The Strawberry Sisters (14 page)

‘Not exactly friends,’ I said.

The weather wasn’t as warm as it had been so Chloe had brought out a flask of tea. She poured me another cup and held out her crisp packet to me. ‘Try a mouthful with a Monster
Munch; it makes them sort of fizz.’ Then she frowned. She doesn’t normally frown when she’s talking about crisps.

‘Are you all right?’ I asked.

‘Mmm. I’ve been thinking.’

That sounded serious. Chloe doesn’t like to think about things if she can help it.

She sighed. ‘I don’t really understand all that stuff Amelia was saying about Mum and Dad.’

‘Me neither.’

‘Do you think I’m upsetting Mum?’

‘No.’ I hesitated. ‘I don’t think so . . . I don’t know.’

Then she said something that proves what I’m always saying about Chloe being much more sensible than people think.

‘Let’s ask Mum.’

She packed up the flask and her sketch stuff and we went into the kitchen where Mum was making dinner.

‘Mum, can I ask you something?’ Chloe twisted one leg round the other.

‘Of course.’

Chloe opened her mouth and shut it again. Her neck was pink. Usually when Chloe talks the words tumble out. She always has something to say.

Mum put down the cheese grater and leant across the counter towards Chloe. When you know someone really well, their quiet bits can tell you as much as their words. Mum knew something was
wrong.

‘What is it, sweetheart?’ she asked.

‘Do you want me to stop hugging Dad?’

I was sure that Amelia was wrong and that Mum would just laugh, but she didn’t.

‘Of course not. Why on earth would you think that?’

‘Amelia says I should be on your side.’

I’ve noticed that sometimes grown-ups do this face when you speak to them, and you know that you’ve said something that’s shocked or upset them, even though you don’t
know why.

Mum bit her lip. ‘Ella, do you think you could fetch your sisters? Wait, Lucy is at Rose’s house. Just find Amelia.’

Chloe shot me a look; she didn’t get it either.

When I came back with Amelia, Mum made us all sit down at the table.

‘Girls, do you remember when Dad and I told you we were getting divorced?’

I blinked. Even though it was nearly a year and a half ago, I did remember. It was a horrible, horrible day.

‘We said that the most important thing was that you remember that we love you all very much.’

‘Yeah,’ Amelia said. ‘But what’s that got to do with you hating Dad?’

Mum actually gasped. I nearly did too because I’d never thought that about Mum and Dad.

‘Amelia! I don’t hate your father. I’ve never even said a bad word about him.’

‘That’s because you never finish a sentence about him,’ Amelia said.

That’s sort of true. Mum doesn’t say much about Dad. Or Suvi or Kirsti.

‘And you cried when you two got divorced.’

Mum pinched the top of her nose.

‘I did cry,’ she said slowly. ‘Getting divorced is sad and difficult and it can make you cry, but that doesn’t mean I hate your dad.’ She looked right into
Amelia’s eyes. ‘I don’t. And I certainly don’t want you to take sides. There aren’t sides,’ Mum insisted. ‘We’re all on the same side.’

Amelia slapped a hand down on the table. ‘No we’re not! He went off! He left us!’

‘And I think maybe I should have realised just how angry that’s made you,’ Mum said softly.

‘I’m angry for you.’

I stared at Amelia. Her voice was all gravelly and choked.

Mum slid her chair closer to Amelia and wrapped an arm round her. ‘You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. I’m very happy with our life.’

Amelia was crying. Chloe widened her eyes at me. We hadn’t seen Amelia cry for a very long time.

‘You’re allowed to be angry with Dad for yourself,’ Mum said to Amelia. ‘You all are.’

Amelia wiped her nose with the back of her hand. ‘I’m angry with everybody. It’s not fair.’

Amelia cried and cried. Mum shushed her and rocked her like she was tiny.

Chloe squeezed my hand.

I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to think tough things.

Ever since Mr Garibaldi made them sit together, I’d been watching Ashandra’s and Kayleigh’s backs in maths. At first, they completely ignored each other. It
was as if there was an invisible line down the middle of the table and they were very careful not to let even an elbow cross it. But then, during our double lesson, while I was bent over my book,
out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ashandra turn round to look at me. Then she turned back and said something to Kayleigh. After that, I saw them whispering several times.

After the next lesson, Kayleigh even waved to Ashandra when she went off to talk to Erica. Me and Kayleigh got in the queue for the vending machines.

‘So . . . I was just chatting to Ashandra,’ Kayleigh said.

My heart did a little squeeze, but you can’t get excited about things because that’s when people crush your hopes so I just said, ‘Oh.’

‘You never said she liked horses.’

That wasn’t what I was expecting her to say. ‘I didn’t know she did.’

‘Well, mostly she’s just read books about them – she’s going to lend me some – but she wants to start riding lessons so she’s going to go with me to the
stables on Saturday. You’ll come, won’t you?’

When Kayleigh and I were little, we used to play ‘horses’ in the playground a lot. At first, I didn’t know what to do and I felt silly, but Kayleigh said I could be called
Spirit and she made trotting about look so much fun that soon we were galloping through meadows and up mountains every playtime. I loved it. I did try going to the stables with Kayleigh for one
lesson, but, when I found out that none of the horses were called things like Sparkle Hooves and they didn’t have glitter in their manes and actually they were quite stampy and toothy, I
wasn’t so keen. But it had been ages since I tried it and maybe all of us riding around together was the way to finally make us best friends.

‘If you like,’ I said, trying to stay tough. But then I completely couldn’t help adding, ‘I can’t wait.’

