The Honeymoon Sisters Read online

  ‘If you join us you won’t get into any trouble. We’ll take all the blame,’ Sean promised her as he handed her a sheet of paper he’d prepared outlining all the positive points about keeping animals in zoos.

  Anne-Marie was grinning. Like I said before, she really enjoys public speaking, and I could tell she didn’t want to miss out. ‘OK,’ she agreed. ‘I’ll do it.’

  So now Sadie was sitting with Josh and Katy on the AGAINST table, while Sean, Anne-Marie and Julia were sitting on the FOR table. I saw Mum come into the hall. I gave her a wave as she came to find a seat near the front.

  I could see the ‘against’ team leaving their seats and that both teams were now huddled together talking. Josh beckoned to me urgently so I went over to join them.

  ‘You must be kidding,’ Julia was saying, having just been told the new plan.

  Katy sounded equally dismissive. ‘It’s crazy. We’re just going to get in a heap of trouble. Come on, Julia. Let’s go and tell Mrs Smee what they want to do.’

  ‘Don’t you dare.’ Sadie was glaring at her ferociously. ‘Listen, this will be much better than a boring debate about school uniforms that nobody even cares about! We’ve got stuff prepared for you to use if you still want to be part of it – or you can just opt out. But you have to stay on the stage until we get started or Mrs Smee will guess something’s wrong.’

  ‘Fine … I’m opting out, then,’ Katy said.

  ‘Me too,’ Julia agreed. ‘You’re not getting us into trouble over this.’

  They were both angry but I didn’t really care. Anyway I had promised Sadie, and I couldn’t back out now.

  As I returned to my seat I spotted Dad and nearly had a heart attack when I saw where he was sitting. He had sat himself down next to Mum! Thankfully she also had Josh’s mum next to her for support. For a few moments I just stared at the unlikely sight, wishing I could take a photo or something to mark the occasion. Mum and Dad were actually sitting together to watch me!

  Meanwhile Mrs Smee was making her way up on to the stage, completely oblivious to what was about to happen. The tops of her popsocks were alarmingly visible under the hem of her skirt, allowing the audience a brief glimpse of white hairy leg as she stood on stage to introduce us.

  As I stood up to do my bit, I felt my legs trembling. I really couldn’t do this! Why had I even thought that I could? I glanced at Sean and Anne-Marie, who were both smiling at me encouragingly, then at Josh and Sadie, who were doing the same. Sadie looked full of excitement and energy … like she was about to jump out of her seat and take off like a rocket.

  I turned towards the audience, remembering what Dad had told me when he’d found out how scared I was of public speaking. Nerves are normal, he said. If you feel nervous, it means you’ve got lots of lovely adrenalin in your bloodstream, which is just the thing you need to get you through. So don’t get nervous about feeling nervous.

  It’s a pity adrenalin doesn’t seem to make your voice any louder, because I have a very quiet one that doesn’t usually carry very far. But Dad says that’s what microphones are for and today, for the first time ever, I was actually getting to use one.

  ‘Thank you all for coming to our debate,’ I heard my embarrassing, not-very-human-sounding voice blast out as all eyes in the room fixed on me. I swallowed and concentrated on remembering the words I’d been rehearsing repeatedly in my head all day. ‘And now we have a surprise for you – and also for Mrs Smee. We’ve decided to change our debate topic this afternoon to a subject we feel especially passionate about. So we’re going to pose the question: Is it right to keep animals in zoos?’

  As I sat down the audience applauded, and I avoided looking at Mrs Smee or any of the other teachers in the room. I knew no one would stop us now as Sean jumped up and began to present the ‘for zoos’ side. I felt my heartbeat gradually slowing as I listened to him. I knew I could rely on him and Anne-Marie to do a good job as they talked sensibly and intelligently about saving endangered species and educating the public and so on. Next Josh put forward a sound argument about how humans have no right to keep animals in captivity, managing to appear calm and rational and reasonable throughout.

