Afraid by Mandasue Heller Read Free Book Online Page A

Bulimic?’
    ‘No.’ Skye shook her head. ‘I just—’
    ‘Then do as you’re told, and go down for lunch.’ Lucy cut her off. ‘I’ve got enough to deal with around here without having to worry about silly girls starving themselves to death.’
    Too scared to argue, and sensing that it would be futile to try, Skye did as she’d been told and made her way downstairs.
    Ten kids were seated around the table when she walked into the dining room. They had all been chattering loudly but they fell silent when they noticed her, and Skye felt the heat rise to her cheeks when all eyes turned her way. Relieved when they went back to their conversations after a couple of seconds, she skirted around the table and headed for the serving hatch, through which she could see Col and a middle-aged woman moving around in what appeared to be the kitchen.
    ‘Ah, you made it.’ Col beamed when he saw Skye. ‘Feeling better now?’
    ‘Not really,’ she mumbled, feeling sick again as the aroma of the food that was sitting in serving dishes on his side of the hatch reached her. ‘Lucy made me come down.’
    Already ladling food onto a plate, Col said, ‘You’ll feel a lot better with something in your stomach.’
    When he handed the plate to her, Skye gazed down at the limp-looking piece of fish, a mound of lumpy mashed potato and a pile of garden peas, and swallowed deeply. It looked totally unappetising but she hadn’t eaten a thing since yesterday lunchtime, so she supposed she ought to at least try it.
    The three older kids had already left the room by the time she carried her plate to the table, and the younger ones got up and wandered out pretty much as soon as she sat down. Glad to be alone, because she’d been self-conscious about eating in front of strangers ever since her mum had told her that she ate like a pig, Skye cut off a tiny piece of the fish – and was surprised to find that it didn’t taste half as bad as it looked.
    When Col glanced out of the hatch a few minutes later and saw that her plate was almost empty, he said, ‘Attagirl! Now, how about some jelly and ice cream for afters?’
    Determined not to let him think that he was winning her over, Skye shook her head.
    ‘Oh, well, all the more for me.’ Col grinned. ‘Last one to finish usually clears up, by the way. But I’ll let you off, seeing as it’s your first day.’
    Skye stood up without answering and headed for the door.
    ‘Going back to your room?’ Col asked. ‘I’ll pop up when I’ve finished down here; tell you about some of the activities we’ve got lined up for next week. I’m sure there’ll be something we can tempt you with.’
    Skye pulled a face and carried on walking. He was one of the most cheerful people she’d ever met, and she had a sneaking suspicion that she might have quite liked him if they had met under different circumstances. But she had no intention of getting involved in any of his stupid activities and she hoped he wasn’t going to keep trying to gee her up, because she just wanted to be left alone.
    Back in her room, she lay on the bed and stared at the stains on the underside of the mattress above until her eyes drifted shut.
    Waking with a start some time later at the sound of raised voices in the corridor outside, Skye crept over to the door and pressed her ear against the wood in time to hear Lucy blast Nadine for having left the grounds without permission.
    ‘I’m getting seriously fed up with your lack of regard for the rules,’ the woman was saying. ‘I don’t know how many times I’ve warned you, but if you think you can carry on doing as you please without any consequences, you’d best think again.’
    ‘What you gonna do, put me on the naughty step?’ Nadine shot back insolently.
    ‘No, I’ll make arrangements for you to be moved to a different facility,’ said Lucy. ‘See how you get along without your little lapdogs egging you on and making you feel like some kind of big