The Four of Us by Margaret Pemberton Read Free Book Online Page B

it?’
    â€˜It’s a great wheeze,’ Geraldine said later that morning as they all four made their way to the science laboratory. ‘We’ll all have to leave home wearing school uniform, though. It’s obligatory for any school event and all our parents know that.’
    â€˜Just hide some trendy gear in with your night things.’ Kiki flashed a wicked grin. ‘We’ll stow them in a couple of carrier bags and change in the loos at Bickley Station. Easy peasy.’
    â€˜And then where will we go?’ Breathlessly Artemis heaved her pile of science textbooks from one arm to the other, struggling not to be left behind as they clattered up the steep flight of stairs leading to the science laboratory.
    â€˜We’ll cruise the coffee bars in Bromley High Street.’ Kiki looked across at Geraldine. ‘You OK with that, Geraldine? All the boys from Dulwich College and St Dunstan’s hang out there and there’s live music in the Two Zeds coffee bar – and that I really want to check out.’
    That evening Kiki threw the doors of her wardrobe wide and stood in front of its contents in deep thought.
    The trouble was that though she had clothes aplenty they were all clothes her mother deemed suitable for her age, which meant they were entirely unsuitable for her purpose. She dragged an Op Art sleeveless shift dress out, wondering if she could get away with slicing three inches off its length. The zigzag patterning was in stark black and white – a sophistication she’d had to fight hard for – and if she wore it with her black knee-high boots and her black leather baker-boy beret she might just look sufficiently groovy to pass as an up-and-coming pop star.
    She was still standing in front of her open wardrobe, pondering whether if she sliced three inches off the bottom of her dress she would be able to successfully re-hem it, when her mother walked into the room and sat down heavily on the bed.
    â€˜Wha’are you doing, darling?’ she asked, her speech already slurred. ‘You’re not going out tonigh’, are you? I thought the school play was tomorrow nigh’?’
    â€˜It is.’ Kiki closed her wardrobe door, fiercely hoping there’d been no sign of inebriation in her mother’s voice when, a little earlier in the evening, she had responded to Artemis’s mother’s query as to whether it really was all right for Artemis to sleep over on Saturday night.
    â€˜Then come and keep me company downstairs,’ her mother said, sounding abjectly forlorn.
    â€˜OK. But you have to watch Ready, Steady, Go with me.’
    â€˜I always do watch it,’ her mother said, surprising the socks off her. ‘Cathy McGowan reminds me of Primmie. She’s always so bright and zesty.’
    Kiki, usually always moody and sulky in both her parents’ presence, erupted into giggles. Long-haired Cathy McGowan was known as Queen of the Mods and that was hardly a title that fitted Primmie.
    â€˜Come on, Mummy,’ she said, drawing her mother to her feet and sliding her arm companionably through hers, an action so alien she couldn’t remember when last she’d done it. ‘You know what Cathy McGowan always says when the programme begins. The weekend starts here!’
    â€˜Evening, Mrs Lane. Thank you for letting us stay the night,’ Artemis and Geraldine chanted in unison as they trooped into the house a little after six o’clock the following day, each carrying an overnight bag.
    â€˜That’s fine,’ Kiki’s mother responded, far more animated than usual, ‘there’s no problem as long as you don’t want me to go with you to the play. An amateur production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a joy I can easily forego.’
    Laughing and saying nothing, in order not to have to blatantly lie about their plans for the evening, they clattered up the stairs after Kiki.
    â€˜Where’s