by Gwyneth Rees
At last we arrived outside Blossom House, where Raffy quickly put his earbuds in his pocket and gave the place his full attention.
‘Wow! This is amazing!’ he exclaimed as we walked together down the drive. ‘And you guys can really let yourselves inside whenever you like?’
I nodded. ‘Follow me.’
After we got through the side gate I paused with my back to the house to give him more of a chance to admire the garden. I was hoping he would make some comment about the cherry blossom trees. Don’t ask me why that was so important, but I knew that Raffy was going to go down in my estimation if he didn’t appreciate how beautiful they were.
Fortunately he didn’t disappoint me. ‘Wow! This is really something! And there must be loads of fruit to nick later on, isn’t there?’
‘Well … no … you see, cherry blossom trees are ornamental – you don’t actually get any fruit.’
‘Really? That’s a bummer.’ He turned his attention to the house. ‘What a shame this whole place is just going to waste.’
‘I know,’ I said. I didn’t want to disagree with him. ‘But now someone’s about to buy it. That’s why we have to find Monty as quickly as possible. Before the house isn’t ours any more.’ Luckily Monty hadn’t made an appearance during Mum’s viewing the day before, and thankfully the couple weren’t interested anyway. But Miranda’s client had called her again this week to confirm that he was still very keen and was going to make an offer.
As I led Raffy inside, I asked, ‘Shall I show you the room he escaped from?’
‘Show me the room you showed Lily yesterday,’ he said eagerly.
I noticed that his eyes were everywhere as we moved through the hall and into the main reception room, where he immediately started wowing just like Lily had. He walked over to look in the mirror, then began to walk round the periphery of the room, hunching down to examine the skirting boards. I thought he was looking for potential snake holes until I realised he was inspecting the plug sockets.
‘What are you doing that for?’ I asked.
He turned to me with a delighted sparkle in his eyes. His eyes were light brown like Lily’s but they had little flecks of green in them too. I couldn’t believe I’d never noticed the exact colour of his eyes before.
‘Lily’s right,’ he said. ‘This would be the perfect place to hold our party!’
‘What?’ Suddenly I realised what he meant. ‘No way, Raffy,’ I told him firmly. ‘I already said no to Lily.’
But he completely ignored me and carried on talking. ‘You know we can’t have the party at our place any more, don’t you, Sasha? But we could easily swop the venue to here. You wouldn’t need to arrange anything – we’ll do all that. Come on, Sasha! It’ll make my day if you let us! Not just my day – my whole year! No, forget that … I mean my whole life!’ He was being so dramatic that he soon had me laughing. ‘Come on, Sasha. Do it for me! Please?’ He put one hand on my shoulder and I immediately felt shivery goosebumps prick the back of my neck. As he gazed at me with a genuinely pleading expression in his eyes, I found my resolve starting to melt.
‘But is it safe? I mean what about Monty? What if we haven’t found him by then?’
‘It doesn’t matter. It’s not like he’s dangerous. Anyway he won’t come out with all that noise going on. Come on, Sasha … Lily said you’d be too scared to help us, but I told her you’re way gutsier than she thinks. You’ve got to prove me right! Come on!’
‘I don’t know …’ I murmured. I knew I should say no. In fact I already had said no. But I liked that he thought I was gutsy.
‘I’ll owe you big time,’ he said. ‘Please, Sasha?’ His big melty eyes seemed to hold mine for an extra-long moment. It was like being faced with the adorable puppy of your dreams and the really hunky boy of your dreams all rolled into one.
‘OK, then,’ I heard myself say a little shakily.
OK? Did I just say OK?
Apparently I had, because now Raffy was giving me a huge grin and the sparkle in his eyes as he looked into mine made me feel like I was flying. I had to remind myself that he was fifteen and I was only nearly thirteen, and he probably still thought of me as his kid sister’s dorky friend.
‘I knew you’d say yes!’ he exclaimed with a happy laugh. ‘I’ll tell Lily and we can start to plan everything. You really are the best, Sasha!’
And in a flash he was out through the back door before I even registered that he’d totally forgotten to help me look for Monty. But I still couldn’t stop smiling.
