Free Lottie Project by Jacqueline Wilson Page A

a slice for tea.’ But Grandma sighed. ‘What a pity!’
    ‘What?’ I said.
    ‘I can’t wait to sample this cake,’ said Jo quickly. She was sending signals with her eyebrows to Grandma. Grandma ignored them.
    ‘It’s such a shame you left out the “n”, dear.’
    I’d left out one of the ‘n’s in
Anniversary
. Even though I
knew
how to spell it. I couldn’t stand it. I’d thought it really was perfect.
    ‘As if that matters,’ Jo said, furious with Grandma for pointing it out.

    ‘Well, as a matter of fact, I
do
think spelling matters although I know they don’t pay much attention to it in school nowadays,’ said Grandma, putting my cake on her kitchen table. She took the pot plant to the sink.
    ‘It doesn’t need watering yet. I did it yesterday,’ said Jo.
    ‘I just want to perk it up a little,’ said Grandma.
    She should have watered Jo and me. We were visibly drooping. I can never work out if Grandma knows what she’s doing. She’s certainly an expert at chewing you up and spitting you out in tiny pieces. No wonder it took Jo months and months before she dared tell them she was going to have me.
    Grandma and Grandpa still treat her like a school-girl in disgrace. Grandma kept on and on about her old job while she put the vegetables on to cook, prodding Jo as sharply as the potatoes. Jo lied a lot but she’s not as good at it as me. Grandma didn’t even shut up when we started eating.
    ‘What do you
mean
, Josephine? What does this new supermarket job entail?’ Grandma attacked her grapefruit, jabbing at it with a serrated spoon. ‘You’re being deliberately evasive. Are you sure you’re not working as a cashier on the tills?’
    Jo suddenly flung down her own spoon, going as red as the glacé cherries Grandma used for decoration. ‘I am not a cashier,’ she said. ‘I am a cleaner at the supermarket. So now you know.’
    Grandma sputtered like the hot fat cooking her roast beef. She gave Jo a roasting all the while we chewed on our meat. She told Jo it wasn’t a suitable job when she’d been a manager for nearly a year, as if Jo had deliberately turned down umpteen other manager’s jobs just to be contrary. She told Jo she was being an irresponsible mother going out early in the morning and leaving me, and that made me so mad I had to put in my two-pennyworth.
    ‘I think
you’re
being the irresponsible mother to Jo, telling her off and being so horrible when Jo’s tried so hard to sort things out. I think she’s wonderful to get up so early and trudge off like that.
I’m
OK, I’m still in my bed. Jo has to get up early every single morning except Sunday, and she should be having a lovely long lie-in today, but she couldn’t, because we had to get the train and the bus right over to your place to wish you a Happy Anniversary –
two
‘n’s – only you’re just mucking it all up.’ They were all staring at me. ‘That’s quite enough, young lady!’ said Grandma.

    ‘You’re not my mother so you can’t tell me off,’ I said. ‘Jo? Do you want me to shut up?’
    ‘Yes!’ said Jo. ‘Come on, Charlie, we’d better go home.’
    ‘Now don’t be ridiculous. We haven’t even started on pudding yet,’ said Grandma.
    ‘Why don’t you all do a lot more chewing and a lot less yapping,’ said Grandpa, calmly working his way through his second helping of roast beef.
    So we sat still and no-one said anything. Jo and I left a lot on our plates. So did Grandma. But Grandpa didn’t even leave a glisten of gravy.
    I didn’t think I’d be able to eat pudding. It was pineapple upside-down cake and my own stomach felt upside-down too. But I tried a tiny bit and it was actually good, so I ate a bit more, and then a bit more still, until I’d finished it all up.
    Grandpa nodded in approval. He finished his last mouthful too.
    ‘Now that you’ve all calmed down, perhaps we ought to discuss your financial situation, Josephine,’ he said.
    I wanted to tell him it was none