Blueberry Wishes (11 page)

Summer popped her head out of the yurt and I bolted upright, whipping my leggings back up. “Goats don't have Facebook, you know!” she teased.

“I don't care. It's got eyes!” I screeched.

“Come on then, city girl!” she giggled. She linked arms with me and together we stumbled back towards the house. I snuggled in close to her and we matched our steps, like Grace and I always do.

I was glad to get off to school on Monday, as I'd arrived back at the flat on Sunday afternoon to find a cloud of gloom hanging over everyone. Saff had told me that on Saturday, four people hadn't turned up for their appointments and, as we weren't even fully booked in the first place, Rainbow Beauty had felt like a ghost town. The good news about the Autumn Fayre going well, and selling loads of pamper-day tickets cheered them up a bit, though.

Unfortunately, Monday wasn't any better at Rainbow Beauty, and when Grace and I got back on Tuesday after school, Saff told us that Mum had been really upset all day as they'd rattled around the near-empty parlour together, even though she'd tried to put a brave face on things. Just as Saff was saying that, Mum walked in and we quickly changed the subject, acting like nothing was wrong. Mum said she wasn't feeling well and went to bed early.

On Wednesday, she woke up with an awful cold. She still got up and dressed as usual, but looking at her slumped at the kitchen table, sweating and shivering, we could see there was no way she could work. After a bit of an argument, Saff managed to get her to go back to bed, and Grace and I went downstairs to call her clients. Of course, with no one to cover for her, we had to cancel their treatments.

Saff said she'd miss college and handle the manicures and pedicures so we didn't have to cancel those too (and told us not to mention that to Mum or she'd go mad), but even that didn't help. The two people who were booked in for manicures were having body treatments as well, and the first one Grace spoke to said she'd rather just cancel the whole thing. I realized why when I spoke to the other lady, who said she'd cancel too. “Don't worry, love, I'll go to the Haven Spa instead,” she said cheerily. “They're offering a free manicure with a half-price massage.” (Like, as if we didn't
know
!)

Hearing that made my stomach start churning and I felt like being sick, but I had to pretend not to mind, and say, “Oh, that's a very good deal. I hope you enjoy it.” What on earth would Mum say when she found out no one was rebooking with us, and that we were basically handing our existing clients over to the new spa?

Even worse, a couple of people didn't pick up the phone, so we just had to leave messages and hope they got them in time. The very absolute worst call was the one I made to a lady who'd really wanted a massage and facial that day, because she'd got the day off. She asked me whether I could recommend anywhere else she could go at short notice and I found myself actually
suggesting
the Haven Spa and
telling
her they had an offer for a discounted body treatment and free manicure.

Grace glared at me when I hung up. “Oh, great! Now you're doing their advertising for them!” she hissed.

“What else could I say?” I snapped. “It wouldn't do Rainbow Beauty any good for me to be unhelpful and just say, ‘Erm, don't know'. If you're going to criticize, you do the rest then!”

“Fine, I will…or we'll never get anyone back,” she muttered as she dialled.

“Well, cheer up first or they won't be returning for our warm, friendly service!” I countered.

“Shh!” she hissed.

We glared at each other for a moment, until the client picked up at the other end of the line.

In fact, Grace didn't have any more luck than me with the next call. Trish, a regular client – the one who Mum had been on a girls' night out with – was the only person who said it was no problem and that she'd rebook when Mum was better.

After the hideous phoning ordeal, Grace and I dragged our way back up the stairs to the flat to get our stuff for school. She looked as sick as I felt. “What on earth are we going to tell Mum?” I hissed as we reached the top step.

“We're not,” said Grace firmly. “She's feeling bad enough as it is. She'll be asleep by now. Let's just creep in and get our stuff—”

But Mum was leaning on the door frame of our shared bedroom, back in her dressing gown, and looking dreadful. “How did it go with the clients?” she asked.