Whenever I tell my mum about my day, she always knows what the most important bit is.

‘So Ashandra and Kayleigh actually decided they wanted to do something together?’ she asked when I told her about the horse riding.

I nodded.

‘That’s excellent. I’m really pleased. I know how much you want them to get along.’

‘Do you think we can be best friends now?’

She smoothed the hair out of my eyes. ‘I hope you can all be friends, Ella. But remember, you’ve got to give it time. And there are different kinds of friends; as long as
everybody’s happy, that’s the most important thing.’

She squeezed my arm. ‘Which reminds me.’ She looked over at Amelia and Chloe watching TV.

‘I want to talk to you all. Where’s Lucy?’

‘She’s in the Pit,’ I said.

‘She’s always down there now,’ Chloe said.

‘Do you know what she’s doing?’ Mum asked.

Amelia shrugged. ‘She’s probably amassing an army of headless dolls to attack us in the night.’

‘Actually,’ Chloe said, ‘‘if you were going to make an army, probably one with heads would be better. Then they could see what they were attacking.’

Amelia sniffed. ‘Lucy should have thought about that before she popped their heads off.’

Lucy walked into the sitting room.

‘What have you been doing, sweetheart?’ Mum asked.

Lucy thought for a second. Even though she’s only seven, she’s already way too smart to say ‘nothing’ so she said, ‘I was building a Lego dungeon for one of my
dinosaurs. He was visiting the Sylvanian school, but he went crazy and chewed one of the baby rabbits so I had to lock him away.’

Which sounded quite believable for Lucy, but I still thought she was up to something.

‘Anyway, I wanted to speak to you all,’ Mum said. ‘Chloe, turn the TV off.’

Chloe zapped it with the remote.

‘Lucy, last night I told your sisters that I don’t hate your dad and that nobody needs to take sides.’

I expected Lucy to ask a lot of questions, but instead she said, ‘I know that already.’

‘Good. But we need to talk about one more thing,’ Mum said. ‘I also said last night that I’m happy and I really meant it. I don’t want you to think that your dad
“ran off” and I was the one left behind.’

‘But you’d still be together if it wasn’t for Suvi,’ Amelia said.

That wasn’t true, was it?

Mum looked serious. ‘No,’ she said. ‘That’s not how it is. Dad didn’t even meet Suvi until after he’d moved out.’

Amelia pouted. ‘Well, it was all pretty quick, wasn’t it? A year and a half ago you two were still married; now Dad’s got a whole new family!’

‘Sometimes these things happen quickly and I know you haven’t had much time to get used to the idea.’

‘Maybe, if Dad hadn’t rushed into things with Suvi, you and him might have got back together.’

Mum looked round at us and I realised that we were all dead still, waiting to see what she would say to that.

‘Oh, girls, I’m so sorry that this is so difficult for you. But I need you to understand what really happened.’ She looked at each of us in turn. ‘We made a decision,
your father and I, both of us together, that we didn’t want to be married any more. It wasn’t anything to do with anybody else and we were never going to get back together whether Suvi
had come along or not.’

It felt a little bit like things finishing all over again. It’s not like I’d exactly thought my parents would get back together, but Mum saying it would never happen still made my
chest go all tight.

Mum squeezed Amelia’s hand. ‘Dad didn’t abandon me and he didn’t abandon you girls. He wants to see you as much as he can.’

‘So why does he work so much?’ Amelia asked.

Mum’s forehead creased. ‘Work is important to your father; it’s . . . it’s to do with how he grew up, but you should know that you girls come first.’

Amelia tried to interrupt, but Mum went on.

‘Even if he misses things sometimes, even if he’s late, when you really get down to it, you girls are the most important thing in the world to him.’

‘How do you know?’ Lucy asked.

‘Because I feel the same way. Because it’s the one thing that we are in complete agreement on,’ Mum said and pulled us all into a big Strawberry Girls hug.

Ashandra leant me one of her books about ponies. I loved it when the girl in the story, Penny, was chasing the thief and she was urging her pony to go faster through the
moonlit field. They went soaring over the stream, moving as one. It sounded almost like flying.

The couple of times that I’ve actually been riding were a lot more . . . bumpy. You’re supposed to get into the rhythm of the movement, but I ended up feeling like I was sitting on a
washing machine. A washing machine with very long legs. Horses are much bigger than you think.

As soon as we got to the stables on Saturday morning, Kayleigh was whispering away to her special horse friend, Misty. You could tell that Misty was pleased to see her. My problem is that I
don’t speak Horse. I don’t even know how to be around them. I go all stiff and worry that they know that I’m afraid. Like dogs or teachers.

Ashandra was brilliant. Even though it was her first time, she wasn’t scared at all. She did what Kayleigh did and asked lots of questions and some things she just seemed to do naturally.
Ashandra never looks uncomfortable; it’s one of the things I like best about her. She always seems to know what to do and usually that makes me feel better too.

I hoped that I would get a white horse called Moonlight or a black one called Raven, but when Kayleigh’s mum led out my horse he was brown and his name was Oscar. He looked at me and
pulled back his lips to show me what he thought of me.

‘Ah,’ Ashandra said. ‘He’s smiling at you.’

Ashandra never thinks animals want to bite her either.

First, we got the horses ready, then we went for what the teacher lady called ‘a nice gentle round and round’. Which meant following each other in a circle in a big field.

I wasn’t exactly enjoying myself because of the jolting and the quite-far-from-the-groundness, but Ash and Kay were chatting and the sun was shining and there were some little purple
flowers in the hedge, and I thought if I could just keep a good grip on the reins I might make it to the end of the lesson.