The Strawberry Sisters (16 page)

‘She does that anyway,’ Lucy said.

Amelia took a notepad out of her bag and started writing a list.

‘If it’s going to be tomorrow after the inspection is finished, we have to sort out decorations and presents tonight.’

‘I’m going to do a really good present,’ Lucy said. ‘Who can give me some money?’

‘Presents are supposed to be home-made, remember?’ I said.

Lucy put her hands on her hips. ‘I know that, but I need to buy the things to make it out of.’

‘We’re going to have to go shopping,’ Chloe said.

We stared at each other. Amelia and Chloe are allowed to go into town by themselves. Lucy and me aren’t.

Lucy sensed she was about to be left behind. ‘No way! I need to come. I need to get things.’

‘Tell us what you want and we’ll get them,’ Chloe said.

‘I don’t know exactly what they are yet! I have to see things; you can’t do it for me, you don’t have my . . . my visions! My visions of a completely delightful
present.’

We burst out laughing.

‘Shut up!’ Lucy said and she kicked Chloe in the shins.

‘You can’t come,’ Amelia said. ‘We’d need an adult for us all to go. Dad’s not back yet and he probably won’t be for ages.’

‘We could ask Suvi,’ I said quietly.

‘No,’ Amelia snapped. ‘This isn’t anything to do with her. This is for Mum.’

‘She doesn’t have to be part of it. We could just ask her to drive us.’

It took me ten minutes to persuade Amelia and, in the end, it was only because she was convinced that Suvi would say no that she said I could ask if I really wanted to.

‘But don’t tell her everything,’ Amelia said. ‘This is our business.’

So I went downstairs.

‘Suvi?’

She was bouncing Kirsti on her lap.

‘Yes.’

‘Can I ask you a favour?’

‘Sure.’

‘It’s sort of a secret, but we need to go to the shops. It’s because M—’

‘Stop.’ Suvi held up a hand. ‘Don’t tell me more if it’s a secret. I can take you to the shops.’

‘All of us?’

That surprised her. ‘OK.’ Her face clouded. ‘Except we won’t all fit in my car; it’s even smaller than your father’s.’

‘I could stay behind,’ I said.

‘No, no one is getting left behind,’ Suvi said. And I was glad she did.

So we took the bus. We went to the shopping centre on the edge of town. First, we went in the big hobby shop to get art supplies and then in the massive supermarket to buy cake ingredients.

When we got back, Dad still wasn’t home. Suvi checked her phone.

‘He’s going to be very late again,’ she said.

Lucy gathered up the crêpe paper and glue she’d made Amelia buy for her.

‘Can I make this in your bedroom where no one can see?’ she asked Suvi.

‘Yes,’ Suvi said.

‘You’re not very nosy for a grown-up,’ Lucy said.

Suvi seemed to appreciate that this was a compliment.

‘Are you sure it’s OK for her to use your room?’ I asked. ‘What if she gets glue on the carpet or pen on the duvet cover?’

‘If Lucy gets any mess anywhere, she will scrub the stains out of course.’

I watched Lucy take this in. She nodded to Suvi and walked upstairs with great dignity.

‘Bet she doesn’t spill a drop,’ Chloe said.

Suvi handles things in a completely different way to my mum or my dad, but it’s quite effective.

When Lucy came to find us in our bedroom where we were making bunting from flowery wrapping paper, she had something behind her back.

‘Ta-dah!’ And she held up a flower made out of pipe cleaners and crêpe paper.

‘Wow, Lucy,’ Chloe said. ‘That is actually really nice.’

‘Why do you sound so surprised? You sound like Mrs Horton when she’s telling me that I’m allowed to go out to play for once because I’ve behaved in the lesson.’ She
screwed up her nose. ‘Or at least I think that’s what she sounds like. She hasn’t said it for a long time.’

‘Chloe just means that it’s a lovely flower,’ I said.

Lucy pouted. ‘It’s not a flower.’

‘Really? Because it’s a good one,’ Chloe said.

‘It’s not a flower.’

I took a closer look. ‘But it’s got petals and a stem and leaves and everything. What is it then?’

‘It’s a bee swatter.’

Amelia looked up from her snipping. ‘A bee swatter? Seriously?’

