Free Strawberry Sisters by Candy Harper Page B

is nice.’ He tugged my hair. ‘And this . . .’ he ran a hand through his shiny black hair in a silly shampoo ad kind
of way, ‘is even nicer.’
    Mr O’Brien crashed some chords to get us to be quiet at that point, but I thought that rehearsing with Bartek was going to be fun.
    On the way to Lauren’s house, I tried to plan what I wanted to say. I was going to start off with what I knew I’d done wrong: I shouldn’t have made such a
fuss about not going bowling and I should have been more understanding about her being ill. Except I was a bit confused about just how ill she was. I felt like I should have asked her about it
more. But I had
tried
. Mostly she just kept saying she was fine. What if Chloe was right and there was something seriously wrong? I was getting in a tangle again. Once I’d said sorry,
I really needed some straight answers from Lauren.
    I rang the doorbell and waited. Through the glass panels I saw Lauren’s mum coming towards me. For a minute, I wished I was Jasveen: she’s one of those nice, polite girls that
parents always love; she’d know the right way to start this conversation off.
    Lauren’s mum opened the door and I hesitated. It seemed quite formal to say ‘Hello, Mrs Anderson,’ but she’d never asked me to call her by her first name so I
didn’t feel like I could do that either.
    ‘Hi,’ I said eventually.
    ‘Amelia,’ she said. Not even ‘Hello, Amelia’. Just my name in a cross, teacherish sort of voice.
    I swallowed. ‘How’s Lauren?’
    ‘Asleep. She’s worn out.’
    ‘Oh. I was hoping to talk to her.’
    ‘That’s not possible right now.’
    I wanted to leave a message, but something about the way Lauren’s mum was glaring at me made my words clog in my throat. I was going to have to sort this out by phone away from
Lauren’s mum’s accusing eyes. I half turned to go.
    ‘And Amelia?’
    I looked back at her.
    ‘All this . . .’ she cast about for the right word, ‘. . . drama,’ she said as if drama was the most revolting thing she could think of. ‘This friendship drama
isn’t helping Lauren. She was extremely upset after you phoned her on Monday. You know she’s really very ill and she needs rest. If you can’t be a reliable friend then it might be
best if you spent less time with her.’
    What did she mean Lauren was really very ill? I was so shocked by what she’d said that I was completely robbed of speech. She’d got it all wrong. Lauren had said she was ill that one
time and after that she kept playing it down as if it was nothing serious, but I was so upset and confused that I didn’t have the words to explain this to Lauren’s mum. All I could
think of was that I had to get away as fast as I could. For some stupid reason, I said politely, ‘Goodbye, Mrs Anderson,’ as if her opinion of my manners meant anything now. She’d
obviously got me down as the worst friend in the world. I walked blindly back up their drive and towards my house.
    The more it rolled around in my head, the more bewildered I was. Lauren’s mum thought I was a horrible person and that I was rowing with Lauren when she was sick. Why hadn’t Lauren
explained to me properly? What exactly did ‘really very ill’ mean? Ill like glandular fever or was it something worse?
    When I got home, I went up to my bedroom and thought long and hard about what to do. I really needed to see Lauren, but her mum was clearly going to get in the way of that. I picked up my phone.
What if Lauren was still asleep and her mum answered her mobile? What if no one answered and I had to leave a message? What would I say? Finally, I found a piece of paper and pen and tried to write
something down. I crossed bits out and added things until I ended up with something that I thought was OK.
    Dear Lauren,
    I am so sorry that I shouted at you on Monday. I don’t really care about not going bowling, but I am sad that we’ve fallen out because you’re my best friend and I