Part 5 (2/2)

'I know,' I said. 'But we can't just a.s.sume that, can we? Not with something so potentially serious. Anyway, I'd better run. Thanks for the sandwich, love.'

'What you had of it!'

Riley saw me out, and as I left she called me back. I turned around.

'Just you keep your guard up, Mum, okay?'

I laughed it off, but was she already seeing things I wasn't?

When I got to school Mr Barker and Sophia were already waiting for me in reception. I could see Sophia was giggling at something he was saying.

I didn't know Mr Barker well, as he'd started at the school not long before I left to begin fostering, but I liked him and knew he'd keep an eye on Sophia. He was very upper crust, and was nicknamed 'the dog', because of his name, but I doubted that was the witticism he was sharing. But he'd obviously taken her mind off her malaise, and to me she looked the picture of health.

'Ah, Mrs Watson,' he said now. 'Thank you so much for coming. As you can see, Sophia's feeling a bit better now, aren't you? But we obviously didn't want to take any chances.'

'Of course not,' I said. 'Come on, love.' I turned to Sophia. 'Let's get you home so you can have a nap.'

'I told them not to bother you,' she said to me as we walked back across the school car park. 'You shouldn't have had to come out and get me. I didn't want to come home. I told them I'd be fine in an hour, if they just let me rest.'

I patted her shoulder. She was so much taller than me that I couldn't put a friendly arm around it. 'Don't worry, love,' I said. 'They were just being careful. They probably don't have enough staff available to keep a proper eye on you. If you're well you're in cla.s.s and if you're ill you go home.'

She shrugged then, a teenage 'whatever' expression on her face, and I wondered if perhaps Riley had been right, that she'd feigned the dizziness to get attention but not that much attention. They'd probably been used to managing her Addison's in her old school. So perhaps she hadn't figured on being sent home. Or maybe the opposite was true: she actually liked being sent home, and her telling me otherwise was just to keep me sweet. Oh, it was all so confusing, trying to read her.

And once at home, her manner changed again.

'C'mon, missy,' I said, forestalling her from flopping down on the sofa with the remote for the afternoon. 'We need to get some water and a salty snack inside you, and then you have to go to bed for a bit.'

I was pleased by how readily the 'rules' came to mind. Mind you, I had studied the huge amount of info very thoroughly. She'd obviously been running around a lot, and needed to rehydrate. She also needed salt. I wasn't sure exactly why that was so much science! but the advice was clear. And then she needed sleep. But she shook her head. 'No need,' she said. 'I'm fine.'

'Clearly not,' I persisted, 'or the school wouldn't have sent for me. Come on,' I said. 'Into the kitchen, so we can get you sorted before some shut-eye ...'

She pointed the remote at the TV and it hummed into life. 'I told you,' she said slowly. 'I am fine.'

Okay, I thought. Okay. Deep breath. 'Sophia, you might feel fine, but I need to know you are. So would you please turn the TV off and come with me.'

Before I could even finish, she'd flung the remote onto the coffee table with a loud clatter, leapt up and turned the television off by hand.

'Satisfied?' she asked me, her tone caustic as she pushed past me.

I exhaled slowly and followed her into the kitchen. 'Yes, thank you. Though perhaps next time we'll have the teachers deal with this in school. That way, you'll actually be able to stay there.'

I left the room feeling duped. And also cross. How did you handle something like this something with so much scope for manipulation? You obviously couldn't call her bluff she might end up seriously ill. But at the same time, this amount of power over people was doing her no good. I lit a cigarette, out in the conservatory. One thing was clear. I wouldn't be able to give my habit up any time soon. But, feeling calmer, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. This could all be related to the stress of the visit to see her mother at the weekend. I must make allowances for that. And, as if on cue, Sophia appeared then, in the conservatory doorway. 'I'm sorry, Casey,' she said haltingly. 'You know, about just now. I just get a bit ratty when I have a wobble with my meds.'

I patted the seat beside me. She sat down. 'But I don't understand,' I said. 'I thought your consultant said your medication levels were stable.'

She shook her head. 'Not if I get stressed. Or if I do a lot of extra exercise.'

'But surely you know not to do that? I know I read somewhere that if you're doing more than normal exercise, then you need to take some extra steroid before you do it, don't you?'

She nodded. 'But I didn't know I was going to be doing that, did I?' She frowned. 'But you can't not, can you? Not when everyone's got a game on, and you're the new girl ... I don't want to look like I'm some stuck-up cow who won't join in, do I?'

I couldn't argue with that, and I felt sorry for her. It must be tough.

I clasped her hand and squeezed it. 'I know,' I said. 'I know. Now how about that sleep, eh?'

I was pleased about our chat, and, actually, it didn't really matter. If she had made herself ill accidently, or did it on purpose, it didn't make any odds. What mattered was that we kept on communicating. I'd have a word with the school in the morning, just to keep them in the loop, and make a point of reading up some more on her taking extra medication. This, I decided, was all completely sortable. I just needed to know exactly how to sort it.

I was in a much better frame of mind as I set about making our dinner steak and chips with all the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, plus my own home-made peppercorn sauce. And by the time Mike and Kieron got home, Sophia and I agreed that we were both absolutely starving, and that if they didn't come to the table p.r.o.nto we'd eat theirs as well.

It set the tone for a nice relaxed family dinner. We weren't the Waltons, but sometimes it made me so happy just to sit round the table as a family, chatting about nothing. But it seemed the 'nothing' part was going to be short-lived.

'How'd your first day go?' Mike asked Sophia as he began tucking in.

'Okay,' she said. 'I made a new friend called Lucy. She seems nice.'

'One of many, no doubt,' Kieron chipped in with. I was pleased. He seemed to be making a real effort to get along with her.

'Oh, no,' Sophia said, before delivering the news that the rest of the girls already hated her.

'But why?' I asked.

'Because all the boys fancy me, of course,' she answered. I opened my mouth to comment and then I closed it again. She was twelve. Twelve-year-olds were inclined to make p.r.o.nouncements like that. Particularly pretty ones like Sophia.

'Oh, you'll make more,' Kieron persisted, shrugging it off. 'Don't you worry.'

'Oh, I'm not worried,' she said. 'I don't want to have friends really, anyway.'

'Why ever not?' Mike asked.

'Because you can't trust them.' Her face darkened. 'My last best friend, Chloe, tried to turn me into a lesbian. And '

'Sophia, love,' I interrupted. 'Shall we talk about this later? Not a topic of conversation for teatime really, is it?'

'But she did!' Sophia persisted, now fired up, eyes flas.h.i.+ng. 'And my caring mother didn't give a d.a.m.n! Oh, Sophia, stop complaining, she's just being friendly, stop moaning ... Yeah, right, Mum. Like she ever gave a d.a.m.n!'

'Sophia,' I said, shocked. 'Please, just leave it. We can discuss all this later. Now calm down and let's all just finish our tea, eh?'

She put her head down and continued eating, as the conversation juddered back to life.

'Lovely steak, love,' said Mike.

'Flattery will get you everywhere,' I answered.

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