Grace gave me a quick glance and we both put on big fake smiles.

“Oh, good, yes, all sorted,” I told Mum. “Trish asked us to say she hopes you get well soon. She'll rebook when you're better, no problem.”

“Oh, that's nice,” said Mum.

Grace and I tried to make a dash past her into the kitchen for our school bags, but she said, “And the others? Were they okay to rebook too?”

“Yeah, absolutely. It's all fine,” said Grace. Not very convincingly.

Mum sighed. “It's awful, isn't it? Abbie, tell me the truth.”

She looked right into my eyes, and I knew there was no way I could lie. My stomach sank into my shoes. “Yes, it's awful,” I told her. Then Grace and I summarized the awfulness. All of it. The cancellations, the rush to the new spa, the fact that I'd actually had to point someone in their direction.

Mum looked shocked for a moment, then went all determined. “Right, ring them back. I'm working today,” she said, striding into the kitchen. But then she stopped by the table, swayed and clutched the back of one of the rickety chairs. I raced over and held her up.

“Mum?” Saff cried, emerging from the bathroom. “You're meant to be in bed.”

“I'm going to work,” she insisted.

“No, you're not. You're about to faint! Sit down,” Grace ordered.

“I'll be fine,” Mum muttered. She was dripping with sweat, and shuddering with chills. It was starting to look like more than just a cold. Maybe she had the flu, or a nasty virus. Whatever it was, she wasn't going anywhere.

As Grace put the kettle on to make Mum a hot drink, Saff took one arm and I took the other and together we frogmarched her back to bed.

“Oh, we've got to face facts…this is hopeless,” Mum said sadly, wriggling right under the covers as Grace brought her a cup of tea. “I'm sorry, girls. We were only just getting started before the Haven Spa opened, and now I think we're doomed to fail. We'll have to close down Rainbow Beauty. I'll start looking for a job.”

Tears sprang into my eyes and I felt panic rising in my chest. To hear Mum say that was awful…

Grace looked really wobbly too, but Saff just bundled us out of the room, saying we'd be late if we didn't get a move on.

My heart was still thumping as we all hurried down the road, and my legs were shaking so much I was glad I was in the middle, arms linked with Saff on one side and Grace on the other. “She didn't really mean that, surely?” I croaked, as we turned onto the main road.

“No, of course not. She's virtually delirious,” said Saff firmly.

Grace sighed. “The problem is, success or failure is a spiral and we're spiralling the wrong way. If the Haven Spa hadn't opened, then maybe… But you saw today what a draw it is for our customers. Mum's right. How
can
we keep going with that on our doorstep? Mr. Vulmer can't wait to shut us down so he can get his hands on all the fittings and stuff, and we won't have the money to pay him on the eighth. We're nowhere near.”

Well, that wasn't what I wanted to hear, not from sensible Grace, who knew all the figures for the business inside out. “We'll find the money somehow, though, won't we?” I asked again, this time hoping that her answer would magically be a
yes
.

Saff squeezed my arm and gave Grace a sharp look. “Abs, honestly, we'll find the money,” she insisted. “And Mum will hopefully be better by tomorrow, and ready to take on the world again. Then there's only Friday until we're all there to help, and then just Monday till I'm there on Tuesday, and I'll be qualified in only—”

“Three years!” Grace snapped moodily.

“Yes, but I'll be able to do more and more treatments long before then, when I start passing the different modules,” Saff snapped back, “and next year I get
two
release days a week. Look, instead of moping and talking about giving up, we need to put up a fight. We have to come up with some more unique offerings, let people know why we're different from the Haven Spa, and worth paying a bit extra for. I bet all
their
products aren't natural and home-made.”

Grace sighed. “But we've tried offers – we just can't compete.”

“I know,” Saff admitted. “We need to come up with
something
, though. There's always a way, if you put your mind to it.”

