Blood Family by Anne Fine Page A

Astrid when we did painting in wet break. He copied everything she painted, in the exact same colours. Astrid went up to complain, and she and Miss Bright whispered together for a while. Only a little bit later, Miss Bright asked Eddie to help her carry something along to the office. They were away for quite a while. I think I thought that she was probably telling himthat he might have been allowed to copy people in that way back in his old school, but he couldn’t in ours.
    I didn’t let on that he lived next door. Only to Emma. And I did tell her that she wasn’t to say about him wearing Thomas the Tank Engine pyjamas or playing in the sandpit with a baby. I told her twice .
    But she was cross because I’d given my last sweet to Surina, so she told on me. She slipped out of the lunch line and ran back to the classroom. I followed and I heard her telling Miss Bright, ‘Charlotte is saying really mean things about the new boy.’
    Miss Bright called me in too, and said she hoped I would try harder to be kind. I was so mad at Emma that I broke friends with her and went off with Surina. It was a horrid time till Emma and I made friends again. And after that I heard Surina crying in the lavatories, and I felt worse.
    I don’t think Eddie ever knew I’d told about the pyjamas. Or the sandpit.
    Nothing was ever said.
Eddie
    I’d never worn anything that bright and red before. The trousers were grey, but the school top was redder than ketchup. When I was taken in, on that first morning, everyone in my class just thought I’d movedthere from some other school. Nobody asked about it.
    The work was easy. By then I could read almost as well as everyone except for Priya. Miss Bright said my writing was neat. I had a bit of trouble with the number work because they were doing different things. But after Miss Bright called Linda in for a chat, and lent her the book, then Linda managed to explain that too, and it was easy as well.
    Rob came to check on me, and I think that it was the uniform that made him push me a bit. ‘I think your mum would like to see it. I think she’d be proud.’ He tugged me back to face him when I moved away. ‘You will feel better afterwards, I promise you. We’ll go on Saturday. I’ll fix it up.’
    And it was all right, that visit. When we arrived, Mum wasn’t in her room. The corridor was empty, so we just walked along, with Rob peering through the glass panels in the doors along one side, exactly like in school. He found her in a room with other people, sewing some brightly coloured ribbons onto a straw hat. Mum smiled as I came in, and when Rob steered me right in front of her, she said, ‘Look at my bonnet!’ and crammed it on her head, and laughed.
    They’d cut her hair and it looked darker and redder. And she was in a flowery dress. The lady teacher said to her, ‘Lucy, why don’t you run along and take a bit of time with your little boy? The hat can wait.’
    Mum made a sort of joke I didn’t get. Somethingabout the hat having to wait till Easter. But Rob Reed chuckled, and explained to me on the ride home that it was an Easter bonnet, though I couldn’t see why that made it a joke.
    But it was really fancy, and my mum looked good in it.
    She seemed a little baffled in the kitchen, so Rob made tea while we sat on two comfy chairs out in the lounge. She didn’t ask me questions. She just smiled. I wasn’t sure what I should do, so I just sat there. Then I said, ‘I like your hair,’ because I had heard Linda saying that to Marie’s mother when we came back from the pool one day to find her hair was very different and really short.
    Mum didn’t answer, so I said, ‘Did you cut it yourself?’
    She frowned and shook her head as if there was a bit of water in her ears. And then she said, ‘They did it.’
    I told her, ‘Linda takes me to the place on the corner. It’s called La Mode.’
    She didn’t ask about Linda. She didn’t seem to care. Then Rob brought in the tea. I