Over the Moon by Jean Ure Read Free Book Online Page A

could have brained her. It’s true that Hattie herself, personally, doesn’t much care for going in the water, but really! She is supposed to be my
friend.
It was all the excuse Simon needed. He said apologetically that he not only couldn’t dance, he didn’t swim, either. Frankly I was beginning to feel quite out of patience with both him and Hattie. With my best bright smile, I said, “But Matt does, doesn’t he?”
    Simon said yes, Matt did. “He’s on the school team.”
    “Well, there you are, then! He’d enjoy it,” I said, “wouldn’t he?”
    Simon said yes, he probably would.
    “So you could ask him! Tell him I’ve invited both of you. If Matt comes, you’ll have to come, as well,” I said, “to keep Hattie company, cos she’s not mad on swimming, either. Are you?”
    Hattie shook her head. She seemed kind of resigned; so did Simon. He promised that he would speak to Matt and let me know.
    “Talk about
obvious,”
said Hattie, when Simon had gone and we were on our way back through the shopping centre.

    Loftily I told her that there were times when you had to be.
    “Things don’t happen all by themselves, you know. You have to do something to help them along.”
    “Oh, absolutely,” said Hattie. But I felt that I detected a note of her famous sarcasm, and I started to worry that perhaps I might have been a little bit
too
pushy and Simon would never talk to me again. I needed him, to get to Matt! But Monday morning he was waiting for me at the station. He said he’d had a word with Matt and they were both going to come. Three thousand cheers!
Definitely
an over-the-moon day!
    I babbled at him that I was so glad. I said that we were desperate for more young people, “Cos otherwise, it’s like some kind of geriatric convention”. Simon said that he was pleased to be of help. He said it very solemnly, so that I couldn’t tell whether he was teasing or being serious. A bit gushily – I have this pathetic tendency to gush when I am feeling unsure of myself – I said that if they wanted, he and Matt could stay over.
    “We have oceans of room, it wouldn’t be any problem.”
    Well, it wouldn’t have been, they could easily have slept downstairs. I don’t know what call Mum had to get so uptight about it.
    “It would just be
nice
,” she said, “to be consulted. I mean, who are these boys? I’ve never met them! I’ve never even heard of them before.”
    As it happened they didn’t need to stay over, which I thought was a pity as it would have been ultra romantic to wake up and meet over the breakfast table, but in any case Mum couldn’t say very much in view of my
rather dazzling
end-of-term report. In every single subject there was “marked improvement” or “she has made great strides” or even, glory hallelujah, “Scarlett has turned in some excellent work”!!! Now it was Mum’s turn to be over-the-moon. She hugged me and said that she was “so pleased”. Dad said, “Blimey O’Reilly, I’m living with a couple of bluestockings!” Mum told him not to tease.

    “She’s done so well!”
    Dad winked at me and said, “Go on, it’ll never last! I give it until … when do they let you know about the founder’s thing? Middle of Jan? I give it till the middle of Jan!”

    “That would be cheating,” said Mum. “That would be false pretences!” Oh, dear! Mum was being so earnest about it. But I have to admit, it did give me quite a warm, cosy feeling to have a favourable report for once. And while doing homework was a real drag, it was kind of satisfying when you got good marks, so I thought that most probably I would continue even if I were lucky enough to be selected. I mean, now that I’d started, I might just as well go on. On the other hand, if I didn’t get selected, after all my hard work and striving to be better – well! I would be sick as a parrot. But I didn’t want to think about that right now. Matt was coming to the after-Christmas party and