Strawberry Sisters (10 page)

When I got home, I went up to my bedroom and thought long and hard about what to do. I really needed to see Lauren, but her mum was clearly going to get in the way of that. I picked up my phone.
What if Lauren was still asleep and her mum answered her mobile? What if no one answered and I had to leave a message? What would I say? Finally, I found a piece of paper and pen and tried to write
something down. I crossed bits out and added things until I ended up with something that I thought was OK.

I decided it was best not to mention how mean her mum had been. I copied the whole thing out, put it in an envelope and slipped it into my bag so I could deliver it on the way to school.

In the morning, I snuck the letter through Lauren’s door without her mum pouncing on me and then, in the middle of maths, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. When Mr
Ireland turned his back, I slipped it out and took a quick look under the table. It was a text from Lauren.

I’m sorry too. I really want to talk to you. Can you come round tomorrow at ten?

I felt my shoulders relax. Maybe now this could finally be sorted out.

It was our weekend at Dad’s so, in the morning, he gave me a lift to Lauren’s house. After I’d got out of the car, it took me a moment to work up the courage
to walk down the drive. I couldn’t help thinking about the previous Saturday, when I’d woken up feeling so cheerful, compared to the sinking feeling I had in my stomach now. I was
afraid of what kind of reception Lauren’s mum was going to give me. What if she just told me to go away again? But I had to talk to Lauren so I marched up to their door and pressed the bell
firmly.

After all that, it was Lauren’s dad who opened the door.

‘Hello, Amelia,’ he said. ‘Lauren’s upstairs; go on up.’

‘Thanks.’ I don’t see Lauren’s dad that much because he’s always travelling for his job but he’s definitely a lot friendlier than her mum.

Upstairs, Lauren’s bedroom door was closed. Normally, I’d have walked right in, but for some reason I knocked.

‘Come in,’ Lauren said.

I pushed open the door.

She was lying in bed, propped up on pillows. She looked awful.

‘You look awful,’ I said. My heart was off at a gallop again. What if there really was something horribly wrong with her?

‘Thanks,’ Lauren said. ‘You look pretty disgusting yourself. I think it’s your rat teeth. Or it might be your caterpillar eyebrows.’

I tried to laugh, but it stuck in my throat. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘About being cross about bowling.’

‘It doesn’t matter. I should’ve just said yes.’

‘But you weren’t well enough, were you?’

She tensed. ‘I was just tired.’

‘It’s more than that though, isn’t it?’

‘No.’ She said it forcefully. ‘I’m just run down. It’s this time of year: everybody gets sick.’

‘But you’ve been sick for months.’

She pushed herself more upright. ‘I’ve only had a few days off school.’

‘It’s more than a few. All those days you said you were going to the orthodontist . . .’

Her eyes widened and I could tell that I’d struck on the truth.

‘There was nothing wrong with your brace, was there?’ My voice was getting louder.

She looked away. A horrible thought occurred to me.

‘Oh my God, you didn’t really go away for half-term, did you?’

She sucked in a breath. She’d lied to me; she’d lied so much. But then tears started rolling down her face and the red-hot anger inside of me just turned to icy fear. ‘Why did
you lie to me, Loz?’ I could hardly get the words out.

She looked up at me. ‘I didn’t mean to.’ She gulped. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Ever since the glandular fever, I’ve been so tired and
sometimes I think I’m all right and I go out and do something and then I feel so exhausted again that I can’t even get out of bed.’

I sat down beside her. ‘Why didn’t you say?’

‘I did in the beginning. But you got annoyed in the summer holidays when I was too tired to do things. You kept expecting me to have got over it.’

I felt my face getting warm. I remembered dragging her to the lido when she’d said she didn’t have the energy.

‘And it’s boring,’ she went on. ‘It’s really boring always having to tell people you can’t do things, or that you need to stop and rest, or that you
can’t even walk home from school. I just didn’t want to talk about it any more.’ She wiped away more tears. ‘And it’s scary. I don’t know what’s happening.
I try not to think about it.’

‘Have you been to the doctor?’

Lauren rolled her eyes. ‘I’m practically living at the doctor’s.’

My mouth was dry. ‘What do they say is the matter with you?’

‘First, they said it was the after-effects of the glandular fever, then they said I was anaemic and then they said I was depressed.’ She slumped back on to her pillows.
‘Basically, they haven’t got a clue.’

We were quiet for a moment. I was relieved that she wasn’t dying, but I could see how horrible it must be not knowing exactly what the problem was.

‘I wish you’d talked to me about it,’ I said.

‘We’ve got better things to talk about.’

‘Lauren, I’m your friend. I’m not just your friend when we’re having a laugh and talking about Cute Josh. I’m your friend when bad things happen too. I’m kind
of hurt that you didn’t tell me about any of this.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘I just kept hoping it would go away and it’s not very . . . nice.’

‘I’m always here. For the not-nice stuff too. Especially for the not-nice stuff.’

She gave me a watery smile. ‘Thanks, Amelia.’

I gave her a hug. ‘So what happens now? Is there something the doctors can do?’

‘I’m having tests. Mostly they just say I need to take it easy. My mum’s been talking to Iron Hair about me going part time at school.’

