Free The Whole Truth by Kit Pearson Page B

won’t let you go unless you tell me to.”
    “No, thank you,” said Polly.
    Maud swam back. “Come on, Doodle, it’s easy! How about if
I
hold you?”
    Polly looked at their eager faces and tried to be brave. Then she gazed down at the clear greenish water. Tiny fish were swarming init—what if they bit her? She turned her back on Maud and Gregor and splashed to the shore.
    At Sunday dinner Maud put down her knife and fork and made a plea. “Noni, do you think I could stay at school next weekend? The boarders are going to Sooke for a picnic—I’ll be the only one to miss it.”
    “Next weekend? But on Saturday we’re celebrating Polly’s birthday!”
    “Oh, Polly, I’m sorry—I completely forgot!” Polly watched Maud struggle to conceal her disappointment.
    It was one thing for Polly to forget her own birthday. It was quite another for Maud to! And Polly could tell that she would rather stay at school. “You don’t have to come,” she mumbled.
    “Of course she’ll come!” said Noni. “You are a weekly boarder, Maud, not a full-time one. I know there are events at the school on weekends, but your family is more important.”
    “Yes, Noni,” said Maud, but she looked what Daddy used to call “Maudish.”
    “Polly, you haven’t touched your pork! Eat up now—we need to put some meat on your bones,” said Aunt Jean.
    For many days Polly had got away with not eating meat, but now she felt too glum to resist. She put a bit of crackling into her mouth—it was delicious.
I’ll tell them I’m a vegetarian later,
she decided.
    Maud was travelling back to Victoria with Bill Forest, a friend of Gregor’s, who was attending university there. “You watch him,Maud,” teased Gregor. “He’s likely to load you up with cigarettes for your chums.”
    “Gregor!” scolded his mother.
    “Smoking is against the rules,” said Maud primly.
    Polly sat in their room and watched Maud pack. Mrs. Hooper had given her a lot of good things for her tuck box: cookies and apples and a lemon cake.
    “What’s a tuck box?” asked Polly. She didn’t care what it was, but she had to squeeze every bit of Maud she could out of this last hour.
    “It’s a box I keep in the dining room cupboard,” explained Maud. “Every Thursday before we go to bed we’re allowed to share what’s in our boxes. Last week I didn’t have anything, so I’m glad to have this cake! Ann’s mother sent her one, but it crumbled in the mail. Did I tell you that Ann’s from Portland? She’s the first American I’ve ever met.”
    “Maud, I really wouldn’t mind if you stayed next weekend,”
    Polly lied.
    “That’s all right, Doodle. I wouldn’t miss your birthday party for anything!” Maud sounded sincere, and Polly felt better. But then Maud added, “After next weekend, though, I’m going to try to convince Noni to let me be a full-time boarder. I’ll get Miss Guppy to write her a letter. I’m the only one who doesn’t stay, and I miss too much. I’m sure Noni will realize that when the Guppy writes.”
    “But Maud—”
    Maud looked at her. “I know you want me here, Doodle. But you’re just going to have to accept it. Anyway, you seem fine. You’re talking to them now, and you’re eating more, even meat! How about the rules—are you keeping them?
I
am. And I
never
think about Daddy. Do you?”
    “Sometimes.”
Always,
Polly added to herself. “Oh, Maud, how I can help thinking about Daddy, when—”
    “Polly! You promised! You can’t think about him
at all,
do you understand?”
    Polly nodded, but pain stabbed her insides.
    “Once you start school tomorrow it will be easier,” Maud told her. “You’ll have new friends to think about instead, just like I do. What’s rule number four?”
    “Be brave,” whispered Polly.
    “Right. Just be brave and you’ll be fine!”
    How could Maud find everything so easy? Just as Polly had begun to feel a little bit safe, everything was scary again.

CHAPTER SIX
POLLY GOES