Blueberry Wishes (13 page)

“You don't understand,” I said.

“Yes, I do. I understand that you don't care about staying with me,” he said quietly.

“It's not like that,” I insisted. “They're my family. We
have
to stay together. We just
have
to.”

He sighed. “I'm sorry. I know…I know it's not a competition.” He swallowed and looked at his soggy shoes.

“I talked to Summer,” I went on, “and I can come down loads to stay with her and you can come up and see me all the time. We can make definite plans. It's not like with your dad—”

“It's got nothing to do with my dad!” he snapped, looking really upset. “Don't bring
him
into this! This is about you and me. It sounds like you're not even trying to fight this. It's like you don't even care!”

“Course I do!” I half-shouted. “I've argued with Mum, but I can see her point. Not that I've admitted that to
her
. It's true, though – we don't have the money, we're getting chucked out, and there's a rent-free house going… What would
you
do?”

He pulled me into a hug then. “Sorry, sorry…” he said, into my hair. “I know it's not your fault. I know you need to stay with your family. It's… I just… Abs,” he murmured, “this is a nightmare. We're meant to be together.”

“I know!” I cried. “And I also know that nothing – not time, not distance, not other people –
nothing
is going to tear us apart.”

“That's how I feel,” he said. He pulled away so he could gaze into my eyes. Suddenly he looked so determined. “I'm not losing you. So what if you go to London? So what if you go to the moon? Nothing is going to break us up. I've never felt this way before. I've never been in love with anyone before…”

I stared at him, my heart pounding.

“I love you, Abbie,” he said.

I hugged him tight. “I love you too,” I whispered.

And then I kissed him. And he kissed me back.

And the rain drummed down all around us.

A little while later, the storm ebbed away and the sun came out, making everything twinkle with raindrops. I took a deep breath as we emerged from under the awning. I love that after-the-rain smell – it makes everything feel fresh and new again.

Then I saw the rainbow.

Marco grabbed my hand. “Come on. Let's find the end! There's meant to be a pot of gold, isn't there?”

“You're mad!” I giggled as I let him pull me along, both of us slipping and sliding on the wet grass. We had to give up when we reached the far edge of the island a few minutes later, because the rainbow's end seemed to disappear somewhere on the other side of the river.

“We'll never reach it now,” Marco sighed. “Not without a boat, anyway.”

I pulled him close. “It's the trying that counts,” I said.

And then I kissed him again. And even though nothing had changed, everything suddenly seemed much, much better.

When I got in, I still didn't want to talk to Mum, so I went straight to my chill-out room and shut the door. Later on, I came out to get some toast and go to the bathroom. I could have marched right off again, but instead I sat on the arm of the sofa while Mum and Grace were watching telly. Even though I was still really upset, I sort of wanted to be with them too. I didn't say anything, though, apart from at one point, when Grace asked if I wanted a cup of tea.

“Yeah, I suppose so…if you're making it,” I told her, and that was it.

Mum sighed and shuffled and looked like she was going to start on about the move again a couple of times. At one point she said, “Abbie, I do need to talk to you about your new school…” But I just glared at her so hard that she must have realized it wasn't a good idea to carry on. Then I went back into my chill-out room and read my book and listened to Marco's music until they'd gone to bed.

When I was sure they were all asleep, I crept out, took the Rainbow Beauty keys from the hook and went downstairs to the parlour. I locked the door behind me and sat in the dark, with only the glow from the street light coming in through the window, bathing the beautiful smoothie counter and shelves of gorgeous products and pretty gold reception desk in a pale orange light. After a while I got chilly and huddled under a pile of towels. And then I started crying and I just cried and cried and cried. Every time the tears stopped, and I thought that was it, more welled up and came pouring down my cheeks. I couldn't believe it was all over.

My dream, our dream, was over.

I woke up on the purple velvet sofa, under the pile of towels, stiff and sticky in my clothes from the day before. For a moment I couldn't remember why I was there, or why my eyes felt bleary and bee-sting puffy, and then it all came flooding back. I was desperate for some fresh air, and for a moment I thought about just going straight out without leaving a note, but deep down I knew I couldn't let Mum worry about me like that, so I crept up to the flat and scribbled on the back of an envelope that I was going to—

I paused – where
was
I going to?

