Like One of the Family (26 page)

‘Really well,' Sheena said, after a quick conspiratorial glance at Claire. ‘We're not at liberty to say exactly what,' she went on mysteriously, ‘but it was rather daring.'

‘Yes,' Claire loyally played along with her. ‘It really was.' Actually, Sister Whelan, knowing what to expect from other years, released them an hour before their usual time, and urged them to go straight home. The girls had quickly taken up position outside the school door and begun filling plastic bags with flour. Nothing short of a cylinder of tear-gas could have deflected them.

A kind of madness seemed to possess everyone. Even girls renowned for their gentle dispositions became spitefully aggressive as soon as the teachers emerged, and when one or two hapless first years were caught in the cross-fire and fled, drenched and screaming, there was unkind laughter. Sister Whelan was framed in an upper window but she was too far away for anyone to read her expression. Claire couldn't help feeling uneasy as she watched the Irish teacher retreat weeping down the driveway. Poor thing, she thought, meeting Imelda's half-shamed glance. Some of the girls excitedly went in search of fresh prey, but Claire and Sheena went home. Although they had half-heartedly joined in the fray neither were in favour of the gag, considering it too childish and messy.

‘The nuns put a stop to it at once, rotten old spoilsports,' Sheen was saying. ‘I suppose they just considered it too daring.'

Claire nodded loyally.

‘Daring, was it?' Terry asked with an evil grin.

‘More risqué, wouldn't you say, Claire?'

Again Claire nodded. She saw Terry doubling over, howling delightedly. ‘Flourballs and eggs, wasn't it?' he asked, calming at last. ‘Boy, oh boy, how daringly risqué can you get!'

Compared to his brilliant gag, theirs couldn't have appeared more feeble.

With her exams only days away, Claire sat in her room hunched over her work table, reading the same passage of prose over and over without registering any of it. She sighed and pushed away her books.

Two nights before she had allowed Sheena to persuade her to go with Terry and herself to the Wolfhound Bar to celebrate the end of their schooldays. The pub had been packed out with sixth-formers from St Catherine's and St Gabriel's and other schools in the area, and everyone was drinking pints and intent on having a good time. One of the sixth-formers from the Dominicans had made a real set for Terry and lured him away to join her group. To Claire's secret delight, he had come back to Sheena and herself and suggested that, as soon as the pub closed, they should head into town to a nightclub. But then the fun had grown rowdier. Someone lurched into Rory, who fell against an ornamental stone flowerpot, gashing his head. Terry had called an ambulance and gone off in it with Rory, promising that the pair of them would meet up with Sheena and herself in the Grey Lizard just as soon Rory's head was stitched. Only they had never turned up.

Claire felt again her acute disappointment at the way the evening had ended. In the urgent expression in Terry's eyes when he'd said goodbye to her she had seen how much he had wanted to meet her. So what could have happened?

Claire heaved another frustrated sigh, and as her gaze wandered down to the street below, she glimpsed a flash of red coming in the gate. Sheena. She got to her feet and ran downstairs.

‘Hope you've got graph paper,' Sheena said, coming into the hall. ‘I'm all out and haven't time to go and buy any.'

‘Sure,' Claire said, leading the way up to her room. ‘I've plenty. You're welcome to it.' She bent and rummaged in the bottom of her wardrobe.

‘Listen,' Sheena was saying. ‘I'm sure you'd like to know what happened the other night.'

An understatement if Claire ever heard one. Dying to know would be nearer the mark. She straightened up, paper in hand. ‘What did happen?'

‘Well, it seems the boys were kept waiting so long at the hospital that Terry decided to bring Rory to Mum's clinic,' Sheena told her. ‘Mind you it was late by the time she stitched him up, nearly one o'clock, but we were at the club till well after two.'

‘Why didn't they?' Claire asked, feeling disappointed all over again.

‘Terry never really said but he was out all night, so I think it had something to do with Grainne. She was on with Mum and you know how she's been after him for ages.'

Claire felt her spirits sink. And to think she had been jealous of the girl in the Wolfhound! A mere sixth-former like herself. She gave Sheena the graph paper and walked downstairs with her.

