32

Families

We were doing the Tudors in history. Which, as far as I could make out, is mostly just learning the list of wives Henry VIII either divorced or beheaded before nipping off to rob all the monasteries. (What a charmer.)

So for some stupid reason our history teacher, Mrs B, told us all to do our own family trees for homework. This instantly set Kara off on a full-blown melodrama at lunchtime. We’d only just done eating when she kicked off. With a huge amount of hair flicking she announced, ‘I’m not doing it. I’m not putting my lousy stepdad and his horrible kids onto a “family tree” and making it look like we’re all one big happy family!’ she fumed.

‘Can’t you just leave them off?’ suggested Chloe.

‘Even if I do – where am I supposed to put my dad?’

‘Aren’t you supposed to put him next to your mum?’ said Elly.

‘I can’t do that!’ Kara wailed. ‘It’ll look like they’re still married – and they’re not, are they?’

‘Why don’t you just add a little note explaining they’re divorced?’ asked Lily.

Kara whipped round furiously. ‘Just add a little note? What, because a little note can explain what it means when your parents get divorced?!’

‘I didn’t mean that!’ Lily went bright red. ‘All I meant was there must be a way of putting a divorce on a family tree. Why don’t you ask other people what they’re going to put? Like Jaz! Her parents are divorced too!’

‘Lily!’ I cried, furiously.

‘Are they?’ asked Chloe.

‘I didn’t know that,’ said Elly.

‘Thanks, Lil!’ I said. ‘Why not tell everybody?’

‘What’s the problem? It’s not a secret,’ she snapped.

‘That doesn’t mean to say I want everyone gossiping about it!’

‘You’re just both making a huge fuss about this!’ she announced.

‘How would you know? We don’t all have your perfect family!’ I snapped back.

Lily looked like I’d slapped her. So then Kara put her arm around her and had a go at me! ‘Don’t be so mean, Jaz!’

‘You started it!’ I cried.

Kara didn’t reply. She was too busy comforting Lily.

Honestly. I don’t know why I’m trying to be nice to Kara. She always ends up doing something like that. She always manages to get between me and Lily.

I walked off.

How did that happen anyway? How did I end up in the wrong when it was Kara who started being mean to Lily in the first place?

Obviously Kara didn’t give me a chance to talk to Lily for the rest of the day, so I started to text her from the school bus.

Lil

I’m really sorry about what I said about your family. I didn’t mean it.

I was just upset because

But then I realised I couldn’t put that last bit because the reason I was upset was that Lily had told everyone about my dad. So if I went on about that then it would just make it worse.

So I deleted the last bit and hit send.

The more I thought about doing the family-tree homework, the more it started to bug me. I’ve always been fine, really, with not having a dad. I don’t even remember him – I was so little when he left. But there are some things that are private, aren’t there? I really didn’t want to put him on it – and I could absolutely see why Kara wanted to leave her stepdad off hers. I wondered if I should ask Mum about it, but I was worried it might upset her – she never talks about my dad.

Then I started feeling angry. What makes my history teacher think she has the right to know stuff about me, and my family? How would she like it if I asked her if she was divorced, or if her ex-husband had got married again? We don’t know anything about our teachers’ private lives – so how come they get to poke their noses into ours?