Then I knew. Of course I did. I was going back to my own special place. Vire Island.

It was almost deserted, apart from a few dog walkers and joggers (and one dog-jogger, weirdly). The tea stand was closed up, unfortunately. There was an early-morning chill in the air and I'd been telling myself that I'd get a nice, steaming-hot cup of tea with my last bit of change as soon as I got there.

I sat on my favourite bench and stared at the river, watching the weeping willows swish in the breeze. After a while, I started to feel a bit better about everything. I knew that Mum really did think she was doing the best thing for all of us, and that Grace and Saff probably believed that too. I didn't – but as I turned things over and over in my mind, I still couldn't see any other solution.

As I sat thinking, I found myself staring at someone on a bench right by the river. It looked like he was birdwatching. What a sensible person, I thought, to bring a flask. And to wear that warm knitted hat, even if it
was
a bit geeky. I blinked at the hat. I
knew
that hat. It was Ben's hat – the blue beanie one he usually wore when he didn't have a scary pink loo-roll cosy on his head. I stood up and was about to hurry off, thinking that I didn't feel up to talking to anyone. But then I realized that he was one of the few people I actually
did
want to talk to.

I sneaked up behind him, lowered his binoculars and put my hands over his eyes. “Guess who?” I said.

“That perfume…” he said. “It can only be Abbie.”

I lifted my hands and he turned and grinned at me. “What are you doing here?”

I sighed and flopped down on the bench beside him. “Avoiding my family,” I said. And then I told him why.

He was gutted, of course, and shocked, and for a while he pretended to have spotted something vital in the bird department and wouldn't take the binoculars off his eyes. I pretended I believed him, because it gave me time to sort myself out a bit, too.

“I'm really going to miss you,” he said at last, lowering the binoculars and blinking a lot. “I know I'm not Summer, or Marco…”

I nudged his arm. “You mean
so
much to me – I hope you know that,” I told him. “I mean, who's going to buy me iced buns now?”

“Cheeky mare,” he said, giving me a sad smile.

“I get why they're doing this,” I said then. “They think it's the only option.”

“And what do
you
think?” he asked me.

“I think…I can see all the reasons to go, logically, in my head. But in my heart…I suppose it feels like giving up…” I paused.

“Go on,” Ben prompted.

“Well, I want Mum and my sisters to see that the Rainbow Beauty parlour is more than just a business premises,” I told him. “I want them to realize that it's been a magical place for us to come together as a family, to heal our hurt feelings, to find new confidence. That it can be that for our clients and friends too. For the whole community. I keep thinking there
has
to be a way to save it…there just
has
to be. But then my brain kicks in and I think,
How are we going to get two grand by next Saturday?
” I sighed. “I just
can't
face letting Rainbow Beauty go.”

Ben stared out at the river for a moment. Then he turned to me and said simply, “Well, then, don't.”

“What?”

He shrugged. “Don't let it go. There must be some way of raising the money…”

“We've been round and round that and I really don't think there is,” I said. “And, anyway, it's not just the money. There's the new spa to worry about, and we totally messed up the London side of things…” I stopped, realizing I was being just as negative as my mum and my sisters. “You're right,” I said slowly. “I
had
given up, just like the rest of my family.”

Wasn't Rainbow Beauty worth more than that? After all we'd been through, shouldn't I fight to the very end to save it? I felt a rush of positive energy race through me. “But I'm back on the case now,” I said then. “I'm not giving up until we are
actually
being thrown out on the street by Mr. Vulmer. I'm going to come up with a plan if it kills me.”

“That's more like it!” said Ben.

“You're very wise, for a boy,” I said, with a smile. “It's almost like, I don't know…like you're not a proper bloke.”

He stood up and sat back down with his legs wide apart, and wiped his nose on the back of his hand before pointing at a pair of birds in the nearest tree and saying, “Nice tits.”

“Ha ha!” I said, swatting him one. “Seriously, though, if you're so determined and motivational when it comes to my life, how come you don't go for the things you want in your own?”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “I have no idea what you're talking about,” he said primly, before putting the binoculars up to his eyes again.

“Oh, I think you do,” I countered. “Lovely autumn we're having, by the way. Shame
summer
's over, though.”

Then I winked at him, got up and flitted off.

