Free Alice Next Door by Judi Curtin Page B

rattly kind of sound. I wondered if Miss O’Herlihy would let me playthem in the school band.
    Alice sighed. ‘This is torture. I could die of hunger here, in this very room.’
    Things were getting desperate. I’d been best friends with Alice for nearly eight years, and I knew all there was to know about her. And one of the things I knew very well was that when Alice was tired or hungry, she wasn’t much fun to be with.
    ‘I know,’ I said brightly. ‘Mum has the hot water on for Rosie’s bath. Maybe if I fill your pot from the hot tap in the bathroom, it would work.’
    Alice looked a bit doubtful.
    ‘I’m not so sure. But we’d better try something . I haven’t got long left.’ As she spoke she sucked her cheeks and her tummy in, and flopped onto the bed in a mock faint.
    ‘Very funny. You just lie there being totally dramatic, and I’ll do all the work,’ I muttered as I stuffed a pot of noodles into the pocket of my hoodie, and went into the bathroom. I ran thehot tap for ages, but it never got that hot. Not considering I needed water that was actually boiling. In the end I got fed up, and I ripped the foil from the top of the carton anyway. Inside was really gross looking. Maybe Mum was right, it couldn’t have been good for you. It didn’t even look like food. It was a strange orangey colour, and was mostly dust with a layer of strange-looking brown things on top. I carefully filled the carton up to the mark on the side, and stirred it with the handle of my toothbrush . It actually smelt quite nice – a bit like pizza. I checked to see that the coast was clear, then I ran back to my room. Alice was lying on the bed, trying to look weak.
    ‘Oh, at last. You might have to feed me. I have no strength left.’
    ‘Here,’ I said. ‘Feed yourself. I worked hard for this.’
    Alice took out the spoon we’d saved since breakfast, and dipped it into the pot. She stirred around, and sniffed for a while. ‘Mmmm. Smellsnice enough. A bit like pizza.’
    I smiled to myself. ‘Try some then. Before it gets cold.’ What I really meant, of course, was ‘before it gets colder,’ since it was only barely warm to start with.
    She gingerly scooped up some of the orange-brown stuff, and put it into her mouth. I smiled at her encouragingly. Behind my back I had all my fingers crossed.
    ‘Yeeurgh.’ She very rudely spat it back into its pot. ‘Yuck!The noodles are still rock hard. I can’t eat this. It’s like eating gravel.’
    I was upset. ‘Come on, Al. Please try. You have to eat. It can’t be all that bad.’
    She thrust the pot towards my face. ‘OK, You try it then.’
    I shook my head. ‘Sorry, I’m quite full.’
    ‘Yeah. Full after your dinner. Was it nice? Did you have second helpings?’
    All of a sudden Alice began to cry. She put her head in her hands, but I could see tearssqueezing between her fingertips.
    I picked up the pot and put it on my dressing table. I really didn’t need to have that stuff spilled on my duvet. It looked like the kind of stuff that would make a stain that would never come out – even with the kind of biological washing powders my Mum refuses to use. ‘Oh, Al. I’m sorry. Don’t worry. I’ll get you some food. I’ll think of something, I promise. You won’t starve.’
    She looked at me crossly, wiping away her tears. ‘I know I won’t starve. But I’m not just crying about the food. It’s everything. I don’t think this plan is going to work. We’re just going to be in terrible trouble, and then I’ll have to go back to Dublin, and it will be worse than ever. Mum won’t even let me visit here any more after this. Oh, Meg, this was all a huge mistake.’ She put her head down again and gave a succession of huge, sad sobs.
    There was no way I was giving up though. Noway. There was too much at stake.
    I took her by the shoulders. ‘Come on, Al. Don’t talk like that. Just wait till Mum brings Rosie upstairs for bed, and I’ll get some boiling water.