The Girls from See Saw Lane by Sandy Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

here,’ she said. ‘It only took them two squirts to put the shed out. Are you ready?’
    â€˜Just about.’
    The shed looked a mess, so did the apple tree, but Mum looked a lot happier. She and Aunty Brenda were handing out cups of tea to the firemen. Dad looked a bit fed up, but then I suppose he would; if he hadn’t been having a ‘sneaky’ one, he wouldn’t have burnt the shed down.  
    â€˜Perhaps now he really will give up smoking,’ said Mary.
    â€˜I hope so,’ I said, but I had my doubts.
    We said goodbye to Mum and Aunty Brenda, leaving Clark interviewing the firemen and Rita moping on her bed.
    Mary and I got a shilling a week pocket money, sixpence for the pictures and sixpence for sweets. We always went to the same sweet shop before going into the pictures. The woman who owned the shop was a bit strange; she always had her coat on, even in the summer when it was really hot, and she sniffed a lot. Me and Mary loved it in there. It was always packed with kids who took ages to choose their sweets. The woman behind the counter used to huff and puff and suck her cheeks in like she’d just bitten into a lemon. ‘There’s other people waiting, you know,’ she’d grumble. ‘You’re not the only one in the shop.’ Then she’d bully and nudge them towards making a decision like a collie dog with a load of sheep. But she was wasting her breath, because when you only had a few pennies to spend on sweets, you weren’t going to be hurried. On the shelves behind her were rows and rows of jars full of pear drops, rhubarb and custards, sherbet lemons, bull’s eyes, Pontefract cakes and humbugs, and on the counter were boxes of penny sweets. Black Jacks, Davy Crockett bars, flying saucers, liquorice laces and penny chews. Once we had chosen what we wanted, we went into the Regent Cinema and screamed and yelled at Ming the Merciless. We sat there glued to the screen, sticking our fingers into bags of lemonade powder so that when we came out it looked as if we were on forty fags a day.
    When I got home, Mum was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea.
    â€˜Him and his ciggies,’ she said, shaking her head.
    â€˜Where’s Rita?’
    â€˜She’s having a little lie down in the front room,’ she said quietly.
    â€˜Is she okay now?’
    â€˜She’s fine,’ said Mum. ‘She’s decided to be an actress instead.’
    â€˜Shouldn’t be too difficult,’ I said, smiling.

Mary’s Diary
    Dear Diary,
    I have fallen in love with a boy called Elton Briggs
    He is the most handsome boy in the school.
    When I grow up I am going to marry him.
    I have just got to make him fall in love with me.
    I am going to ask my brother Wesley for some advice because mum says he’s got a way with the girls.
    Also me and Dottie saw him snogging Susan Alcorn in the park.
    I passed the eleven-plus. I knew I would, because I’m dead clever. I know how long it takes five men to fill a bath if it takes two men twenty minutes. Not that I care how bloody long it took them.
    Dottie is worried that we won’t be best friends any more. Fat chance!!!
    Tatty bye
    Mary Pickles (genius)
    Aged 11.

Chapter Six
    â€˜ N othing is going to change ,’ said Mary.
    â€˜Yes it will,’ I said. ‘We won’t go to school on the same bus and I will have to sit next to someone I don’t know and I won’t have a best friend anymore.’
    â€˜We’ll always be best friends, you dope.’
    I could feel my eyes filling with tears and I didn’t want to cry, because I was really proud that Mary had passed the exam and I didn’t want her to feel guilty about going to the grammar school. ‘Everything will change,’ I whispered.
    â€˜No it won’t,’ said Mary. ‘I’m not going.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I’m not going.’
    â€˜But you have to