The Strawberry Sisters Read online

  ‘Yes, it’s OK, they’re OK. They were by the skate ramp.’

  Mum made a gaspy sound. ‘Oh my goodness. Stay where you are. No, wait, take them home, take them straight home. Don’t stop for anything. I was on my way to check Rose’s house. I’m very close. I’ll be there in three minutes.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Take them back to the house now. Promise me, Ella? Straight back to the house.’

  ‘I promise.’

  We had only just managed to wrestle the pram in through the door when Mum’s car pulled up. She burst in through the door with Chloe and Amelia right behind her. Mum pushed past me and for a moment I thought she was going to shake Lucy, but then she wrapped her arms round her.

  ‘Don’t ever, ever do that again,’ she said. Very gently, she lifted Kirsti out of her pram. ‘Is she all right?’

  ‘She’s fine,’ Lucy said. ‘Why are you fussing?’

  ‘Lucy Jane Strawberry!’ Mum said in a very loud whisper so as not to startle Kirsti. ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know that what you have just done was both remarkably stupid and extremely dangerous! You’re not old enough to be out by yourself and you are certainly not old enough to be in charge of a tiny baby.’

  Lucy’s face crumpled.

  ‘I just wanted Kirsti to come here!’

  Mum handed Kirsti to Amelia and gripped Lucy by the shoulders. ‘Lucy, look at me. You must never go out by yourself again. Promise me.’

  Mum was so serious and quiet-voiced that Lucy was already hiccuping with tears.

  ‘I promise,’ she said.

  ‘Good.’ She pulled Lucy into another hug. ‘You’ve scared us silly. Poor Suvi is beside herself. They’ll be here in a few minutes and you must say how awfully sorry you are.’

  ‘Will they take Kirsti back?’ Lucy asked in a very quiet, un-Lucyish voice.

  Mum’s eyes widened. ‘Of course they will!’

  Lucy’s chin sank to her chest.

  ‘You must have known that would happen,’ Mum said.

  ‘But I thought . . . I thought that if I got Kirsti home then we could all live here.’

  We looked at each other. Lucy was still hoping for one big family house.

  ‘I don’t think Suvi could live here,’ I said. ‘She doesn’t like big messes; she’d go insane just looking at Book Mountain.’

  ‘I know that,’ Lucy said. ‘That’s why I made them something. Look, I’ll show you.’ She turned and went down the stairs to the basement. Mum followed, with her eyebrows up in her hair, and the rest of us trailed behind her. Lucy tore the tape off the door to the Pit and pushed it open.

  Inside was transformed. All the toys and junk had disappeared. The floor had been scrubbed and Lucy’s mural had been painted over (one wall was white and one was lilac: I recognised the paint from the shed). The toy cars and the train track and the dolls’ heads and the leaky felt tips and the piles of Lego were all gone. Everything was very neat and very tidy. The sofa was covered with clean white bedding and Amelia’s old doll’s cot was made up in the corner. I sucked in my breath. Lucy had made a bedroom and it wasn’t hard to guess who for.

  I looked at Lucy. Her red-gold fringe was stuck to her forehead with jam. There was a tomato-sauce stain on her T-shirt. Her elbows were scabbed and there was a streak of dirt across her cheek. Lucy had never made anything neat or tidy in her life. She hated neat and tidy. She hated cleaning up. When she saw white things, her fingers itched to cover them with blobs of colour. But she had made this room. This was how much she wanted Kirsti and Dad and Suvi to live with us. I reached out and held Lucy’s hand.

  ‘Oh, Lucy,’ Mum said. ‘What a lovely thing to do! But Dad and Suvi have got their own house with their things in; they can’t squeeze in here.’

  Lucy’s face crumpled.

  The doorbell rang.

  ‘That will be Dad,’ Amelia said.

  We followed Mum, carrying Kirsti, back upstairs. She opened the door. Suvi reached out for Kirsti in a quick, desperate way and then pulled Lucy to her too. There were tears running down her cheeks. Dad sagged with relief when he saw they were all right.

  ‘Come in,’ Mum said.

  ‘I can wait in the car,’ Suvi said, looking at my dad.

