Page 26 of The New Girl

Clara wasn’t having any of it. ‘For goodness’ sake, Denise, this is a government minister – he doesn’t care about goalies.’

‘Keep your hair on. Jeez.’

Clara bit her nail. ‘Yes, well, I’m a bit stressed. I’m doing a lot of the work here.’

‘OK, fine, if Safa’s dad gets out, you can take the credit,’ Denise said.

Ruby frowned. Hang on, this was her idea. She was the one who came up with the plan. There was no way Clara was getting all the praise.

‘I’ll write it up tonight,’ Clara said. ‘Mum’s up in Dublin for the night and my minder doesn’t care what I do as long as I don’t interrupt her when she’s watching her TV programmes. Mum keeps a stash of the notepaper in her desk at home. I’ll use her fancy ink pen so it looks really official.’

‘Brilliant. Bring it in tomorrow so we can all sign it,’ Ruby said.

‘OK, but are we using our real names?’ Clara asked.

‘I am,’ Ruby said.

‘Me too,’ Denise said.

‘OK. Then me too,’ Clara said. ‘And I’ll write my mobile number underneath, so they call me and not Mum.’

‘You’re so lucky you have a phone. I can’t wait to get mine,’ Denise said.

Ruby didn’t think Clara was that lucky to have a phone. She’d had one since she was six. It was because her mum was always working. It was Mimi, her childminder, who picked her up from school and cooked her dinner. The phone was the main way Clara communicated with her mother. They didn’t spend much time together at all, except on Sundays, which were supposed to be their ‘bonding days’, but Clara said her mum often took her into the office while she worked and Clara sat on the couch in the corner of her mum’s office and read books.

Ruby didn’t know which was better or worse: a mum who was physically there but a dad in Greece, a lawyer mum who was always working and no dad, a mum and dad who were permanently exhausted and distracted by Robbie and never remembered anything, or a mum like Denise’s mum, who roared and shouted all the time because the four boys drove her nuts.

Maybe there was no better. Maybe you just had to make the best of what you had.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Safa

Safa sat on Orla’s bed, opposite Ruby, who was sitting on her own bed, trying to recite lines fromThe Wizard of Oz.

‘Come on, you can do it,’ said Safa.

Ruby closed her eyes and thought hard. ‘Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?’

‘Yes! Well done,’ Safa said. ‘You know all your lines now.’

‘Thanks to you,’ Ruby said.

Safa had been helping Ruby a lot over the past few weeks. It was nice. She liked being able to help people. She’d done it in the camp, helping to translate for other refugees with no English. After that first day when she met Robbie and calmed him down by singing, Ruby was happy to bring Safa to her house. In fact, over the past three weeks, Safa had been in Ruby’s house about six times. Safa had invited Ruby to come back to her house, but Ruby always had to go home to help with Robbie.

Robbie liked Safa. He smiled when she came in and waved his arms when he saw her. She had to sing the song for him every time, which was a bit annoying, but she didn’t really mind. It always made him smile and he looked so cute when he smiled.

Orla barged into the room. ‘Shift,’ she ordered Safa.

Safa got up and moved over to Ruby’s bed.

‘OK, nerds, I need you to help make me look drop-dead gorgeous. I’m going to a party in Lorraine Kenny’s and Conor Levy is going to be there and this is the night when he’s going to fall head over heels for me. I need to look super-hot. Like, hotter than hot. The hottest person ever.’

‘OK, we get it,’ Ruby groaned.

‘How can we help?’ Safa asked.

‘Well, I need fake tan on my back and shoulders ’cause I want to wear a strappy top, and I need my nails done too. I also need you to wave the back of my hair. I can do the front but the back needs to be perfect too.’

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