As expected, the girls were thrilled. It always seemed like an adventure to them when they stayed with Grandma, though Alison couldn’t imagine why. It wasn’t like they did anything exciting. She supposed it was just the novelty of sleeping in a bedroom that wasn’t theirs – although, God knows, it might as well have been.
‘We haven’t got our tablets with us,’ Ada realised, a look of horror on her face. ‘Can we go home and get them?’
‘No. You can do without them for one night.’ It would do them good, she thought. They were far too attached to those devices for her liking and when they were with her she limited the time they spent on them. She wasn’t confident that Jenna did the same.
‘Can we have chicken dinosaurs for tea?’ Hallie begged.
Alison shook her head. ‘I don’t have any chicken dinosaurs,’ she admitted. Come to think of it, she wasn’t entirely sure what shedidhave in her freezer. Not a lot, she suspected. She hadn’t done a shop for well over a week. She was pretty sure she’d even run out of bread. ‘We’ll have to call at the supermarket on the way home,’ she told them. ‘I need to do some shopping, so maybe you’ll get those chicken dinosaurs after all.’
The girls exchanged delighted looks, no doubt envisioning all the treats they predicted they’d be able to coax Grandma into buying for them.
Alison made sure they were securely fastened in their booster seats then climbed into the car. ‘Right. Maister’s here we come.’
Maister’s was a supermarket not far from home, and Rosie often teased her that only posh people shopped there. It was true it was a fairly expensive option, and at some point she suspected she’d have to shop at a cheaper supermarket, but she and Drew used to do their weekly shop there and she had fond memories of them pushing a trolley down the aisles – Drew putting things in and her taking things out again. She knew where everything was; the layout was familiar despite the occasional revamp, and she was quite attached to the place, the staff and the brand.
Hallie and Ada loved it, too, as they demonstrated by running up and down the aisles, pointing excitedly to things they liked the look of, and finding something they couldn’t live without every five minutes.
Leaving the shop some half an hour later, having spent at least ten pounds more than she’d planned to, Alison strapped the girls in the car, loaded the boot with her shopping, returned the trolley to the trolley park and got the hell out of there. She needed to get home fast before she ran out of energy to even cook those dratted chicken dinosaurs.
She couldn’t be bothered to make something different for herself and sat down at the table around forty minutes later to enjoy a meal of glorified chicken nuggets, oven chips and baked beans.
The girls ate hungrily and with due appreciation for her efforts, and she felt justified in rewarding them with apple pie and tinned custard for afters. It was a dark, cold and miserable night, so pudding was definitely called for. After that she’d make sure they had a bath and got into their pyjamas, then they could have an hour of winding down before bed. Then… She closed her eyes for a moment imagining it. Peace!
‘Oh no!’ Hallie exclaimed suddenly. ‘Ada! The topic!’
‘The what?’ Alison asked, alarmed at the look of horror on the twins’ faces.
‘Grandma! We’re going to get into trouble,’ Ada wailed.
‘Of course you’re not. Are you? Why?’
‘Our topic’s got to be handed in tomorrow.’
‘Your topic?’
‘Yes, Miss Mason said it had to be in by Friday or we won’t get a mark for it and we’ve worked real hard on it all last term, too,’ Hallie said.
‘We have, Grandma,’ Ada said, nodding furiously. ‘We chose British birds and we’ve done loads of writing and pictures for it.’
‘You mean a project,’ Alison said, understanding. She vaguely remembered hearing them talk about it over the last few weeks. ‘Well, okay, so it has to be handed in tomorrow? We’ll pick it up from your house on the way to school then.’
The twins’ expressions were almost comical. Although they looked very similar with their light-brown hair and grey eyes – so like their mother’s – they weren’t identical, but at that moment they looked like two peas in a pod. Guilt was written all over their faces.
‘Go on,’ Alison said suspiciously. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’
Ada squirmed and Hallie doodled an imaginary drawing on the table with her forefinger.
‘We haven’tquitefinished it,’ she admitted slowly.
‘We nearly have,’ Ada burst out. ‘We just need to do areallylittle bit of work, don’t we, Hallie?’
‘Just a reallytinybit,’ Hallie confirmed. ‘Miss Mason gave us some questions to fill in about what we’ve learned doing the topic and stuff like that, but we forgot.’
‘But you’re not going to have time now, are you?’ Alison said.
‘Wewouldif we had the topic here with us now,’ Hallie pointed out.
‘But you don’t have it, sadly.’ Alison had a sinking feeling in her stomach. She could see where this conversation was heading and didn’t like it one bit. ‘Maybe if I explain to Miss Mason in ’morning she’ll understand and?—’
