Sisters of the Moon by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick

Author:Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

28

The next morning the doorbell rang as I was simultaneously chomping my breakfast cereal and checking through my backpack. I opened the door to Rhiannon, Pod and Jazz.

‘We’ve come to escort you to school,’ Jazz announced. ‘We figured you could use the support.’

‘Also, you need a heads-up on what’s going on in class before you get there,’ Pod said, a wicked glint in her eye. ‘Tensions are rising. Our visitors are causing waves.’

‘You know how Jenny O’Malley is Clodagh’s cousin?’ Jazz said. ‘Well, yesterday Jenny spent every minute between classes sitting on Casey’s desk, yapping to Clodagh while Casey stared daggers into her back—’

‘Then Casey took her bag and put it on her desk so there’d be no room for Jenny to sit,’ said Pod.

‘And the next time Jenny came over, she pushed that bag out of the way and popped her tush up on the desk,’ said Jazz, sweeping an imaginary bag off an imaginary desk with both arms as we headed out my garden gate. ‘Like Casey wasn’t there.’

‘The rest of the gang are on eggshells, pretending nothing’s happening,’ said Pod.

‘Great,’ I said. ‘Maybe everyone will be so focused on that, they’ll forget about me.’

Jazz pulled a sympathetic face. ‘Sorry, hon,’ she said. ‘Nothing beats finding a dead body.’

‘Jazz!’ Pod frowned at her. ‘We said we weren’t going to mention that.’

‘Just tellin’ it like it is,’ Jazz said.

And that’s exactly how it was. In the schoolyard and in the corridors, everyone turned to stare at me, and whispered behind their fingers as though I couldn’t plainly see them doing it. When we walked into the classroom, twenty-something heads turned and all conversation stopped.

‘She’s not allowed talk about it,’ Rhiannon said, holding up a hand. ‘The police cautioned her. She must not discuss it with anyone. She had to sign a … thing.’

Unbelievably, this worked. Everyone looked disappointed but went back to whatever they were doing, and we settled into our desks. I mouthed a heartfelt thank you to Rhiannon for her little lie as Mr Endwhistle came in to teach class and the day began.

At break time, exactly as the others had said, Jenny O’Malley went over and sat on Casey’s desk. She and Clodagh began to laugh and chat, and Casey got up to toss something in the bin. That’s when Jenny made her move. She swivelled off the desk and dropped into Casey’s seat. Casey came back from the bin and stood looking from Jenny to Clodagh and back again, lost for words.

‘Can Jen sit here for the next class, Case?’ Clodagh said, batting her eyelids ever so sweetly. ‘Please, please, pretty please?’

‘You can have my seat, Case,’ Jenny offered. ‘Hannah won’t mind.’

I winced, mainly for Hannah but a little bit for Casey too. The rest of the class held its breath and waited for an explosion, but fair play to Casey, she forced a smile.

‘Sure,’ she said. ‘No probs. Just this once.’ And she took her books over to the empty chair beside Hannah-won’t-mind.

Casey didn’t ask Jenny for her seat back at the end of class and Jenny didn’t offer it.

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