Free The Honeymoon Sisters by Gwyneth Rees Page B

toiletries. Typical Sadie, not even asking before she did that.
    ‘You know you’re still only here on a trial basis, don’t you?’ I reminded her as I met her on the landing after I’d brushed my teeth. ‘Nothing’s been decided yet about whether or not you can stay longer.’
    ‘Is that what you think?’ Her eyes were sparkling wickedly.
    ‘Yes.’ I struggled to keep my cool. ‘It’s not even just up to us. Social services have to do an assessment first.’
    ‘Sure, but if your mum’s happy and I’m happy, they’re not going to upset the apple cart, are they? And even if you kick up a fuss I have a feeling your mum’s not going to listen.’
    ‘Yes she will,’ I snarled.
    Sadie shrugged. ‘It’s just, she seems pretty pleased to be looking after me. Dad says that’s what she wanted when I was little but he wouldn’t let her have me. That’s why they fell out.’
    I glared at her. ‘Yeah, right …’
    Sadie just smiled like she knew better. ‘Your mum needs people to need her,’ she whispered. ‘And I need her more than you do. After all, you’ve still got your dad, whereas I’ve got nobody. She won’t kick me out.’
    I realised she must have heard most of my argument with Mum last night. I suddenly remembered something Dad had once shouted at Mum when they’d been rowing – something I hadn’t really understood at the time. He’d yelled that he was sorry he wasn’t needy enough for her. Now for the first time I thought I understoodwhat he meant. Mum was always helping out needy people. Maybe Sadie was right. Maybe if I tried to make Mum choose between Sadie and me then she might actually choose the one she thought needed her most.
    But I wasn’t about to let Sadie know how she’d got to me.
    ‘She will kick you out when I get her to see what you’re really like,’ I retaliated.
    Sadie just grinned. ‘Well, good luck with that.’
    As I walked to school alone I tried to think of something nice to occupy my mind – something that had nothing to do with Sadie. I started thinking about Amy and all the fun times we’d had together. But that just got me dwelling on the fact that Amy was the little sister I’d always wanted. If only Mum had adopted her! Mum was going on about how much Sadie needed us, but what about Amy? In the beginning, when Amy had no prospective parents lining up to adopt her, we were all she had. How come Mum hadn’t felt so strongly about giving her a home?
    The more I thought about it, the angrier I became with Mum.
    I started thinking about Lenny’s next visit andeverything I wanted to say to her about Sadie. But I knew I had to be careful. Even if I got Lenny to decide that Sadie and I couldn’t live in the same house together, Mum might not want Sadie to leave. After all, whereas Sadie had nobody else to look after her, Mum knew I could always go and live with Dad as a backup.
    The morning at school was OK , but straight after lunch we had double English, which meant I had to face Mr Anderson again after that whole embarrassing incident in the bookshop at the weekend.
    To my surprise he actually came up to speak to me at my desk before Anne-Marie or Sadie arrived. ‘Guess how Sean spent his Sunday afternoon,’ he said in a quiet voice. ‘Doing a book report on a poetry book! That’ll teach him, huh?’ He gave me a good-natured grin that clearly said ‘No hard feelings’, and even though I was starting to blush I was glad we had cleared the air.
    I felt better until Anne-Marie joined me, gave me a sharp nudge and demanded to know why I hadn’t told her that my mum was fostering Sadie. Word had clearly got out, though Anne-Marie didn’t seem to know yet that Sadie was actually my cousin.
    Five minutes before the bell was due to ring forafternoon break, Mr Anderson said he’d like to hear a few of the poems we’d written for homework. We were supposed to read them out last Friday but there hadn’t been enough time.
    I hadn’t even done mine. The