Zodiac Girls: Brat Princess

by Cathy Hopkins

  “Noooooooooooooooooooooo,” cried Marilyn. “Please, Leonora. Don’t mess it up for the rest of us. Please. I didn’t mean it.”

  “Too late,” I said.

  “N… n… noooooooooooooooooo,’ cried Mark, and all eyes turned to him in amazement.

  “You spoke!” Jake exclaimed.

  I wasn’t moved. It took more than a chicken pie and vanilla slice to break me. “Stone circle, please, Mario. And you can tell that fat deli man he may as well put the supper back in the van.”

  I heard a collective gasp and a sob from Jake.

  Mario nodded. “Follow me,” he said. “You have until five o’clock to change your mind. And bear in mind that you will not only be ruining Christmas Eve for yourself, but also for your fellow guests.” He shook his head sadly. “You just don’t get being a team player do you? It’s still me, me, me in your world. Where does it get you, huh?”

  “Suits me,” I said, and I pointed at Marilyn. “She asked for it.”

  I took one last look at the feast then walked out after Mario like a condemned prisoner going to the gallows.

  Marilyn, Mark, Jake and Lynn stood to one side, their heads bowed.

  “Brat Princess walking,” said Jake as I went past him. “Stand back. Let her through.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Christmas past

  I sat in my stone circle in the hallway. I stared at the wood-panelled walls. I stared at the high ceiling. The paint up there was dingy with age. There was a cobweb in one corner. The only sounds were the ticking of the antique clock on the wall and the occasional gust of wind outside that rattled the windows and doors.

  It was boring being there. And it was lonely.

  But I wasn’t giving in for anybody.

  I had a doze. I rearranged the stones. I rearranged the stones again. So much for Mars moving into Aquarius and life getting more relaxing, I thought. It’s so relaxing, I feel comatose.

  Over the afternoon, Mark, Jake, Lynn and Marilyn crept into the hall, one after the other, and tried to reason with me.

  Lynn offered to give me her pillow on nights when I’d lost the privilege of mine.

  Jake offered to help with my chores.

  Even Mark came and, having recovered his voice, had a lot to say. “Please, Leonora. Don’t ruin it for the others. It’s bad enough being in this miserable place on a night like this. Let’s at least have a decent supper. And, speaking for myself, I’ve never had a feast like the one in the kitchen. And neither have the others. You’ve known what it’s like to have the best. None of us has.”

  I shook my head. I couldn’t back down and lose face. Not at this stage of the game.

  Marilyn came and threatened me. “If you don’t come out of this circle this minute and ’elp us decorate, I will cut off your arm with my penknife and beat you with the soggy end.”

  “Oh très amusant Marilyn. Is that all?” I said, then I yawned and turned away from her. “Be quiet when you go hey? I think I might have a little sleep.”

  Cut off my arm with her penknife. She was so pathetic. I also suspected that she put the tough accent on. She needn’t threaten me or worry. None of them should. I was sure that they’d get their special supper. They hadn’t done anything. It was me who was to be be excluded. A special treat for Zodiac Girl. Mario and his crew wouldn’t deny the others because I was being stubborn. Not on Christmas Eve. No-one would be that mean.

  I lay on the floor and curled up like a cat to try to keep warm as there was a serious draught blasting in from under the front door, and there I fell into a fitful sleep. I was awoken by four chimes from the clock down the hall. It was dark and cold and I felt cramped and uncomfortable.

  For a moment, I wished that Mr O had been around a bit more. Okay, so he was a bit of a luvviedahling, kiss-kiss actor type but he was a lot more fun than the others and although I would never let him know it, not in a million squillion years, I recognized a kindred spirit in him. He was clearly used to being the star of the show, just as I was, which is probably why he took it so personally when I was rude to him.

  As I lay there, I wondered what might have happened if I hadn’t stomped on my zodiac phone and had taken more of an interest in his obscure little notes. Maybe they were coded with clues as to how to get out of here. He had said that he was my guardian so maybe he had been trying to help me in some peculiar way. Maybe I’ve been playing it all wrong, I wondered. Hadn’t Mr O said something about what you resist, persists? Maybe I shouldn’t have resisted being a Zodiac Girl or a team player. Maybe I should have welcomed it and seen where it could have led.