  And then it was Sadie’s turn …

  That’s when my mouth went bone dry and I started to feel my heart thumping again. Because if anyone was going to get carried away and say something offensive that would get us all into trouble it would be Sadie.

  I’m not sure what I expected her to say, or how I expected her to say it, but she totally surprised me. ‘This is a subject very close to my heart,’ she began in a clear but passionate voice that seemed to capture the attention of everyone in the room straight away. ‘Because in my opinion, zoos are quite simply prisons for animals.’ She paused and looked around at all the parents’ faces. ‘I want you to think about it this way for a moment – if we put a person behind bars … keep him captive in a confined space away from his home and his family … if we do this to a human, then it is widely acknowledged as a severe and terrible punishment … So why do we think it’s no big deal to take away the liberty of animals who have done nothing wrong?’ She paused. ‘Imagine being taken away from your home and your family, never knowing why, and being locked up, never to see them again.’ She glanced around the room. ‘I ask you, what person would choose that as a life? What animal would? Surely any living creature would rather its species did become extinct if the only alternative was for themselves and their children and their children’s children to lead a miserable life in captivity with no privacy, permanently on display to crowds of people – people like us who pay their captors to come and have a fun day out observing these poor creatures’ unnatural and unhappy existence … and call it a trip to the zoo …’

  Sadie’s speech continued over her allocated time, but I didn’t stop her. When she finally finished she got a big round of applause. She sat down in her seat, looking flushed.

  It took me a few moments to make myself heard in order to kick off the questions from the audience. The Q & A session passed in a blur until finally it was time for the audience to take a vote.

  I wasn’t all that surprised when the anti-zoo argument won. After all it was Sadie who had given the most convincing speech. And the whole prison angle had set me thinking about more than just zoos.

  Finally it was all over. The hall emptied and only a few parents remained. Mr Jamieson gave us a brief ‘Well done’ before disappearing off. Mrs Smee looked flustered as she hurried after him. Mr Anderson came to give Sean a high five and congratulate the rest of us, before whisking Sean off to some science presentation his sister was doing. Josh’s mum and my mum came to gush over all of us, then Mum put her arm around Sadie and led her to the door, saying she wanted to see her artwork. Josh and his mum went with them … which left Dad alone with me.

  ‘So what did you think?’ I asked him nervously.

  ‘Well, let me see …’ He pretended to consider it. ‘What did I think of the way you and your friends changed the debate topic to discuss something you clearly cared more about than school uniforms? What did I think of the way you spoke out so clearly, even though you were nervous?’ He was smiling now. ‘I think, Poppy, that I have probably never been so proud of you!’ And he pulled me towards him and planted a kiss on my forehead.

  And that was the best moment of all.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  After school Sean and Josh came to find me and Sadie in the art department, where we were helping Miss Hodge tidy up. The boys had just been getting told off by Mrs Smee, who assumed it had been their idea to change the debate.

  ‘Apparently she can’t imagine sweet, innocent Poppy ever doing such a thing,’ Sean said, raising an eyebrow. ‘She thinks we must have led her astray!’

  ‘Oh yeah? And what about me?’ Sadie asked.

  ‘Oh well, you’re a different matter. I think everyone agrees that you don’t need leading anywhere!’ Sean said.

  ‘Well, the debate was much better than it
would have been if we’d stuck to Mrs Smee’s plan,’ Sadie protested.

  ‘Mr Jamieson spoke to us too,’ Josh said. ‘I think Mrs Smee got to him. He told us our argument for zoos wasn’t presented nearly as strongly as the argument against, and he wants all four of us to research both sides of the argument more thoroughly and write an essay on the topic.’

  We all moaned about that as we finished tidying up the art room together.

  Later as we walked out of school Sadie said she was delighted that the audience vote had gone in her favour, and she was going to text Alison to tell her about it just as soon as she got her phone back from Mum.

