Bone Song Read Free Page B

district and into my suburb. Tall office buildings followed by houses with marble columns and too many windows. I get off and wander down my street where everyone has a gardener, and I stop to admire neat little hedges and blooming roses. I’ve been tempted a few times to come along after dark and spray weedkiller on everything, but if the neighbours didn’t guess it was me, my mother would and she’d go ballistic. I’d probably be grounded, which would be the ultimate punishment for both of us. She tries to avoid that unless she’s so pissed off that she can’t help herself.
    I stop in front of our house – who’s inside? Dad’s car isn’t here, but Mother’s is. Classical music drifts from somewhere upstairs. I guess Louise is home. It’s Thursday so maybe Sara is still at choir practice. If Mother isn’t in the kitchen bossing Nancy around and driving her nuts, I’ll be able to sneak in without being seen.
    I follow the side path around to the back door, open it quietly, slip inside and creep up the passageway towards the kitchen. A voice I know only too well pierces the closed door. I’m about to get the hell up to my room when I catch what she’s actually saying.
    ‘Of course, it’s only to be expected that they’ll set new rules for Deborah. She’ll just have to make sure she abides by them.’
    Nancy murmurs something but Mother talks over the top of her, like she always does. I swear Nancy could tell her the house was on fire and Mother wouldn’t hear. But I want to know about these rules.
    ‘Madeline Le Blanc is a very reasonable woman. And a sizable donation to the school library didn’t go astray.’ Mother laughs – the dry, sarcastic laugh that she saves for discussing topics of money and sex. ‘That girl will just have to shape up, or else.’
    Or else what? My control-freak mother has obviously bribed Barton Private School for Young Ladies into taking me back. Thatsure makes them stupider than snot on the sidewalk. I turn the handle and shove open the kitchen door. It bangs against the wall and Mother jumps.
    ‘I am not going back to Barton,’ I say, matching her glare.
    ‘You’ll do as you’re told.’
    ‘I’ll just do something to make them expel me again.’ There are lots of things I’ve learned at my new school that would really freak out the Barton Bigots.
    Mother walks towards me, stopping two paces away. She doesn’t want Nancy to hear, I can tell. ‘You will either go back to Barton and behave, or you will be put in a boarding school that specialises in problem children. Somewhere a long way from here.’
    I can’t believe the venom in her voice. Suddenly I realise she might hate me as much as I hate her. Wow. I can’t think what to say. It’s like my brain is jammed. She’s got that little light of victory in her eyes andshe smiles at me, then leaves the kitchen. I’m no longer worth talking to.
    Nancy had her head down, chopping spinach, but she looks up at me and grimaces. ‘Man, you sure put a stick up her bum. What’ve you done now?’
    ‘Nothing. Well, nothing new.’
    ‘You in detention again?’
    ‘Yeah. That’s normal, isn’t it?’
    Nancy doesn’t answer, thinks for a moment. ‘She was ferreting around upstairs this morning for half an hour or more.’
    Oh shit. She’s been in my room, I just know it. Suddenly my legs come to life. I bolt out of the kitchen and up the stairs, all the time trying to remember what things I’ve stashed and where. Chocolate – no problem. Diary – I write in one occasionally to keep her happy if she snoops, kind of like a decoy. Cigarettes – she already knows about those. What else? What else?
    I stop in the doorway. My room is perfectly tidy, not a book or a CD or a stuffed toy out of place. Just as I left it. I prowl, pulling open drawers and cupboards. It has to be something accidental, something I’ve forgotten about because I didn’t think it was important, just a laugh or a curiosity thing.
    Oh. Now I