  I sat up and rubbed my arms to try to get warm again and a couple of seconds later Dr Cronus appeared.

  “And have you learned your lesson?” he asked.

  “Only thing I’ve learned is that this floor sure is hard. So can I get up now?”

  He nodded. I took that as a sign that I could go and have supper. I couldn’t wait. I was starving. I’d been dreaming about all the gorgeous food that had appeared earlier in the day, so I raced to the kitchen where I expected to find the others munching away. I prayed that they’d saved a piece of something for me.

  However, the scene in the kitchen had changed since this morning. The fire had gone out. The only smell in the air was the usual one of boiled onions and bleach. And there were no more Christmas carols playing. Four teenagers sat slumped at the table under a glaring overhead light. In front of them was a large pan.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Potato soup,” growled Lynn.

  “Potato soup! But… but where’s all the yummy food?”

  Four faces turned to look accusingly at me.

  “They took it back, thanks to you,” said Marilyn through clenched teeth.

  “No!” I gasped.

  “And we had to eat this disgusting stuff that tastes like puréed flour,” Jake added. “All because of you.”

  “You’re the most selfish person we have ever met,” said Mark.

  “And we all hate you,” said Lynn.

  A wave of disappointment flooded through me. No Christmas supper. Not a morsel. Not a crumb. I was going to fade away altogether if this carried on. Forget size zero. I was going to be size minus zero and a half.

  Vibrations of loathing were flying through the air towards me, so real I could almost see them, like snakes writhing towards me, with tiny tongues poking venom in my direction. For the second time in my life, I, Queen of I Can Stare You Back, couldn’t meet someone’s angry gaze. I looked away then ran to the dorm, where I flung myself on my narrow bed and pulled the duvet over my head.

  It wasn’t fair. Okay. Maybe I ought to say I’m sorry to them, but I didn’t think they’d really be punished for my behaviour. Not really. Nobody understands, I thought as I brought the back of my right hand up to my forehead à la tragic heroine. No-one can ever understand.

  “Leonora, LeONo…r…a…” called a soft voice.

  I poked my head out of the duvet to see that Dr Cronus was standing in the doorway. He looked weird. Shimmery. I looked closer and realized that he was holding a torch under his chin, which made him look like a spook. Poppy and I used to do that to scare each other under the bed sheets on Halloween, then we’d tell ghost stories.

  Hah! I thought. New tactic. So now they’re going to try to scare me into submission. “Cut the bogeyman act, Doc. I’m not falling for it.”

  Dr Cronus sighed then turned off the torch. “Worth a try,” he said. He beckoned me to follow him out the door.

  “Why out the door?” I asked. “Why not fly right out the window like in Peter Pan and Wendy, eh? Come on, Crustyboots. Show me what you got.”

  Dr Cronus sighed again. “I do so hate you spoilt brats. I always get assigned you lot. It’s because I’m the Great Taskmaster you know. He who teaches life’s important lessons and it does get oh so tiresome sometimes when people resist, which they always do in the beginning. Some days I wish I could be one of the others. Like
Joe. He’s Jupiter you know. Everybody loves him. Or Hermie. He’s my grandson and very popular.”

  “Oh, drop the poor-me act. If you don’t like what you’re doing, get lost. I never asked you to teach me lessons or whatever.”

  “I have no choice,” said the doctor. “You are Zodiac Girl so I can’t get lost no matter how much I want to. You have been chosen and I must do what I have been bidden. So get up.”

  “Or else?”

  Mr O suddenly appeared behind him. “Or else the others won’t get their Christmas breakfast or dinner either,” he said.

  “Christmas breakfast? There’s to be a Christmas breakfast? And a Christmas dinner?”

