Just Peachy by Jean Ure Read Free Book Online

Diddy People get everywhere.”
    She said it like she was complaining, but she obviously loved them.
    “I think your sisters are really cute,” I said.
    “They’re OK,” said Millie. “But does one actually need three  of them?” And then she remembered and said, “Of course, you’ve got even more. I don’t suppose you have any privacy at all. ”
    I said, “Well…” and let my voice sort of trail away. Lack of privacy is not a problem I have ever had to face. Our house is quite big and we all have our own rooms, so it’s easy to shut yourself away if that is what you want. But Millie’s house was like a dolls’ house, and I noticed immediately that there were bunk beds in her room, so I guessed she had to share with one of her sisters.
    “Kaylee,” she said. She screwed up her face, making her nose go all crinkled. “That’s hers, the top one. But it’s all right – she’s in with the others for tonight. We’ve got one of those bedroll things.” I must have looked blank. So many things I didn’t know about! “You roll them out and sleep on them? Be nice if she always slept there, but there’s not really enough space.”
    There wasn’t any space in Millie’s room, even without a bedroll thing. We sat companionably on the floor, on a woolly rug, to eat our tea.
    “How d’you manage about homework?” I said. We get quite a lot of it at Sacred Heart. “How d’you concentrate?”
    “Front room,” said Millie. “Me mam’s put a desk in there, and the computer. Nobody’s let in till I’ve finished. Me mam – oops!” She stopped, and clapped a hand to her mouth. “Shouldn’t have said that, should I?”
    Said what? Me mam? I looked at her, puzzled, as I inserted the straw in my carton of juice. “Why shouldn’t you?”
    “Not proper use of English. Sister Agatha told me off about it.”
    “Oh,” I said. “Sister Agatha.” She was one of the strictest of the nuns. She took us for English and made us all quiver and quake. The only other nun who actually took classes, Sister Marie Clare, who took us for music, was really sweet and gentle. We loved Sister Marie Clare. She would never have told Millie off for saying “me mam”.
    “My muthah ,” said Millie, sounding like the Queen. “ Thet is the way one should speak.”
    I giggled. “What were you going to say about your muthah ?”
    “Oh, just that she reckons if I’ve been lucky enough to be given a scholarship I’ve got to really work hard and show that I deserve it. She was the one that pushed me into it. Her and Mrs Hennessy at primary school. I didn’t want to! I wanted to go to Winterbourne with all me friends. My friends,” she corrected herself.
    “I wanted to go to Winterbourne,” I said.
    “Really? Why didn’t you?”
    “Mum thought it was too big and I’d get lost.”
    “How about the others? Where do they go?”
    “Well, the twins are still at primary. Coop and Charlie—” I sucked vigorously on my straw. “They’re at this place where my dad used to go.”
    “Is it posh?”
    I said no, though in fact it is, quite. It’s where the MP sends his son.
    “So why didn’t you go there?” said Millie.
    I tried to think of a reason. “It’s got boys,” I said. “I have enough of boys at home.”
    “I have enough of girls,” said Millie. “Not that I’m boy crazy or anything. I think it’s pathetic when girls can think of nothing except boyfriends. I mean, yuck ! But you want to try living with three Diddy People.”
    I thought that I wouldn’t mind if they were as sweet as Millie’s little sisters.
    “They are just so cute,” I said. “And it’s amazing, how they all look so alike – they could almost be triplets. And if you were photographed with them,” I said, “you could even be…” I couldn’t think of the word. “What’s it called when people have four babies all at once?”
    “Quadruplets.” Millie did the thing with her nose, making it go all crinkled. “How about your