Page 24 of The Dead Ex

‘Her?’ The black-eyed girl was glaring at Scarlet. ‘Call that competition?’

‘You wasn’t much when we first …’

‘Shut up. Or I’ll smack your bleeding gob.’

‘All right, you lot.’ Mrs Walters was at the door. ‘Enougharguing. Off to bed.’

‘It’s only seven o’clock.’

‘You know the rules. We need time to ourselves.’

‘Excuse me.’ Scarlet put up her hand like she did at school and wanted to ask a question. ‘But I still haven’t got my pyjamas or toothbrush.’

‘Then you’ll have to sleep as you are, won’t you?’

What about the stuff Mrs Walters had promised to find?

‘And there’s a mug of shared toothbrushes inthe bathroom; just help yourself.’

That wasn’t clean! Mum had always been very particular about the uncles ‘keeping their mitts’ off their pink ones.

‘You’ll be sleeping next to Dawn,’ Mrs W continued. ‘You’re lucky. I’ve found a mattress to put on the floor. Your toilet’s at the end of the corridor. Don’t use the one at the top of the stairs. It’s ours.’

‘That’s right,’ muttered the girl withblack lines. ‘One for three of them. And one for nine of us. Ten now with you.’

‘It’s OK,’ said Scarlet. ‘I’m not going to be here for long. Just until they let my mum come home.’

‘That’s what they told me,’ said a girl with a turned-up nose, who seemed a lot nicer. ‘That was at Christmas.’

Christmas! That brought back happy memories. Last year she and Mum had played the ‘game’ next to Santa’sgrotto inside the big shopping centre. Afterwards, because she’d been such a good girl, Mum had taken her to see him. He’d given her a necklace with pretty red-and-blue beads. She’d kept it under her pillow.

They were queuing up now to use the toilet. She could smell it from here. Ugh!

‘What’s school like?’ Scarlet asked her new friend, who turned out to be Dawn, the one she’d be sleeping near.(So pretty!)

She shrugged. ‘I don’t go that often.’

‘Why not?’

‘Don’t like it.’

‘Really?’

‘Who does?’

‘I do.’ Scarlet felt herself going red. ‘I love reading and writing stories and drawing pictures.’

‘Fucking hell. We’ve got a swot.’

It was the girl with black eyes. ‘I don’t know what your last school was like, but you won’t like this one. I give you that for nothing. Tell Mrs W you’vegot a stomach ache. Then you won’t have to get on the bus, and she’ll pretend she’s keeping you at home so she doesn’t get reported to Social Services. But as soon as the bus has gone, she’ll push you out of the house and tell you not to come back until four. Then you can do what you want.’

‘Won’t the teachers check?’

‘Depends. They can’t always keep up. If they do, you might have to go to classfor a bit but then you can drop out again.’

‘I don’t want to do that.’

‘I don’t think you get it, Scarlet.’ The black eyes came closer. ‘It’s not what you want. It’s whatwewant you to do.’