Sugar and Spice by Jean Ure

the angry notice. “See? See what it says? PRIVATE! KEEP OUT! ”
    “Even your mum?” I said.
    “My mum? What’d she wanna come in for?”
    “Well…I don’t know! Put clothes away? My mum’s always coming into our room.”
    “Your mum’s different,” said Shay.
    Or maybe, I thought, it was Shay’s mum that was different. My mum was normal! Most people’s mumswent into their bedrooms. Millie’s mum did. Mariam’s mum did. Whoever heard of a mum being told to keep out?
    “Wanna hear some music?” said Shay. She picked a CD off the floor. “What sorta music d’you like?”
    “Um…anything, really,” I said.
    Shay unearthed a CD player from beneath a pile of clothes and slid the disc in. A weird wailing and banging filled the room.
    “Yay! Freaky!” Shay jumped on to the bed, and off again. “That’s cool! That’s my kind of sound!”
    It was pretty loud.
    “Won’t it wake your mum?” I said, nervously.
    “Who cares?” Shay danced about the room, trampling on all the litter, some of which went crack! or scrunch! beneath her feet. I thought, this is gross! I was just so surprised at Shay, of all people.
    “Ooh! Look at you!” Shay skipped round me, laughing and scrunching. “You look like a prune!”

    And she sucked in her cheeks so that her lips practically disappeared inside her mouth, which made me feel that I was being sour and small-minded. I was glad I hadn’t admitted to her that last Christmas I’d actually asked Mum and Dad if I could have a filing cabinet, one of those metal ones with drawers, and a key, so that I could put all my things away nicely in different-coloured files, with proper labels, in alphabetical order, so Kez and Lisa couldn’t get at them. I had this feeling that she’d utterly despise me. (I didn’t get the filing cabinet, anyway; Mum said they were too expensive and that in any case there wasn’t any room.)
    “Wanna see what I keep in here?” said Shay. She pulled open a drawer, where normally, I should think, people would put knickers and socks and pairs of tights, and dumped the contents on the bed beside me. I gasped; I couldn’t help it. It was full of jewellery!Bracelets and chains, rings, necklaces, hair slides, all winking and glittering.

    “And in here  —” she yanked out a second drawer, “I got make-up.”
    I could feel my eyes boggling. I had never seen so many pots and tubs and tubes and jars.
    “I call it my collection,” said Shay.
    I remembered what she’d said about her mum being a beauty consultant. I thought perhaps that was where she’d got it from, but scornfully she said, “Nah! Got it myself, didn’t I? There’s loads of other stuff I could show you. I got —”
    And then she stopped, and I felt this little shiver run through me. Someone was calling up the stairs.
    “Shay!”
    Could it be the Vampire?
    Shay ran out on to the landing. “What d’you want?”
    “I wanted t—Oh! Hallo. Who’s this?”
    Curiosity had made me a little bit brave. I’d gone pattering out behind Shay. I just couldn’t resist! Shay scowled and said, “Someone from school.”
    “And doesn’t someone from school have a name?”
    I squeaked, “I’m Ruth Spicer.”
    “Well, hallo there, Ruth Spicer! I’m Shay’s mum.”
    I could see why Shay called her the Vampire. Unlike Shay, who was dark-skinned, her mum was very pale, like a water lily. She just had no colour at all, and was so amazingly slender that she looked like the long white stem of a plant. She’d made up her eyes with thick black stuff on the lashes and purple on the eyelids, while her mouth and fingernails were deep blood red. I wasn’t sure that I’d like her for a mum, but she was kind of fascinating, in a weird sort of way.

    “Are you staying for tea?” she said.
    “Yes, she is,” said Shay. “I’ve got all the stuff.”
    “I saw.” The Vampire tightened her blood red lips. She was obviously not pleased about something, but whether it was me staying to