My heart plummeted, but I pulled my mouth into a smile. ‘Well, that’s something. The best way to attend school is not very often.’

She couldn’t return the smile. It’s funny how, even though we both say that we hate school, not being able to go is kind of a big deal. I squeezed her hand. ‘Don’t
worry,’ I said. ‘It’s not forever. You’ll be better soon and then you’ll be back in the madhouse full time with the rest of us.’

She nodded, but I could tell that she didn’t believe it.

We only got to chat for a few minutes more before Lauren’s mum appeared at the door and said, ‘I think Lauren needs to rest now, Amelia.’

Lauren really did look shattered so I gave her a hug and said goodbye.

Mrs Anderson closed Lauren’s door behind us and I followed her down the stairs in silence. At the bottom, she turned round to face me.

‘Lauren tells me that she hasn’t been entirely honest about her illness with you.’

Even though I wouldn’t have said anything myself, I was glad that Lauren had because I didn’t want her mum thinking I was a horrible friend.

‘I didn’t know she was so ill,’ I said. ‘And I honestly never meant to upset her.’

‘I’m sorry if I was a bit short with you the other day. I thought that Lauren had explained things to you.’

‘That’s OK,’ I said, even though it wasn’t a particularly warm apology.

‘Lauren
is
ill,’ she said as if she needed to keep repeating it in case I was too stupid to understand. ‘She has very limited reserves of energy, which means she tires
easily. I’d be grateful if you could do your utmost to avoid wearing Lauren out.’

‘Of course,’ I said. ‘I’ll keep an eye on her.’

And she opened the door for me to leave.

I couldn’t help feeling that she still wasn’t that keen on me.

I was looking forward to Mum getting home from work on Monday night so that I could talk to her about Lauren. But, as usual, my house was complete madness until we’d all
got in from school and sorted out tea. So I waited until after we’d eaten and I’d reminded Chloe it was her turn to supervise Lucy doing the washing-up.

‘I don’t need supervising,’ Lucy complained. ‘I’m already super.’

‘Fine,’ Chloe said, opening her wrestling magazine. ‘I won’t supervise you; I’ll just watch you to make sure you do it right.’

‘I don’t need that either!’

Leaving them to it, I went to find Mum. She was standing in front of her wardrobe staring at the contents.

‘Do you think these blouses make me look old?’ she asked.

‘You are old,’ I answered.

Mum laughed. ‘I know I seem ancient to you, but in the grand scheme of things forty is actually—’

‘Very old.’

Mum shook her head. ‘But do you think I should get some new outfits?’

I nearly said I didn’t think it mattered because I didn’t imagine anyone would notice, but it seemed like Mum was a bit bothered by her clothes all of a sudden, so I said,
‘Yes, why don’t you go shopping and get something that you really like?’

‘Something youthful?’

‘Why do you care about how wrinkly you look anyway? You’re always telling us that it’s what’s inside that counts.’

Mum sat down on the bed. ‘That’s true. It’s not that I really want to look young; it’s more that I’ve realised that I haven’t given much thought to my image
for a long time. Most of these things I bought when I went back to work after Ella was born and that was over a decade ago.’

‘Then you should get some new stuff. Is it to wear to work?’

‘Maybe. I thought it’d be nice to have some casual things to wear out as well.’

‘Out?’

‘Mmm, you know, at the weekend or to my book club.’

Now I got it. Mum wanted some new clothes to impress her new friends at book club. ‘You should definitely go shopping,’ I said.

Mum nodded. ‘Perhaps I will.’

It seemed to me that she was thinking about something other than just clothes, but before I could ask she said, ‘Now what can I do for you? You look like you’ve got something on your
mind.’

So I told her about Lauren.

‘Oh dear,’ she said when I’d finished. ‘Poor Lauren. It’s so hard to be struggling with your health.’

I thought that made Lauren sound like a pensioner who can’t walk without one of those frames and wheezes every time they stand up. ‘It’s not that bad,’ I said.
‘Sometimes she’s completely fine. And the doctors are doing tests on her so they can find out exactly what it is.’

‘That’s good. Just remember she might not be able to manage to do everything she did before. You’ll have to be patient with her.’

‘Of course I’ll be patient with her!’

Mum patted my arm. ‘I’m sure you will, sweetheart. I’m just saying that things might be a bit different from before.’

Personally, I thought that things could only be better than they’d been for the last couple of months because at least now I knew what was going on. If Lauren needed a rest or for me to
carry her bag then she could actually tell me, and we wouldn’t fall out because she was trying to hide how tired she felt and being weird. But I didn’t get to say this to Mum because
Chloe bellowed up the stairs, ‘
MUUUUUUUUUUM!
’

‘What is it?’ Mum called back in a normal voice, which is actually all it takes to be heard between upstairs and downstairs.

‘There’s a man on the phone who wants to interview me about that letter Suvi helped me write to the paper about what pigs they’re being at the rugby club, but he says he has to
talk to you first in case he’s dodgy and a kidnapper. I told him that I could tell he wasn’t a kidnapper because a kidnapper wouldn’t say he wanted to talk to you, but he says he
still has to talk to you and you have to be there when he interviews me, but it can be all my words. But he says they probably won’t call the rugby club pigs. Can you come down?’