“Bye!” he said, raising an arm, but not turning round. Then he called out, “Hang on, are you still doing the pamper day? I'm handing out drinks, aren't I?”

“Yup,” I told him. Then an idea shot right through me, rocking me to the core, as if I'd been struck by lightning. “Oh, Ben…that's it!” I cried.

He turned then and said, “
What
's it?”

I grinned at him. “I'll tell you tomorrow at school!” I called out. “And thanks!”

When I got back in, there was still no one up so I screwed up the note I'd left. About ten minutes later, I was sitting at the table with a mug of steaming tea, scribbling away in my notebook. Mum peered through the doorway and I snapped the book shut. “Is it safe to come in?” she asked. “Or are you going to throw that at me?”

I managed a little smile. “Sorry about yesterday.” I wrinkled up my nose. “Erm, and Friday. I
do
understand why you think what you think, even if I don't agree with it.”

Mum looked so relieved at that, I thought she might cry or something. But instead she gave me a small smile and said, “Can I push it a bit and ask if we can talk about your new school? I think it might help you feel better about things.”

I shrugged. “Sure.” She went to get our laptop to show me the school website, and she pointed out all the art and music and stuff they do and we had a good look and I nodded and smiled away. And yes – it looked okay. But inside I was determined – I wasn't
going
to any new school.

I wasn't going anywhere. None of us were.

I was staying right here, and saving Rainbow Beauty. If everyone else in my family had been ground down so badly that they didn't believe they could save our dream, well, then I'd just have to believe in it enough for all of us.

I'd thought about my plan while making Massimo's shower gels and the Rainbow Gift Set orders at the kitchen table on Sunday, and I'd thought about it in the bath, and while I was writing up the refraction stuff in my Physics book. By the next morning, I was ready to get my friends on board. At break time, I dragged them out of the dining hall and onto the field. There was a chilly breeze, but at least it was quiet, and I could see in all directions, so there was no chance of Grace accidentally hearing anything.

“This had better be important!” said Ben, giving me a cheeky smile. “I didn't even get a chance to buy an iced bun!”

“Here, have an apple,” said Summer, offering him hers. “You could do with eating more healthily – your skin's been looking a bit dull recently.”

“Cheeky cow!” cried Ben, shoving her sideways. Summer shoved him back, then went to eat the apple herself but he grabbed it and took a big bite. “I didn't say I didn't want it,” he spluttered, spraying juice everywhere.

“Er, gross…keep your spit to yourself!” Summer shrieked.

“So, what's up?” asked Marco, linking his fingers with mine as we walked along.

I squeezed his hand. “I'm not leaving,” I told them all. “Instead, us four are going to raise the rent money and save Rainbow Beauty.”

Ben stopped munching the apple and Summer stared at me. “But how? It's loads, isn't it?”

“£1438, to be precise,” I told her.

“Abs, I'm desperate for you to stay here – we all are,” said Marco. “And we want you to keep your business and everything you've worked for. But, I have to ask… How on earth are we going to get that kind of money? And in less than two weeks?”

“I've had a few ideas,” I told him, pulling him down onto the grass. Summer and Ben sat down too (a little closer to each other than strictly necessary, I thought). I pulled out my notebook. “We're going to expand the pamper day,” I told them. “Sell twice as many tickets, and have stuff going on out the front, and make up goodie bags to sell. And we'll have a big raffle, so we'll need to get round to local businesses and see if we can get hold of some prizes. Something else we're going to do is sell Rainbow Beauty stuff to girls at school. I can't give them all the
exact
things they wanted, but I'm going to bring in loads of the stock we still have and set up a sales table in the dining hall at break time, hopefully tomorrow. If some people haven't got the money on them, they can bring it in on Wednesday – we can keep a list of who owes what. I've made a list of the girls who've already asked me for things, so we can find them today and tell them about the stall, and get them to spread the word in general.”

My friends just stared at me.

“Wow, that's amazing, Abbie,” said Summer. “You're serious about this, aren't you?”

“Deadly,” I told her. “Now, we need to work out who's doing what. Any more ideas also welcome.”

“Me and the band could put on a lunchtime gig in the hall,” said Marco. “Charge everyone a couple of quid to get in.”

“Great,” I said, scribbling it down. “Talk to Mrs. Leavis at form time, yeah?”