  “Well, that all depends on you, Leonora,” said Mr O. “You have been one of the most resistant Zodiac Girls we have ever had and now, enough’s enough. It was up to you what you did with your month here and so far, quite frankly, it’s been a waste of everyone’s time. But it needn’t be if you’ll just let us in a little. You have so much going for you if you would just let down the wall you’ve put up to push the world away. Okay, so yes, Leos can want their own way, yes they can be stubborn. But they can also be strong and generous and affectionate and the best of fun. Why not be the best you can be instead of always choosing to be the worst?”

  I was about to say something cheeky back but there was some truth in what Mr O had said. I knew that I was demanding and I did always push people away and where had it got me? This miserable lodge on Christmas Eve and everyone here hated me.

  “Let us help you,” said Mr O, “and your time here needn’t be so bad.”

  I nodded. “Okay. Lead the way,” I said with a sigh. Mr O smiled at me then left me alone with the doctor, who beckoned me to follow him out of the dorm and down through the maze of corridors until we got to a staircase at the back of the lodge. It led down to another floor that I hadn’t noticed before.

  “What’s down there?” I asked.

  “Come with me and you’ll see.”

  The staircase had dark wooden banisters and went down one flight to a door that was carved with intricate figures. On closer inspection, I made out the twelve signs of the zodiac.

  “A zodiac door,” I said as I read the words under the carvings. “Aries the ram, Taurus the bull, Gemini the twins, Cancer the crab, Leo the lion, that’s me, Virgo the virgin, Libra, scales, Scorpio the scorpion, Sagittarius the archer, Capricorn the goat, Aquarius the water bearer and Pisces the fish. Hey, this is really beautiful. Is it Indian? It looks Eastern.”

  Dr Cronus smiled. “It’s from Atlantis. The only one like it in existence.”

  “Cool. Atlantis. Yeah. I think I know someone who went there on a holiday.”

  Dr Cronus almost laughed. “I very much doubt that. Atlantis is an ancient civilization.”

  “Yeah, so? Greece and Italy are ancient too. I’m not totally stupid. People go there on holiday.”

  Dr Cronus tutted. “I sincerely doubt that they have been to Atlantis,” he said. “Not unless they can time-travel.” He got out a huge brass key and opened the door. “You’re very chatty all of a sudden.”

  “Just glad to be out of that stone circle,” I said. “It was very dull.”

  Dr Cronus turned on a light and a room with floor-to-ceiling shelves appeared. They were weighed down with ancient-looking books, videos, DVDs. I looked at a couple of the labels. Polarities and Elements. Hmm. That sounds complicated, I thought. The Quadrupicities. Ditto. Progressions. Transits. Synastry in Action.

  “Hey, this is like the kind of library a wizard would have. In fact, you look like a wizard.”

  Dr Cronus sighed. “If I had a penny for every time I had heard that. Just because I have a long white beard, it doesn’t make me a wizard. And anyhow, our aim is to teach you to see the magic that there already is in the world. Not to do tricks.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” I said, then I remembered what Mr O had just said and smiled at Dr Cronus to show that I wasn’t totally against him. “Hey, got any mags down here? Like Teen Vogue or Elle? Tatler?”

  Dr Cronus turned and gave me a scathing look.

  “I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then. But what is this place?”

  “My archive, and I suggest you go and sit down and be quiet while I find your file,” said Dr Cronus. He pointed at a TV screen at the end of the room, in front of which was an old leather sofa with some of its stuffing coming out. “Go and sit down there and wait for me.”

  I did as I was told and made myself comfortable on the sofa. On the table in front were two sandwiches and a glass of milk.

  “That’s for you,” he called. “Avocado and cheese.”

  “Hey, thanks, Doc,” I said and gulped the first one back in about four bites. It was utterly yummy.

  “And don’t call me ‘Doc’. I’m Dr Cronus to you. Ah, there it is,” I heard him say and, moments later, he appeared with what looked like a DVD in his hand. He put it into the machine.

  “Movie?” I asked. “We’re going to watch a movie?”

  The doctor nodded. “We use all the latest technology when we can. Now, as you know, I am also known as Saturn…”

  “The Taskmaster,” I said to show that I had listened to some of what he and Mr O had been droning on about.

