Just Peachy by Jean Ure Read Free Book Online Page B

I’ll show you where I do my homework.”
    I’d often wondered what actually happened when you went to a sleepover. I had this vague idea that you might try out new hairstyles, or make-up, or play games on the computer. Then later, when it was dark and you were safely tucked up in bed, you’d tell each other ghost stories and make your flesh creep. Oh, and eat stuff! Popcorn, or sardines, or toasted marshmallows. Not that I actually knew what toasted marshmallows were; I think they were just something I’d read about in books. Most of my ideas seemed to come from books. Real life often turned out to be quite different.
    Like my sleepover with Millie. We didn’t do any of the stuff I thought we’d do. Neither of us was really very interested in hairstyles or make-up, and playing games on the computer would have meant staying downstairs in the front room, which wasn’t anywhere near as cosy as Millie’s bedroom. We did try a few ghost stories, but we weren’t very good at it and Millie got the giggles, which gave me the giggles, and her mum came into the room and said, “Girls, it’s one o’clock in the morning!”
    Millie said, “Sorry, sorry, we’ll be quiet as mice.”
    “You could maybe try going to sleep,” said her mum; but we were far too wide awake for that.
    We’d spent the whole evening talking. Just talking! We’d talked about school, about our favourite subjects and our favourite teachers. We’d talked about our favourite books, our favourite TV programmes, our favourite singers. I’d never met anyone I felt so at home with as I did with Millie. I reckoned we could have gone on talking all night without ever running out of subjects.
    We almost did go on all night. Every now and then there’d be a bit of a silence, then one of us would go, “Are you asleep?” and the other one would bounce over in her bunk and go, “No! Are you?” and that would set us off again.
    Next morning I met Millie’s dad. He was a little tubby man with sandy hair and a bald patch in the middle and I was terrified in case Millie did what she had threatened to do and told him how I’d said he was the cream of the cream. She’d obviously remembered cos she gave me this impish grin like, Shall I tell? and I felt my cheeks grow all hot and hectic. Katy, the smallest of the Diddy People, immediately squealed, “Peachy’s gone pink!” And then she gave a reproachful yelp as Millie kicked her under the table. I know it was Millie cos she told me so later. She said, “No manners, the younger generation.” And then she added, “You needn’t have worried – I wasn’t going to say anything.”
    I was grateful to her. It would have been too embarrassing!
    “I knew you didn’t want me to,” said Millie, “so that’s why I wasn’t going to. Friends have got to be able to trust each other.”
    When it came time to go home, later that afternoon, Millie’s mum wanted to know whether anyone was coming to pick me up or would I like a lift?
    “She wants to go by bus,” said Millie. “I’m going to take her down the bus stop and make sure she gets the right one.”
    Millie fussed over me like a mother hen. She said, “Get off the bus at the Town Hall Gardens, stay right where you are and wait for the number 2b.” She repeated it. “2b. Yes?”
    “Yes.” I nodded.
    “That’ll take you to the bottom of Tay Hill. Then when you come to school on Monday you can get the same bus all the way. Dead easy!”
    I felt quite proud of myself, buying my ticket, getting on and off buses all on my own. Pathetic, really, but everyone has to start somewhere. Mum was surprised when I walked in.
    “I thought you were going to call me?” she said.
    Carelessly I told her that I had come by bus. “It’s dead easy! And a whole lot greener than cluttering up the roads with private cars.”
    Mum said, “Be as green as you like, but just don’t use that word in front of your dad.”
    Dad is one of those people that thinks global