The Rise and Rise of Tabitha Baird

  It turns out that Grace has never had a dad at all – literally, no dad! Her mum is gay, or rather, her mums are gay – they split up when she was little. She told me the auntie she said she’d been to see wasn’t really her auntie – it was her other mum!

  Grace said that she’d thought it would be a bit complicated to explain on the spot at the station that she had one mum outside waiting for her in the car and that she’d just been visiting a different mum! Two mums? How cool is that? No wonder Grace doesn’t try hard to be cool – she’s got the coolest family in the world, the coolest parents in the world! Two mums! Amazing!

  I felt so relaxed and easy with Grace that I also told her about Emz’s and A’isha’s parents complaining to the school about me ‘making them go up on the roof ’ and about A’isha’s dad blaming me for her taking her hijab off. I told her I was worried that maybe they’d decided to blame me so they didn’t get into trouble.

  ‘I bet you a million quid they didn’t. You three are so close, I can’t believe they’d have done that,’ Grace said. ‘I reckon their parents just assumed they must have been forced to do something risky like that,’ Grace continued. ‘But you did tell everybody that you’d suggested it, didn’t you?’

  Did I? Well, I know Ms Drippy-Dry had leapt to conclusions and I’d been quite happy that she had.

  ‘Yeah, well, I guess I was sort of pleased to be seen as the leader,’ I replied. I couldn’t believe I was confiding in Grace like this. ‘Serves me right – look what’s ended up happening to me because of it!’ I said.

  ‘Hmm …’ Grace said. She was obviously planning something. ‘I’m sure you’ll be able to convince your mum to let you stay at HAC. No mum wants their child to be unhappy. And Emz and A’isha are obviously the key to getting you out of your month’s detentions. We’ve got to get hold of them.’

  I was worried that if I went to either of their houses their parents might not let me in. Because of everything that had happened, they obviously thought I had corrupted their daughters. I was also a bit worried that, whatever Grace had said, maybe they had told their parents that it was all my fault. I know that’s a bit of a random idea but I didn’t know what to think, really.

  Grace suggested that she texted them for me. I wasn’t at all sure that was a good idea. I was worried that if Emz and A’isha saw that Grace was sending a message for me they might think I’d suddenly become her bezzie and then not want to be mates with me any more because of that.

  I didn’t know what to do but I felt bad, too, in case Grace guessed that was what I was thinking.

  But Grace was great. The next morning she just wrote them a text on my phone. Hi this is Grace, on Tab’s phone. She’s been given a month’s worth of detentions. We’ve got to think of a way to get her out of them, are you in?

  I was so nervous waiting for them to reply. It felt like years before they did. Suddenly my phone pinged twice in a row, really loudly. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Both Emz’s and A’isha’s texts basically said, Yay! Deffo, let’s meet up!

  Grace looked at me, smiling. ‘Shall we arrange to meet them this afternoon, so you can go home and see your mum first? She’s probably going to have completely lost it by now.’

  I wanted to meet up with Emz and A’isha straightaway, but I knew Grace was right. Oh man, Grace is sensible – she even bandaged up my ankle this morning and it feels much better. I can walk on it pretty much normally. It’s nice having a friend who knows what to do. Hmm, friend? Let’s say, for now, Grace isn’t my actual friend – that’s a bit extra.

  I’d barely got my key in the front door when Basil came shooting out of the kitchen at full speed, whizzing round the corner yapping and barking. I know dogs don’t really smile, but I’d swear he did when he saw it was me. He shot up on to his back legs and jumped up at me, yapping and dancing about with excitement.

  I scooped him up and gave him a cuddle. He was wearing a cape. I am not joking. Basil, the dog, was wearing an actual cape. Like a superhero wears but smaller and knitted. Superhero capes are never knitted. It was the worst thing Gran had ever made for him, but I didn’t care. It was so good to see him.

  Mum came out almost immediately after him, took one look at me and burst into tears. ‘Oh, my darling girl, thank god you’re home.’

  I practically threw Basil onto the floor and ran to her. I was so pleased to see her.

