Secrets Read online

  He doesn’t seem to like me either now. He told me to go upstairs and put some clothes on at once yet there was Wanda in her night things showing heaps more of herself than me. However, I tried very hard indeed not to let it get me down. I am determined not to care about Dad any more. I don’t care about Wanda either. They can have as many secrets as they want. I’ve got my secret, my special new friend Treasure.

  I told Wanda on the way to school that I was going to come home by myself, just as we’d arranged. She nodded vaguely. It was as if she was plugged into an invisible Walkman, listening to something playing over and over inside her head.

  It was not a good day at school. I was last to be picked for Netball which was totally humiliating. I didn’t have anyone to sit with at lunchtime and I’d finished my book (Zlata’s Diary – but she’s not a patch on Anne) so I simply stared into space, pretending I was perfectly content with my own company.

  Then in Circle Time we started this discussion about delinquency. Maria and Alice and some of the others were going on and on about yobs on tough estates and how they stole stuff to feed their drug habits and set fire to dustbins and beat up old ladies. I sat there, feeling my face flame as fiery as my hair. Mrs Gibbs said I was uncharacteristically quiet. Did I not have a view on delinquency? So I gave them my view – a panoramic one.

  I gave an impassioned speech about Class and Opportunity and the so-called Welfare State (I didn’t quite know what I meant but it sounded good). Then I talked about the Latimer Estate and how there were lovely, kind, funny, gentle, hospitable people living there, not like some posh-nob people who prided themselves on their manners.

  There was total silence when I stopped speaking. I found I was panting, as if I’d just run a race. Mrs Gibbs was breathing a little heavily too. ‘Well, that’s certainly one point of view, India,’ she said. ‘Does anyone want to take issue with anything India’s said?’

  No-one said another word! The discussion was over. I’d won – though I knew no-one really agreed with me.

  I couldn’t wait for school to be finished so I could rush right round to the Latimer Estate. I shot out of school the moment the bell rang just in case Wanda might be waiting after all. I started to slow down the nearer I got. I was barely putting one foot in front of the other by the time I got to Treasure’s block.

  I was starting to worry that I’d got it all wrong. It was almost as if I’d made it all up before. I knew it wasn’t one of my pretend games, I knew Treasure was real – but maybe I’d somehow remembered her nicer than she was. Maybe she’d turn out like Maria. Maybe she was secretly laughing at me. Maybe it was all an elaborate game and when I set foot on her territory the boys would barge into me on their skateboards and Treasure would bunny-hop over me on her bike.

  I looked all round the play area. I saw the skateboard guys swooping up and down and several kids on bikes – but none of them was Treasure.

  I stood still, feeling foolish.

  ‘What are you doing here, Posh Girly?’ one the boys yelled.

  Another skidded past me, so close I nearly popped the buttons on my school shoes. They all saw and laughed. I tried laughing too, but it just made them sneer more.

  ‘Run away home, Posh Girl, before we give you a good seeing to.’

  ‘I’d like to see you try,’ I said, dodging round him, acting as if I couldn’t care less though my heart was going thump thump thump, like a ball bouncing inside my chest.

  ‘Oi you, where are you off to?’ he shouted, as I hurried towards Elm block.

  ‘I’m going to see my friend,’ I said.

  I didn’t want to risk the lift in case they all squeezed in with me. I made for the stairs instead. I ran up. Someone was calling after me, they all started shouting, but I was scared of being ambushed. I went on running up the stairs. Up and up and up. My heart seemed to be a beachball now. I wanted to stop for a rest but I could hear footsteps coming up after me, so I went on running up the stairs. They ran too, getting nearer. Then I tripped rounding the corner of the dark stairwell and sat down hard and they fell over on top of me–

  And it was Treasure! She’d spotted me when the boys were cheeking me, she’d yelled, they’d yelled, just trying to be helpful.

  ‘I couldn’t call properly. I’m so out of breath. Oh help!’ She really was wheezing, leaning hard against me as we sat there.

  ‘Shall I fetch your grandma?’

  ‘No, no, I’m fine. Well, I will be in a minute. It’s just my asthma. Let me have a little puff.’ She fumbled in her schoolbag, found her inhaler and used it. ‘There! It was just all that running. I’ve been charging all the way back from school. I was so worried I’d miss you.’

  ‘I was scared I’d missed you. You said you’d be on your bike watching out for me.’

  ‘I know, I know, but I was kept in. That teacher’s such a pig. They’re not supposed to keep you in without proper notice. She said she was just making me tidy up the classroom but everyone had been painting and it took ages.’

  ‘Why was she picking on you? Did you do badly in a test or something?’

  I was being sympathetic but Treasure stood up indignantly.

  ‘I was always top at my last school. Why do people always think I’m thick? They wanted to stick me in the bottom group here but I wasn’t having it.’

  ‘OK, OK. Don’t go all ratty, please,’ I begged.

  ‘I bet I’m cleverer than you are, even though you’re so posh.’

  ‘I’m sure you are,’ I said, though actually I’m nearly always top, and although I hate my school, it is ultra-academic and competitive. I’m clever but I knew it would be stupid to say this to Treasure.

  ‘So what were you in trouble for?’ I asked.

  ‘I knocked over this girl’s paint water kind of accidentally on purpose. It splashed her painting so she went wailing to the teacher and then I was for it.’

  ‘But why did you spill her paint water?’

  ‘Because she said stupid things about my nan and my nan’s boyfriend and she got on my nerves,’ said Treasure, and she spat vehemently down the stairwell.

  I very much hoped I’d never get on Treasure’s nerves.

  It was as if she could read my mind. Her hand scrabbled in around my elbow so we were linked together.

  ‘You’re different, India,’ she said. She squeezed my arm tight. ‘I was scared you wouldn’t come back.’

  ‘I said I would. I promised.’

  ‘I know. But I thought you might have just been messing around, slumming it for a day, seeing how the other half live.’

  ‘I’m not like that.’

  ‘I know you’re not.’

  ‘Treasure . . . are we friends?’

  ‘Of course we are.’

  ‘Even though we haven’t known each other ages? I used to have this friend Miranda. I’ve known her since we were babies and we were sort of best friends – but not like this. She never even bothered to keep in touch after she left our school.’

  ‘I’ll always keep in touch with you,’ said Treasure. ‘Only I’m not leaving here. I’m staying here for ever and ever and ever. You can be my best friend for ever and ever and ever too.’

  Nine

  Treasure

  WELL, THE REALLY, truly GREAT thing in my life is that I have a best friend, India. She came calling for me. We went indoors and played with little Britney until Loretta took her round to her friend’s flat. Then India and I mucked around with crayons and stickers and glitter, making pictures with Patsy. We didn’t really want to play with her but we couldn’t leave her out.

  Patsy drew a little house with three curtained windows and a door with a knocker and a letterbox. She coloured them in very carefully with a bright yellow sun shining above them. She did a strip of blue at the top of her picture for sky and a strip of green grass at the bottom, patterned with a neat row of pink daisies. She stuck a sticker bunny in the grass and a sticker bluebird flying past her sun. She inked MY HOME in silver gel pen at the t