Ice Lolly

Everyone looks at me, including the waiter. They seem puzzled. They have obviously never read Diary of a Nobody. I say, “Jackson Frères…a bottle of Jackson Frères!”

Uncle Mark shakes his head, like don’t ask me. “We’ll just have the house white,” he says.

“What’s with all this Jackson Frères?” says Michael.

Suddenly, I don’t want to talk about it. I wish I hadn’t said it. It was our private joke, between me and Mum.

“Frère’s French,” says Holly. “Like Frère Jacques.” She opens her mouth to start singing, but Uncle Michael cuts across her.

“What do you kids want? Coke?”

If Mum ever had wine, then I was always allowed a glass, too. But I know if I say so Auntie Ellen will only suck in her breath and that will be another black mark against Mum.

“Three Cokes,” says Uncle Mark. Then he smiles at me and says, “So, Laurel! All set up for tomorrow?”

Tomorrow is the day I’m starting at this new school. Bennington High. It has a black uniform. Auntie Ellen has dyed my old green skirt, but she had to take me into Asda to buy a black blazer and a black sweater. The only nice thing is the badge, which is red.

“Feeling OK about it?” says Uncle Mark.

I don’t say anything; I just nod.

“She’ll be all right,” says Auntie Ellen. “She has Michael to look out for her. and it’s a good school! Far better than where she was before.”

What does Auntie Ellen know about where I was before?

“It’s smaller, for a start,” she says, “and not so mixed.”

“Is mixed bad?” I say.

“It is if you’re in the minority. Some of these inner city schools…hardly hear a word of English one day to the next, all the babble going on.”

Earnestly I assure her that it only sounds like babble just at first. “You get used to it. You start learning other people’s languages. Like I can say hello in French and Polish—” I check them off on my fingers, “and Greek and Turkish and Gujarati and Russian and—”

“Yes, and you probably weren’t allowed to celebrate Christmas,” snaps Auntie Ellen.

“We did! We celebrated everything. Christmas, and Diwali, and Hanukkah, and—”