Leap of Faith by Candy Harper Page A

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    When Josette, Delphine, Icky and I got back from school today Mrs Josette greeted us at the door and asked, ‘What is this?’
    Only of course she said ‘Theez’ because she is French and therefore a bit dramatic. I thought she was going to produce a severed head the way her eyes were bulging. Half a finger at the least. But then she held up a packet of cigarettes. Megs says I am prone to thinking that everyone is always looking at me, but there was no mistaking the fact that the question was directed my way.
    ‘They aren’t mine!’ I said.
    Mrs J narrowed her eyes.
    ‘I don’t smoke.’
    ‘They were in your bed.’
    I wondered who on earth they did belong to and what the hell they would be doing in my bed. Then I caught sight of Icky’s gleeful face and I knew exactly what had happened.
    I gave Icky a very hard stare.
    Delphine said something in French about how none of us smoked, but Mrs J shook Delphine’s hand off her arm and said to me, ‘This is very bad.’
    I tried my hardest to look innocent. I mean, I
am
innocent, but I haven’t had much practice at it so I’m not sure I did a very good job. ‘I don’t know who they belong to,’ I insisted and then I trod on Icky’s foot to find out if she’s more honest with a broken toe.
    She’s not.
    ‘I promise they’re not mine,’ I said.
    Mrs J was still glaring at me. I thought she might send me home right there.
    ‘They are mine,’ Josette said.
    I knew that wasn’t true. I tried to give Icky a filthy look, but she had busied herself admiring her shirt buttons.
    Mrs J switched her glaring on to Josette and told Delphine to take the rest of us to the park.
    Delphine grabbed Icky and me by the hand. I had the sense that she and Josette had seen their mum like this before. I tried to say, ‘Josette doesn’t smoke, they’re not hers either.’ But Delphine gave me a little shove down the drive.
    We walked along the road in silence. When we got to the edge of some woods Delphine sat down on a log and gave a big sigh.
    ‘Your mum’s really cross,’ Icky said.
    I turned on her. ‘She’s cross because she thinks Josette is smoking and the reason she thinks that is because you’re a complete cow and you hid those cigarettes in my bed because you wanted to get me into trouble because you’re jealous of me.’
    Delphine’s eyes widened. ‘It was you?’ she asked Icky.
    Icky smirked. ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about.’
    ‘That’s just your problem isn’t it? It’s your complete lack of understanding of what an utter witch you are that makes you think it’s okay to get other people into trouble. What’s Josette ever done to you?’
    Delphine looked between the two of us and I could see that she believed me. She’s heard enough of Icky’s nasty remarks over the last couple of days to know what she’s like.
    ‘My mother will be angry with Josette,’ she said to Icky. ‘Josette has trouble with my mother and now, again . . . You must say to my mother you are putting the cigarettes in the bed of Faith.’
    Icky shrugged. ‘Why don’t you tell her?’
    Delphine shook her head in disgust.
    At this point I had to intervene. ‘Delphine won’t tell her and neither will I, because we’re not snitches, we wouldn’t grass you up even though you tried to get me into trouble and you’ve definitely got Josette into trouble. We’re not like you; our sense of decency hasn’t shrivelled and decayed through lack of use.’
    She at least had the good grace to look a tiny bit uncomfortable before she rolled her eyes and walked off.
    Delphine and I spent about an hour in the wood. I filled in the time by telling her all of the worst things that Icky has ever done. Delphine was pleasingly shocked. ‘She is not nice.’
    I nodded.
    ‘Not nice at all. I do not think I want to go to her house.’
    ‘I’m not sure she’s got a house. She probably sleeps under a rock. That’s what toads do, isn’t it?’
    Eventually, Delphine