Awkward Autumn of Lily Mclean by Lindsay Littleson

Author:Lindsay Littleson [Lindsay Littleson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782503866
Publisher: Floris Books
Published: 2017-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

My big list of worries:

Kai getting Jenna into trouble with the police.

Mum inviting Brian to come and live with us.

Rowan’s invited me to Arran because she feels sorry for me, not because she likes me.

That last one’s the silliest worry of all, but it’s hard to ignore worries. They sneak into your brain.

Later, when the wee ones are in bed and I’m in my room finishing off some art and design homework, I start wondering about contacting Jenna again. I don’t believe her story about studying for her Spanish exam with Sarah. She has never shown any enthusiasm for studying in her life, but tonight she couldn’t wait to get out of the house.

I put down my notebook, reach under the bed, grab the fluffy purple cushion and hold it close. I’m going to give this telepathy stuff one more shot.

I begin the same way as before: by closing my eyes.

At first, recalling good memories of Jenna is a bit tricky. The not-so-good ones are much more recent and vivid: her tantrums about not going to Millport, her ignoring me at school, her furious reaction when I told Mum and Gran about Kai. I need to remember further back in time, long before Jenna’s metamorphosis into a stroppy teenager, when she was still my smiley, pigtailed big sister.

Eyes closed, remembering, I see a younger me, aged about five or six – freckle-faced and ginger-haired. It’s winter and I’m enveloped in a puffy pink jacket two sizes too big and there’s a ridiculous woolly hat rammed on my head. Jenna’s arms are wrapped tightly around me as she steers our borrowed sledge down the snow-covered slope. Except she can’t steer very well, and the sledge is hurtling downhill, out of control. We tumble off, giggling hysterically, and roll like hedgehogs halfway down the hill.

I see it all so clearly: we lie on our backs, side by side, in a deep drift, and Jenna shows me how to make snow angels.

It is only later, as we drag the sledge homeward along the gritty, sludgy pavement, that I start to worry about how our step-dad is going to react when he sees us. Our wet hair and soaking, slush-smeared clothes. I begin to cry.

Jenna understands right away. She hugs me and tells me not to worry.

“Shh, Lil. Stop greetin. I’ll tell him it was all my idea. Or… maybe we could go to Gran’s house first and dry off in front of her fire? She might even make us a hot chocolate, Lil. Good plan?”

I remember smiling up at her adoringly, tears drying on my red, frost-nipped cheeks. It is a totally brilliant plan.

I keep that picture in my head, like a photograph, and I try to reach my sister.

“Jenna, if you can hear me, say ‘yes’,” I whisper, hugging the cushion tight.

No answer.

“Jenna, can you hear me?” I say, a little louder. When Summer first tried to contact me, I could hear her voice but I couldn’t see her. It was only later that she became visible.

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