Page 8 of Role Model
“Can we help you?” Ilya asks gruffly.
“We just saw you on the news!” the woman goes on, beaming at me as though she knows me.
“Yeah, I fainted at school,” I mumble, wondering why this grown adult feels so easy about being familiar with me.
“No, we saw your follow-up video,” she gushes. “I teach Year Six children. You are an inspiration; they need to be more like you! I’m going to play your speech for them tomorrow morning.”
“Okay,” Fizz says. “Thank you for stopping by the29enclosure, but the zoo is now closed.”
*
I can’t sleep. I keep thinking of the whole day. From standing up in front of everyone to fainting. To meeting Txai. To having to film an apology. To the woman in Waterstones.
I hear a small sound. There is always white noise in Downing Street. London is too important to ever be quiet. But it sounds like someone is moving right by my door.
I go to investigate. The corridor is quiet and the family rooms seem to be empty. I move to the door that leads to the rest of Downing Street, the parts that are mainly for working.
I find Gideon as the source of the noise. He’s in his pyjamas and at the top of the grand staircase.
“What are you doing?” I whisper. Almost everyone will have gone home, apart from the policeman at the front door and a couple of security guards. “It’s late.”
He exhales, relieved to see it’s only me. “I’m playing!”
“What?”
“Aeriel,” he says, and the mischief in his eyes makes him look just like Fizz. “We live in Downing Street!30That is too cool, we should be making the most of it!”
Maybe it’s because the day has been just awful, but I join him. We slide down the banisters. We act out a scene from Love Actually, which Fizz let us watch last Christmas even though Mum forbid it. We pose next to important looking men in oil paintings and mimic their pompous expressions.
“I do say,” Gideon says, in his best impression of a posh English accent. “Have they allowedScotsback into Downing Street, Lord Fancy-Pants?”
I smother a laugh and join his game. “Say it isn’t true, Lord Snobbington! They might actually liven the place up!”
“We can’t have that!”
We double over, trying not to laugh too loud.
We break into the large kitchen downstairs and attack the massive fridge. It’s the size of a small aircraft. Inside, there are tons of dainty desserts all on trays as if ready for a function or a fancy meeting in the morning. Gideon goes for some cheesecake and I take the chocolate mousse. When those are finished, we move to the red velvet cake – both of us shushing the other.
Suddenly, there is a click and we’re flooded in light. Fizz and Ilya are both standing in the kitchen31doorway. The bodyguard is still dressed in his suit but my sister is wearing lilac silk pyjamas and a fuzzy dressing gown. They both stare at us in astonishment. Gideon and I are both frozen, cake halfway to our mouths. We must look like two racoons who have been caught in the dustbins.
“What’s going on here?” Ilya says slowly.
I feel the giddy need to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. I wordlessly hold out my fork, silently offering Ilya some cake. He stares at me. Fizz muffles a laugh. Gideon and I hold our breath and wait. Ilya knows he should report this to our parents. But I hope he also knows how difficult this move has been. Especially for two kids who like their routines.
After what feels like an eternity, Ilya’s eyes warm a little and he carefully takes the fork from my hand. He eats the small morsel of dessert and Gideon and I jump up and down to convey our delight, because shrieking would wake the whole house.
He opens a drawer and hands Fizz a fork of her own and the four of us tuck in to what’s left of the scarlet cake. I feel better. I catch Gideon’s gaze and we both break into silent laughter. When he almost chokes on a bite of cake, Ilya thumps him on the back.
32“If a thief wants to steal a midnight feast, he can’t be stupid and die while eating it,” Ilya barks in his typically grumpy manner.
His words make my siblings and I convulse with laughter and I don’t care if we’re caught.
33
Chapter Five
My video wasn’t just on the news. It was everywhere. I thought the first one had gone too far but that was a birthday candle compared to this new wildfire. It made international news, with people in other languages talking about me and calling me a hero for being autistic on camera for a minute and twenty seconds.