Needless to say, Zack was pretty upset when Sean told him the news about Monty, although he didn’t blame Sean. Snakes are great escape artists apparently, and Zack felt it was partly his fault for not warning us properly.
‘Zack says snakes are nocturnal, so we might have to sneak into Blossom House after dark one night and wait for Monty to show up – a sort of snake stake-out!’ Sean joked on the way to school the next morning.
‘Well, so long as you catch him before Saturday,’ I said.
‘Why Saturday?’
And that’s when I broke the news to him about the party. I tried to be really casual, like it was no big deal, like I offered up Blossom House as a party venue for Year Tens all the time.
‘WHAT?’ Sean just about exploded. He ranted on and on at me about how he couldn’t believe I’d said yes to the party without even asking him.
‘Hey, you took Zack to Blossom House without asking me!’ I retaliated defensively.
‘That was Zack. This is half the school!’
‘I’m sure it won’t be that many, Sean! Lighten up, will you?’
‘Lighten up? Come on, Sasha! This doesn’t even sound like you talking! You don’t have to say yes to this just to impress Lily and her mates, you know!’
‘I’m not doing it to impress Lily!’ I snapped back.
‘Then why?’ he demanded.
Of course I couldn’t tell him the truth.
‘Because Sensible Sasha has taken a hike!’ I declared with a grin, not really caring whether or not he believed me.
In school I seemed to be everybody’s favourite person all of a sudden, thanks to Lily spreading the word that I was the one providing the new party venue. Everything seemed to be back to normal between me and Lily, and anyone who hadn’t yet been invited to the party was seeking me out to present his or her case. And I had to admit it was swelling my head a bit. I don’t think I’d ever had a reason to feel this important before at school. I mean, I’d always done well academically, and it felt good each time I got praised by a teacher for getting a good grade. But as for feeling socially important – never!
Rafferty had been texting people all day to make sure everybody knew about the change in venue. Lily and I were allowed to invite ten friends between us. Everyone was going to tell their parents that the party was being held at the house of ‘a girl in another class’ and if asked they were to give her name as Blossom. (Needless to say, Blossom’s parents would be staying upstairs for the entire time, which was why they wouldn’t be meeting and greeting any parents who were dropping off or picking up their kids.)
‘We’ll have to make sure we remove that FOR SALE sign from out front,’ Lily kept reminding me.
‘You mean the UNDER OFFER sign,’ I said gloomily, because the man Miranda had shown round had just had his offer accepted. Soon the sign would say SOLD. I was trying not to think about how I’d feel when Blossom House was totally off limits for us. In a way I should be looking at this as a sort of a goodbye party, I thought, only I was afraid that if I did I wouldn’t enjoy it so much.
One of the good things about agreeing to have the party at Blossom House was that I could invite Priti and Jillian.
Priti agreed at once to come, though Jillian said no because she didn’t like big parties. To be honest, I was quite relieved about Jillian because I had a feeling that if she came she might cramp my style pretty badly (even if, according to Lily, I don’t have much of it to cramp
).
Lily looked surprised when I told her Priti was coming, but she didn’t put up any fuss. I had a feeling Lily was in for an even bigger surprise on the night of the party. I’d been to a family birthday party with Priti when one of her cousins turned twenty-one. She’d worn her hair loose instead of the scraped-back way she always wears it at school and she’d looked amazing, boogying away on the dance floor with all her older cousins.
‘Sasha, what are you going to wear on Saturday?’ Lily asked me. ‘Do you want to borrow something of mine?’
‘Thanks, Lily, but you know your stuff won’t fit me.’
‘Some of it will,’ Lily persisted. ‘You’re a bit curvier on top now than you used to be. When my mum saw you the other day she said she could definitely see that you were starting to develop. She thinks you should speak to your mum about getting a bra.’
‘Lily!’ I felt my face flush bright red. Trust Lily to bring that up in the middle of the school playground.