  ‘No, Suvi. If you don’t mind, I’d like it if you both came in,’ Mum said. ‘I think we need to talk to Lucy. All of us.’

  So we all sat down in the sitting room, eight of us including Kirsti. Lucy gazed round at everyone. It was what she’d always wanted: all of us together in the same house. She looked miserable.

  Dad sat down slowly and sucked in air through his nose. He looked exhausted. He took hold of Lucy’s hand. ‘I know you didn’t mean Kirsti any harm, but you put both of you in danger.’

  Lucy blinked.

  ‘Promise me that you will never, ever take Kirsti anywhere, not even out to the garden, unless you have an adult with you.’

  She’d already promised Mum and usually Lucy is always pointing out what she has already done and complaining if someone expects her to do the same thing twice, but she just bowed her head and said, ‘I promise.’

  ‘You’ve frightened us all horribly. We had to call the police. You could have been hurt.’

  Lucy’s face was tight with shame and misery. ‘I didn’t mean to! It wasn’t meant to be scary for you.’

  ‘I just don’t understand why you’d do such a silly thing.’

  Lucy was gulping.

  ‘She’s been missing Kirsti,’ Mum said.

  ‘I know,’ Dad said. ‘And we’ve always been quite happy for her to come round and say hello. She’s very wel—’

  ‘Lucy was hoping that we could all live together,’ Mum said.

  Dad stopped talking.

  ‘In fact, she’s cleaned and redecorated the basement, in the hope that you three could move in down there.’

  Mum looked at Dad, Dad looked at Suvi, Suvi looked at Mum. All the adults in the room were having some sort of conversation with their eyes.

  ‘It’s really nice!’ Lucy said hopefully. ‘I did it properly!’

  Mum looked like she might cry.

  Dad pulled Lucy on to his lap. ‘I’m very sorry, sweetheart, but we can’t live here.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because we’ve got our own home. And that’s your home as well; you’ve got two houses now because you belong to two families. And I know that can be a bit complicated and I know your homes are a bit different, but I want you to try to enjoy both of them.’

  His forehead scrunched in the effort of trying to get things to make sense to Lucy, but I don’t think their divorce will ever really make sense to us.

  ‘Some people don’t mix,’ Dad said. ‘You don’t mush up your chips with your ice cream, do you? You enjoy those things separately. Try and think about your life as if it’s a lovely meal with different courses.’

  ‘I don’t want that!’ Tears were streaming down Lucy’s face. ‘I don’t want a meal! I want everybody all mixed in together. Like a pie! In one big pie!’

  Everybody in the room had wet eyes by now. ‘I know you do,’ Dad said. ‘And I’m really sorry, Lucy, but you can’t have it.’

  And Mum, Dad and Suvi all said a lot more things after that, but basically they all meant just the same thing: no matter how much you wish things were different, you can’t always have what you want.

  Sometimes there isn’t a happy ending to difficult stuff that happens in your life. But sometimes, if you have a lot of people to help you with it, you can start to learn to live with it.

  There wasn’t any magic solution to our family living in two different places; Lucy was always going to find that hard. And, even though we were older, me, Chloe and Amelia were going to find it hard too. But over the next few days Mum, Dad and Suvi all helped us feel a bit better about it.

  They explained that it’s a good thing that our family cares so much about each other and they helped Lucy think of ways to cope with feeling sad. Lucy is going to read
Kirsti a goodnight story every night. If she’s not at Dad’s house, she’ll do it by Skype.

  Because it was half-term, we went to Dad’s house on Wednesday for the whole day. Lucy was still subdued, but I started to think that it was true what Mum said about arguments letting people know how you feel because it does seem like the upset and shouting in the last couple of months have helped us all understand each other a bit better. When Mum dropped us off, she came into Dad’s house and had a cup of tea. She held Kirsti and she talked to Dad and Suvi. It felt like maybe the two halves of our family aren’t so horribly far apart. I don’t think my mum is ever exactly going to be super good friends with Dad and Suvi, but it’s nice to feel that they don’t hate each other and can all talk together about important stuff.

  After Mum had gone, Chloe said, ‘What’s the Plan?’