‘Yes,’ said Lucy in a voice that was stretched out tight like a rubber band. ‘You put a bit of honey in here.’ She pointed to the top of the rolled-up stem. ‘And
the bee sniffs it.’ She mimed a sniffing bee. ‘And you keep very quiet.’ She dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘And he crawls in and then when he’s inside you go . . .
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!’ She slapped the flower hard against the bed. ‘And your bee problem is solved.’

Amelia bit her lip. Chloe squeezed her mouth shut and looked out of the window.

‘So what’s with the petals?’ I asked in a voice with only a tiny wobble of a laugh in it.

‘Obviously, it looks like a flower so you can lure the bee in.’

A snort escaped from Amelia. ‘Lucy, for a seven-year-old, you use the word “lure” far too much.’

‘Still looks like a flower to me,’ Chloe said.

‘That’s because you’ve got the brains of a bee,’ Lucy said.

Chloe stuck her tongue out.

‘Mum can use it as a flower,’ I said to Chloe. ‘She can put in a vase on the mantelpiece.’

Lucy scowled. ‘She can if she wants people to say, “Why have you got that bee swatter in a vase?”’ She gently wrapped her creation in some of the flowery wrapping paper
and stuck it down with a piece of Sellotape bitten off with her teeth. ‘Urgh, can we get some strawberry-flavoured Sellotape?’

‘They don’t make strawberry Sellotape,’ Amelia said.

‘Yes they do. I saw it in the shop; it’s got little pictures of strawberries on.’

‘What do you think my Hello Kitty tape tastes of?’ I asked. ‘Cat?’

‘Probably.’

‘What does cat taste like?’ Chloe asked.

‘Fluffy.’ And Lucy scooped up her bee swatter parcel and flounced out of the room.

‘She would know,’ Amelia said. ‘Remember when next-door’s cat bit her? She bit it back.’

When we’d finished the decorations, we moved on to our presents. Amelia locked herself in the bathroom so I didn’t know what she was doing. Chloe made a bead bracelet for Mum. She
always makes bead bracelets for Whoopees, but she chooses all the different beads to mean something so it’s extra cool. She used a handful of smiley-face beads to represent Mum’s pupils
and in the middle she put a big gold-star bead to show what a good teacher Mum is.

‘That’s original,’ Amelia said when she came out of the bathroom and saw that Chloe was making her usual bracelet present. She hasn’t completely given up saying rude,
sarcastic things.

‘Just because you’ve chucked away all the bracelets I worked hard to make for you,’ Chloe said.

‘Look, Amelia,’ I interrupted. ‘I’ve made Mum some more marking labels.’

I’d thought really hard about a present that would be useful to Mum. So I used Dad’s computer to make more labels. This time they were for maths books; they said ‘
Always
show your working!
’ ‘
Practise your table facts
’ and ‘
Use the chunking method
’.

‘Nice, you’ve done a good job,’ Amelia said. She looked sideways at Chloe. ‘We’ve all done a good job. Mum’s going to love it.’

Chloe’s shoulders relaxed a bit and things went smoothly for the rest of the evening.

I was almost asleep when Chloe and Amelia came to bed. I heard Suvi whisper to them, ‘Have you got everything you need packed up?’

‘Yep,’ Chloe said. ‘Thanks so much for helping us today.’

‘You’re welcome.’

I heard the floorboards creak as she crept away and Amelia said, ‘Suvi?’

‘Yes?’

‘Goodnight.’

I couldn’t see in the dark, but I was pretty sure that Suvi was doing her smiley eyes.

It felt nicer in our bedroom than it had for a long time. I didn’t worry about anything as I drifted off to sleep. It’s amazing what a difference a tiny thing like a
‘goodnight’ can make.

We raced home from school the next day and Amelia and I decorated while Chloe made fairy cakes. Lucy was at After School Club, but we promised to use the things she’d
made the night before.

When we were little, we used to decorate each other’s bedrooms with bead necklaces and bits of Christmas tinsel. The paper bunting looked much fancier, and Amelia had shown us how to make
tissue-paper flowers and string them into a garland too. We looped that right across Mum’s bedroom. It looked awesome.

Lucy had drawn a series of pictures, including one of all of us eating fairy cakes and one of the inspectors being blown up. We arranged them like a comic strip on the door. Then we went to help
Chloe ice the cakes. They were still slightly warm from the oven, which made the icing a bit melty, but Chloe studded them with sugar roses and overall they looked really pretty.

