My Sister Jodie Read online

  ‘Come on now, Pearl, you’re not a baby. Eat up, dear. Don’t let me down.’

  I cut my bacon into tiny pieces the size of my thumbnail and balanced one on the end of my fork.

  It looked horribly fatty. Dad was watching me.

  When Mum had turned her back, I made out my fork was an aeroplane, flew it through the air and made it land in Dan’s mouth. He swallowed happily and opened his mouth for more. I got rid of half my breakfast before Miss Ponsonby clacked over to our table in her flip-flop sandals.

  ‘Don’t give him any more, dear, or he’ll be sick,’

  she said, attacking Dan’s face vigorously with a wet wipe, as if she was cleaning a window. He squirmed and whined but didn’t put up much of a struggle. I felt sorry for Sakura, who got the wet wipe next.

  Her face was pristine before and ended up smeared 92

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  with Dan’s slurpy crumbs. Zeph ducked his head out of the way.

  ‘I’m not a baby. I’m absolutely clean,’ he said, folding his arms, his lower lip sticking out.

  ‘OK, Zephaniah,’ said Miss Ponsonby, knowing when she was beaten.

  I folded my arms too, just in case she thought I was a baby. She smiled at me.

  ‘I wonder if you’d like to join the others for our holiday play club?’ she said brightly. ‘We do all sorts of craft work. We made puppets yesterday, didn’t we, children?’

  ‘My puppet died,’ said Dan mournfully.

  ‘His head just fell off, darling. We’ll fix it back on today,’ said Miss Ponsonby.

  ‘No, keep it off, then he could be a headless ghost,’ said Zeph. ‘Yeah, and I’ll make a skellington and then they can fight each other.’

  ‘No fighting, Zeph, you know the rules,’ said Miss Ponsonby. She looked entreatingly at me. ‘The boys get a little boisterous at times. It would be lovely for Sakura to have another girl around. You could paint together or do some sewing or knitting, or perhaps you could do a little sculpting with clay, Jodie?’

  I fidgeted on the bench, trying hard to think up a polite excuse. I didn’t want to go off with all these strange children!

  ‘She’s Pearl. I’m Jodie,’ said Jodie. ‘It’s lovely of you to invite Pearl, Miss Ponsonby, but I’m afraid she can’t. We have to help our parents with all sorts of stuff, and we’re decorating our new bedroom, and Pearl had this very important reading project set by Mrs Wilberforce so she’s going to be ever so busy 93

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  for the next few weeks. Still, thank you very much indeed for asking her.’

  I smiled up at Jodie, my sister, my saviour. Miss Ponsonby led Zeph and Sakura and Dan away and I was left with Jodie. And Harley.

  ‘OK,’ said Jodie, grinning. ‘So what are we going to do today?’

  ‘Don’t you have to help your parents and decorate and all that stuff?’ said Harley.

  Jodie peered over at the end table. Dad was talking to Miss French. Mum had poured herself a cup of tea and was sitting at the end, in Miss Ponsonby’s place, deep in conversation with Mr Wilberforce.

  ‘Not if we clear off sharpish!’ said Jodie. ‘Come on, quick, while they’re not looking!’

  The three of us slid off the bench and made it out of the main door without being spotted.

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  The cupboard made a great groaning sound as we shoved at it.

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  7

  We stood in the middle of the main hallway, portraits peering down at us. Grim men with jutting chins and women in profile with long noses.

  ‘God, who are they? Old teachers?’ said Jodie.

  ‘They look like relatives. I suppose they’re Mrs Wilberforce’s ancestors. This used to be her family house,’ said Harley.

  ‘Wow, some family! Like they go back centuries!

  They must be really really rich and posh.’

  ‘Posh, yes. Rich, mm, maybe not any more.

  Melchester College is falling to bits.’

  ‘But my dad can fix it up now,’ said Jodie.

  ‘You’d need a hundred dads to fix this dump,’ said Harley.

  ‘You call this a dump?’ said Jodie, gesturing at the chandelier above us.

  ‘You wait till you see behind the scenes,’ said Harley.

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  ‘Well, come on, then. Show us around,’ said Jodie.

  Harley hesitated. He looked down at his book.

  ‘You don’t have to,’ I said quickly. ‘You probably want to get on with stuff.’

  ‘No, it’s OK,’ he said.

  ‘What’s your book?’ Jodie asked.

  ‘Oh.’ Harley looked embarrassed, going pink.

  ‘Hey, is it a dirty book!’ said Jodie.

  ‘No, it’s a classic. You’d hate it,’ he said.

  ‘Let’s see, then.’ She squinted at the spine. ‘ Jude the Obscure. Have you read that one, Pearl?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘It’s not a children’s book,’ said Harley.

  ‘Pearl’s a great reader – she reads all sorts, lots of classics,’ said Jodie loftily.

  It was my turn to blush now.

  ‘No I don’t,’ I mumbled. ‘Just one or two easy ones.’

  ‘I’ll show you the library if you like,’ said Harley.

  ‘Don’t get excited, it’s pretty crap though.’

  He led us along the corridor into a big room with handsome wall-to-wall shelving. The books themselves looked sparse and flimsy on the deep shelves, mostly cheap tattered paperbacks mixed up with old Enid Blytons and Biggles and mock-leather children’s encyclopaedias. Jodie wrinkled her nose and sat down at one of the computers, starting to fiddle.

  I peered at the books.

  ‘See, I told you,’ said Harley. ‘I thought there’d be wonderful old leather-bound volumes going back donkey’s years.’

  ‘There are!’ I said shyly. ‘But not here. They’re in Mrs Wilberforce’s house.’

  ‘So you’ve been in there? I haven’t! She’s got lots of books, has she?’

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  ‘She says I can borrow some,’ I said. I took a deep breath. ‘I could ask if you could borrow some too if you like, Harley.’

  ‘Cool,’ said Harley.

  He was flipping his way through the books. ‘Have you read this?’ he asked, holding up The Wind in the Willows.

  ‘Yes, it’s great,’ I said. ‘I like Moley.’ I paused, glancing at Jodie. She was frowning at the computer keyboard, tapping keys impatiently. ‘And Badger,’ I added.

  Harley smiled at me. It was as if we were talking in our own secret code.

  ‘You haven’t told her, have you?’ he mouthed at me.

  I shook my head.

  Harley put his head very close to mine. ‘We’ll go and watch again, at night. You and me. OK?’

  ‘OK!’ I said.

  ‘What are you two whispering about?’ Jodie called. ‘Hey, this is a totally rubbish computer, you can’t access anything.’

  ‘They don’t want to enlighten the kiddywinks,’

  said Harley. ‘Keep them ignorant and unsuspecting.’

  ‘Is that what you are, Harley Not Davidson?’

  said Jodie, shutting the computer down in disgust.

  ‘No, no, I’m very knowledgeable and highly suspicious,’ said Harley.

  ‘That’s cool,’ said Jodie. ‘Come on, then, the library’s boring. Show us the rest of this place. How long have you been shut up here?’

  ‘Only since last year. I get moved around a lot.

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  I’ve been to so many schools I’ve lost count,’ said Harley.

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