I sat back. ‘Did you like it?’
‘How much of that is true?’ Rose asked.
‘Well,’ I said in my most mysterious voice. ‘No one’s seen Mary Brown since that night. They all say she did run off with one of her boyfriends … but I think different.’
Chapter Five
The ghost stories set up the atmosphere. Now, it was time to play Light as a Feather. You must have played Light as a Feather, but in case you don’t know it, I’ll tell you how it works. Someone lies on the floor, like a corpse, arms folded and crossed over their chest. They have to lie silent and still, hardly breathing.
Rose wanted to be the corpse. She lay down and closed her eyes, and began to breathe deeply. I sat at her head with my hands placed gently under her shoulders, palms up. Erin and Heather took their places on either side of her. They placed their hands under her back and under her legs. In the dimly lit room I began to say softly, ‘Light as a feather. Light as a feather.’
Erin and Heather took up the chant. ‘Light as a feather. Light as a feather.’
Over and over again we repeated the words, almost like a litany. Softly at first, then our voices grew louder, until they became more of a demand. ‘Light as a feather! Light as a feather!’
And Rose began to rise under our hands.
I don’t know how it happened. I never could understand how it happened. To us it was magic. Our magic. Was there a logical explanation how we could make one of us rise? I don’t know. But it amazed us every time.
I held my breath, the words now once again a whisper, a whisper of wonder. ‘Light as a feather.’
Rose lay still, her eyes closed, totally under our control as she rose up into the air.
Magic! I thought. It was magic, just like us. We were magic too.
Why couldn’t things be magic like that at home? As soon as I walked through the door that night, my magic mood changed. My mum was waiting for me, eager for all the news about the wedding. She was even more excited than I was about being invited. She was in awe of Erin’s family, her mother especially. That always embarrassed me so much.
‘You’ll have to get a really good gift. Erin’s mother will expect quality.’
‘Mum, we’re putting money together and getting a gift between us, I told you that.’
She shook her head. ‘No. Let the others do that. You get a really good gift and it will be from you and me. I want Erin Brodie’s mother to see I know how to choose quality too.’
Why did she always have to be like that? Turning even the most enjoyable occasion into a competition. She was so chuffed that Erin was my friend. Had hoped that she might be invited to the wedding too. But no one invited my mum anywhere. And I knew why.
I went to sleep that night and pushed my annoyance at Mum aside. It didn’t matter. Life was so good. And if Wizzie and her mates were out to get us, that only made it better. Because we’d win.
I knew we would always win in the end.
Chapter Six
I came across Sonya in the toilets next day. Or ‘S-s-ssonya’, as we liked to call her. I knew that was cruel, and I wouldn’t have done it to anyone else who stuttered. But Sonya didn’t seem to care. I was sure she only stuttered to wind us up.
I saw her eyes dart to me as I pushed my way through the door, checking to see if my mates were with me. A look of relief flashed across her face when she saw I was alone. Sonya was overweight. Not quite fat, but heading that way. I used to say they could use her for a battering ram. She didn’t like that. Sonya had a reputation as a good fighter, but I’d never really seen her fight, just land on people. Honestly, that’s not fighting, is it?
She sneered at me. ‘You’ve g-got it coming, know that?’
‘S-s-ssorry, S-s-ssonya, did you s-ssay s-ssomething?’ Then I laughed.
Sonya’s face went brick red. She threw a punch at me, but I stepped away from it, missing it easily.
‘G-g-ggot to be qu-quicker than that, S-s-ssonya.’
She would have lunged at me again, but right at that moment the toilets were invaded by a bunch of older girls, prefects, always ready to step in and stop any trouble.
‘What’s going on here?’ one of them asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. Sonya’s face was red with anger. It gave her away big time. She pushed past them and crashed out of the toilets.
‘You lot are always causing trouble,’ Pam Ward said. Head girl, a force to be reckoned with.
I was all innocence. ‘They’re the ones who cause the trouble. I was only sticking up for myself.’
She didn’t look as if she believed me. I didn’t care. It would make a great story when I told it to the girls later on.