  ‘Alison will forgive me eventually,’ Sadie said. ‘I know she will. And it’s like Aunt Kathy says – it’ll be much easier for her to get by without having to look after me as well, and she’s bound to realise that sooner or later.’

  I just nodded, hoping she was right, because I knew how much Alison meant to Sadie.

  ‘So is anyone up for bowling tomorrow?’ Josh asked.

  ‘I can’t. Mum and I are going to visit Amy tomorrow,’ I said. ‘Finally nobody has chickenpox.’

  ‘So have you found out yet whether you can keep in touch with Amy after tomorrow?’ Josh asked.

  ‘No,’ I replied, trying not to look too miserable about it. ‘I don’t know why they can’t just tell us.’

  ‘Maybe they’re waiting to see how your visit goes before they decide,’ Josh suggested.

  ‘That’s what Mum thinks as well,’ I said with a sigh.

  I hadn’t said anything to Mum yet, but I was a lot more nervous about our day with Amy now that I suspected that any future contact with her depended on how it went. I knew there was no way I’d ever be able to relax and I just hoped I didn’t do or say anything terrible.

  ‘What about you, Sean?’ said Josh.

  ‘Still grounded until after the weekend,’ Sean told him. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘I’m busy tomorrow as well,’ Sadie piped up.

  ‘Busy being grounded!’ I teased.

  She scowled. ‘Anyway, I can’t go bowling with you guys if Sean’s going to be there. He’s not allowed to hang out with me, remember?’

  ‘I’m working on that,’ Sean said with a grin. ‘Just stay on Leo’s good side at school for a bit and I bet I can get him to change his mind.’

  Sadie and I walked partway home with the others, and when we were on our own, she said, ‘Yesterday Linda phoned my social worker. She wants to see me.’

  ‘Really?’ This was news to me.

  ‘Yeah. You know how your mum made me write Linda that letter of apology? Well, she got it and now she wants to talk to me about everything. Apparently she’s sold that ivory chess set and given the money to that elephant sanctuary I told her about. And she’s actually offered to take me with her next time she goes to visit Dad.’

  ‘No way! So what did you say?’

  ‘About visiting Dad? Nothing yet.’

  ‘Well, I definitely think you should visit him with someone. Did you ask Mum, by the way?’

  ‘Yes. She says she’ll take me if I don’t want to go with my social worker or Linda.’

  As we passed the park I remembered I still hadn’t switched on my phone. When I did I immediately found a text from Mum. There was a photo attached and I quickly tapped on it to enlarge it. The photo was of Amy in her new garden with her new big sister. They were both sitting on the bouncy spacehoppers Mum and I had given them as Amy’s goodbye gift. The text said: Lenny phoned. Amy’s parents have agreed for us to keep in touch. They wanted us to know before our visit.

  ‘YES!’ I exclaimed. I was so happy at that moment I could have cried. ‘Amy’s new family are going to let us keep in touch with her after all,’ I told Sadie.

  ‘Oh, that’s brilliant!’

  ‘I know.’ I handed her my phone, my eyes brimming with happy tears. ‘That’s her – on the yellow hopper. You’d never guess they’ve only been sisters for a month, would you? I mean, they look so sweet together.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Sadie agreed. ‘Almost as sweet as us!’

  And before I could escape, she had thrown her arms around me in a melodramatic sisterly hug.???

  Acknowledgements

  I want to thank Kiran Singh for allowing me to interview her about being a foster-parent; Caroline Walsh, who will have been my agent for twenty years this year; my wonderful editor, Rebecca McNally, and all of her fantastic team at Bloomsbury; and last but not least, my teenage advisors, Rosie Duthie, Hannah Duthie and Ellen Tullett, for allowing me to interview them on anything and everything.

