr Robinson like me again. I even volunteered to be a litter monitor, and spent my entire lunch break trundling round the school with a black plastic rubbish bag, picking up chocolate wrappers and crisp packets. Cecy did it with me, so at least we could have a good talk.

  I rather wanted to pick Eva Jenkins up and stuff her into my rubbish bag. She was back in her own dinky little designer clothes but she still hadn’t forgiven me for yesterday. She’d drawn a stupid picture of a giraffe in a thong on the whiteboard before school started and everyone giggled at it as they came into the classroom.

  It was a shock when I saw it. I did my best to keep my face expressionless, because I knew Eva and her little gang wanted me to burst out crying. The trouble was, I felt like crying. Eva was good at drawing and she’d somehow made that hateful giraffe look horribly like me, with my turned-up nose and hair all over the place. The giraffe was standing bent over and knock-kneed with embarrassment, wearing its ridiculously minute thong. You couldn’t help laughing at it if you were anyone else – so of course the whole class were chuckling away.

  Except for Ryan. He came into the classroom immediately after Cecy and me, while we were still standing there, dumbstruck. He marched over to the board and rubbed the giraffe out vigorously, turning it into an inky blur.

  I breathed slightly more easily.

  ‘Wasn’t it lovely of Ryan to rub the board clean and stop them all sniggering?’ Cecy said while we were rubbish collecting.

  ‘I suppose so,’ I said, trying to sound cool and unimpressed.

  ‘Just like a hero being gallant in a story,’ said Cecy. ‘You know, like the prince hacking his way through a hundred-year-old forest to awaken Sleeping Beauty with a kiss.’

  ‘Rubbing a board clean isn’t exactly hacking his way through a hundred-year-old forest,’ I said, though I was loving this conversation.

  ‘I can see you and Ryan hooking up together,’ said Cecy.

  ‘Well, we’d look pretty stupid, wouldn’t we? Seeing as I’m so tall and he’s a little titch,’ I said.

  ‘Size shouldn’t be important in a relationship,’ said Cecy, sounding like an advice auntie in a magazine column.

  ‘But we would look stupid, wouldn’t we?’ I said, really wanting to know.

  ‘Well … maybe,’ said Cecy.

  I didn’t want her to say that, even if she thought it! I was all set to shut her up by saying something snubbing – but I didn’t really want to quarrel with Cecy because she was my best friend in all the world.

  I kept my mouth shut and started humming a song instead. Cecy began humming along with me, and we continued collecting rubbish together until the bell went.

  See, Dad! I said inside my head. I’m thinking first, OK?

  I even managed not to fall out with Izzie in the car going home. She started nagging at me because I’d got ink all down my school blouse. It wasn’t my fault that my silly rollerball pen had suddenly exploded. Well, I suppose I had been chewing it a little tiny bit, but that was just to help the creative process when we had to do a piece of extended writing for Mr Robinson. But did I protest at this? No, I sat there meekly and said, ‘I’m sorry, Izzie, truly. I do hope it comes out in the wash.’ I might have pulled a funny face at Clover while I was saying it, but Izzie was in the driver’s seat and couldn’t see, so it didn’t matter.

  We had an early supper, cheesy jacket potatoes and baked beans and then strawberries with squirty cream. We all love squirting the cream out. Dorry and Jonnie and Phil squirted and squirted and squirted, squealing all the while.

  Izzie and Dad didn’t have any supper. They were going to some fancy medical dinner up in London. Dad looked more handsome than ever in his white shirt and bow tie and dinner suit. I felt so proud that he was my dad. No wonder Mum fell in love with him. And Izzie snapped him up quick as a wink, worse luck.

  Izzie was all dressed up too in a dull black dress and silly high heels. She was fussing terribly about leaving us.

  ‘I know Eleanor said she’s happy to look after all of you, but I don’t know how she’ll cope. She’s used to just looking after Cecy – and she’s such a good, sensible child,’ said Izzie, with feeling.

  ‘I don’t know why you have to bother Cecy’s mum. We’ll be OK by ourselves,’ I said. ‘I’ll take care of everyone.’

  ‘Katy, you can’t even look after yourself, let alone look after the others,’ said Izzie. ‘Maybe I ought to give the dinner a miss. Though I really was looking forward to going.’ She gave one of her little martyred smiles.

  ‘Go, Izzie. We’ll be fine, fine, fine,’ I said impatiently.

  We’d have far more fun with Cecy and her mum but again I didn’t say it. I was trying so hard to be tactful I practically burst.

  Izzie still dithered, but Mrs Hall did her best to reassure her when she came round with Cecy.

  ‘We’ll all have a lovely time together. It will be great fun. I’ve always longed to have a big family,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘I’m so lucky to have my Cecy, but I wish she had brothers and sisters.’

  Izzie smiled at her weakly. I’m pretty sure she was thinking back longingly to the time when she just had Elsie to look after.

  ‘Well, if you’re really sure, Eleanor. I took the dog for a long walk this afternoon, so he shouldn’t be any trouble. The children have all had supper and in an hour or so Phil and Dorry and Jonnie can go to bed. The older girls go at nine, but they generally read for half an hour or so. We’ll be back by midnight at the very latest. Thank you so much. You know I’ll return the favour any time,’ said Izzie.

  ‘My Cecy practically lives at your house as it is,’ said Mrs Hall. ‘Off you go then, both of you.’

  Izzie wasted another ten minutes telling us to be good and to remember to brush our teeth and to make sure all lights were out upstairs by half past nine, etcetera, etcetera. She even reminded the littlies to have a final wee before they got into bed, which offended the twins terribly. But at long last she went off in a flurry – and there we were, the seven of us and Mrs Hall.

  ‘There now!’ she said, falsely bright. ‘What shall we do, hmm?’

  ‘Can we watch cartoons?’ said Dorry and Jonnie in unison. Dad always tried to get them to play something rather than gawp at the television.

  ‘I don’t think your parents like you to watch too much television,’ said Mrs Hall.

  ‘Ca