Read Online Expecting to Fly by Cathy Hopkins - Free Book Online

I thought, as I got up and trooped back up the stairs to think about what might be done up there.
    We moved into the new house over the next few days, seeing as it was half-term. Posh and Becks were as indignant as Dylan had been at first and objected loudly when they were
shut in the tiny room until we got things sorted. I was determined to make the best of it, although I had felt like crying when I saw all my stuff packed up and my lovely room at Aunt Sarah’s
bare. I thought about all the luxuries we had taken for granted there. State of the art showers. Top of the range TVs. Big American fridge. All the mod cons I wouldn’t be able to use any
more, and I hadn’t even had a chance to use Aunt Sarah’s webcam to talk to Erin. Dad told us all we had to be like Buddhist monks, detached from worldly goods, and he made us chant nam myoho renge kyo all the way in the car to the new house at the top of our voices. He said that the chant means something about dedicating oneself to the harmony and rhythm of life. How
that was going to help, I couldn’t imagine. He really is bonkers sometimes, but it seemed to do the trick and took my mind off feeling sad and I think it gave some people in cars near to us a
laugh – four people singing their heads off is not a sight you see every day.

    A couple of hours after we had arrived, Zahrah, Leela and Brook turned up each with a house-warming present: a scented candle from Brook (I had told her the place smelled
musty), a chill out CD from Zahrah that she had put together herself and some scrummy yummy Indian sweets from Leela that her aunt had made specially. We got my CD player out, put the CD on, lit
the candle and ate the sweets, no problemo.
    ‘Home,’ I said gloomily, as I looked around at the mess and the unpacked bags and the wallpaper peeling off the wall to my right. The others followed my gaze, then Leela lay back and
started laughing.‘Home,’ she repeated in a deep, sad voice.
    ‘My smelly bedroom,’ said Brook in an even gloomier voice.
    ‘I’d love my own bedroom,’ said Zahrah. ‘At least you don’t have to share.’
    ‘She does,’ said Leela.‘With all the dust mites and bedbugs.’
    We all cracked up laughing.
    Zahrah went over to look out of the window. ‘Hey, you’ve got a nice view from here.’
    I got up from the bed to join her. The window looked out over the cricket grounds and then over towards Notting Hill Gate.
    ‘How will you get to school?’ asked Leela.
    ‘Bus,’ I said. ‘The stop is near, so that’s no sweat. It will take about twenty minutes longer.’
    ‘And has Dylan got over his disapproval?’ asked Brook.
    I laughed. ‘Yeah, but first he went round the whole house with a pair of Marigolds and some disinfectant. He can be a very prissy madam some days.’
    Brook reached into her bag and pulled out a pile of magazines. ‘Here. Mum was only going to throw these out. I thought we could go through them and get some ideas for
decorating.’
    Mum came in at that moment with a tray with mugs of tea for everybody. ‘Mm, smells nice in here,’ she said as she looked at the candle. ‘The scent of a house is so important,
isn’t it? My essential oils are the first thing I unpacked so that we can get the house smelling nice.’
    Mum has a gift for mixing scents – the bath lotions and potions that she makes to sell in Aunt Sarah’s shop in Notting Hill are exceptional, so I knew that she would have the house
smelling divine before long.
    ‘How do you like your new home, Mrs Ruspoli?’ Zahrah asked.
    ‘We’ll make it nice. There’s a way to go though, and I only realised today how much stuff we need – at my sister’s house we didn’t need furniture, it was all
there but, here, we only have the basics.’
    ‘Freecycle,’ said Zahrah.‘It’s a website where people advertise stuff they don’t want and you can go and get it for free. My family have got loads of stuff from
there: desks, chairs, carpets, you