Blueberry Wishes by Kelly McKain Page B

Friday. And I didn’t get any more bookings on Saturday, so it was very quiet in the end. And two of the bookings didn’t actually turn up, which was even worse. I got everything ready and then felt awful as the minutes ticked by and I realized they weren’t coming. And then I’ve been here on my own all today, worrying and wondering about that blooming Haven Spa.”
    â€œPoor you. It must have been awful,” I said.
    Mum sighed. “It gets worse, I’m afraid… I went for a walk round town this afternoon, to clear my head, and I saw that they’ve put their offer posters right over our leaflets—”
    â€œThey can’t do that!” Saff gasped. “Right, I don’t care. I’m going round there—”
    â€œNo, you are not!” Mum cried. “I know how you feel, though. I was furious too. I mean, it wasn’t just on the trees and lamp posts – they’d done it on the noticeboards where there was plenty of room for both. That was deliberate, nasty sabotage.”
    I thought of all our hard work – Marco trudging round town with the leaflets, Ben going up to Dartington specially and Summer happily taking a stack to put round the village near her house. It really did feel like the new spa was personally attacking us. Grace still hadn’t said anything. She just looked pale and shocked.
    â€œIf they’re going to be so aggressive, I’m just worried that…” Mum began. Then she waved her hands in the air, blinking fast. We waited for her to carry on, but she shook her head and let the tears roll down her cheeks. My heart lurched and I put my arm round her.
    â€œYou’re worried that they won’t stop until they’ve put us out of business,” Grace said flatly.
    Mum nodded, sniffling. “I’ve had to dip into our rent fund already, just to pay that supplier invoice that was due,” she murmured. “I thought I’d easily be able to find the money from the week’s takings, but there wasn’t enough left after all. I’ve cut our housekeeping budget, and only ordered the minimum of the new supplies we need for Rainbow Beauty, but still…”
    â€œDirty tactics, that’s what this is,” Saff grumbled.
    â€œThey won’t wreck everything we’ve worked for,” I said firmly. “We won’t let them. We’ve got the London orders coming, remember? And as for Rainbow Beauty itself, we just need to come up with a new idea to get people through the door. Not another offer that the Haven Spa will beat or match, but something different – something that plays to our strengths.”
    â€œYou’re right,” said Mum, managing a small smile.
    â€œLike what, though?” asked Grace. All three of them looked at me expectantly, waiting for the answer to come tumbling out of my mouth.
    But it didn’t. At that moment my creative brain seemed to have crawled under the duvet, put its headphones on and gone for a very long lie-down. I guessed we should do the same. “Let’s sleep on it,” I said. “We’re bound to come up with something in the morning.”
    So we all slopped around getting ready for bed, our excited mood completely gone.

It was nice to see my friends on Monday, but not even Ben’s jokes, Summer’s hugs or Marco’s arm round me as we walked between lessons could make me feel better. They were all really shocked about the Haven Spa’s hardball tactics. They were gutted for me when I explained that people had stopped coming in for our offer (and in fact seemed to have stopped coming in, full stop) and they were almost as worried about our rent fund as I was.
    Marco got really angry and macho and said we should sue, Ben offered to go up there and come back with some dodgy illness, but Summer understood that there wasn’t a lot we could do because, like Mum said, on paper the new spa offered similar