‘Well, perhaps I was the only person who noticed that they didn’t begin until you arrived at Coppergate!’ Mr Arora pointed out. ‘And then there was this.’
He opened a drawer in his desk and took out a book. It was Stop the Screaming and Start Sleeping!
I stared at him. ‘You guessed I left it on your desk?’
‘My niece Amber happened to mention that she’d met you outside the classroom door that day,’ Mr Arora replied. ‘And when I saw the book there, I put two and two together and came up with the answer.’ His smile widened. ‘Simi is sleeping right through the night now. Thank you, and my wife says the same.’
‘You’re welcome,’ I murmured, blushing again.
‘Now, shall we go to assembly?’
Mr Arora led me out of the classroom. The school was dead quiet, and I realized that everyone was already in the hall. I thought assembly must have started, but I was wrong. They were waiting for someone.
Me.
As Mr Arora pushed open the glass door and beckoned me through, a thunderous round of applause almost knocked me off my feet. I stopped still, catching my breath.
The first thing I saw was Zara and Henry beaming at me from the rows of Year 7 pupils. Next, I was amazed to see my mum and the twins and Mrs Brodie seated on chairs near the stage. They were nodding and laughing and clapping along with everyone else. Mrs Bright was looking down on me from the platform, a welcoming smile on her face. The Coppergate Cup stood on the table next to her, winking silver in the bright lights.
And then I saw her. Celina. She was sitting on the stage with the mayor and her mum. She wasn’t wearing school uniform, but jeans and a T-shirt. A pair of crutches lay on the floor beside her chair. She looked red with humiliation, and her eyes could not meet mine.
‘That’s my sister!’ Davey yelled as the applause died down into silence.
‘She’s my sister as well!’ Debbie added, poking him fiercely in the ribs.
There was a burst of laughter. Under cover of the noise, I turned to Mr Arora.
‘Sir,’ I said urgently, ‘I don’t think I really deserve this—’
Mr Arora put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Sunita, if anyone deserves this, it’s you. There’s a chair for you next to your mum.’ He gave me a gentle push. ‘Go and sit down.’
I stumbled down the hall towards Mum and sank into the empty chair. My legs were trembling so much, my knees knocked together like cymbals.
‘You didn’t know we were coming, did you, Sunita?’ Davey beamed at me.
‘No, I didn’t,’ I agreed weakly.
‘We only got the phone call this morning,’ Mum whispered in my ear. ‘But we wouldn’t have missed it for anything.’
‘Ssh!’ Debbie said loudly, putting her finger to her lips. ‘Mrs Fright wants to say something.’
‘It’s Mrs Bright, Debbie,’ Mum muttered, turning bright red as the whole school sniggered.
Mrs Bright had stepped to the front of the stage. ‘I’d like to welcome everyone to a very special assembly,’ she said. ‘The theme of our assembly today is courage, and I’d like to begin by highlighting the bravery of one of our pupils.’
I bowed my head, heart racing.
‘As you all know, Sunita Anand in Year Seven rescued her classmate, Celina Patel, from a house fire last Friday.’
I knew Mrs Bright must be staring at me, so I forced myself to look up.
‘After a difficult start, Sunita has settled into our school very well, and we are proud to have her as a pupil here,’ Mrs Bright went on. ‘I have discussed this with the mayor and his family’ – here I glanced at Celina, who seemed to be sinking lower and lower into her chair – ‘and we are all agreed that we would like to present Sunita with the Coppergate Cup in recognition of her bravery.’ She smiled down at me. ‘Sunita? Would you join us on the stage please, so that the mayor can present the cup to you?’
I felt choked as I stood up, applause ringing out on all sides. Mum was already crying before I even reached the steps up to the platform.
‘Very well done, Sunita,’ Mrs Bright said warmly, patting me on the shoulder.
Mr Patel stepped forward and shook my hand, giving it a little squeeze.
‘I am extremely pleased to be here today,’ he said, beaming around at everyone. ‘After the fire, my wife and I decided to take Celina away on holiday for a few weeks to help her to recover from her ordeal. But we felt we simply could not leave without attending this very important ceremony.’
