I was looking forward to Mum getting home from work on Monday night so that I could talk to her about Lauren. But, as usual, my house was complete madness until we’d all got in from school and sorted out tea. So I waited until after we’d eaten and I’d reminded Chloe it was her turn to supervise Lucy doing the washing-up.

‘I don’t need supervising,’ Lucy complained. ‘I’m already super.’

‘Fine,’ Chloe said, opening her wrestling magazine. ‘I won’t supervise you; I’ll just watch you to make sure you do it right.’

‘I don’t need that either!’

Leaving them to it, I went to find Mum. She was standing in front of her wardrobe staring at the contents.

‘Do you think these blouses make me look old?’ she asked.

‘You are old,’ I answered.

Mum laughed. ‘I know I seem ancient to you, but in the grand scheme of things forty is actually—’

‘Very old.’

Mum shook her head. ‘But do you think I should get some new outfits?’

I nearly said I didn’t think it mattered because I didn’t imagine anyone would notice, but it seemed like Mum was a bit bothered by her clothes all of a sudden, so I said, ‘Yes, why don’t you go shopping and get something that you really like?’

‘Something youthful?’

‘Why do you care about how wrinkly you look anyway? You’re always telling us that it’s what’s inside that counts.’

Mum sat down on the bed. ‘That’s true. It’s not that I really want to look young; it’s more that I’ve realised that I haven’t given much thought to my image for a long time. Most of these things I bought when I went back to work after Ella was born and that was over a decade ago.’

‘Then you should get some new stuff. Is it to wear to work?’

‘Maybe. I thought it’d be nice to have some casual things to wear out as well.’

‘Out?’

‘Mmm, you know, at the weekend or to my book club.’

Now I got it. Mum wanted some new clothes to impress her new friends at book club. ‘You should definitely go shopping,’ I said.

Mum nodded. ‘Perhaps I will.’

It seemed to me that she was thinking about something other than just clothes, but before I could ask she said, ‘Now what can I do for you? You look like you’ve got something on your mind.’

So I told her about Lauren.

‘Oh dear,’ she said when I’d finished. ‘Poor Lauren. It’s so hard to be struggling with your health.’

I thought that made Lauren sound like a pensioner who can’t walk without one of those frames and wheezes every time they stand up. ‘It’s not that bad,’ I said. ‘Sometimes she’s completely fine. And the doctors are doing tests on her so they can find out exactly what it is.’

‘That’s good. Just remember she might not be able to manage to do everything she did before. You’ll have to be patient with her.’

‘Of course I’ll be patient with her!’

Mum patted my arm. ‘I’m sure you will, sweetheart. I’m just saying that things might be a bit different from before.’

Personally, I thought that things could only be better than they’d been for the last couple of months because at least now I knew what was going on. If Lauren needed a rest or for me to carry her bag then she could actually tell me, and we wouldn’t fall out because she was trying to hide how tired she felt and being weird. But I didn’t get to say this to Mum because Chloe bellowed up the stairs, ‘MUUUUUUUUUUM!’

‘What is it?’ Mum called back in a normal voice, which is actually all it takes to be heard between upstairs and downstairs.

‘There’s a man on the phone who wants to interview me about that letter Suvi helped me write to the paper about what pigs they’re being at the rugby club, but he says he has to talk to you first in case he’s dodgy and a kidnapper. I told him that I could tell he wasn’t a kidnapper because a kidnapper wouldn’t say he wanted to talk to you, but he says he still has to talk to you and you have to be there when he interviews me, but it can be all my words. But he says they probably won’t call the rugby club pigs. Can you come down?’

‘Coming!’ Mum called, rolling her eyes. She stood up and smiled at me. ‘You girls are always up to something! Give Lauren my love and remember we can talk about this again later if you like.’

The journalist came round the next day after school. Mum got home as soon as school finished so that she could be there with Chloe.

I made sure that I opened the door to him.

‘Jonathan Wellbeck, from The Echo,’ he said. ‘I’m here to interview Chloe.’

‘There’s not much chance that you’ll want to kidnap her,’ I said, stepping back to let him in. ‘And, even if you did, you wouldn’t be able to lift her.’

He gave a weak smile.

‘Have you brought anyone to look after you?’ I asked.

‘Just me!’ He laughed nervously.

‘Well, if she offers to show you any wrestling moves, just say no. And check your watch is still on your wrist before you leave.’

I had planned to say a few more things to him. When you’re trying to cut back on making smart remarks to your family, you have to get your fun somewhere, but the doorbell rang again, so I showed him into the kitchen where Mum and Chloe were waiting and went back to the door.

It was Ella. She’d stayed behind at school for some super-boring tutor captain thing. ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Is he here?’

‘Just arrived. They’re doing the interview in the kitchen.’

‘Oh,’ Ella said in a whisper, as if us chatting in the hallway might disturb them. ‘Do you think he’ll print what Chloe wants him to?’

‘He will if he knows what’s good for him.’

Ella hung up her coat and scarf. ‘Amelia, can I ask you something?’

‘OK.’

‘Crystal asked me to go to her house again.’

‘So?’

‘Do you think I should go?’

‘Do you want to?’

Ella sat down on the bottom step of the stairs. ‘I do because Crystal is fun, but I don’t want to watch her be rude to her mum.’

‘Ohhhhh, that. It was probably a one-off. What do Ashandra and Kayleigh think of this girl?’

‘They like her. Kayleigh thinks I’m really lucky to get invited over. She says Crystal’s house is like a footballer’s place. There’s the cinema and she’s got a games room with table football and her bedroom is all matching pale blue and in their sitting room there’s a ginormous white fluffy rug.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘Can you imagine a white fluffy rug in this house?’

Ella looked at me and we both laughed. Five minutes of being stroked by Lucy’s grubby hands and being trodden on by Chloe’s muddy trainers and any white rug would not be white any longer.

Ella stopped laughing. ‘But I shouldn’t really be thinking about her house, should I? I’m supposed to be pleased about seeing Crystal, not her table-football game.’

‘You like Crystal, don’t you?’

‘Yes, she’s really nice to me; she’s helped me and Kayleigh loads with hockey.’

‘Then it’s fine. You’re not supposed to like people just because they’ve got a big house but if you like someone first, and it turns out that they’ve got a cool house, then that’s just lucky. As long as you don’t stop liking her if she has to move into a shed.’

‘I wouldn’t.’

‘Then enjoy your table football.’