‘Don't work too hard,' Sheena said gaily, and went back across the road to her own house. She was going to a play that night with Rory.

Claire 's feet dragged as she went back upstairs. So Grainne had got what she was after. If Terry had stayed out all night, he'd obviously gone home with her without a thought for any of them, waiting like fools. Claire felt like crying.

Then she was angry with herself. Was she going to die the death every time Terry McArdle went with a girl? Why allow him do this to her? He probably wasn't even aware he was doing it. She sighed and doodled aimlessly on her Chemistry notes. Terry was Terry. He wasn't going to change. People never did. But he wasn't people, Claire thought sorrowfully, he was Terry.

She stabbed her pen into the paper, making crazy zigzag patterns. Better cut off now before he ruined her life. But her life was already ruined, Claire thought. She had already accepted this. So what difference did it make what she did?

The end of May and beginning of June passed in a blur of exhaustion. Claire was in danger of collapse before the exams and felt so bad that she took Jane's advice and eased off the few days beforehand. She would well anyway, unless she messed up the papers through exhaustion or nervousness.

Claire wrote good papers and made no slip-ups.

Nothing major anyway. Not the kind of mistakes which would pull her down to a C in weaker subjects or rob her of an A in her best ones, like English and History.

When the whole ordeal was over Claire no longer cared whether she did brilliantly or not. She felt flat, as if the prize she had slaved her guts over wasn't really worth the winning. Sheena said she understood how she felt, but Jane had given her the good news about her scholarship to the Art College.

It was a terrible anti-climax having nothing to do.

When her exam results were out in August Claire would find that she had done not just well but very well. As in English, History and Physics; B's in her other subjects. Annette took Claire out for a meal in her own favourite Italian restaurant and shared a bottle of wine with her. But that wasn't until August. In the meantime Claire went on holidays to Spain with the McArdles.

During the year Jane had decided to sell the holiday bungalow. She got a good price for it, even more than she had hoped for and, feeling the need of a relaxing holiday in the sun, booked a fortnight in Spain for them all. On the day she told them the good news she had the flight tickets in her bag.

‘Yippee!' Sheena cried when she heard. Even Ruthie was excited, a flush staining her pale cheeks.

‘There's a ticket for Claire too,' Jane said with a smile. She had deliberately waited until Claire was there with them before breaking the news. Claire blushed with shock, unable to believe her ears.

‘M..me,' she stammered. ‘Oh but you shouldn't... I mean I really couldn't...'

Jane went over and hugged her. ‘Of course you could. It's what we all want, isn't it?' she asked, looking about at her children. Sheena and Ruthie gave an eager assent. Terry's yes was a little less hearty than the others but not because he didn't approve, just that he was struggling with something that had to be said.

‘Mum,' he said with a frown. ‘Don't think I'm not grateful or anything but...'

‘Yes?' Jane prompted.

‘The fact is, I can't come with you.' It was out in a rush and Terry looked grimmer than ever.

‘Not come,' Sheena burst out. ‘Don't be mad, Ter. Of course you're coming.'

‘Sheena!' Jane motioned her to be quiet. ‘Why, Terry?' she asked him.

‘I'm going to America for the summer.' Terry looked embarrassed. ‘I've promised some of the other chaps. I can't let them down.'

‘Well, of all the scabby things,' Sheena burst out. ‘Here Mum goes and books us a terrific holiday and you want to go to America. I've never heard anything so rotten in my life.' Sheena's expression was so disgusted that, despite her own disappointment, Jane had to smile.

‘It is a pity,' she agreed gently. ‘It would have been nice, all of us together. A really decent holiday in the sun. In the past your father and I sometimes talked about it, but somehow we never got beyond the planning stage.''

‘Don't make me feel bad now, Mum,' Terry pleaded. ‘It's all arranged. I've booked through the student travel bureau and even got my J1. I can't change it now.'

‘Well then, I suppose I'll just have to try and see if I can get a refund,' Jane said lightly, but there was a pained look in her eyes. She had so looked forward to telling them all.

‘Really rotten,' Sheena repeated with a disgusted glance at her twin. He glared back at her, then went out banging the door after him.