  ‘I’m so sorry, I just wasn’t thinking straight,’ Mum blurted out, squeezing me in her arms. ‘GB steamed in with that plan and she was so sure it was the answer to everything and I’d just got that letter from school and I was panicking. I didn’t know what to do. Oh, please forgive me, love. I was such an idiot. I thought maybe you really weren’t settling and that you might be happier if you went back to Greyfriars.’

  ‘I’m sorry, too, Mum. I didn’t mean to worry you. I was just really cross. I am not living with GB and Dad!’ I said.

  ‘Of course you aren’t. I’m just so glad you’re home,’ Mum said, all happy and cheerful. I hadn’t seen her this chirpy in years. Oh man, she was so relieved I was home she seemed to forget to be angry with me for running away and making her so worried.

  Result.

  When Gran came in and saw me she actually squealed. Basil started yapping and doing a jig.

  ‘Yes, isn’t it wonderful, Mum?’ Gran said in her Basil voice. ‘It’s so marvellous to have her home!’

  I burst into laughter. Basil dancing and Gran doing his voice – it was all brilliant. I’d only been away from home a few days but the whole running-a-way-for-a-day thing had made it seem much, much longer. I do feel a bit guilty about worrying Mum and Gran so much, but a bit pleased, too, I must admit. It feels pretty amazing to know that just disappearing for not even a whole twenty-four hours can have that effect on people!

  When it was time to go out and meet the girls I got worried that Mum might not let me go because of everything that had happened. So I thought I’d just pretend I was taking Basil for a walk.

  ‘I’d really, really love that, Tab, thank you,’ Gran said, using Basil’s voice again. ‘I’ve missed you.’

  I think Gran really meant she’d missed me but was getting Basil to ‘say’ it for her.

  Mum was on her computer and looked up suddenly. I could see she was worried. ‘Tabitha, darling, you’ll come straight home, won’t you?’

  ‘Yes, Mum, don’t worry. Basil will drag me home!’ I said, laughing.

  ‘That’s right, I will. I’m so pleased to have a chance to show off my lovely new cape,’ Basil (Gran) said.

  For once, Mum didn’t even seem to mind Gran doing that.

  ‘And when you’re back we’ll have the biscuits I made for you yesterday to distract myself, praying you’d be home soon,’ Mum said giving Gran a quick look. Gran smiled back at her.

  ‘Ooh, biscuits? You must have been worried,’ I said. ‘That’d be great, thanks.’

  Mum gave me an I-know smile. It looked like she’d thought about a lot of things while I was ‘missing’.

  As I left the house I looked down at Basil in his ridiculous knitted neon-coloured cape trotting along beside me without a single clue just how much of a twit he looked. I thought about taking it off. I just knew the girls were going to split their sides when they saw him. But I didn’t care – it’s not like anyone’s life is perfect. It was so great to be home. Now we just had to work out a way to get me out of those so ridiculously extra detentions.

  Just before I got to the park near Emz’s house, where we were meeting, guess what? I heard Sam call out from across the road.

  I hadn’t even noticed him. It was the first time in ages that I’d walked Basil and not thought about bumping into Snap-Dog Boy.

  He was waving and it was pretty obvious he was going to cross over and chat. I did want to, but I didn’t have time. I just thought, I can’t do this right now. I don’t want to be late for my best mates. Sam, gorgeous as he is, is just going to have to wait.

  So I wave
d back and shouted, ‘I’ve got to be somewhere. See you around.’

  And, I have to say, he did look pretty disappointed! Oh yes! Result. How incredibly cool was that, and I hadn’t even planned it?!

  Emz, A’isha and Grace were already at the park, waiting for me. I could tell Grace was looking a little awkward with Emz and A’isha. I was so excited to see them I just ran towards them – well, as much as I could run on my ankle – screaming my head off.

  Emz and A’isha jumped up and down on the wall they’d been sitting on and started screaming too. We made so much noise all screaming together! Basil started jumping up and down – he was loving it.