‘Sorry,’ she said with a grin. ‘Listen, a few of the girls are coming over to mine for a couple of hours tonight. Why don’t you come too? We’re going to do our nails and stuff. It’ll be really cool. And you can try on a couple of my things.’
‘Which girls?’ I asked warily.
‘Clara and Hanna and Ellie.’
‘Oh … well … I don’t know,’ I murmured uncertainly. The fact that the others were going to be there put me off. Though there was one other factor to consider. ‘What about Raffy?’ I asked her as casually as I could.
‘What about him?’ She was giving me a funny look and I knew I’d have to be careful if I didn’t want her to guess exactly how I felt about her brother.
‘Well, shouldn’t we be getting together with him as well, so we can make plans for the party?’
‘Oh yeah … well … it all seems to be under control. Raffy says he’ll take his docking station for the music and we can go to the pound shop to get some drinks and snacks beforehand.’
I took a deep breath. ‘I still want to ask him a couple of things. I want to make sure we won’t get caught.’
‘Well, you can speak to him tonight if you like. Normally I wouldn’t recommend it, but he’ll probably be quite civil since it’s you.’
Since it’s you. Just hearing those three words put my head into a sudden crazy spin. But of course she probably didn’t mean that Raffy thought of me as special – just that he knew he needed to keep on my good side if he wanted to hold his party at Blossom House.
I ended up being the last of Lily’s guests to arrive that evening – probably because I’d changed what I was wearing about six times before setting off. Even though it was just an evening at Lily’s place, I still didn’t feel comfortable with the others and I hated the thought that they might all be talking about how I looked.
Clara, Hanna and Ellie were all sitting on Lily’s bedroom floor gossiping about boys when Lily took me upstairs. As they chatted they were trying out nail polish samples that Ellie had brought with her.
‘Sasha, do you think Sean likes Hanna?’ Clara asked me with a wicked grin the second I walked in.
I looked at Hanna in surprise, noticing that she was flushing furiously as she told Clara to shut up.
‘Well …’ I answered, trying to adjust to the idea of anyone fancying my brother, who isn’t really into girls yet – at least not as far as I know. ‘I guess I could ask him for you …’
‘No way!’ Hanna screeched.
‘OK, I won’t!’ I had to admit I’d have died if Lily had ever asked Raffy if he liked me. ‘I didn’t know you even knew Sean that well, Hanna!’
‘She doesn’t. That’s probably why she fancies him!’ Clara quipped.
I gave Clara a challenging look. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Nothing! It was a joke. Can’t you take a joke?’
I turned away from her feeling my blood boiling. I really didn’t like Clara.
‘I think he’d be flattered if he knew you liked him,’ Lily told Hanna. ‘Though he might be too embarrassed to admit it at first. You should try and hang out with him at the party.’
‘Oh, Sean’s not coming to the party,’ I told them, then wished I hadn’t as they all started asking why, and Hanna looked pretty gutted. ‘Oh … it’s just that we had a row about it. It’s no big deal. He might even change his mind and come in the end.’
‘Mum’s got drinks and cream cakes for us downstairs. I’ll go and fetch them,’ Lily said, moving towards the door.
I quickly volunteered to go with her.
As the two of us went downstairs, I asked her, ‘Why does Clara always have to be so bitchy?’
‘She’s not always bitchy,’ Lily replied matter-of-factly. ‘It’s mostly just when you’re around.’
‘Oh, well, that’s great,’ I murmured.
‘She won’t admit it but I think she’s jealous because she knows you’re still my best friend.’
‘Really?’ It hadn’t occurred to me that Lily would have told Clara that I was still her best friend. I must say, I’d sort of fudged the issue with Priti and told her that she and Lily were both my besties.
In the kitchen we found Rafferty eating a chocolate éclair.
‘Hey!’ Lily exclaimed angrily. ‘Mum got those in for us!’ She went to the fridge and flung open the door to find a box of four pastries instead of five. ‘You greedy pig! You already had a donut!’
‘I know, but I was still hungry and I thought at least one of you was bound to be on a diet,’ he teased.
‘Lily, it’s OK. We can cut them all up and share out the pieces,’ I suggested hastily.
