by Judi Curtin
Aretta put her arm around him. ‘That’s my father,’ she said proudly. ‘And when our asylum is granted, people will be queuing up to give him work. He will be the most famous garden designer in the whole country.’
And I had a funny feeling she was right.
Half way through the afternoon, the work was finally finished. I stood up from where I’d been planting small blue flowers, wondering if I’d ever be able to straighten my back properly again.
‘Thank you all so much,’ said Maggie. ‘I now have the most beautiful garden in Ireland. My brother is on his way over to tidy up the last few pieces, and while he’s doing that, I would like you all to go home and wash and change.’
‘You saying we’re dirty?’ I said, stepping forward so everyone could see my clothes that were covered in blue paint, cement and general mucky stuff.
‘Whatever,’ said Maggie. ‘Anyway, everyone is to take an hour off, and please come back at five o’clock for the official opening of my wonderful new garden.’
Chapter Twenty-six
When Mum and Dad and Ella and I got back to Maggie’s place at five, there was an incredible smell of flowers and baking and barbecued meat all mixed up together.
Maggie met us at the front door. ‘I prepared some food,’ she said. ‘I had to try out my new barbecue. Now why don’t you all come in?’
Aretta and her brother and dad were in the kitchen with Dad’s friend Derek, and a few of Mum’s friends from the gardening club. Everyone was staring at me, and smiling like crazy.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked Ella. ‘Have I got blue paint on my face or something?’
But she just smiled too.
‘Let’s go outside,’ said Maggie. ‘I’ll lead the way – now that I can.’
We all followed her outside. Now that everything had been swept and tidied, the garden looked totally amazing. Maggie wheeled her chair up and down the new wide paths. She showed us how she could pull weeds out of the raised beds, and how she could use the special pulley-things Aretta’s dad had made, so she could lower and raise the hanging baskets whenever she needed to plant or water them.
‘It’s perfect,’ said my mum. ‘Absolutely perfect.’
Everyone agreed, and there were lots of handshakes and pats on the back for Aretta’s dad, who looked totally embarrassed.
‘Oh, dear,’ said Maggie then. ‘My wheels seem to be squeaking again. Does anyone know where the oil is?’
‘I put it in the storage area behind the gazebo,’ said Aretta’s dad.
‘Oh, Eva,’ said Maggie. ‘Would you mind getting it for me, please?’
Suddenly I felt cross. The whole idea of the makeover was so that Maggie could access every corner of the garden, and now, on the very first day, she was asking me to get stuff for her.
Why couldn’t she act a bit more grateful?
Was all the hard work for nothing?
‘Maybe you should—’ I began, but Mum interrupted.
‘Don’t argue, Eva,’ she said. ‘Just do it.’
‘But—’
‘Eva!’ said Dad. Now I really felt like arguing, but I didn’t like the way everyone was staring at me, with funny, smiley looks on their faces.
Were they laughing at me?
How dare they laugh at me?
I stamped down the garden and as soon as I got to the end – ‘Surprise!’
I jumped back, half-scared, as three girls jumped out from where they were hiding behind the gazebo.
‘OMG!’ I said, hardly able to believe my eyes. ‘Kate? Victoria? Ruby?’
And then I couldn’t say any more as they all jumped on top of me and hugged me until I begged for mercy.
Finally we untangled ourselves, and Ella and Aretta came to join us.
‘Did you two know about this?’ I asked.
‘Sort of,’ said Ella grinning.
‘So what happened?’ I asked. ‘Why are you all here?’
‘Well,’ said Ruby. ‘It’s my mid-term break, and Mum was going to come to London to visit me, but when you came up with the garden idea, we swapped the tickets around, so I could come here and surprise you instead. This whole party is Mum’s way of saying thanks to you for getting the garden done up.’
‘And I haven’t seen you for ages and ages,’ said Kate. ‘And I was dying to meet your new friend, so when your mum rang me up and invited me, it was a no-brainer.’
‘And what about you?’ I asked Victoria.
‘If Kate and Ruby were coming halfway around the world to see you, of course I’d come from the other side of town.’
Suddenly I noticed that Aretta was standing on her own at the edge of the group.
‘Hey, Aretta,’ I said. ‘This is everyone. Everyone this is Aretta, the maths genius.’ Aretta looked embarrassed. ‘I’m serious,’ I said. ‘Since you started helping me, maths actually makes sense, and you can’t believe what a big deal that is. I got a B in my last test, which is like a million times better than I’ve ever done before. I owe you, Aretta.’
She pointed at her dad, who was talking to my mum and dad. He had his arm around Damola, and he had a huge, happy smile on his face.
‘I think we might be quits,’ she said quietly.
‘Food’s ready,’ called Maggie from the barbeque corner, and my friends and I went over with our plates and the best party ever got started.
About the Author
JUDI CURTIN grew up in Cork and now lives in Limerick where she is married with three children. Judi is the author of Eva’s Journey, Eva’s Holiday, Leave it to Eva and Eva and the Hidden Notebook, as well as the best-selling ‘Alice & Megan’ series. With Roisin Meaney, she is the author of See If I Care. She has also written three novels, Sorry, Walter, From Claire to Here and Almost Perfect. Her books have sold into Serbian, Portuguese, German, Russian, Lithuanian and most recently to Australia and New Zealand.
The ‘Alice & Megan’ series
Alice Next Door
Alice Again
Don’t Ask Alice
Alice in the Middle
Bonjour Alice
Alice & Megan Forever
Alice to the Rescue
Viva Alice
Alice & Megan’s Cookbook
The ‘Eva’ Series
Eva’s Journey
Eva’s Holiday
Leave it to Eva
Eva and the Hidden Diary
Other Books
See If I Care (with Roisin Meaney)
Copyright
This eBook edition first published 2015 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,
12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland.
Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.obrien.ie
First published 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-1-84717-750-6
Text © copyright Judi Curtin 2015
Copyright for typesetting, layout, editing, design
© The O’Brien Press Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover illustration: Woody Fox
Eva Gordon is a bit of a princess …
But when her dad loses his job and she has to move house and change schools, she realises things have changed forever. A chance visit to a fortune teller gives her the idea that doing good may help her to turn things back the way they were. Eva (with the help of best friend Victoria) starts to help everyone she can – whether they want it or not! And maybe being nice is helping Eva herself just as much …
The story of Eva’s marvellous, memorable summer!
Eva Gordon likes fashion, fun and hanging out with friends, so she can’t believe she has to spend the entire summer in a cottage in the countryside with her parents. Worse, it looks like she’s going to be stuck with
Kate, the girl next door who doesn’t care about being cool … But when the girls have to pull together to solve a problem, Eva finds out that there’s more to life than having the right hair or clothes and sometimes ‘weird’ girls can make the best friends.
Fun, feisty Eva Gordon always tries to help her friends!
When Eva and her family head to Seacove for their summer holidays, she’s looking forward to seeing Kate again, but it turns out things have gone very wrong for Kate. Her granny’s in the hospital, and with no else to look after her, Kate’s hiding out at home by herself, afraid she’s going to be taken into care. Eva tries to be a good friend and help her out, but how long can a twelve-year-old manage by herself?
It’s not just Kate who needs Eva’s help – and helping Ruby turns out to be a LOT of fun!
Eva Gordon’s great at solving problems, but surely even she can’t fix something that went wrong in the past?
When Eva and Kate find an old diary, written long ago by a girl their own age, they end up determined to right old wrongs!
But they can’t spend all their time living in the past as the present, too, is throwing all sorts of challenges at them …