  Thank god Grace didn’t. It would have been superweird if she’d joined in, especially as I’d only just seen her that morning. And she isn’t exactly our friend. Well, not yet.

  ‘Oh my god, what is your dog wearing?’ A’isha suddenly yelled, pointing at Basil’s cape which was flapping in the wind.

  All three of them looked down at Basil. He was dancing about, superexcited, looking up at them with his tongue hanging out, like it always does when he’s really happy. It was almost as if he was actually saying, ‘I see you’ve noticed my brilliant cape!’

  ‘Oh, that is so sweet,’ Grace said.

  ‘Sweet? Are you joking?’ A’isha said. ‘That is totally weird, man.’

  ‘It’s not weird, it’s kinky,’ Emz joined in.

  ‘Oh, leave him alone, it’s not his fault. Gran knits him outfits – don’t ask me why!’ I said, laughing.

  It was so great to be back with them. And Basil didn’t mind. It’s not like he can understand. All he knew was that everyone was looking at him and laughing!

  We all decided we needed to go somewhere where we could talk and then we realised because of Basil we couldn’t go anywhere because most places don’t allow dogs and even though he had his superhero cape to keep him safe and warm, I didn’t feel happy about tying him up outside some café.

  ‘Let’s go to mine then,’ Grace suddenly said.

  Emz and A’isha looked at each other and then at me. The expressions on their faces were, ‘What’s going on? Do we really want to go to her house?’

  But it’s not like we could go to either of their houses, seeing as their parents apparently thought I was a bad influence, so I just said, ‘Yeah, great, let’s do that.’

  Once we’d got there it was a bit all not-knowing-what-to-do-or-say. It was quite awkward and I was beginning to wonder if it had been a big mistake coming to Grace’s.

  And then Grace turned to Emz and A’isha and said, ‘You two are probably wondering how on earth Tab and I suddenly seem to be mates and what that’s all about.’ Before going on she turned to me and said, ‘Sorry, Tab, we are mates, now, yeah?’

  I was so embarrassed. It was such an out-there question! I mean, who asks that kind of thing? It’s so … so … I don’t know … it’s so extra. I didn’t want to be horrible because she had really helped me, so I just mumbled ‘s’pose’, and then Grace went on, ‘So, Tab’s been given a month’s worth of detentions and Miss Wright says she’s also going to consider suspending her if anything like that happens again.’

  Emz and A’isha gasped. They hadn’t properly known about the suspension bit.

  ‘Mainly,’ Grace went on, ‘I think, Miss Wright’s given Tab such a harsh punishment because it was dangerous – and especially because she thinks she made you two do something dangerous. So we’ve got to convince her that there was a real, proper reason for Tab being up there so that Miss will let her off the punishment.’

  Honestly, it was like she was taking charge of a meeting or something. I felt a bit awkward and began to wonder if I really wanted to be matey with her. I liked her now that I knew her better but that didn’t mean I wanted to hang out with a big swotty nerd or anything.

  ‘But they know A’isha and me were up there as well,’ Emz said.

  ‘Yeah, so whatever pretend-real reason we come up with has to work for all three of us, because we got into trouble, too,’ A’isha added.

  ‘So, how come only Tab got the detentions?’ Grace asked.

  ‘Because Miss Wright thought I’d forced Emz and A’isha to go on the roof,’ I said. ‘And because their parents blamed me.’

  ‘But why did their parents think that?’ asked Grace, not letting it go. No wonder she was in the debating society.

  I saw Emz and A’isha look at each other and then look away quickly. I knew they knew why. And then I knew that they knew that I knew why.

  ‘Because you told them that, didn’t you?’ I said to Emz and A’isha.

  I was quite cross and considering the detentions I think I had a right to be cross.

  Emz and A’isha didn’t say anything. They just looked at each other and then wouldn’t look at me. I knew that it was true: to get themselves out of trouble with the head they had told their parents that I’d forced them up there.

  I couldn’t believe it. I was so upset. They hadn’t stood up for me – they’d lied to save themselves.

  ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe you’d do that to me!’ I shouted. ‘That’s the real reason I got into such trouble – because of your parents complaining about me. Look what you’ve done! I hate you!’

