‘I don’t see why I have to go. Can’t believe I’m taking a day off school for this!’ Sitting in her dad’s Austin, Remy’s mood wasn’t helped by the fact that she had a stomach ache, a gripping pain, no less. She pulled at the mustard-and-red kilt that had been bought for her cousin’s wedding almost a year ago and now sat some inchesabove her knees. The whole affair would, she knew, be a lot easier to bear if she’d been allowed to wear her corduroys and a nice blouse. The kilt was itchy, unfashionable and a little tight around the waistband. The fact it was paired with a thin red turtleneck did little to help. Her tights were American tan, and she hated them too, nearly as much as her brown clumpy school shoes which she felt finished off the whole ensemble with just the right level of shitness. She felt like a wally, already uncomfortable enough going into this strange environment where she knew she’d feel out of place. The only saving grace was that Tony would not see her in this get-up and would therefore be robbed of the ammunition to tease her with in the coming weeks.
She smiled to think of him, hoping he’d be okay, a full school day without her. He’d survive, but only just.
‘So, ready for the gossip?’ he’d asked her yesterday as they made their way to class, heads together, tittle-tattling.
‘Always!’ How she loved him.
‘You remember Nancy from the library at primary school?’
‘Of course I do!’
‘Well, she’s pregnant!’ he gasped.
‘Pregnant? I didn’t know she was married.’ She wondered if she’d got hitched to her boyfriend who had cooked her tea.
‘That’s the thing, she’snot!’ Tony had enunciated, stressing the horror of it. ‘I heard my mum telling her sister on the phone.’
‘Oh my God!’
‘Exactly!’
‘Are you twoactuallyjoined at the hip?’ Mr Morgan, their biology teacher, had yelled at them as they dawdled arm in arm along the corridor.
‘I think, Mr Morgan, that as a biology teacher, you’d know that would make us conjoined twins, and we are most definitely not that,’ Tony had replied without a whiff of irony, earning himself adetention for insubordination. It would be worth it, she knew, as this was the kind of story they’d laugh about for months.
‘For the love of God, Remy! Please not this again!’ her mum snapped, rubbing her forehead as she turned to shout at her through the gap in the front seats. ‘You have to because it’s important! We are going to support your sister! It’s her first speech day! You’re only invited when you leave the prep and go into the big part of the school. It’s an honour!’
An honour my arse.Remy bit the inside of her mouth and swallowed the sentence. Words she knew would only be incendiary to her mother who for days had been rather worked up about the whole event. That morning she’d had her curlers removed and her hair combed out before having it sprayed into a fixed helmet that a hurricane couldn’t budge. Her dad, too, sat tall in the driver’s seat, his sports jacket with gold buttons hanging on the coat hook above the rear passenger window behind his seat. His company tie was around his neck, his white shirt pressed and starched. His grey slacks steamed. His black shoes shiny. Proud, so proud.
‘Ashleigh won’t care if I’m there or not,’ she half mumbled.
Her mum’s finger appeared then. Jutting towards her. She knew things were bad when her mother’s finger appeared.
‘That’s it, smartarse! I do not want to hear a peep out of you for the rest of the day. No moaning. No whispers, no mumbles, and no embarrassing your sister!’ The finger recoiled, and she was glad of it. ‘This is what I was talking about when I told you there’d be consequences.’
Ah, perfect. This was just what she needed, her mother kicking off about the bloody exam. Again she bit her cheek and stared out of the window as they trundled past Old Sarum.
‘People are rewarded for putting in effort, Remy. I don’t think that’s something you’ve quite grasped yet. You had the chance. Youboth did. We’ve never treated you girls any differently. Never. We love you just the same.’ Her mother drew breath.
Wait for it ... there’s a but coming any second now ...She half wished Tony was in the car to witness the perfection of the moment, knowing he would get it and find it as funny as her. Not as funny as her grotty kilt, however.
‘But...’ There it was, right on cue! ‘But not taking the exam put you on a different path, my little love, one that you now no doubt regret, but there’s not a whole lot we can do about it. We did try and explain to you.’
‘We did,’ her dad chipped in, eyeing her in the rear-view mirror.
‘It was a chance, an opportunity, and there’s no saying you’d have passed or got the scholarship, of course not – the other two kids from your school failed to get in – but Ashleigh...’
She was sure her mum was still talking, but rather than listen, yet again, to the many ways Remy had royally, to the best of her mother’s knowledge, cocked up her future and flushed all chance of success down the pan, she stared out of the window that was starting to fog up, and in her head she played the latest Bay City Rollers song that the radio loved.
Bye Bye Baby . . .
Her dad pulled into the car park and drove with caution between a khaki-coloured Wolseley and a shiny claret-toned Jaguar.
‘I tell you one thing, Ruthie,’ he chuckled, ‘I definitely cannot afford to bash anything in this car park, for the paintwork repairs on these beauties alone, they’d take the house!’
She saw her mother’s shoulders tense, as if this new worry, making it off the premises without losing their home, was one to now occupy her mind. It sent a shiver of regret along her bones; she needed to be nicer to her mum today.
Before they left their car, which looked tiny and a bit battered, her dad tried the driver’s door handle to make sure it was locked,twice. With his eyes popping, he took in the array of expensive vehicles that filled the place.