‘See,’ Rafferty said. ‘Sasha isn’t making a drama out of it – she’s staying cool and coming up with an intelligent solution. You could learn a lot from – ouch!’ He yelped as Lily hit him on the arm.
‘It’s no wonder you’re getting such a big fat bum,’ Lily hissed at him.
‘I am not.’
‘Yes, you are. Isn’t he, Sasha?’
Being asked to give my opinion on Rafferty’s bum completely threw me off guard. I felt the colour rush to my cheeks as I gazed in a sort of daze at the jean-clad object under discussion. Why was this happening to me? Surely Lily would notice.
‘Oh, I … I don’t know …’ I stammered as I left Lily to sort out the pastries and rushed back upstairs.
‘Sasha, didn’t you want to ask Raffy something about the party?’ Lily called after me.
‘Later!’ I yelled back, diving into the bathroom in a desperate attempt to grab some time alone to compose myself.
‘Sasha, do you want any help with your make-up?’ Ellie asked me half an hour later when we’d all finished doing our nails.
Clara and Hanna had already had their eyes done. Actually they both looked pretty good, though Clara had added loads of black eyeliner to hers afterwards, which made her look like a bit of a Goth.
‘You know, you’ve got lovely clear skin, Sasha,’ Ellie told me.
‘My mum says it’s normal for your skin to get bad when you have your period,’ Clara said as she carefully applied some concealer to the big spot on her chin. ‘Sasha hasn’t even started her periods yet, have you, Sasha?’
I found myself flushing from ear to ear. Oh my God, had all of them started already then? Had every girl in my year at school started except me? Was I some kind of freak now?
‘It’s probably because Sasha was a premature baby,’ Lily said, rushing to my defence and making things ten times worse as usual. ‘I mean, it’s not her fault if she’s a bit behind in her development.’
Ellie saw me cringing and said, ‘I don’t think she is behind though, Lily. Lots of girls our age haven’t started their periods yet.’
‘My cousin in Poland didn’t start hers until she was sixteen,’ Hanna volunteered.
‘Yeah, but that doesn’t count,’ Clara said dismissively. ‘Everybody probably starts their periods later in Poland.’
‘Huh?’ Hanna look
ed bemused.
‘That’s a pretty racist thing to say, Clara,’ I said solemnly.
‘What?’ Clara looked taken aback.
‘Well, it’s kind of implying that Poland is a backwards country,’ I pointed out, trying not to look too smug as I took my revenge.
‘Is that what you’re saying, Clara?’ Hanna demanded crossly.
Clara was the one to blush then. ‘Of course not … I just meant … well, it’s not such a rich country, is it? And there aren’t as many jobs … and well … it’s freezing cold there in the winter and you guys eat different food … and who knows how all that affects your hormones and stuff …’ She trailed off, and I’m ashamed to say I felt pretty gleeful watching her squirm.
‘You know, you really ought to count to ten before you open your mouth sometimes, Clara,’ Lily said with a frown.
‘Yes,’ Hanna snapped. ‘You totally should!’
‘Sorry,’ Clara mumbled before rapidly trying to make amends by offering to help Hanna reshape her eyebrows. ‘Not that they need reshaping!’ she added quickly when Hanna looked even crosser.
‘You’re right. They don’t,’ Hanna agreed. ‘But yours do. Sasha, pass me those tweezers, will you?’
I know it’s wrong to enjoy other people’s pain, but it was a superhuman effort not to laugh at the look on Clara’s face. And I had to admit that this whole hanging-out-with-the-girls thing was turning out to be a lot more fun than I’d thought.
‘Ellie, you are so lucky having a mum who’s a beautician,’ Lily gushed a bit later as she rummaged through the lipsticks Ellie had brought with her to find the boldest colour. ‘Hey, have you got a good mascara for Sasha? God knows she could use one.’
‘Gee thanks, Lily,’ I said, pulling a face as Ellie laughed.
‘Go and look at yourself in the bathroom mirror, Sasha. The light’s better in there,’ Ellie said when she’d finished making me up with mascara and eyeliner and two different eye shadows.