Marco winked at me and said, “Consider it sorted.”

“You said that you needed stuff going on out the front of Rainbow Beauty,” said Summer. “Mum could have a cake stall and I bet her gardening club would provide plants to sell too. I'll ask her when I get home. And I'll set up the product-samples stall here at break with you tomorrow and help you take the orders,” she added.

“Fab,” I said, glancing up to grin at her as I scribbled it all down.

“I'll go round and ask for raffle prizes,” said Ben. “I'm sure I can charm a few lady shopkeepers into parting with their wares.” He put on a smooth smile and wiggled his eyebrows.

“In your dreams,” said Summer, poking him in the ribs.

“In
yours
, you mean!” said Ben.

“
You
wish!” Summer snorted.

I wanted to shout,
Oh, for goodness' sake, do us all a favour and get together!
But I stopped myself and just said, “Thanks, Ben.” I'd had a plan for how to sort
those two
out as well, actually, but it would have to wait for the moment.

“Summer, can you make up some excuse so your dad has to drive us both in to school tomorrow?” I asked then. “I don't want Grace to see the boxes of products, and anyway, I'll need a lift because they're quite heavy. If we go late she won't jump in with us – I know she likes to meet Maisy and Aran in the library the second the doors open. She's always making me come in early.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Summer. “Don't you want your family catching on to this, then?”

“Of course I'd love to tell them,” I explained, “but I'm worried that if I do they might put a stop to it. They won't believe that we can do it until I actually put the money in Mum's hand, so we'll keep it between us until then, yeah?”

“I understand,” said Summer.

“Let's say the Headrush gig is to raise money for a new amp,” said Marco.

“Good thinking,” I said.

“Grace will probably see us doing the product sales, though,” Ben pointed out.

“Well, I picked first break tomorrow because she's got Maths Club,” I said, “so hopefully she won't, but if she does, I'll just tell her I'm selling a few things to some friends before I go, because I promised them. And I'll persuade her not to tell Mum.”

“Abbie, do you really think we can do this?” Summer asked.

“Honestly? I'm not sure,” I said. “It's a lot of money. But we're going to give it our very best shot!”

She put her hand out. “We
can
do it,” she said solemnly. Ben put his hand on hers, and then Marco did the same, and finally I put mine on top.

“Go, Team Rainbow Beauty!” I cried, and we all whooshed our hands up in the air.

“Go, Team Rainbow Beauty!” Marco echoed. “Oh, but hang on. Couldn't we be called something a bit more manly?”

Mrs. Leavis was completely behind our product sales idea, and cleared it with Mr. Dean the head teacher for us. Then she showed us even more support by buying loads of stuff herself during Tuesday break in the dining hall, and so did Mrs. Lurman, our old form teacher. Summer and I had a queue of girls before we'd even finished setting up the products on the table and Mrs. Leavis claimed teachers' rights to get to the front before she had to go on playground duty.

Just as we were starting to show off the products and make sales, Ben and Marco appeared, looking very pleased with themselves. They were wearing empty tool belts borrowed from Ben's dad, and now filled the slot thingies with goodies to take out and show girls in the playground.

As they headed off, Ben turned back, pulled two shower gels from the belt and twizzled them round a bit before pretending to shoot them at us. “We'll see you ladies later,” he said, in what I assume was supposed to be a Western drawl. “Let's go and lasso us some customers!”

Marco gave me a salute and, with that, they both swaggered off, cowboy-style.

I couldn't help giggling, and Summer just rolled her eyes, but it turned out to be a great idea, as girls were obviously loving the attention from Ben and Marco. Soon they were flooding in to buy things, having already tried samples of hand creams and body lotions, and smelled our lovely bubble bath and shower gels. Most of them didn't have their money on them, but they promised to bring it in the next day, and Summer wrote what they owed on a list.

As for our other plans, everything seemed to be coming together pretty well. Summer had said that Annie was more than happy doing the cake and plant stall, and Ben had been round town on Monday after school and was doing a great job of getting prizes for our raffle. Marco said Sienna was also running a prize draw in the pub she worked in with a huge Rainbow Beauty Gift Set that she'd been in and bought with her own money (bless her!). The Headrush pop-up gig in the hall was all set for Thursday and word was rushing round school about it. At least three different people told
me
about it – like, as if I wouldn't already know!

