Peppermint Kiss (18 page)

On the morning of the grand opening, we all got dressed in our pink uniforms and did our hair and make-up. Even Grace put on a bit of mascara and let Saff style her hair. Then Mum handed out the name badges she'd ordered for us. My heart was pounding as I pinned mine on – this really was IT.

“Ready?” she asked us, looking as nervous as I felt.

“Ready,” we replied, and we all filed downstairs.

When we'd finally finished everything down here the night before (long after I'd done the face masks) we'd just been so tired, we'd stumbled straight up to bed. We hadn't looked…well, not
really
looked.

But now, as we stepped through the door of Rainbow Beauty, we couldn't help gasping in sheer amazement. Sun was streaming through the window and across the glossy floor. The old gold paint effect on the reception desk worked really well, and the vase of bright flowers brought the whole area to life. Our slogan sang out, stencilled onto the wall behind it:
Rainbow Beauty – beauty from the inside out.

The sofa area with its coffee table and magazines was so inviting. The chiller counter was full of bright, glistening fresh fruit, which looked delicious, and made a great backdrop for the little tubs of fresh face mask nestled amongst it. In a squealing huddle we bounced over to the treatment rooms. They were cosy havens with low light, delicious-smelling oil diffusers and big fluffy towels ready at the foot of each massage table.

It was just like I'd dreamed it – only better.

Mum took my hand, and Saff's on the other side, and Saff grabbed Grace's and we all stood there for a moment, beaming at each other.

Then Summer walked in, gabbling on about how fab it all looked, followed by Liam, who looked like he needed to sleep for a week. After all the hellos, Mum leaped into action, sending Saff and Grace back upstairs for the food, asking Liam to sort out a sticking door, and telling me and Summer to get the kettle on for teas all round.

As we stood in the tiny kitchenette, I told Summer about Marco coming over, and that we'd made up, but how we were just going to be friends. “I've always been really into him,” I admitted, “and now I know he's really into me too. But I've decided it's not going to happen. We'd only mess it up again, and I can't risk wrecking our group. I love us all hanging out together.”

Summer peered at me. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said firmly.

She sighed. “Well, it's probably for the best.”

“Yes, it is.”

Just then Marco appeared in the doorway and we both looked so flustered, it must have been obvious we'd been talking about him. He grinned, a little nervously. “Erm, hi. Should I go out and come back in again?”

“Course not. We weren't talking about you or anything,” I gabbled. “Erm, Summer was just telling me about this exercise I can do to help my…” (Think, Abbie, think!) “…terrible period pain.” (Yikes! Where did that come from?!)

He looked even more awkward then. “Oh. Er, right. I'll leave you to it, in that case.”

Every time I looked at him after that I wanted to die of embarrassment.
Period exercises?
Argh! Why couldn't I just say anything
normal
around him?

But soon I had something far more serious to worry about. We all did.

With a noisy countdown and a big cheer, we opened the doors at ten o'clock on the dot. And okay, so no one was waiting outside or anything, but we thought they'd start to trickle in a few minutes later. But by half past, there was still no sign of anyone and I was starting to get a horrible sick feeling in my stomach.

Soon, Mum was peering at one of my leaflets. “I'm just double-checking these do say
ten
o'clock,” she said. “Ah. Here. Yes, of course they do. Sorry, Abbie. I just thought maybe…”

“No one ever comes to this kind of thing right on time,” Liam reassured her. “Don't worry, they'll be along soon.”

But as the clock ticked towards eleven, even he had to admit it wasn't looking good. Mum's brave face slipped first. “I can't believe this is happening,” she said shakily. “I mean, look at everything we've done… All the love, the care, the hard work. All the faith. What if it's been for nothing?”

I glanced from her sorrowful face to her lovingly-arranged plates of canapés and back, and thought my heart would burst.

Liam wrapped her up in a hug, but no one spoke. We all felt it – that horrible feeling that we'd done all this and no one cared. No one was interested. I felt Summer's arm round my shoulders, and that made me feel like crying too.

The door opened and we all glanced up. But it was only Ben. He breezed in, saying, “Hi all, sorry I'm late, Mum was having a nightmare with Gabe so I stayed to…” Then he trailed off, noticing the obvious. “Erm, where is everybody?”

“No one's—” I began, but just then, the door opened again and this time an actual customer walked in. We were all so shocked, we ended up just staring at her in silence. To be honest, I wouldn't have blamed her if she'd run back out again. But then Mum smiled and smoothed down her uniform and went over to greet her.

Grace offered her a juice and some canapés, Saff showed her the treatment rooms, and Mum talked her through the treatments we had on offer. When I gave her a sample lip balm, she took the lid off and had a sniff straight away. “Mmm, this smells delicious,” she enthused. “And the whole place is beautiful. It's just what we need at this end of town, it'll really give the parade a lift.” Then she added, “It's a shame you picked today to launch, though.”

We all looked at her, puzzled. “How do you mean?” Mum asked.

She looked surprised. “Oh, didn't you know? It's the big arts and crafts fayre in Borough Park today. It's only once a year and they've been advertising it for weeks. There are over a hundred stalls and a band, food… Everyone will be up there this morning. I'm on my way now, actually.”

Mum frowned. “Oh, right. No, we didn't know.”

We all had to smile and say goodbye nicely of course, but as soon as she'd left we broke out into dismayed chatter.

“I can't believe we missed something so obvious!” Mum cried.

“I feel terrible,” said Summer. “They have this every year, but I just didn't click that it was the same date.”