  Dr Cronus nodded. “Saturn rules the part of one’s life in which one needs to learn lessons. In your case, in order to do this, we need to go back into your past and look at some of the fears that lie there.”

  I felt a shiver of panic. My past? He was beginning to spook me but… he couldn’t know about my past. Could he? I wondered as I began to eat my second sandwich.

  “Don’t be scared, Leonora,” said the doctor. “You can overcome your past. Your chart shows many strengths as yet untapped. Now watch the screen.”

  The blank screen grew light. A door appeared. A green door with a brass lion’s head on it. It looked familiar. The door began to open. It was familiar.

  A lump came into my throat and I stopped mid munch.

  “How…?” I began, but no more words came as I continued to watch. It was our old house on the TV. Our house in England where we lived before Poppy died.

  From the back of the house came the sound of laughter and the camera zoomed in. I felt as if I was there. Walking down the hall like I had done a hundred times when I’d lived there. The door to the living room opened and I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach, for there was Poppy, her face lit up with laughter.

  “How? Where did you get this?” I asked. I had never seen it before. I knew that there were videos and DVDs of Poppy, but I thought that I had seen them all. Knew each one frame by frame. I’d memorized every second of each of them for they were all that I had left of her.

  Dr Cronus sat on a chair to my left and put a finger up to his lips to indicate that I should be quiet. “Just watch.”

  Poppy was sitting by the fire and cutting out patterns from a sheet of green paper in front of her.

  “Leaves,” I said. “She’s making leaves for decorations.”

  For a few seconds my questions fell away. I didn’t care how Dr Cronus had got the DVD or why. I could see Poppy. My little sister at Christmas.

  She was two years younger than I, with blonde hair and pretty in a delicate way, with eyes that were almost too big for her face and gave her a look of constant surprise at the world. She was never completely well and was thin and pale as far back as I could remember. She suffered from asthma attacks which would come on out of the blue and were frightening to witness as she struggled to breathe with aid of her inhaler. She had the wretched thing near her, on the table. I couldn’t help but notice.

  Not that she ever complained, I thought as I watched the screen. She was always positive and generous to a fault. She’d always fetch anything I wanted just so that she could be with me. And she loved to play hairdressers and would brush my hair for ages and not complain if I squirmed my way out of returning the favour. I did love her. I did. In my own way. If I’d have
known what was going to happen, of course I’d have let her know just how much a lot more often.

  “What are you thinking about, Leonora?” asked Dr Cronus as the image of her lingered for a moment. Then the screen went blank.

  “Nothing,” I replied as I fingered the locket around my neck. “Just plotting my revenge on my parents and how I’m going to get the press to come here and close this place down for cruelty to children.”

  “Is that right?” asked Dr Cronus. He looked disappointed. “Fine. You do that then. First of all though, I have a task for you.”

  “Okay no, not more washing up…”

  “Come with me,” said Dr Cronus, and he went over and pushed on one of the bookshelves. It opened up to what looked like a secret room behind.

  “Cool,” I said. “A false door. Is it a way out?”

  “Yes and no,” said the doctor as he beckoned me to go through. “It could be a way out for you if you complete the task.”

  I sighed. “How did I know you were going to say something like that?”

  I went into the small room. It had no window and was more like a large cupboard. On the right side was an enormous pile of toys. They were of every variety: dolls, robots, soft toys, cars, planes, trains, games. Next to the toys were boxes which on closer inspection contained bath sets, books, CDs, DVDs, handkerchiefs, scarves, gloves, perfumes…

  “What is this?” I asked. “A collection for the jumble?”

  “Certainly not,” huffed Dr Cronus. “It’s all brand-new. And it’s your next task. Not washing up. Wrapping up.”

  “Wrapping up?”

  Dr Cronus nodded and pointed to a table on the left of the room where there were rolls and rolls of paper, ribbons, necklaces of tinsel, scissors, glue, sticky tape. “You can come out when you’ve finished,” he said. “These are gifts for people who are going to be in the local hospital over Christmas. Old and young. It is time for you to take some sort of positive action. You must if you are to overcome your past and move forwards.”

  “Do something positive?”