  And Dad said he thought we should all make the Plans together from now on. We chose to play Cluedo and Dad didn’t switch on the football or check his phone once. But he did ask me what I thought when Amelia and Chloe were having quite a loud discussion about whether belly rings are ridiculous.

  On Thursday, the day of my sleepover, Lucy had cheered up enough to help me make a cushion mountain in the Pit and to lick the bowl that Chloe made the brownies in. Amelia and me blew up balloons and strung up the flower garlands.

  ‘Do you remember at the beginning of term when you said I was nice?’ I asked Amelia.

  ‘Yep. You are.’

  Lucy and Chloe came in with plates of food to put on the table.

  ‘Isn’t Ella nice?’ Amelia asked them.

  ‘Definitely,’ Chloe said.

  Lucy nodded.

  ‘But what does that mean? Doesn’t it mean a bit . . . not anything much?’

  ‘No way!’ Amelia said. ‘It’s hard work being nice. I should know. I’ve been trying it for the last week and I can only really manage it some of the time.’

  ‘Nice means lots of things,’ Chloe said. ‘It’s about thinking about other people’s feelings. I didn’t know that that was important, but you always do it.’

  ‘Do I?’

  ‘Yep,’ Lucy said. ‘You helped me get the paint and you wouldn’t let Amelia in the Pit when I didn’t want anyone in here.’

  ‘And you were nice to Suvi,’ Amelia said. ‘We didn’t even realise she needed being nice to.’ Amelia hadn’t called Suvi the Ice Queen once since she saw her crying over Lucy and Kirsti.

  ‘And me,’ Chloe said. ‘You knew that I couldn’t understand Thunder and Amelia and all their feelings stuff, and you helped me work it out.’

  ‘And you’ve been nice to Alenka in your class by asking her to join Hockey Club and including her in other things,’ Amelia said. ‘Her sister told me.’

  Chloe nodded. ‘And then there’s Ash and Kay. And Mum.’

  ‘You’re the nicest person I know,’ Amelia said, ‘and that’s a really, really good thing.’

  Even though Amelia has been trying not to be mean lately, she still doesn’t say stuff just to make people feel better so I believed her.

  Ash, Kay, Erica, Alenka and also Jess and Nisha from Hockey Club all arrived on time. I thought that was probably everyone, but then the bell rang again and there were Jasmine’s friends, Asia and Courtney.

  They looked a bit sheepish. ‘Jasmine didn’t want us to come,’ Asia said.

  ‘But we thought it was really nice of you to invite us,’ Courtney said and she gave me a box of cupcakes, fancy ones with swirly icing and tiny little gold stars on.

  We put on some music and everyone spread out on the cushions, eating brownies and cupcakes and chatting.

  I looked at Kayleigh drawing a cartoon of Chloe with cake icing on her nose. Ashandra was sitting next to her, reading the back of one of Amelia’s books.

  I know they are different.

  ‘That’s good,’ Ashandra said, looking up and tapping Kayleigh’s drawing.

  But I know that we can all get on.

  Chloe and Thunder were having a competition to see how many Jaffa cakes they could fit in their mouths.

  Amelia was making Courtney and Asia crack up by saying something that probably wasn’t very polite and Lucy was sitting on the table, wearing a crown she’d made out of the leftover tissue paper.

  I love my sisters. They are loud and funny and brimming with self-confidence. But I don’t have to be exactly like them. All these people came to my party and I don’t have to put on an act or pretend to be someone else: they came to see me. I am a nice person. And that means something good. I don’t want to be anybody else. Like my dad said, I’m perfectly Ella and that’s not a bad thing to be at all.

  Can’t get enough of the

  STRAWBERRY SISTERS?

  Want to know how to throw your own Whoopee? How to bake Chloe’s special cupcakes? Or which STRAWBERRY SISTER you’re most like?

  Then turn the page for some fun extras!

  STRAWBERRY SISTERS PROFILES

  AMELIA

  Age: 13

  Hobbies: singing about sad things, painting her nails black and being sarcastic

  Favourite food: pizza

  Favourite phrase: ‘That’s a stupid idea’

  Dream job: singer in a band

  CHLOE

  Age: 12

  Hobbies: wrestling, hockey, rugby (if you can knock your teeth out doing it, Chloe loves it)

  Favourite food: curry, chocolate and cake (sometimes all at the same time)

  Favourite phrase: ‘Can I have some more?’

