The Strawberry Sisters

The Strawberry Sisters Read Free Page A

Book: The Strawberry Sisters Read Free
Author: Candy Harper
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She’s tall (but not as tall as me) and
she’s always changing how she wears her curly Afro hair, but at the moment it’s in lots of little plaits. She’s also very understanding about missing your dad. Hers lives in
America so she only sees him twice a year.
    Ashandra and Kayleigh were both my special friends, but they hadn’t actually met each other yet. When I found out that we were all going to be in the same tutor group when we went to St
Mark’s, I was really excited. I hoped that Ash and Kay would like each other and that we’d all be brilliant friends. It would be just like it was in London; I wouldn’t ever care
if someone was rude about my hair or my name or how tall I am because I’d always have a friend around.
    I was also sort of hoping that, since this time I’d be starting school at the same time as everyone else, some other people in the class would be my friends too.
    When we got to second helpings, I said, ‘What’s St Mark’s like?’
    Amelia crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. ‘Music lessons are good; everything else sucks. That’s all you need to know.’
    Chloe scooped a large forkful of mash into her mouth. ‘I’ll tell you what’s good about school: rugby, hockey, the doughnuts in the cafeteria – except don’t eat the
ones with sprinkles because my friend Thunder says that the dinner ladies put their toenail clippings on them to teach us a lesson for pushing so much in the queue.’ She paused for more mash.
‘And netball and rounders and the extra-long banisters in the languages block that you can slide down really fast.’
    I’m not as keen on sport as Chloe is, but it all sounded quite fun.
    ‘Is there anything not nice?’ I asked.
    ‘Lessons. But don’t worry about that too much.’
    ‘But it’s lessons all the time.’
    Chloe wrinkled her nose. ‘Yeah, you have to be in the room, but you don’t really have to pay that much attention.’
    ‘I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,’ Mum said. ‘Because I haven’t got time to tell you how shocked I am and how I expect you to put more effort into
your education. We’ll have to save the lecture for when I can go back to not paying that much attention to my job.’
    ‘I do listen in class,’ Chloe protested. ‘Just not all the time. Teachers always say things ten times anyway; you only need to listen once.’
    Mum shook her head, but she was smiling a bit. She shut her laptop.
    ‘Are you finished?’ Lucy asked.
    ‘I’ll finish it when you’re all in bed.’ She turned to me. ‘You’re not worried about school, are you, Ella?’ she asked.
    Worrying is the opposite of looking on the bright side so I shook my head. ‘It’ll be great being together with Ashandra and Kayleigh.’
    ‘Remember it might take a while for everybody to adjust and get to know each other. And you’re bound to make friends with other people in the class too.’
    I pushed my peas round the plate. ‘Do you think they’ll like me?’
    ‘Of course they will. Just be yourself.’
    That sounded like good advice, but, after we’d finished and I went upstairs to look at my new uniform, the more I thought about it, the more worried I became. I mean, who exactly is
myself? It’s easy to say what my sisters are like. Amelia is cross and sarcastic and funny and tough. Chloe is thumping and gallumping and likes rugby and pudding. And Lucy is . . . well,
there’s nobody like Lucy. I bet she’s never spent any time worrying about what she’s like. She just is.
    People love meeting my sisters. They like them. They remember them. I’m not quite so noticeable.
    I trailed back downstairs to the kitchen. Chloe was doing the washing-up at the same time as eating a peanut butter and Marmite sandwich.
    ‘Do you want one?’ she asked.
    ‘No thanks, I’m still full from tea.’
    ‘Tell me if you change your mind. I’m going to do the next lot with chocolate spread as well as Marmite.’
    ‘Chloe, what kind of person am

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