  Books by Gwyneth Rees

  Cherry Blossom Dreams

  For younger readers:

  The Fairy Dust series

  Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze

  The Magic Princess Dress

  My Super Sister

  My Super Sister and the Birthday Party

  Monday was our first day back at school after the Easter break. I rolled my eyes at my brother when I came downstairs and saw him trying to scrape off a bit of breakfast from his school tie. At least the rest of his clothes – dark grey trousers, white school shirt and grey V-necked jumper with our school logo on it – still looked freshly washed and ironed though I knew they wouldn’t stay that way for long. Sean looks a lot younger in his school uniform, though I know better than to tell him that.

  Helensfield High has a very strict uniform policy – even Leo says that whoever wrote it was clearly a bit obsessional. The rules include wearing your tie with ‘at least three double stripes visible below a small neat knot’ and wearing skirts of a length ‘no more than two inches above the knee’. Wearing make-up is a total no-no, though I once wore some of Mum’s mascara to school to test out Lily’s theory that my eyelashes are so short that mascara only makes them look normal. (And unfortunately it turned out she was right, because nobody noticed.)

  Lily, Clara and Hanna came up to talk to me the second I walked into the playground.

  ‘Sasha, we’ve all been talking,’ Lily began, ‘and we really want you to hang out with us today.’

  ‘You do?’ I’m ashamed to say that I actually felt quite flattered. Right up until they started their recruitment spiel, that is.

  ‘Yes,’ Hanna said. ‘Because Lily’s got a point about how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.’

  ‘Its cover?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Lily explained hastily, ‘I was telling them how you might not look as if you’d fit into our group, Sasha, but how all that surface stuff isn’t what’s important. I mean, you’re pretty cool on the inside. That’s what I keep saying.’

  ‘Not that it wouldn’t be fun to do one of those total makeover things on you,’ Clara added.

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘Nobody’s saying you need a makeover, Sasha,’ Lily said as she glared at Clara.

  ‘Not unless you want one,’ Hanna put in – which made Lily glare at her too.

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Priti waiting for me on the other side of the playground. I decided it was time to join her, but before I could, Raffy suddenly appeared beside us. ‘Lily … Dad phoned home after you left for school. They’ve got to cancel their weekend away. Dad’s got to work.’

  ‘Oh no!’

  ‘We need to tell everybody we invited to the party. If anyone turns up on Saturday night, we’re dead.’

  Lily, Hanna and Clara all started talking at once.

  ‘Hi, Raffy,’ I greeted him shyly as he turned to go back to his friends.

  Raffy glanced briefly at me and then, to my horror, his gaze shifted down to my totally unflattering school shoes.

  ‘They’re my granny’s,’ I blurted out stupidly, just in case he thought they were my own choice.

  ‘You’re wearing your granny’s shoes?’ He was grinning, looking at me like I was a complete idiot.

  ‘My granny’s choice, I mean … not her actual shoes …’ I was blushing furiously. ‘She took me shopping and …’ I only
just stopped myself from launching into the whole sorry story where the shop assistant had told Granny that these ones provided the best support for growing feet and Granny had flatly refused to let me have any others. Honestly, what was wrong with me? I shouldn’t feel like I had to justify my shoes to Lily’s brother.

  ‘Catch you later, Sasha.’ Raffy gave me a big smile, almost as if he didn’t think I was the dorkiest girl in the playground.

  I watched him return to his friends. I felt a bit weak at the knees as he strode away from me, his blazer flung ever so casually over one shoulder. I thought he could easily be a model in a TV advert for school uniforms or something.

  I left Lily and her friends to sort out their party drama and hurried over to join Priti.

  ‘I saw you ogling Rafferty just now,’ she teased, putting away the Jane Austen novel she’d been reading.

  ‘I was not,’ I protested.

  ‘Then why have you just gone bright red?’

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi and Sydney

  First published in Great Britain in March 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

  This electronic edition first published in 2016

  www.bloomsbury.com

  BLOOMSBURY is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Copyright © Gwyneth Rees 2016

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or

  transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying

  or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 4088 5275 0