They both turned and looked at me expectantly, but I was completely out of ideas. And positive vibes. It felt hopeless. After all our hard work, all the love and care and passion we'd put into it, could we really be about to lose Rainbow Beauty?

At school I was too miserable to even have much of a flirt with Marco in lessons, and that's saying something.
Or
to scheme about how to get Ben and Summer together, even though I was now completely convinced that they were into each other. (Summer still insisted she wasn't, but she'd attached the little purple unicorn Ben won for her to her school bag. Say no more.)

When I told Summer about Mum being ill, and how I'd actually had to
recommend
the Haven Spa to one of our cancelled clients, she said she'd never seen me so miserable. “But what about all those people you spoke to at the Fayre?” she asked. “Didn't they make appointments in the end?”

“Five have booked for next week, but only three for this week so far, and I've just had to cancel one of those,” I told her. “Eight new customers is good, of course, and I'd have been over the moon with that number if we weren't in such a bad situation, but the way things are, everything we do just seems too small to make a real difference. We need to find £2000 by the eighth, and at the moment we've only been able to put aside £550. No, actually, £462. Mum had to pay our business rates out of it.” I sighed. “Maybe she's right and it
is
hopeless. I mean, we're probably going to be forced to close down by Mr. Vulmer in less than three weeks, so what's the point in even trying to drum up trade? We probably shouldn't even bother with the pamper day, but we've sold most of the tickets now, and we can't let people down.”

I paused for breath and noticed that Summer was staring at me, looking shocked. “Abbie, you can't give up,” she said. “You're the one who always says—”

“I'm
not
giving up,” I assured her. “It's just that I'm all out of ideas, and time's running out.”

She gave me such a look of sympathy and kindness I almost couldn't stand it. Luckily the bell went then, and I linked arms with her and hurried her into class so that we couldn't talk about it any more.

Thursday at school wasn't much better, especially when Jess asked me if she could buy some more Mandarin Body Butter. I had to tell her she couldn't – we'd run out, and there wasn't any money to order more shea butter for a new batch. In fact, there wasn't any money, full stop. Our takings from that week so far had gone straight out on an electricity bill that was on its absolute, final, pay-now-or-we'll-cut-you-off demand. Saying it to Jess made me feel sick. It was like the spiral Grace talked about – if we couldn't afford more ingredients, and couldn't sell more products, how on earth could we hope to make more money?

On Friday, I had to turn down three more requests for Rainbow Beauty products from Year 8 girls, because I knew we didn't have any in stock, and I was banned by Grace from buying ingredients to make any more. We'd somehow managed to save up an extra £100 for Mr. Vulmer by putting every scrap of what we'd made from clients' appointments on Thursday straight into our rent fund, and we were all absolutely banned from touching it.

Ben bought me an iced bun at first break (I hadn't wanted to ask Mum for any spending money), which I had to force down because I almost felt too sick to eat. At lunchtime Marco skipped a band meeting to hang out with me and try and cheer me up. It didn't work, but leaning against him on the field in a sort of sitting hug was nice – we had to move apart when Mr. Carver strode past and had a go at us, though. He started on about Inappropriate Public Displays of Affection (i.e. Being a Normal Teenager, IMHO. As Marco said, it's not
our
fault he's never had a girlfriend!). Summer said if it did come down to Mum having to find another job, she could put her in touch with loads of people her family know in town, like Pete and Sue at the cafe for a start. That was nice of her, but it actually made me feel worse, because then it seemed even more real.

I met Grace at the gate after school and we hurried back to Rainbow Beauty to help Mum out. She still wasn't well, not by a long way, but she'd insisted on working all day, and now she was sitting on one of the purple velvet sofas, looking completely spaced out. She'd only had three clients, and not a single person had come in for a smoothie or to buy any products, despite the chalkboard I'd put outside. As I threw away a pile of fruit that was way past its best, I went all trembly. But Grace and I just kept our heads down and got on with the tidying up, and soon Saff arrived and gave us a hand.