Free Gemini Rising by Eleanor Wood Page B

really do not appreciate being put on the spot like that! I suppose you knew that they were just going to turn up out of the blue and spring this on me?’
    ‘No way! That’s so unfair!’ My voice drops to a whisper. ‘I didn’t… I don’t even really want to go.’
    ‘Oh, for God’s sake! Well, you’ll have to now. You should have just
said
, you silly girl. Sunday morning, indeed! We’ll finish your birthday dinner without you, if that’s what you want. Just get your things and go.’

Chapter Nine
    It turns out that the twins don’t live all that far away, even if it seems like a million miles. Their house is over on the other side of town, right on the outskirts and near the river – the slightly posher and much quieter part, practically like the countryside compared to where Shimmi and I both live in the middle of town. It seems wrong to me, somehow, that they live in an ordinary house not too different from mine, and that they have an ordinary dad who listens to Radio Four while he’s driving.
    If this were anyone else – being driven around by their dad, sucking up to him like obedient twelve year olds and getting him to ask my mum if I could come round for a ‘sleepover party’ – the mockery would be merciless. And it would be mostly by Shimmi.
    As the twins’ dad is driving, we are all being quiet and contained, but there is much giggling and nudging going on. Elyse is sitting in the front seat, and she keeps turning around and making faces at us. She catches my eye and winks. I smile back but, hemmed in between Shimmi and Melanie in the back seat, I am stiff and anxious. I still feel guilty – I can’t stand it when my mum is angry with me. Luckily, if I’m being quiet and weird, no one seems to notice. Mel is gazing out of the window, apparently lost in her own world as usual. I can feel Shimmi practically jiggling with excitement on my other side.
    I look past her to the orange street lamps whizzing past the dark window, and try to relax and think about anything except how my mum had been when I left, or my family eating spaghetti and meatballs without me. I think of Pete’s surprise cheesecake and how I won’t even be there when he brings it to the table. The idea of it makes me want to cry.
    Then I think of something else that doesn’t seem quite right.
    ‘Hey, where’s Nathalie?’
    ‘Oh, her house isn’t really on the way,’ Elyse explains. ‘So she said she’d get a taxi over or something.’
    I still can’t stop thinking about my mum, and feeling terrible about myself – but as we drive further through the dark something funny begins to happen. It’s as if my combined feelings of unease have nowhere to go other than into the pit of my stomach, where they turn into a strange sort of excitement that takes hold of my whole body.
    The house where Elyse and Melanie live is at the end of the road, the most isolated from the others, hidden behind gates and a thick hedge. It looks maybe Victorian, not vast but big and a touch more interesting than mine or Shimmi’s houses. I really, really like it. I find that I am incredibly curious about where, and how, the twins live. I am convinced that their daily existence must be so much more glamorous than mine.
    ‘Home sweet home!’ Elyse says with a note of sarcasm as she skips up the path towards the house.
    When she lets us in and switches on the light, a conversely gloomy feeling descends. I shiver as I walk through the door, chillier still than outside. It smells like no one’s been here in a while, and the stark electric light doesn’t do much to soften the impression.
    ‘Come on,’ Elyse says, taking me by the hand and ushering Shimmi along behind. ‘We’ll go up to my room. Thanks for the lift, Dad.’
    ‘You’re welcome,’ he says, looking slightly awkward.
    The building itself is stunning, but it looks like nobody’s done anything with it in years – the furniture and the decorations are like something from my