Blueberry Wishes (10 page)

I shrugged. “You could always wear it as a hat.”

Ben put it on and pulled a pouty fashion-model face.

“That actually really suits you,” I giggled, and we ambled over to the coconut shy, where he took the loo-roll cosy off his head so he could concentrate properly on winning one of the non-scary cuddly toys on offer.

Ben had hit two coconuts out of two, and was about to go for his third throw and win himself something less awful than the loo-roll cosy, when I decided it was the perfect moment to strike with my suspicions about him and Summer. My theory was that as he was concentrating so hard on something else, he'd just give me a straight answer without even thinking about it.

Clever, huh?

Well, not so much, as it turned out. Just as he was about to throw, I said, “So, things are hotting up between you and Summer.”

What actually happened is that he whirled round to face me mid-throw and if I hadn't had such quick ducking reactions from years of living with Saff, her temper and her flying shoes/biscuits/teddies, he'd have taken my head off. “What do you mean?” he demanded.

“Woah, steady on!” I cried. “I just meant that I'm glad things are okay now. You know, after what happened at the beach party—”

Ben glanced sharply behind us, to where Jim and Jed, Summer's big brothers, were lazing on the grass, stuffing down baguettes full of spit-roast pork. “Oh my God, keep your voice down!” he hissed. “They don't know, do they? About what happened?”

“No, course not,” I whispered. Then I added, “If they did, you'd be dead by now.” I was joking, obviously, but Ben just looked terrified.

I sighed. “Look, I've noticed, lately, you and her… Well, I wondered if something…”

“Nah, you've got that wrong,” he insisted. “I'm not into Summer. And even if I was, just in theory, she wouldn't be into me anyway, not after what happened at the beach party.” He cast another nervous glance at Jim and Jed.

“Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that,” I said. Uh-oh. That mouth of mine again. Going too far, as usual. But I was glad I'd said it, because Ben stared at me and demanded, “What? Has she said something to you? What's she said?”

Well, that was way too intense for someone who wasn't bothered. “No, nothing…she hasn't said anything,” I insisted. “Not
as such
.”

Ben huffed about a bit then, saying, “Well, you're probably just imagining things. I know what girls are like, seeing stuff that isn't there. Not that it matters what she thinks anyway because I'm not into her in that way.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know. You said.
Several times.
Look, there's no queue now. Why don't you have a go at the coconuts again?”

“Too right,” said Ben. “I'm not leaving this stall until I win something proper.”

It didn't take long, actually. He hit three coconuts just like that – bam, bam, bam – in quite an impressive manly way. And then he chose the most
unmanly
prize on offer – a little purple sparkly unicorn.

“Good choice,” I teased.

“It's for Gabe, not me!” he said, giving me a despairing look. “Come on, we'd better get back to work.”

The Fayre finished at two, and John and Annie gathered us all together to thank everyone, and we gave them a huge clap too, for organizing such a great event. They said they didn't know exactly how much we'd raised, but it looked like being close to £2000 – well, everyone went mad about that, clapping and cheering and the blokes doing that back-slapping “good one mate” thing. Except Marco, that is, who got hugged by both the cake-stall ladies at once! I was pleased that all our leaflets had been taken, too, and from chatting to people, I was pretty sure I had seven definites and at least five maybes to book in for treatments. I'd also sold a grand total of eight pamper day tickets.

I was staying on at Summer's to help clear everything up, and then sleeping over, because we'd planned to work on our presentation for English on Sunday morning. I thought Marco and Ben might stick around for a while too, but Ben had to head off to his conservation group at Dartington Hall and Marco was meeting his dad at Rocket.

“You don't mind, do you?” Marco asked, pulling me close.

“No, course not,” I insisted. “It's great you're spending time together.” He pulled me into a hug and gave me a quick, non-snog-type kiss.

I hugged Ben goodbye and then Marco grabbed Summer and did that kind of headlock-while-swinging-from-foot-to-foot thing they always do, because they're too much like brother and sister to have a normal hug. Then Summer went to say goodbye to Ben, and he obviously thought they were hugging but she went for cheek-kissing, and it ended up in a strange squashed embrace.