Sheena looked at Claire, ‘Thank goodness, you're coming,' she said. ‘Terry really is a pain, isn't he?'

Claire smiled weakly, reluctant to take sides. When she examined it later she would be both disappointed and relieved that Terry wasn't going, but now she was still trying to take in the fact that she would be going abroad. A whole fortnight in Spain. She had never even been out of Ireland before. She was actually reading a book at the moment, all about Spain and bullfighting. It suddenly seemed astonishingly appropriate, she told them.

‘Will we go to a bullfight?' Ruthie asked suddenly.

‘Bullfights are shockingly gory,' Sheena teased. ‘Bet you won't like it, Ruthie. She spent most of
Bonnie and Clyde
under the couch when it was shown on television,' Sheena told Claire with a grin.

‘I did not,' Ruthie said indignantly.

Claire laughed. ‘Don't mind her, Ruthie,' she said. ‘I kept my eyes closed most of the time, too.'

‘So there!' Ruthie said triumphantly to Sheena.

‘Okay, go to a bullfight,' Sheena said. ‘Just don't say I didn't warn you.'

‘Gosh!' she said a moment later. ‘I can't believe we're really going to Spain.'

Neither could Claire. She felt she simply had to tell someone her wonderful news and, letting herself into her house, ran into the kitchen where Annette was at the stove frying hamburgers.

‘Guess what, Mummy?' Claire cried. ‘I'm going to Spain with the McArdles.'

Annette stared. ‘I suppose she wants you to help out with Ruthie,' she said at last.

The glow faded from Claire's face. ‘I don't mind if she does,' she said stiffly.

‘From all she tells me that child is quite a handful,' Annette went on. ‘You'll earn your holiday looking after her.'

Claire turned away and began laying the table for the tea, thinking whenever she found herself getting on with her mother a little better, Annette always went and said something that grated on her.

‘Some people have all the luck,' Annette was saying. ‘He must have left her very well off if she can take the whole family abroad like, that while here am I with hardly enough to pay our television rental.' Deftly, she turned the burgers and added sliced onion to the pan. ‘How long are you going for?'

‘Only a fortnight,' Claire said. ‘Usually I'm away much longer.'

‘You'll need new clothes. Well, don't expect me to tog you out on the money your father allows me. Let Mr Family Man contribute towards his daughter's holiday wardrobe.'

As if she could ring her father and ask him for money.

‘I suppose I should be thankful having so much time to myself,' Annette broke the silence. Christopher was spending most of the summer with his father.

‘What will you do?' Claire asked, refusing to feel guilty.

Annette laughed mirthlessly. ‘Let me see. I've a huge range to choose from, haven't I? Honestly, Claire. What a question.' She sounded scornful. ‘I'll do what I always do when you're away. Sit here on my own and read.'

And drink. Claire was ashamed of her thoughts. She banished them and gave herself over to the delightful contemplation of two weeks in the sun with the McArdles.

The girls were instantly enamoured with Hotel El Murillo. It was a family-run hotel with an unpretentious entrance and magnificent gardens overlooking the sea. There was one swimming pool of respectable proportions, with a shallow section for younger children and a tiny play area concealed within a flowery arbour. The food was very good, but best of all was the genuinely friendly atmosphere.

Ignacio, the manager, was plump and smiling. He made a pet of Ruthie and when she became friendly with his little daughter, Adela, he encouraged them to come to the bar for free Cokes and limonada. The girls joked about her drinks on the house - they had to pay for theirs! But in reality Sheena and Claire received a similar flattering amount of attention from the waiters, who brought them tit-bits on the sly and blew them extravagant kisses behind Jane's back. Sheena regally accepted their homage as her right. Claire did not have such a high regard for herself and was just as happy to let Sheena have the limelight.

She fished in her bag for a book and contentedly turned the pages. Close by, Ruthie splashed about in the shallows with Adela and some other little Spanish girls. Claire reflected that on this holiday so little was needed to keep Ruthie amused. She seemed happy to play in the water all day with her new friends, and their excited cries mingled with the shouts of swimmers as they tossed a red beach hall to one another in an endless game of
Burro
.