Ripples by Patricia Scanlan Page A

mixed.
    Alison said it was OK to go. She told her not to say anything to Barry. Alison felt that Barry was far too strict. She wanted Ciara to be independent. To stand on her own two feet.
    It was going to be a camping slumber party. They were going to buy some of that new alcoholic lemonade and get langered.
    Ciara had tasted it once at Sharon Ryan’s barbecue in August. It had made her feel nice and woozy. She’d smokedthree fags as well. She didn’t really like smoking, but it was a cool thing to do. She wanted to be part of the gang.
    She was the youngest in the gang. Twelve. The only one not in secondary school.
    Ciara sighed deeply. She’d be starting secondary school next year. She’d have to do her assessment in February, and she was very worried about it.
    Her maths were a disaster. She hated them.
    Sara Stuart was dead lucky. Her dad was a wizard at maths. He was great for helping her. Mike Stuart was a really nice dad, even if he was a bit strict, Ciara thought enviously. Sara wasn’t allowed to go to the slumber party. She was freaking out about it. Sara was her best friend.
    Secretly, deep down, Ciara didn’tactually want to go to the slumber party. Declan Mooney was going to be at it. Ciara didn’t like him any more. Once she’d thought she fancied him, but he’d given her a French kiss. She’d thought it was
disgusting
! He’d also touched her up once, and that had made her feel dirty.
    Yuck! Ciara shuddered.
    She wished that she could stay at home. But her dad was going to a match and her mother had arranged to go dancing in Tomangos when she knew Ciara was going on a sleep-over. Her mother was always going to Tomangos.
    Why, why, why couldn’t she have normal parents like the Stuarts? Kathy Stuart wouldn’t be caught dead in Tomangos. She was a
real
mother. She baked bread and tarts and cakes. She made proper dinners. Not burgers andchips, Alison’s idea of a dinner, Ciara thought angrily.
    She heard her mother coming upstairs. She didn’t want to get an ear-bashing about the row she’d overheard between her parents. Ciara jumped up. She switched off the light and dived under the duvet, still in her clothes. She heard Alison open the door and peer in cautiously.
    â€œAre you awake, lovie?”
    Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone
, Ciara screamed silently. She lay perfectly still, eyes scrunched tightly shut.
    â€œCiara?” Alison tried again, hopefully.
    Ciara knew that her mother needed a shoulder to cry on.
    She always did after a row. It wasn’t fair! It was very confusing. She felt guilty. Maybe she should comfort her mother. She was just about to sit upwhen Alison closed the door with a little sigh.
    Ciara lay in the dark and let tears brim from her eyes into a hot, wet waterfall down her cheeks. Her stomach felt tied up in knots again. She felt sick.
    She couldn’t do her maths. She didn’t want to go to the slumber party. Her parents were fighting. Life was horrible. She wondered again what would happen to her if her parents split up, or worse still, got a divorce. She didn’t want this to happen. She just wanted them to be normal.

Chapter Three
    Brenda Johnson smiled happily as she lay back in her lover’s arms. She hadn’t been expecting Barry to call tonight. He’d arrived unexpectedly just after nine. She’d been watching the news. It was all about the passing of the amendment for divorce.
    The YES vote had won by a very small majority. The relief she’d felt had been enormous. Then the terrible fear when some senator and his supporters had argued the decision.
    Brenda wanted to strangle him withher bare hands. Didn’t the fool realise that this was her last chance? And the last chance for many like her.
    She and Barry had been having an affair for the past three years. She knew Alison suspected. But Alison wasn’t bothered by it. How many times had her best friend