“It's my fault,” Liam insisted. “I even saw a poster for it. I should have put two and two together.”

“I knew it was happening,” said Ben, “but I've never been, so I didn't realize it was such a big deal.”

“Emily mentioned it to me,” said Saff, “but in Ealing there are loads of events going on at the same time, so I didn't think it would matter.”

Grace, of course, hadn't known anything about it. And nor had I.

I felt as sick as everyone else looked. But I knew there was no point sitting round blaming ourselves. “The important thing is, what can we do about it now?” I asked.

And before anyone could say anything, a solution flashed into my mind. Mum and I looked at each other, and I knew she'd had the same idea. “Well, if Mohammed won't come to the mountain, the mountain must go to Mohammed,” she said.

“Say what?” asked Saff.

Grace rolled her eyes. “She means, we're the mountain, and the clients are Mohammed.”

Saff frowned. “I still don't get you.”

Grace sighed. “If they're not coming to us, we'll go to them, duh!”

“Oh right,” Saff snapped. “Why didn't you just say so? But hang on, what if they don't let us in?”

Mum just looked really determined. “I'll persuade them to make room for us,” she said, with that old glint of steel in her eye.

So it was all hands on deck then, to pack up most of the food and samples and leaflets and products into Liam's van. We also took his long wallpaper-pasting table and three huge fluffy pink towels to cover it, in case there was room for us to set it up.

Saff's friend Emily arrived just as we were about to head off, and we couldn't believe it – she was such a total clone of Saff,
they
could have been the sisters. Typical boys, Ben and Marco couldn't stop staring at her, and you could see them thinking,
Wow, there are
two
of them!
I had to snap my fingers in front of their faces in the end and say, “Can we focus, please?”

It was decided that Emily, Summer and the boys would stay at the shop, and Mum would drive me, Saff and Grace up to the fayre in Liam's van. Emily would do a head massage demo on anyone who did come in, and Summer could handle the free nail painting. Ben was in charge of making smoothies and juices, and Liam was just in charge full stop. Marco offered to go down to the junction with more leaflets and stop people on their way to the fayre to invite them to pop in to Rainbow Beauty first, or to look out for us when they got there. “I'm sure I can get loads of people in,” he said. Then he smiled sadly at me and added, “Luckily not
everyone
's immune to my charms.”

Just as we were all in the van about to set off, Liam leaned in to the driver's side window and asked Mum if she had her phone with her. “No, it's up in the flat,” she said, looking confused.

“Here, take my mobile,” he said, passing it through the window. “You'll need to call us when people make appointments, and then I can write them straight in the book, so we don't double-book anything.”

Mum hesitated. “I'm not sure whether anyone will book in on the spot.”

Liam grinned at her. “Think positive, Kim. Come on, you've got this far on passion and guts. Don't lose faith now.”

Mum grinned back, then turned to us. “Come on, girls, let's get out there and show the world what we're made of.”

“Yeah!” we all cried, whooping and cheering.

And with that she started the van, stalled it, started it again, bunny-hopped down the road with the handbrake on for a bit, then finally we were off. I turned to wave and couldn't help giggling when I saw Liam with his head in his hands.

Two wrong turns and one more stall in the middle of a junction later, we arrived at Borough Park. Luckily when we explained our situation, the lady at the gate was really nice and squeezed us in next to a lighting company's stand. The fayre was in full swing, with a really buzzy atmosphere, a band playing, food and drink stands and loads of cool stalls. There were crystals, wicker baskets, pottery, handmade wooden toys and games, and I spotted this fab stall selling bags made out of recycled sweet packets.

Not that I had time to go over for a look. We set everything up at lightning speed and even as we were still laying things out, people started to crowd around and pick up the products for a sniff, or to look at the ingredients lists. They seemed to be really pleased about the fact that everything was fresh and natural, and I was soon chatting away, giving loads of information on where the different ingredients had come from, and which were certified organic, and exactly how long the different fresh face masks would last in the fridge and…well, everything! It was brilliant getting to talk about what I really loved and the products were just flying off the table. Mum took the money for me, putting the things in our special recycled paper bags and writing out receipts.

When I had a minute's break, I noticed that Grace had propped up a sign next to the free sample lip balms. Well, they weren't free any more.
Free lip balm when you book a treatment today
, the sign read. I don't know whether it made any difference, but people were certainly booking up – Saff was talking them through the choices, or they were taking our list away to look at and then popping back to book in. Mum definitely needed Liam's mobile – she was on it about every five minutes. And she reported back to us that they'd had quite a few people going into Rainbow Beauty in the end too, thanks to Marco's efforts.

Summer's friends Iola and Amany from Art Club came up and said hi (and bought some Avocado Body Butter). Olivia and Rose from netball were there with Rachel, Jess and Bex from our year too. They came over to chat and ended up booking themselves in all together for manicures next Saturday. Some people came over who seemed to know Mum, and she told us they were from one of the hotels she'd been into to ask about jobs. They took some of our cards and promised to send their guests our way for treatments, as they didn't offer any themselves.

Saff got chatting to a group of second years from the course she'd (hopefully) be doing, and they were all asking about work placements. Mum took their details and said she'd keep them posted, as it might not be long before we needed some extra help (positive thinking again!). Grace's new friends came over and had a chat with her, and afterwards Mum, me and Saff couldn't resist teasing her a bit because Aran, her mate from Extended Maths,
so
obviously fancied her. She just told us all not to be silly, of course, but then she blushed bright red, grabbed a pile of leaflets and rushed off, saying she was going to give them out round the fayre.