The Strawberry Sisters (13 page)

I was really glad I’d decided to be more like Amelia because about seven seconds after I called for Kayleigh the next morning she started moaning about Ashandra
again.

‘She’s a nightmare,’ she said. ‘I know she’s really brainy and sometimes she does say funny stuff, but she’s driving me mad. She keeps waving lists in my face
and telling me that we’re behind schedule for the art project. You’ve got to talk to her.’

‘No,’ I said.

‘What?’

I could feel my cheeks getting hot. ‘No, I’m not talking to her. You talk to her.’ I couldn’t believe I was saying this stuff, but I must have sounded at least a tiny bit
like Amelia because Kayleigh just looked sideways at me and didn’t say anything else.

On the way to maths, Ashandra pulled me aside. ‘Kayleigh is so frustrating! Tell her that if we don’t pick up the pace we’re never going to be finished in time. And then
we’ll lose and I know that doesn’t sound like a really big deal, but they’ll probably make us wear T-shirts that say “loser” on them for the rest of our school
career.’

She was waiting for me to laugh.

‘And hats. T-shirts and hats with those little propeller things on,’ she added, looking less sure of herself.

Even though that was quite a funny image, I didn’t laugh.

‘So can you tell Kayleigh that we’ve got to get a move on?’

I bit my lip. ‘No,’ I said.

‘What do you mean no? Don’t you want us to win this competition?’

‘Of course I do.’ Then I remembered Amelia never admits to caring about anything. ‘But it’s not my problem,’ I said. ‘You two need to talk to Miss
Gardner.’

Ashandra stared at me. Eventually, she said, ‘Maybe you’re right.’

It was amazing. No wonder Amelia was always bossing people about. If you say something like you mean it, people actually pay attention.

When we got to maths, we discovered that Mr Garibaldi (or Mr Very-Baldie as Jasmine calls him) had done a seating plan. It’s not a good sign when teachers do that because it means they
have Had Enough and are about to get really bossy and Kieran is going to be kept in at lunchtime. Nobody was very happy about the plan. Ashandra and Kayleigh were put next to each other; if
I’d been caring about things, I would have been pleased, but they both looked horrified.

Amazingly, even though they didn’t speak to each other for the whole of maths, Ashandra and Kayleigh went off at breaktime to speak to Miss Gardner. I went too, but I tried to look like I
was just there in a casual way and not because I was desperate for them to sort things out. Amelia never looks desperate.

‘Miss Gardner?’ Ashandra said. ‘We’re having some problems.’

Miss Gardner looked up from her laptop.

‘What sort of problems?’

‘About us being the coordinators,’ Kayleigh said.

‘Really?’ Miss Gardner walked over to our panel and pulled the cover off. ‘I thought you were progressing well yesterday. I like the pagoda.’

Ashandra nodded. ‘That’s the Fogong Temple Pagoda.’ She hesitated. ‘It was Kayleigh’s idea to use lolly sticks for the wood effect.’

Kayleigh looked at her. ‘Ashandra made the people who are good at fiddly things stick them on while the rest of us were working on the dragon’s head.’

‘I love the idea of the dragon’s head; it really makes your piece original.’ Miss Gardner studied the panel some more.

‘It’s looking really good, isn’t it?’ I said.

‘But we keep having arguments,’ Kayleigh said.

‘Perhaps you could carry on with this great work, but skip the arguments,’ Miss Gardner suggested.

They didn’t look sure.

‘Do you know why I chose you two to be in charge?’ she asked them.

‘I do,’ I said because I was being tough and bold and Amelia never minds answering questions that aren’t exactly addressed to her. ‘Ashandra is good at sorting out things
and people, and Kayleigh is really creative.’

‘Exactly, Ella. And it seems to me that you’re using those skills well. Maybe you just need to appreciate what the other person is bringing to this project.’

Ashandra frowned and Kayleigh looked at her shoes.

‘Kayleigh told me that you’re really good at getting people working,’ I said to Ashandra.

Kayleigh shrugged, but I could see that Ash was pleased. I turned to her. ‘And don’t you think the way Kay moulded that dragon’s head is amazing?’

‘I suppose,’ Ash said. ‘It does look pretty good.’

‘I think you’re going to get better and better at working as a team,’ Miss Gardner said.

Ash and Kay seemed to believe her.

I thought about what Miss Gardner had said while we were waiting for Miss Espinoza to take afternoon registration. It just goes to show that getting tough was a good idea.
Although Ash and Kay still weren’t exactly chatty. Kay was hurriedly trying to finish her history homework before the next lesson and Ash was over at Erica’s desk.

I wondered if she was telling her about our chat with Miss Gardner. I tried to work out what she was saying from her face, but Jasmine blocked my view by climbing on a desk and starting to bend
over backwards like that woman Lucy loves on
Secrets of Magic
who can fit herself into a tiny box. Jasmine went completely over into a bridge; she didn’t even put her hands out until
the last minute. It was quite impressive. Then she pushed off with her legs and flipped over into a standing position again. All on top of a tiny table. It was amazing, but Amelia never says
anything is amazing so I didn’t either. Jasmine’s friends did though; they all started cooing and telling her how fantastic she is.

Jasmine smirked. ‘Mrs Henderson says I’m the most talented gymnast this school has ever had.’

And then it happened. I just opened my mouth and out it came.

‘That’s funny because everybody else says that you’re the most big-headed idiot this school has ever had.’

Courtney sucked in her breath and everyone else laughed. I hadn’t even realised anyone else was listening.

‘Good one,’ Ashandra said.

Jasmine’s eyes were boring into me. ‘You’re jealous. Just wait till I’m at the Olympics.’