  Dream job: crisp taster

  ELLA

  Age: 11

  Hobbies: making films with Ashandra and karaoke with Kayleigh

  Favourite food: brownies

  Favourite phrase: ‘I’ll do it’

  Dream job: working with numbers and nice people

  LUCY

  Age: 7

  Hobbies: ballet, magic and being a bat

  Favourite food: spaghetti with tomato ketchup

  Favourite phrase: ‘NO!’

  Dream job: magician or Bat Queen

  KIRSTI

  Age: 0

  Hobbies: dribbling, sleeping and gurgling

  Favourite food: milk

  Favourtie phrase: ‘Waaaaaaaaah!’

  Dream job: cot tester

  WHICH STRAWBERRY SISTER ARE YOU?

  WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE KIND OF MUSIC?

  a) Cheerful pop music you can sing along to

  b) Something with wailing

  c) Anything LOUD

  d) You prefer to make your own music

  MUM SAYS IT’S TIME TO TIDY YOUR ROOM, WHAT’S YOUR RESPONSE?

  a) Sort out your books alphabetically and your socks by colour. Then maybe give your sister a hand with her half of the bedroom.

  b) Sulking

  c) You make it fun by seeing if you can throw or kick everything into the right place

  d) You build a cardboard prison and tidy all your toys into that

  WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER WATCH ON TV?

  a) A good film with a happy ending

  b) A good film with a miserable ending

  c) A football match

  d) A magic show where someone gets chained up underwater

  WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE COLOUR?

  a) Purple

  b) Black

  c) Neon green

  d) All of them

  HOW MANY FRIENDS HAVE YOU GOT?

  a)One or two really good ones

  b) You’re in a gang of six or eight

  c) Too many to count

  d) Lots, but they’re always changing because you get rid of the ones that you’re bored with

  HOW DO YOU LIKE TO SPEND THE WEEKEND?

  a)Hanging out with your friends and family and doing your homework

  b) In your room. Listening to music. Alone.

  c) Swimming, shouting and eating

  d) Working on secret projects

  WHAT’S YOUR BEST SUBJECT AT SCHOOL?

  a) Maths

/>   b) Music

  c) PE

  d) Making the teacher cry

  WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ANIMAL?

  a) Rabbits

  b) Cats

  c) Dogs, especially ones that can do tricks

  d) Bats or anything with really sharp teeth

  WHAT ARE YOU GOOD AT?

  a) Being kind to people

  b) Performing

  c) Sport and eating

  d) Everything

  WHERE WOULD YOU GO ON YOUR DREAM HOLIDAY?

  a) The seaside

  b) A teens-only holiday camp

  c) A caravan park with a swimming pool and lots of entertainment

  d) The jungle

  WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE OUTFIT?

  a)Jeans and a comfy top

  b) Black jeans, black shirt, black hat

  c)A t-shirt with a monkey on and a hat with a straw and a place to put your drink

  d) Snow boots and a tutu

  MOSTLY ‘A’S

  You’re like Ella. You like doing well at school and having fun. You don’t like being the centre of attention. You’re kind and thoughtful and an excellent friend.

  MOSTLY ‘B’S

  You’re like Amelia. You’re a natural leader and you enjoy being centre stage. You hate tidying up and people messing with your stuff. You’ve got lots of friends who think you’re funny and smart.

  MOSTLY ‘C’S

  You’re like Chloe. You love sport, food and playing practical jokes. Your favourite way to spend the day is hanging out with all your friends having really noisy fun.

  MOSTLY ‘D’S

  You’re like Lucy. You don’t like school or being neat, and you hate being told what to do. Grown-ups sometimes think you’re a bit rude, but because you’re so lively and inventive you always have plenty of friends.

  ELLA’S EXCELLENT GUIDE TO HAVING A WHOOPEE

  1. Wait for someone in your family or one of your friends to do well at something. It can be anything really; top marks in a test, learning to swim, passing a music exam. Once we had a Whoopee because Lucy had managed not to be told off at school for a whole week.