Miss Understood Read Free Page B

getting it. So that seemed weird. Plus I hadn’t noticed any wattle in our garden.
    ‘Anyway, Betty, I’ve got to make a phone call,’ he said. ‘So . . .’
    I thought about going in and giving Dad a hug but I don’t think that hugs do much to help someone with hayfever, and because that’s what he said it was, I had to believe him. Didn’t I?
    As I reached the bathroom, I realised that I’d forgotten to take my dressing gown with me. I went back to my bedroom to get it, and as I passed Dad’s study, I looked in again. He wasn’t talking on the phone. He was still sitting in exactly the same spot with his back to the door, staring out the window.
    Except he wasn’t really staring out the window at all, because the blinds were closed.
    My phone rang while I was in my bedroom. It was Jenni, so I answered the call and flopped down on my bed, ready for one of those really long best-friend conversations. My shower could wait.
    ‘What happened to you today?’ Jenni asked, before I even had a chance to say hi. ‘You got called to Mr Hilder’s office, and then you never came back. And then when Ms Richardson let us out, your bag wasn’t on your hook, and I was, like, huh ?’
    This was great; now she was going to make me cry all over again, and I was kind of sick of blowing my nose, which was getting quite sore. Plus my eyes had gone even redder and puffier.
    ‘Lizzie? What happened?’ she asked me again. ‘It was about the fire, wasn’t it?’
    ‘Uh huh,’ I said.
    ‘I told you that it was a stupid idea.’
    ‘I know,’ I said.
    ‘So what did he say?’
    I sucked in a big, fluttery breath and began to tell the whole story. I had to stop a couple of times to pull myself together, but eventually I got through it all – being expelled, and the homeschooling idea, everything.
    ‘That’s so unfair,’ Jenni said when I’d finished. ‘Who will I hang out with now? And eat my lunch with? And sit next to in class?’
    ‘I don’t know what you’re complaining about,’ I said, sniffing like a big baby. ‘At least you’ll have other people to choose from. I’m going to be all by myself, with my mum as a teacher. My mum ! Can you imagine?’
    ‘I heard that,’ Mum called from her bedroom, where she was putting away the clean clothes. ‘Careful, or I’ll put you on detention.’
    ‘She says she’s going to put me on detention,’ I told Jenni.
    ‘I hope she’s joking.’
    ‘I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.’
    To be honest, I think I just assumed that I’d wake up when I’d had enough sleep, and while Mum was dressing and feeding Richie, I’d eat some breakfast and watch some cartoons in my pyjamas. And the more I thought about it (especially while I was taking a shower and brushing my teeth, since I reckon most of the best thinking is done when you’re in the shower or brushing your teeth) the better this homeschool thing began to look. I mean, Mum couldn’t sit there teaching me for every minute of the day. Could she? She’d have to go and change Richie’s nappy some time, and make lunch, and go food-shopping, and do all the other stuff she usually did while I was at school. Wouldn’t she?
    All this thinking meant that by the time I finally climbed into bed and turned off the light, I’d decided that homeschool was probably going to be okay. In fact, it was going to be even better than okay – it was going to be like a stroll in the park, but with a late start. Which would be awesome.
    Have you ever been really, really wrong about something?
    I have.

CHAPTER 4
    T o begin with, there was no late start. As usual, Mum woke me by standing at my bedroom door (which she’d opened without knocking) and saying, ‘Come on, Lizzie, up you get. It’s time to get ready for school.’
    I groaned, rolled over and looked at my clock. It was seven-thirty, the same time I usually woke up! And what did she mean by ‘time to get ready for school’? This gave me some hope. Maybe she and Dad had