Mrs Patel, who seemed to be trembling on the verge of tears, nodded, while Celina tried not to look as if she’d rather be a million miles away.
‘It makes me very proud to present the Coppergate Cup to an extremely brave young lady,’ the mayor went on, in a voice quite choked with emotion. I couldn’t help glancing again at Celina, who, head bent, was fiddling with her silver bracelet. ‘Well done, Sunita.’ He handed me the cup, which was surprisingly heavy. ‘You’re a credit to Coppergate School, my dear.’
I turned as crimson as Celina – for different reasons, obviously. I felt like I should bow or make a speech or something, but I couldn’t speak. Everyone was still applauding as I took the cup back to my seat, and I knew then that at last I belonged at Coppergate.
The rest of assembly, the readings and the songs, gave me time to calm down and pull myself together. As the rest of the school began to file out of the hall on their way back to class, Mr and Mrs Patel came over to Mum. Celina, who was making a great show of using her crutches, hobbled sulkily along behind them.
‘You must be very proud of your daughter, Mrs Anand,’ said the mayor heartily, shaking Mum’s hand. ‘I can’t tell you how grateful we are for what she did.’
‘I am very proud of Sunita,’ Mum replied, smiling. She slid her arm round my shoulders. ‘For lots of reasons.’
Mrs Patel clutched my arm. ‘I still can’t bear to think about what might have happened—’ She broke off sharply, and gulped several times.
‘Mum, I told you,’ Celina muttered, still unable to meet my eyes, ‘I’m fine.’
‘Have a lovely holiday, Celina,’ I said, with innocence. ‘And I’ll see you when you get back.’
Celina gave me one poisonous glare as the Patels said their goodbyes. You’ve got no power over me now, I told her silently. You’re not the one who’s going to decide if I’m happy or sad, if I go under or if I survive. That’s down to me, and me only.
At that moment Mrs Bright came over to us. ‘Sunita, we have a reporter and a photographer here from the local newspaper,’ she said quietly. ‘They would like a picture of you with the cup, but I have told them you may not want to be interviewed.’ She put a hand on my shoulder. ‘It really is up to you, my dear.’
Mum stared anxiously at me. ‘Don’t do it if you don’t want to, Sunita,’ she whispered. ‘If you’re worried that they might ask about your dad …’
‘They’ll have to get past me first,’ Mrs Bright said fiercely.
I looked across the empty hall. A man with a camera and a young woman with short blonde hair, notebook in hand, were coming towards us.
‘No, it’s fine,’ I said, and my voice was strong and clear. ‘I’d like to talk to them.’
‘Sunita?’ The woman held out her hand to shake mine. ‘I’m Lisa Carmichael from the News. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?’
I shook my head. ‘But there’s something I want to say first.’ I took a deep breath. ‘I want to send a message to my dad.’
Someone, somewhere, would see this message in the newspaper. I was sure of it. And somehow, in some way, Dad would find out about it and hear what I was saying.
‘I want to say’ – my voice trembled a little, and I took another long breath – ‘Dad, we love you. Will you please come home?’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Narinder Dhami is one of three sisters – just like Amber, Geena and Jazz! Narinder originally worked as a primary school teacher but always loved writing. After winning a few writing
competitions, she was encouraged to take the leap to work on a book full-time. Her first book was accepted by a publisher and she’s now been a full-time author for several years. Bhangra Babes is Narinder’s fifth book for Corgi and is a sequel to the hugely popular books Bindi Babes and Bollywood Babes.
To relax, Narinder loves reading murder mysteries, watching football and she is learning Italian. Narinder lives in Cambridge with her husband and four cats. For loads more information, an exclusive web-story and lots of fun stuff, visit www.narinderdhami.com.
Also by Narinder Dhami:
BINDI BABES
BOLLYWOOD BABES
BHANGRA BABES
SUNITA’S SECRET
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 10165 8
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2012
Copyright © Narinder Dhami, 2006
First published in Great Britain
Corgi Yearling 9780440866299 2006
The right of Narinder Dhami to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Sunita’s Secret Page 16