‘This,’ he hissed, ‘is Diane Connell. Stand up, Diane.’
Diane did and turned to face the class. She looked a prim little miss, with what could only be called a rather superior smile. Her fair hair was held back in a china blue clasp and she had an expensive gold chain around her neck. I glanced across at Ralph. His lip was curled in annoyance as he watched her. He mouthed to his mates, ‘She’s a right wee madam.’
He didn’t like her. Because of that, I decided at once that I did.
I didn’t have any friends left in the school. Maybe it was time I made one. I smiled at the new girl, and she smiled back.
I didn’t know then that Diane Connell was going to change my life.
Chapter Four
January 15th
I think Diane Connell and I are going to be great friends. She’s so funny. She made me laugh five minutes after we started talking in the playground.
‘Someone might have warned me about Murdo,’ she said. ‘I felt as if I was sitting under Niagara Falls.’ And with that she plucked imaginary spit from her eye. ‘He’s disgusting, isn’t he?’
Well, he is a bit, I had to agree. ‘But he’s nice really,’ I told her.
She didn’t seem to believe that. ‘Nice? There’s nothing nice about someone who keeps half his lunch stuck in his teeth. Was that broccoli? Or was it cabbage? Something green anyway.’ She pretended to be sick on the playground.
She doesn’t think our school is a very good one. She was in a much better school before, she says. And will be again, she told me. She’s only here temporarily, till her parents find the ‘right’ school for her. She made the little inverted commas with her fingers when she said that. The ‘right’ school.
‘I mean, look at all these broken windows,’ she said. ‘And all that graffiti.’ I tried to explain apologetically that the school had a lot of trouble from vandals. It’s always being broken into and stuff stolen or smashed.
Diane had just said, ‘What a dump.’ Seeing it through her eyes, I realised with a shudder she was right.
Diane had to move here because of her father’s job. He’s just had a promotion. ‘And what about your dad?’ she asked me then. ‘What does he do?’
I was so glad the bell rang just at that moment, and we had to hurry to our next class. I didn’t want to answer that question. I didn’t know what to say.
Because, maybe when she knows the truth about J.B., and she will find out – if I don’t tell her someone else is bound to – she won’t want to be my friend any more. And if I lose the chance of having a friend like Diane because of J.B. I’ll never forgive him.
He was making dinner when I came home from school that day. At first I was determined not to eat it. But it smelt so good and I was so hungry that I relented – besides he makes one cracking lasagne. He always has. The very smell of it reminded me of days long ago, when he’d spend all his spare time in the kitchen insisting Mum relax and read her book, while he ‘created a masterpiece’. I was the only one allowed in the kitchen with him. ‘Only to you, my firstborn, and heir to all I possess, will I pass on my secrets,’ he would say. How he used to make me laugh. He’d pretend he was one of those TV chefs and I was his audience. He’d prance about and overact and …
I shook the memory away. It hurt too much. Because even then he’d been lying to us and cheating. A crook, and we didn’t know it.
Margo sat in her high chair, her nose running, beating on her tray with her chubby little fists. Jonny was showing him the work he’d done in school that day.
‘I had to write my diary. All about Christmas,’ he said.
‘Oh, that would be interesting, Jonny,’ I said. I couldn’t help sniggering. ‘My Christmas list. I got a computer game and a fire engine … oh, and my daddy home from jail.’
There was a sudden, awkward silence. ‘That’s enough, Lissa!’ Mum snapped. I was getting a bit fed up with Mum. It seemed to me she’d forgiven him too easily and she wasn’t even trying to understand how I felt.
‘I won’t go back into prison. I promise,’ J.B. said, spooning mouth-watering lasagne on to my plate. ‘I’m finished with all that.’ It was an apology of sorts, but I didn’t even meet his eyes. ‘I’m going to get a job soon. I’ve sent out letters and CVs everywhere. I’ve had an offer,’ he glanced at Mum when he said that. ‘And I will take it if nothing better comes along. You’ll see, I’ll get a good job and I’ll make you proud of me again.’