“Alright, don't suffocate me!” he grumbled.

“Well, I thought you were doing the cheek-kissing thing,” huffed Summer.

“Since when have I done the cheek-kissing thing?” Ben demanded. “I
never
do the cheek-kissing thing!”

Summer sighed crossly. “Well, you sort of lunged at my face, so I thought—”

“I didn't
lunge
!” Ben protested. “It's this potholey path, making me tilt!”

“You're blaming my path for your lungey-ness?” she shrieked. “Go on, bog off, the pair of you! See you Monday, yeah?”

“Whatevs,” said Ben.

“Yeah, see you!” called Marco. He didn't seem to have noticed anything unusual between Ben and Summer. But then, boys don't really notice
anything
, do they? Not unless you make a massive banner and hang it in front of them.

As the boys headed off across the lawn, Summer must have been watching me watching Marco, because she said, “Is it worrying you? Him and his dad?”

“I don't know,” I told her. “It was, at first, but maybe Luke is really staying this time.”

Summer followed my gaze. “Well, it still worries me,” she said. Then she linked arms with me and we headed over to clear up her table.

“Oh!” she gasped, picking up the little purple unicorn she'd found sitting amongst the face paints. She cuddled him close. “He's gorgeous!” she cried.

“Ben won him,” I told her.
For Gabe? Yeah, right!

“I had my eye on this little one when we were setting up,” she told me. “I said to Ben that I can't chuck a ball to save my life…”

“So he won him for you,” I said.

Summer smiled at the little unicorn. “Yeah, I guess so. He's such a good mate.”

I wanted to say that maybe he could be more than a mate, but just then Annie called us over to help carry in the tables, and after that there were always people around and things going on, so we didn't get a chance to talk properly until the sleepover.

At about seven o'clock, we had one of those shared suppers that seem to emerge from nowhere at Summer's, the table just suddenly filling up with rice and bean salads, bread, cheese, cold meats and a quiche made with eggs from the random wandering chickens.

As we all sat round, I ended up talking about the pamper day, and suddenly Annie was offering to do the lunch.

“Oh, wow. Are you sure? That would be amazing!” I said.

“Yes, of course,” she said. “Your mum will have far too much to do on the day without thinking about the food as well. And I'll do some cupcakes and brownies, too.”

“Put me down for a ticket,” Jill, Annie's friend, cut in. “It sounds like great fun. I'll tell everyone at Am Dram Club tomorrow as well, and I expect you'll get a few more takers from that.”

I couldn't help beaming then. The pamper-day tickets were selling like hot cakes. I knew it wasn't magically going to save Rainbow Beauty, but it gave me a real lift. Jill bought her ticket on the spot, and then we all had a small friendly row about whether Annie was paying for hers – I insisted she wasn't and she insisted she was, as we were still a new business. I gave in in the end, because she pretty much forced the money into my hand, and also, I didn't fancy being on the receiving end of Grace if she heard I'd given a ticket away for free.

Then, once our faces were completely and utterly stuffed, and I'd thanked Annie again about ten times for offering to do the food, Summer and I headed out to the yurt.

We were carrying candle lanterns, our sleeping bags and a couple of big hoodies scrounged from Jed. Jim had lit the wood burner for us and we found that Annie had sneaked in and left us a basket with a flask of hot chocolate in it, and a couple of punnets of blueberries left over from the Fayre, as well as the last brownies from the cake stall and some incense sticks. Summer was still in her fairy regalia, and when we unravelled our sleeping bags to get inside so we'd be extra cosy, I found that she'd tucked the little unicorn into hers, and now she sat him on her lap and fiddled with his purple mane.

I'd been so desperate to talk to her about Ben all day, and seeing the unicorn make another appearance and everything, well, I just found myself wading in. “It was lovely of Ben to win that for you,” I said. “Anyone would think he had a crush on you, and what with the way you two flirt all the time…”

Summer gave me a scandalized look. “We don't!” she cried. “He winds me up and I try to injure him. That's not flirting!”

