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dressed straightaway. No point though, because of course Mum wouldn’t let me go next door. She was afraid Alice and her dad wouldn’t be up yet.
    She suggested what she thought was a great idea.
    ‘Why don’t you do all your jobs now, so later, when Alice is up, you’ll be free to play with her?’
    (I was twelve years old. Didn’t she know that twelve-year-olds don’t play? Twelve-year-olds just hang out.)
    So I spent an hour hoovering, and dusting, and helping Mum clean out the utility room. Every now and then I had a little grumble.
    ‘No one else has to do as many jobs as I do. Melissa doesn’t do a single thing.’
    Mum had her usual answer. ‘Well, I’m not Melissa’s mum, am I? I can’t help it if she’s allowed to be a spoiled brat. And anyway, since when do you care about Melissa?’
    I shrugged. ‘I don’t. It’s just that I seem to do more jobs than anyone I know. It’s not fair.’
    Mum put on her serious voice then. ‘I know love. It doesn’t seem fair. But I don’t want you thinking that the house tidies itself. It doesn’t, you know. I have so much to do, and if you don’t help, I’ll never get through it.’
    I looked at her. She did look a bit tired. So I worked even harder, jumping whenever sheasked me to bring something upstairs, or to put something in the bin. By half past nine, the house looked perfect to me.
    Mum sighed. ‘Now for the hall cupboard.’
    I groaned and Mum gave a big laugh. ‘Just kidding . The hall cupboard will wait. You go and call for Alice.’
    She gave me a hug, and a kiss on the cheek. ‘And thanks for all your help.’ I pretended to wipe the kiss away with the sleeve of my fleece, but I was pleased.
    Alice opened the door as I approached her doorstep, as if she’d been waiting for me. ‘At last. I’ve been up for hours. Dad wouldn’t let me over. He said it was too early.’
    ‘Yeah. Me too. And I’ve had to do loads of jobs for Mum. You’d think the president was coming to visit.’
    ‘Well, it was worse for me. After breakfast, Dad made me look at old photographs with him. And he got all sad whenever he came to ones ofthe four of us. His voice kept going all funny, and I thought he was going to cry.’
    ‘Oh no. Gross! What did you do?’
    She giggled. ‘I gave him a speech I heard on telly last week. I said I wanted to be positive, and look ahead, and all that old stuff. So we played Boggle instead. It was boring, but it was worth it. It’s awful you know. Mum and Dad are the grown-ups, but I spend all my time minding them, as if they were the children. I have to be careful all the time. If I’m happy, it’s as if I don’t care that they’ve separated. And if I’m sad, they go all guilty on me.’
    For the first time, I had kind of an idea what it must be like for her.
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Al. Is it awful?’
    She nodded. Then she brightened suddenly. ‘Come on upstairs. We have to talk.’
    We went upstairs to her bedroom. It was really untidy, as usual, with clothes strewn everywhere. Around her bedhead there was a string of palepink flowery lights. They looked really cool.
    Alice saw me looking at them. ‘Dad got them for me. He keeps buying me stuff. It’s the guilt thing again. I’d prefer if things were back the way they used to be though. I could live without these lights.’
    I felt the petals. They were made of a shimmery , pearly kind of plastic, and were really pretty. Like something in a rich kid’s house.
    ‘You can borrow them if you like – when I’m not here,’ offered Alice.
    I sighed. ‘Thanks, but no thanks. You know what my mum’s like. She’d just say they were a waste of electricity, so she wouldn’t let me plug them in. There’d be no point.’
    Alice imitated my mum’s voice. ‘Girls, don’t you know anything about global warming?What do they teach you at school these days?’
    I giggled. Alice was a very good mimic.
    I sat on her new blow-up chair. ‘Now. I’m fed up of waiting. Tell me your