Read Online Me Myself Milly by Penelope Bush - Free Book Online Page B

bothered.
    ‘I don’t know what all the fuss is about,’ she said, turning over.
    ‘What fuss?’ I said crossly. ‘Nobody’s fussing.’
    But then, at three o’clock in the morning, I heard someone moving about. It’s nice to know that someone else is awake at that hour. I was trying to fall asleep while reading a book.
I’ve discovered that if I read really slowly I can sometimes fall asleep without realising it. I expect the Americans have got jet lag and it’s messed their body clocks up.
    School’s getting better. I like going now, even though the mornings are getting darker and sometimes I feel so tired I can barely function first thing. I’ve started drinking coffee
in the morning to try and wake myself up.
    The best thing about Effy is that she’s good at making friends. The first few days we stuck together and had lunch by ourselves in the canteen. Then Effy said, ‘Let’s go and
sit with them,’ indicating some girls from our year. I wasn’t so sure because I could see that one of them was Amy and I could tell a mile off that she’s bad news. But before I
could warn Effy she’d plonked herself on the end of their table and started talking to them. I kept quiet; I had a bad feeling about this. You’d have thought the girls were being
friendly but I could detect an undercurrent and when they started asking Effy about her old school, St Bart’s, I tried kicking Effy’s ankle to warn her to shut up but she just said
‘Ow,’ and carried on talking.
    I didn’t tell Effy that I wasn’t happy about Amy and her friends because I didn’t want to come across as paranoid but the next day, at lunchtime, I could see her looking around
for them so I steered her towards a different group. I’d had a few lessons with some of them and while they were nice I’d never have dared approach them if I hadn’t been so
desperate to keep Effy away from Amy. That’s the trouble with Effy: she’s not very street-wise. She thinks everyone is as nice and uncomplicated as she is.
    So we ended up with Molly, Harriet and Katy. They were really friendly but I didn’t say very much because they were talking about what they’d watched on television last night and we
don’t have a telly to speak of. It’s not like Mum’s said ‘no telly’ or anything; it’s just that the one we’ve got is really old and small so it’s
hardly worth bothering with. I had heard about most of the things they watch though so I just listened. No doubt my how to make friends book would have advised me to try and change the subject, to
steer it onto something I could have joined in with, but I didn’t feel ready for that.
    When we were twelve Mum took us on holiday to Cornwall. We were going to visit Mum’s friend Matt who used to live in the house but had moved to a commune on an
organic farm. It wasn’t until we were halfway down the motorway that Mum said it wasn’t exactly a holiday –, we’d be expected to help on the farm.
    ‘What?’ said Lily.
    ‘Sorry,’ said Mum, ‘but it will be all hands to the deck.’
    ‘Don’t you mean, “all hands to the plough”?’ I said.
    Mum laughed. ‘Very true,’ she said, ‘serves me right for using platitudes.’
    ‘What’s a platitude?’ I asked. Lily gave me one of her ‘don’t encourage her looks’.
    ‘It’s a trite, worn-out, clichéd expression,’ said Mum. ‘Politicians use them all the time. See if you can think of one that’s relevant to the
situation.’
    Mum does this all the time; tries to get us to think – especially about language.
    Lily was sulking. I don’t think she could think of anything.
    ‘How about, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”?’ I said.
    ‘Very good,’ said Mum. ‘We can’t expect to stay there and not help out. There’s a big farmers’ market coming up soon so there’ll be plenty to
do.’
    ‘What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger,’ said Lily.
    ‘Let’s hope so,’ said Mum.
    Lily didn’t