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for ten days.” She turned, sternly, to Sammy. “If you don’t eat what’s given to you I’ll go and tell Her Upstairs that Mum’s not here and then we’ll all be taken away and split up!”
    I know it isn’t good to threaten children but at least it got Sammy to eat. She stuffed her bread and jam into her mouth so fast I hardly saw it leave the plate. Tizz nodded.
    “That’s better,” she said. “Now just drink your orange squash. We don’t want any more complaining!”

The next day was Monday, and we had to go to school. I set Mum’s alarm clock so as to be sure to wake up in time for getting Sammy ready and giving her some breakfast. I was used to doing it cos sometimes when Mum was depressed she wouldn’t have the energy to get out of bed and she’d beg me to, “Be a darling and see to Sammy for me.” If Tizz was in a good mood she’d help; if she wasn’t, she’d just be a nuisance. That morning she was definitely a nuisance.
    “I don’t think we ought to go to school.” She sat up in bed, hugging her knees and giving me this challenging look, like ‘Just try making me!’
    I said, “Don’t be silly, we’ve got to.”
    “Why?”
    “Why?” Sammy took up the cry, chanting it as she bounced up and down in her bunk. “Why we got to? Why?”
    I snapped, “Cos I say so and I’m in charge! Just get up and get dressed.”
    “Shan’t,” said Sammy.
    “Shan’t,” said Tizz.
    Omigod, she was behaving like a five-year-old. There is some excuse when you are five years old. Not when you’re ten. When I was ten I was already helping Mum on days when she wasn’t up to it. I’d been helping her as long as I could remember. Tizz had never taken her fair share of the responsibility.
    “GET UP!” I yelled. I really wasn’t prepared to stand any nonsense. There are times when you just have to be a bit stern. “Get up, both of you!”
    “Shan’t.”
    “Shan’t!”
    Sammy burrowed back deep into her duvet. Tizz continued with her challenging stare. I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t make them obey me.
    “If you don’t get up right now…” I said.
    “What?” said Tizz.
    “What?” shrieked Sammy, from inside her duvet.
    “You’ll be late,” I bawled, “that’s what!”
    “Can’t be late if we’re not going,” said Tizz.
    “Can’t be late if we’re not going,” echoed the thing in its duvet.
    Tizz looked at me, smugly. She knew I was at a loss.
    “You’re not being fair,” I said. “You know you wouldn’t behave like this if Mum was here.”
    “Yeah, well, she’s not,” said Tizz, “is she?”
    “Doesn’t mean you can just do what you like.”
    But it seemed that it did. I stood, uncertainly, in the doorway. Now what was I supposed to do? Threatening them obviously wasn’t going to get me anywhere. They weren’t scared enough of me.
    “ Why don’t you want to go?” I said.
    Tizz shrugged. “Just don’t.”
    “But why not? You’ve got to have a reason!”
    I thought she was going to go off into a sulk, but Tizz isn’t really a sulking sort of person. She’s a flaring-up-quickly sort of person. And to be fair, her bad temper never lasts. She muttered something which I didn’t catch.
    I said, “You what?”
    Reluctantly, she muttered it again. “Mum might come back.”
    “Mum!” Sammy shot out of the duvet like a cork out of a bottle.
    “We ought to be here,” said Tizz.
    I couldn’t immediately think what to say to that. It was a huge temptation just to give in and agree that we should all stay home. I didn’t want to go to school any more than Tizz or Sammy, cos suppose Mum did turn up? She might be confused. She might not realise how long she’d been gone, or what day of the week it was. Then she’d wonder where we were, and she’d get in a panic thinking something had happened. Thinking that we’d been taken away again and she wouldn’t be allowed to have us back. And if she’d come down from her high and was feeling depressed,