  I dashed out of Grace’s, only just remembering to take Basil with me. I ran all the way down the road.

  I’d been so happy coming home and seeing Mum and Gran and Basil and my best mates and being back where I belonged. And now it was all ruined. It was all over – our friendship – everything was just completely and utterly hopeless. My two supposed-best friends had lied about me!

  It was all so unfair! I didn’t deserve this to happen to me. I had really, truly believed I’d made the bestest mates in the whole world, that the three of us were going to be best mates for ever and ever, that no one could ever break us up, that we’d always, always, always have each other. And now I’d found out Emz and A’isha obviously couldn’t care less about me.

  The days before school started again were the worst of my whole life. I had no friends in the world and nothing to do. I did walk Basil but you can’t really call him my friend. And I did talk to Muzzy but although I do love her a lot, it’s not much good talking to a toy cat – just like Basil, she can’t really say anything back.

  Luke returned from Dad’s. It was nice to see him but I’m not going to tell him that, obvs. He told me that GB had gone absolutely berserk when she realised I’d run away and that Dad had actually stood up to her and had said that he didn’t blame me! GB will not have liked that.

  Then today I had to go back to school and I wanted to die. I was so unhappy.

  I didn’t want to have to walk in with no mates and then stay behind afterwards for the first of seven thousand years of detention.

  There was nothing for it, though. I had to go to school.

  Just as I walked out of the door my phone pinged three times in a row.

  All three texts said the same thing. They were from Emz, A’isha and Grace:

  We’ve sorted it all out. It’s going to be okay.

  Can’t wait to see you!

  Xxxxxxxxxxxxx000000000xxxxxxx

  How could they have sorted it all out? What were they talking about?

  I nearly collapsed, I ran so hard all the way to school. I had to slow down a bit just before I got there. I didn’t want to go in all sweaty like a pig.

  I arrived just before the bell went.

  ‘Good of you to join us, Tabitha Baird,’ Ms Cameron said sarcastically as I slipped in the door.

  I wasn’t even a whole minute late. I was just about to say something when I realised I’d better not. Maybe now wasn’t the best time to start the backchat again …

  Emz and A’isha were at our usual table and, get this, Grace was sitting with them too, like it was the totally regular and normal thing to do. They all waved at me to come over.

  As I sat down, Ms Cameron gave us all a fierce glare like she was warning us not to start tal
king. We looked at each other and without speaking we could just tell that this wasn’t the time to push our luck. But I wanted to explode, I was so desperate to hear what they’d done. I had to wait till break to find out.

  It turns out that Grace, A’isha and Emz had come up with a plan. They went into school early today to see Miss Wright and their plan had worked!

  It was really Grace who got me out of the detentions. She told Miss Wright it was actually her who’d asked us to go up on the roof to help her with a secret scientific experiment about shadows cast by the sun at different times of the day. There was some kind of national science prize she wanted to enter and Grace told Miss Wright that when she was doing all those hand movements we were recording where the shadows fell every time she waved her hand.

  Thanks to her being a swotty nerd and never, ever having been in trouble before, not even once, Miss Wright completely believed the whole thing, including that we hadn’t explained that at the time because Grace was desperate for the experiment to stay secret!

  ‘And I really DIDN’T tell my parents it was your fault for making us go on the roof,’ A’isha said. ‘It was just when Miss Wright rang Dad up to say what had happened, she suggested you were really to blame and I let Dad believe it because I knew how cross he’d be. And then he decided you were to blame, for the whole hijab-thing too, and I have to admit I sort of let him. I’m sorry.’’

  ‘Same with me,’ said Emz. ‘My parents threatened to ground me over half-term, so I didn’t say anything when Miss Wright said you’d been the ringleader. But I never thought only you’d be punished instead of us.

  ‘We’d both felt really awful,’ Emz went on. ‘We were going to tell Miss Wright the truth and then Grace came up with her brilliant plan, so we didn’t need to! And now, thanks to Grace, none of us have detentions!’