Double Act Read online

  Oh yucky yucky yuck! What did you have to write that rubbish for? I just bunged a few bits down about robins and icicles and footsteps crunching, like the verses inside Christmas cards. That’s what they wanted, you idiot, not all your weirdo ramble.

  I’m sorry, Ruby.

  Yes, well, so you should be.

  Ruby . . . What if you get accepted for the scholarship and I don’t?

  We’re both going to get a scholarship.

  But what if we don’t? Would you go to Marnock Heights without me?

  I keep telling and telling you, we’re going together.

  Yes, and I keep asking and asking . . . if it’s just you that gets accepted, will you go?

  No. Yes. I don’t know.

  I think you should. Though it will be horrible without you. But I can’t stand it if I’m always going to be the one that holds you back.

  * * *

  Marnock Heights

  Gorselea

  Sussex

  29 May

  Dear Mr Barker

  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and your delightful daughters last week.

  Ruby is a charming child, so full of vim and vigour. No wonder she wants to be an actress. I am sure she will succeed in her ambitions one day. I’m afraid we can’t offer her a scholarship at Marnock Heights. She is obviously witty and intelligent and her conversation sparkles – though she tends to get rather carried away and bluffs when she’s uncertain! Her written work is lively if a little slapdash, but I’m afraid she failed several of our tests. If she could only apply herself more vigorously then I’m sure she could reach a far higher standard. I feel she’s relied on her sister to do all her work for so long that she’s failed to reach her full academic potential.

  Garnet too might benefit from a term of separation from her sister. She lets Ruby do all her talking for her, and therefore does not interview at all well. However, she came into her own in the written tests. She has a few gaps in her knowledge but on the whole she did very well. Her essay was outstanding – extremely sensitive and mature. We would like to offer her a full scholarship at Marnock Heights, commencing in the Autumn term.

  With best wishes

  Yours sincerely

  Headteacher

  * * *

  We’re not going to be held back, either of us. We’re going rushing forwards. To Marnock Heights.

  TWELVE

  WE COULDN’T BELIEVE it. We thought Miss Jeffreys had got us mixed up.

  ‘She means me,’ said Ruby. ‘She must mean me.’

  ‘Yes, it can’t be me,’ I said. ‘Ruby will have got the scholarship.’

  ‘No,’ said Dad. ‘It’s definitely Garnet.’

  ‘Let me see the letter!’ Ruby demanded.

  Dad didn’t want either of us to see it.

  ‘It’s addressed to me,’ he said. ‘And it’s plain what it says. There’s no mix up.’

  ‘She’s just got our names round the wrong way,’ Ruby insisted. ‘It’s always happening.’

  ‘Not this time,’ said Rose.

  ‘Look, it’s absolutely not fair if she’s read the letter too, when it’s got nothing to do with her. She’s not our mother,’ said Ruby.

  ‘No, but I’m your father, and I want you to calm down, Ruby, and we’ll talk all this over carefully.’

  ‘Not till you show me the letter!’

  ‘I’d show both the girls the letter,’ said Rose. ‘They’re not little kids. I think they should see what it says.’

  So Dad showed us.

  It was like a smack in the face.

  Not for me. For Ruby.

  I read quicker than she does. I watched her face while she was finishing the letter. I couldn’t bear it.

  ‘She’s written a whole load of rubbish,’ I said quickly. ‘She only met us for one afternoon and yet she thinks she knows us. Well she doesn’t, does she, Ruby?’

  Ruby was getting very red in the face. She screwed her eyes up. She looked as if she was trying hard not to cry. But Ruby never cries.

  ‘Ruby,’ I said, and I put my arm round her.

  She wriggled away as if my arm had turned into a snake.

  ‘Oh, Ruby,’ I said, and I was the one who started crying. ‘Look, I’m not going to go to Marnock Heights. I didn’t even want to go in the first place. It was you that wanted to, not me.’

  I was making it worse.

  ‘I think you should go, Garnet,’ said Rose. ‘You’ve done very well. We should all be busy congratulating you. I know it’s tough on Ruby, but—’

  ‘You don’t know anything,’ I shouted.

  I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t want them ganging up on my side. I was on Ruby’s side.

  ‘Hey, we’ll have less of that cheeky tone,’ said Dad. ‘Rose, love, could you make us all a cup of coffee? Let’s talk it over, eh? It’s been a bit of a shock for all of us. Ruby? Ruby, where are you going?’

  ‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ said Ruby. Her voice sounded awful. She was trying to make it sound couldn’t-care-less, but it kept catching in her throat. ‘Garnet’s got the scholarship. I haven’t. And that’s it.’

  ‘But I’m not going, Ruby! Please believe me. I promise I’m not going to go. I couldn’t stand going there. Especially without you.’

  ‘So why did you try ever so hard in all those silly tests and write all that yucky stuff for your essay?’ said Ruby.

  ‘I don’t know. I just didn’t think. Oh, Ruby, I’m sorry.’

  I tried to grab hold of her again but she wouldn’t let me.

  ‘You get away from me,’ she said, ducking.

  ‘Now this is getting ridiculous,’ said Dad. ‘Pull yourself together, Ruby. I’m ashamed of you. I know you’ve had a bit of a disappointment, but there’s no need to be nasty to poor old Garnet. Why can’t you be big enough to congratulate her? She didn’t act like this over that television audition, now did she? She was full of praise for you.’

  Dad was making it worse. I saw Ruby’s eyes, as she ducked. They were brimming over.

  ‘Oh, congratulations, clever goody-goody Garnet,’ Ruby gabbled, and then she rushed out the room.

  I tried to follow her, but Dad stopped me.

  ‘No, Garnet. Let her go. She won’t want you around for a bit, especially as she’s crying,’ he said. Perhaps he did understand a little bit after all. ‘But there’s no need for you to cry, sweetheart. Rose is right. You’ve done brilliantly and I’m very proud of you.’

  ‘I’m not going though,’ I wept.

  ‘Well. I can’t make you go. And this boarding school lark certainly wasn’t my idea. But I do think now that it’s a wonderful opportunity.’

  ‘I’ll say,’ said Rose, handing round the coffee. ‘You’ve got to go for it, Garnet.’

  ‘I can’t leave Ruby,’ I wailed.

  ‘But Ruby would leave you,’ said Rose.

  ‘That’s different,’ I said.

  ‘But it shouldn’t be different,’ said Dad, and he pulled me on to his lap. ‘This letter has made me see that maybe it’s bad for you and Ruby to be together all the time. You’re holding each other back, spoiling each other’s chances. You’re growing up now, and you need to develop as two separate sisters.’

  ‘But we’re not separate. We’re twins. We can’t do without each other.’

  ‘You’re going to have to learn to some day,’ said Dad. ‘You’ll both grow up and have different jobs and have different lifestyles and have different families.’

  ‘No, we’re going to stay together,’ I said.

  We’d got it all sorted out.

  We’d stick together when we were young

  and when we were old

  and when we were even older

  and if we ever wanted to get married then we’d marry twins

  and have twin babies

  and then when they grew up they could stick together for ever and maybe they’d have twins too and then they could . . .

  My head was buzzing with all