I told Frank to come on Monday at dawn. He wasn’t too happy about it, but I insisted we start early so he could make me breakfast. I ran all the way home and charged straight into Mum’s study.
‘Mum!’ I said. ‘Guess what! I …’
She was still in her pyjamas. She didn’t even move when I came in – just kept staring at the screen, typing. The cup of tea I’d made her that morning was still there, untouched.
‘Mum,’ I said again.
She turned round like I’d just spoken. She looked tired, as usual.
‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Sorry, pickle. I was miles away.’
Mum is a marine biologist. That’s someone who knows everything there is to know about life in the sea. She used to work on a boat in the middle of the ocean, right above the Mariana Trench – the really deep bit, where they find fish with lightbulbs on their heads.
But when we moved to Middle Island, Dad made her give up her job. He’s an astrobiologist – someone who knows everything there is to know about life in space. He’s written books about it, big thick ones with his name and face on the front. He started doing book tours that went on for months, so Mum had to stay at home to do his paperwork for him.
‘How was your last day at school?’ she said, rubbing her eyes. ‘Did your friends like the pineapple?’
I hadn’t got around to telling Mum the truth yet – that I didn’t actually have any friends. But I couldn’t tell her now. When Mum’s busy, she gets upset at the slightest thing. The problem is, she’s always busy.
I gave her my biggest, widest smile. ‘They loved it!’
Mum sighed. ‘Oh good. You should invite them all over one day in the holidays.’
I smiled even wider.
‘Good idea! Funnily enough, I was just talking to Frank about that, and he said …’
‘Did you get your report?’
My smile fell like a cheap shelf.
‘R … report?’
Mum turned her chair round to face me.
‘Your end of term report, Caitlin,’ she said. ‘The one that says how well you’ve been doing at school.’
My mouth went dry. I wasn’t doing well at school – at all. In fact, I was the worst in class by miles and miles.
I hadn’t got around to telling Mum that yet, either.
‘I still can’t believe it, darling.’ She smiled proudly. ‘My little Caitlin, top of the class!’
I gulped. ‘Er … yeah.’
‘You must have worked so hard!’
I had. It’s not easy, lying that much.
I’ve had the same problem ever since I was little. Whenever I look at a book the letters flash and change in front of me like traffic lights. The moment I think I’ve got a word pinned down, it slips away from me again. It’s like trying to learn an alien language – one that everyone understands except me.
‘I mean, it makes such a difference from your last school,’ Mum continued. ‘All those meetings about your reading and writing problems, and your father having to argue with your teachers about your test results, and those extra sessions he paid for so you didn’t repeat the year …’
My face burned. I didn’t need any reminding about that.
Mum and Dad just don’t get it. They’re both so smart, they think it’s normal to be like that. Every room in the house is filled with essays and framed certificates and big, heavy science books that I can’t even lift – let alone read.
‘So where’s the report?’ said Mum excitedly. ‘Can I see it?’
I thought lying would make my life easier – but I was wrong. At first it was just a little fib here and there, to stop Mum from worrying about me. But then one lie had led to another, and they’d grown and grown, until soon I was telling lies so big I had no idea how to stop them. Now I was dropping letters from school over the side of the boat every day, and burying all my homework in the back garden so Mum couldn’t see my bad marks …
But my report was different.
‘It’s being posted,’ I said emptily.
Mum sighed. ‘Oh, I can’t wait! We should send your father a copy when it arrives, too.’
I felt the ground cave in under me.
‘You know how much he cares about your schoolwork,’ Mum added.
I swallowed. ‘Yeah. Great idea.’
I must have looked as miserable as I felt, because suddenly Mum stopped smiling. She squeezed my shoulder.
‘I know he’s tough on you,’ she said. ‘Your father isn’t the easiest person to live with. But he just wants you to do well. And now you’re finally getting good marks … well, it makes moving up here and giving up my job worth it. I’m so proud of you, Caitlin.’
My heart sank. I couldn’t stand lying to Mum. Right then, I would have given anything for a distraction.
The phone rang.
‘Going out!’ I screamed. ‘Love you!’
I was out the house and across the fields before Mum could say another word. I breathed a sigh of relief – I’d done it again. I’d bought some time before she and Dad found out the truth. But not much. The report was coming and there was no way I could stop it.
I shook my head – it didn’t matter. I’d think of some way to hide it when it arrived. I’d say it got lost. Or maybe I could even forge a copy with good marks written on it … but of course I couldn’t do that. My writing was almost as bad as my reading!
I groaned. How was I going to look Mum and Dad in the eye and tell them that I was the worst in the year at science …?
Squelch.
I was standing knee-deep in thick black mud.
‘Ugh!’
Middle Island isn’t all shingle beaches and no houses. Oh no. I forgot to mention the disgusting, smelly bogs that cover the rest of it. You can usually walk over them if you’re careful, but all the rain from the storm had made them like walking on jam. Only not delicious.
I heaved myself out the mud. The whole island ahead was waterlogged. But I couldn’t go back home now – not when Mum wanted to talk about my report. I had to stay out until she was busy again. And the only other place I could get to from here was … Stinky Bay.
‘UGH!’ I groaned.
I call it Stinky Bay because it stinks. I named everything on the island when we first moved here. There’s also Boring Field, Lonesome Hill, Friendless Cliff, Miserable Pond and The Soli-Tree. I’d tell you the others – but I can’t, because that is literally all there is on Middle Island.
Stinky Bay smelled even worse than usual, because of all the dead prawns heaped along the shore and buzzing with flies. I slumped down on the shingle and threw stones at them.
‘Stupid island,’ I said.
I remember when we used to live in the city. Our flat was at the top of a massive old building. The woman next door had seven dogs and the couple below us had triplets that screamed all night. It was noisy, but it was nice. I was happy.
Then Dad came home and said that he’d bought a big house on the other side of the country and we were all moving there. I was so excited – my very own island! But Mum wasn’t happy at all. Why hadn’t Dad checked with her first? What was she going to do about her job?
Dad shook his head – we had no choice. Now he was famous, he needed somewhere quiet to relax after his tours. And besides, he said, we had to get Caitlin into a decent school – one that could sort out her ‘academic issues’.
‘Stupid academic issues,’ I said, throwing stones.
Dad wasn’t always like that. When I was younger, me and him used to do stuff together. Go to museums, or the aquarium – but I hardly ever saw him now. Whenever we spoke on the phone, he was always too busy to talk for more than a few minutes. And then when he did come home, all he and Mum did was argue. She’d go up to bed on her own, and he’d sit me down and ask me questions about school, and why I was still doing badly in science, and why was I so lazy, and didn’t I want to be a famous scientist like him when I grew up?
That’s the problem with you, Caitlin. You don’t understand. You need good marks to be a scientist. You can’t mix up your letters and flip your numbers. You can’t be …
‘Stupid,’ I whispered.
I looked up. Night had fallen already. It gets dark here so quickly – you turn around one moment and the sun’s gone. I threw a stone into the sea and it disappeared without a trace.
I groaned. This was hopeless. I couldn’t spend the next six weeks stuck here by myself, counting down the days until Mum and Dad finally found out the truth. There had to be something around here that could fix it, something that could help me, anything …
… And just like that, there was Perijee.