Sugar and Spice by Jean Ure Page A

tea, or Shay not telling her that I was staying to tea, or something else entirely, I couldn’t quite work out. “I presume,” she said, “that that was what you wanted?”
    “What?” said Shay.
    “For me to see!”
    “Dunno what you’re talking about.”
    “Oh, come on! Everything all nicely laid out so I couldn’t miss it?”
    “I just laid it out ready,” said Shay.
    Slowly, her mum shook her head. “You do these things on purpose, don’t you? Your one aim in life is to rile me. Well, all right! Go ahead, stuff yourself with artificial muck. Why should I bother?”
    “You shouldn’t,” said Shay.
    “No, well, I’m not going to. I’m off down the gym, now, then I’m meeting up with Boo and Ellie. I probably won’t be back till late, but your father should be here well before then. He said he’d be home by eight. OK? Nice to meet you, Ruth. Have fun!”
    “She really hates me eating junk food,” said Shay, as we returned to her bedroom. “It drives her whacko!” She sounded quite jubilant about it, so that I began to think maybe her mum was right, and it really was her aim in life. “You don’t have to look like that, prune face! She already is a whacko. Can’t you tell?” She made her eyes go crossed and stuck out her tongue and waggled her fingers either side of her head. “Totally bonkers! Wanna try on some of my jewellery?”
    I hesitated. I was worried by the thought of her dad not getting home till eight o’clock, because Mum wasexpecting me ages before then. I said apologetically to Shay that maybe I’d better leave now, while it was still light.
    “I know it’s silly,” I said, though I didn’t really think it was, “but my mum gets all fussed if I’m out late on my own.”
    “Won’t be on your own,” said Shay. “I’ll come with you.”
    “But how will you get back?”
    “Same as I did last week. Told you the Vampire wasn’t the worrying sort. She doesn’t care what I do – apart from eating junk food!”
    I was beginning to think that Shay lived in a very peculiar sort of family. I couldn’t imagine my mum and dad not caring what I did. Or going out and leaving me in the flat by myself. I’m always wishing that I could have a room of my own and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, but I’d absolutely hate it if the whole flat was empty. I think, actually, I’d be a bit scared. Shay obviously wasn’t scared, but maybe that was because she was used to it. It just didn’t seem to bother her.
    After we’d tried on some of her jewellery, and listened to another CD that she discovered by almost treading on it, we went down to the kitchen to eat our junk food. I suppose it was junk food. Shay said it was, though it seemed just ordinary to me. When we’d finished eating, I said that I’d have to go or Mum wouldstart frothing, so Shay came with me all the way across town. I did feel a bit guilty seeing her go off again by herself, and thought that if anything happened to her it would be all my fault, but she really didn’t seem to mind.

    Mum opened the front door. She said, “Ah, there you are! Not before time. Did they bring you back?”
    I said yes, because after all Shay had brought me back, and Mum then said, “I hope they saw you up in the lift?” to which I made a fluffy sort of mumbling sound.
    “I hope they did!” said Mum, following me into the kitchen. “That lift’s not safe this time of night – anyonecould get in there with you. So what was it like? What’s her mum like?”
    I wasn’t going to say that Shay’s mum was a vampire and a whacko. I had more sense than that! I said, “She’s very thin – she looks like a model.” Mum sniffed and said that she could probably afford to.
    “I suppose the place is dead posh?”
    “Yes, but it’s not as cosy as ours.”
    I said it partly cos I knew that it would please Mum, and partly cos it was true. Shay’s place wasn’t cosy, any more than Shay herself was. But I still felt flattered that