But I wasn't giving up that easily. “And things used to be so easy between you, but now there are these awkward moments, like when you said goodbye today. It's
so
like me and Marco were before we got together…”

“Abs, you're imagining things!” Summer insisted. “Yeah, I did like Ben, you know I did. But that was just a silly summer-crush thing. Like I said, I'm completely over it now. And anyway, in case you've forgotten the hideous disaster at the beach party,
he
doesn't like
me
in that way. Look, I'm just glad it's over with, so there's no need to bring it up again, yeah?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I said.

Then she gave me a quick glance and mumbled, “I mean, unless he's actually
said
something…”

Huh! That was almost the same as what Ben had said, when he'd thought
she
might have said something. But I was careful not to let my mouth run away with me again. I'd made a mistake before, telling Summer that Ben liked her, just because
I
was sure of it. This time I was double-triple surer than sure, but I didn't dare risk saying anything – not until he'd actually admitted it to me. And maybe even signed some kind of form or something.

And as for Summer, I was 110% certain she was still into him, but 120% certain she'd never admit it without absolute proof that he liked her – not after her humiliation at the beach party. So, reluctantly, I made myself leave it alone for the time being.

We chatted for a while about school and stuff, and I got her to try the new Jasmine and Bergamot Hand Lotion I was working on (which she loved, BTW, so that was good!). Then I ended up talking about Rainbow Beauty, and how much we were struggling in the parlour, and how badly Mum was taking losing customers to the Haven Spa – how badly we were
all
taking it. And of course she knew about the disappointment we'd had with the London orders too, and Mr. Vulmer refusing to budge on the rent, and she said again that she wished she could do more to help.

“You
are
helping, just by supporting us,” I told her.

“And I'll be on hand at the pamper day, of course,” she said, “even if I just take people's coats and stuff.”

I gave her a smile. “Thanks,” I told her. “Maybe you can make the smoothies or something?”

It was really private and cosy round the wood burner, and I felt so at ease with Summer. Honestly, I'd just been feeling so happy, thinking about how much I'd done to promote Rainbow Beauty at the Fayre, and how many pamper-day tickets I'd sold, and then suddenly I found tears running down my cheeks. “Oh, Summer!” I gasped. “I'm just so scared about how badly things are going, and there's nothing I can do about it!”

She shuffled her sleeping bag over and pulled me into a hug. “You'll find a way through,” she said. “You always come up with something.”

I sighed. I felt like I'd used up all my ideas – all my nine lives.

“Make a Blueberry Wish,” she said suddenly.

I shook my head, feeling hopeless. “Wishing won't help.”

“Well, it won't do any harm,” Summer insisted. She reached into the basket, counted out ten blueberries and tipped them into my hand. “Out loud, don't forget,” she reminded me.

I gave her a small smile. “Fine. Just for you,” I said. I ate the blueberries one by one and then said, “I wish for Rainbow Beauty to survive. I don't see how it will, though, so…I guess I wish for some kind of miracle. Right, you next.”

Summer picked out ten blueberries and ate them, then said, “I wish that…” She paused and shook her head, as if she was trying to shake a thought out of it. Then she said, “I wish Jim would stop snoring at night. I can hear him through the wall, and they're about two foot thick in our house!”

I peered at her. “That's not what you were about to say…” I accused. I was certain she was going to wish that Ben liked her, or that they'd get together.

“It was!” she cried. “It's no joke. Jim sounds like an elephant with sinusitis. I can't get any decent sleep!”

“Hmm,” I said, giving her a stern look.

Then I realized I needed a wee, and I tried to just go outside on the grass like Summer did, but for a start it was cold, and plus I was worried that someone might decide to look out of the window right at that moment. Then, just when I'd scanned the house about three times and bobbed down, I glanced towards the field. “I can't go – there's a goat staring at me!” I shrieked.