The room was completely quiet; they were all waiting to hear what I would say back. I said exactly what I knew Amelia would say.

‘I think you’re confused. There isn’t an event for selfish show-offs at the Olympics. But you’d definitely get the gold if there was.’

Jasmine was red in the face. She opened her mouth to say something awful back, but Miss Espinoza walked in and everyone had to sit down.

My heart was thumping, but it felt good not to be the one made to look stupid for once.

On Friday, things between Ashandra and Kayleigh seemed to even out to a sort of frosty politeness. But at home things between Amelia and Chloe just got worse and worse. On
Saturday morning, Dad came back from dropping Lucy off at ballet and he and Suvi took Kirsti upstairs to get her changed and dressed. That’s when Amelia and Chloe started snapping at each
other again.

Chloe was disappointed because Thunder had backed out of their plan to film Big Bear on roller skates.

‘What could possibly be more important than this?’ she asked me.

‘Maybe he has to do something with his parents,’ I said.

‘Maybe he doesn’t want to see you because you crushed him when he asked you out,’ Amelia said.

‘Don’t be stupid,’ Chloe said.

But it was true that Thunder had been making excuses not to see Chloe recently. She frowned.

Amelia started humming the song she’d written for International Day.

Chloe groaned. ‘Not that rubbish again.’

Amelia stopped humming and started singing.

Chloe put her fingers in her ears. ‘You do realise that no one is going to want to listen to you warbling on about countries in harmony and all that rubbish.’

Upstairs, Kirsti started howling.

‘You sound just like her,’ Chloe said. ‘No wonder Dad isn’t coming to see you sing; he has to put up with enough wailing already.’

‘Shut your face.’ Amelia shoved Chloe in the chest.

Chloe pushed her back. ‘You shut it. You think you’re so brilliant just because you can sing and you read books and wear make-up.’

‘You’re just jealous. Maybe in a million years you’ll act like an adult.’

‘I’m not jealous! You think you’re so big, but you’re an idiot, always being sarky with Dad and pretending you’re not part of this family.’

‘What family?’ Amelia exploded. ‘We’re not a proper family! Mum and Dad barely even talk to each other.’

‘So? He’s still our dad.’

Amelia looked at Chloe with dagger eyes. ‘We all know that you’re on his side.’

‘What do you mean, on his side?’

‘You think he’s brilliant. You’re always throwing your arms round him. You never even consider Mum. What do you think it’s like when someone you love goes off with
another woman and leaves you behind to cope, and five minutes later they’ve got a whole new life with their new baby, and they don’t care about you any more and they never even show up
to hear you sing?’ She pushed past me and ran out of the room.

Chloe’s forehead creased. ‘Wait a minute,’ she called to Amelia’s back. ‘Are we talking about Mum or you?’

I don’t think Amelia really knew.

‘Did I hear shouting?’ Dad asked when he came downstairs a few minutes later with Kirsti on his arm.

Chloe shrugged.

I was being tough so it wasn’t up to me to explain everything. I stared at my juice. In a tough way.

‘Well, let’s try not to get too boisterous at this time in the morning; we’ve already had Lucy doing the fairy elephant dance on the way to ballet,’ Dad said, popping
Kirsti in her bouncy chair. ‘And I know Kirsti’s been bellowing, but we should try not to disturb the neighbours any more than necessary.’

I knew that when you’ve got Kirsti howling in your ear it’s hard to hear anything else, but I was surprised he didn’t want to know what the shouting was about.

Chloe didn’t seem bothered about telling him. ‘What’s the Plan for this morning?’ she asked.

‘The Plan is for everybody to be really good and quiet while I get some work done. We might have time for half an hour’s fishing this afternoon,’ Dad said, picking up his phone
and starting to look through his emails.

‘I’m going to tell Thunder to stop being an idiot then.’ Chloe attempted to moonwalk out of the kitchen. I stood up to follow her.

‘Tell Amelia we’re not going out this morning, will you, Ella?’ Dad asked, not looking up from his phone.

‘I think she might have locked herself in the bathroom again.’

Dad looked up from his phone and then back down again. ‘Amelia and Chloe seem to be winding each other up a bit today. They’re normally such good pals. Do you think you could smooth
things over between them?’

Suddenly, I understood a bit why Amelia was so cross with him. How could he possibly have not noticed that Amelia and Chloe didn’t get on at all any more?

‘They always wind each other up; they fell out ages ago,’ I said. ‘They hardly talk to each other at the moment. And even when they do it’s just to say nasty
things.’

‘Mmm,’ Dad said, still looking at his stupid emails. He wasn’t paying attention to me. I didn’t care though because I was being tough. Which was good because it
isn’t very nice when your dad doesn’t listen to something important you’re telling him.

It wasn’t a very good weekend. We didn’t even go fishing. Dad only came out of his study to watch the football with Chloe. Amelia only came out of the bathroom to
shout at people.

By Tuesday, Chloe was still staying as far away from Amelia as possible so I was keeping her company in the forest at the bottom of the garden while she sketched a tree for her
art homework. She was eating a packet of Monster Munch at the same time. I don’t know where she got them. I could only find boring ready salted crisps in the cupboard.

‘Are Ashandra and Kayleigh friends now that you’re all in Hockey Club?’ Chloe asked.

I shook my head. I didn’t have the energy to tell her that playing on a team together didn’t seem to have worked and neither did being nice. The bright side of me being tough now was
that at least Ash and Kay seemed to understand that I didn’t want to hear them complaining about each other, even if they were still pretty frosty with each other, only speaking about the
project when they had to. To be honest, I didn’t feel very tough or strong about the whole thing. I tried to squish down my worries. Amelia wouldn’t let this kind of thing bother
her.