After lunch on Tuesday we had Media. First of all we sat round one big table, working on the Rainbow Beauty pamper day. I'd told Mr. Mac about it and he'd said it was perfect for the whole group to use as a case study before we got into pairs to come up with our own product, service or cause to promote.

I hadn't told him, or any of the other teachers, that I was leaving (well,
possibly
leaving), and I'd persuaded Mum to hold off from calling the school for a couple more days, telling her it was just so I could enjoy things being normal for as long as possible. I'd asked Marco, Summer and Ben not to say anything to anyone else, either.

So anyway, Jess, Bex, Josh, Alex, Raven, Selima and us lot were coming up with ideas for how to get publicity for Rainbow Beauty. Mr. Mac said a report about the pamper day would be something the local press might like, so we contacted the Totnes magazine and paper, and Ben had the idea of getting it in the Dartington Hall newsletter too.

Selima suggested telling the local news programme,
Out and About
. I wasn't sure it would be a big enough deal for them but Mr. Mac said you never know unless you ask, so Alex rang up and left the info with them, emphasizing that I invented all the products myself and I was only fourteen. Mr. Mac had told him to say that, explaining that we had to think of details that might be especially newsworthy to make our event stand out, so hopefully they'd decide to cover it. We'd sold the original fifteen pamper-day tickets, but I wanted to sell at least fifteen more, so Summer and I started designing a flyer to give out round school for people to pass on to their mums, and Jess and Bex took some for the girls from other schools that they'd see at County Netball training that night. We weren't planning to put any round town, in case the Haven Spa found out what we were doing and did something horrible to spoil it. The leaflet gave details about the pamper day on one side, but the other side was just about Rainbow Beauty, using text and pictures we had from other leaflets, so we hoped it would attract people to book in for treatments too.

When that was all done, Summer and I were allowed to keep working on my pamper day, but everyone else had to come up with something of their own to promote.

Ben announced that he and Marco were doing “recycling” as their topic, making Marco slump in his chair, roll his eyes and groan loudly.

“Ignore him. That's a great idea,” said Summer, and I saw my chance to start putting my Ben-and-Summer Plan into action.

“Hey, I know, why don't we swap partners?” I said, as casually as I could. “Summer, you go with Ben.”

Summer stared at me, obviously wondering what I was up to. I met her gaze and tried to look like I wasn't up to anything. “I know you'll have loads of ideas for the recycling thing, and it's mainly the running-around stuff left to do on the pamper day,” I explained. “I don't need
brains
so much at this point, so Marco will be fine to work with.”

“Oh, charming!” grumbled Marco, narrowing his eyes at me. But anyway, he helped me make some more pamper-day tickets and write a press release. And afterwards I dragged him off before Summer and Ben had even started packing up their stuff.

“What was all that about?” he asked, as I marched him down the corridor. “If you want to spend more time with me, you only have to say—”

“Not you and me! Summer and Ben!” I hissed.

Marco gave me a look like I was speaking Japanese. “What?”

“I want to get them together,” I told him. “They like each other, I'm sure of it.”

Marco looked very surprised. “Ben and Summer? Really?” he said. “I haven't noticed anything.” Typical bloke.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, I reckon they're into each other. And you can see they'd be great together.”

“Huh,” he said, like he'd never even thought of it before – which he probably hadn't.

I sighed and ploughed on. “Now they're doing this recycling project together, they'll
have
to spend time alone. So, what we do is, you tell Ben and I tell Summer that the other one's confessed to liking them, but doesn't dare say anything after the…you know, the…” I blushed bright red then.

“I know,” muttered Marco.

Neither of us said
after the beach party
.

“It's all a bit cloak-and-dagger, isn't it?” he said, a moment later. “Why do girls have to make things so complicated? Why can't we just go, ‘Oi, you like each other. Get together.' End of.”

I rolled my eyes. Honestly, boys. I gave Marco a nudge in the ribs.

“Okay, okay, we'll do it your way!” he muttered. “Girls are mad, though.”

A few minutes later, us four were in the canteen.
No time like the present
, I thought. So I announced that I had
that thing
I needed to urgently lend Summer that she'd asked for.