When Mum’s car drew up, we scrambled back up to her bedroom with our presents and the cakes on a cardboard cake stand. We heard Lucy first.

‘Count to twenty then come upstairs,’ she told Mum.

‘This is very mysterious,’ Mum said.

Lucy came thundering upstairs to join us. She looked up at the bunting and the flower garlands and mimed a ‘Wow’.

I had to hold in a giggle while we listened to Mum coming up the stairs and along the landing. She tapped on the door.

‘Come in!’ said Lucy in such a serious, deep voice that my giggle escaped.

Mum pushed open the door and looked round at the pretty paper decorations and the parcels and the cakes on the bed.

‘Oh, girls, it’s a Whoopee!’

Her voice was a little bit wobbly.

Lucy held on to the end of the bed and jumped up and down. ‘For you! Because you’ve been inspectored.’

‘I can’t think of anything more likely to cheer me up. What a lovely surprise! Who made these cakes?’

‘I did,’ Chloe said. ‘Shall we eat some?’

‘Let her open her presents first,’ Amelia said.

So Mum opened her things. She put on her bracelet and she tucked my labels into her work bag straight away.

‘They’ll save me hours, Ella!’ she said. ‘That’s a true gift.’

Amelia’s present looked a bit small. It was just an envelope. Mum opened it and pulled out a letter. While she read it, her eyes were smiley like Suvi’s, but full of tears too.

When she’d finished reading, she pulled Amelia into a hug.

‘What was it?’ Lucy asked. ‘What did she give you?’

‘I think it was a private letter,’ Mum said.

Amelia was bright pink. She shrugged. ‘I just said I’m sorry I’ve been such a whiney idiot and that I can see now that maybe moaning about Dad wasn’t the best way to show
my support for Mum, and that perhaps I could babysit for you pack of crazy monkeys some time.’

It sounded like she was going to try and carry on being not horrible. I thought that was a brilliant present.

‘But you’re supposed to make something!’ Lucy said.

‘She did make something,’ Mum said. ‘She made amends.’

‘That means she’s sorry,’ Chloe explained to Lucy.

‘Well, she could have done that ages ago,’ Lucy said. ‘Open mine!’ she said to Mum. ‘Mine’s better than a sorry. Mine’s got a whole roll of crêpe
paper in it.’

Very gently, Mum opened Lucy’s parcel. She smiled when she got to Lucy’s creation.

‘That is the most beautiful fl—’

‘Bee swatter,’ Lucy interrupted.

‘Obviously,’ Mum said. ‘Quite clearly the most beautiful bee swatter I have ever seen. Thank you so much, girls.’

Chloe put on some music and Lucy acted out how to use the bee swatter again. Then Chloe imitated Lucy trying to persuade Madame Donna to wear a blindfold so that she can throw knives at her.

We laughed and laughed.

‘Goodness, girls, you’ve really helped me forget all about those stupid inspectors,’ Mum said.

‘What were they like?’ Lucy asked. ‘Did they tell you you’re rubbish?’

Amelia jabbed Lucy in the ribs. ‘What?’ Lucy asked. ‘It was Mum that said she hadn’t done enough work.’

Mum’s face clouded. ‘Lucy’s right. I wasn’t properly prepared for this. I kept putting things off, which I’m always telling you lot not to do. And then, when I did
finally get down to it, I kept staying up too late and wearing myself out. I don’t think I’ve set a very good example.’

Amelia had coloured up again. ‘You kept putting off your work so you could do things with us and sort stuff out for us.’

‘That’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m your mum.’

‘But we’re not babies any more. We could do more to help you.’ Amelia looked round at us. ‘We can make our own packed lunches and do our own washing and
ironing.’

Lucy’s eyes lit up.

‘I’ll do Lucy’s ironing,’ Mum said firmly.

‘We can keep on making the tea when you’ve got a meeting after school,’ Chloe said.

‘We could do it every night,’ I said.

Mum smiled. ‘Maybe a couple of nights a week.’

‘And we could all do a better job of keeping the house tidy,’ Amelia said. ‘Instead of leaving it to Mum.’ She looked at me. ‘And Ella.’

I blushed. I hadn’t realised that Amelia had noticed me helping Mum recently. It was nice to know she had.