Sample Chapter
It was the weekend, and it was sunny, and I was waiting. I was waiting for Dianna. I seem to spend most of my life waiting for Dianna. The girl is never on time. Every day she spends two hours in the bathroom, not counting the time it takes her to check every curl on her head. When she’s done all these things, she never really looks any different. She says the secret is in how you feel, not how you look!
The longer I waited, the madder I got. If Dianna had any sense at all, which she doesn’t, she wouldn’t turn up now. When I’m mad, I’m mad. So when she does arrive, we’ll probably have a fight; and then she’ll run off and sulk, and the day will be even more spoiled.
We were supposed to be going swimming; and if I’d been thinking clearly, I would have arranged to meet her at the pool, and then I wouldn’t be stuck in my backyard, getting mad. I checked my watch for the hundredth time and got even madder!
“You’re blocking the sun,” cried a very mean voice.
I turned and looked at my sister, Mona, who was sitting behind me.
“How can I block your sun if you’ve got a cloth over your face?” I asked.
“I’m tanning my legs, not my face,” she said, lifting the cloth and squinting at me. “I might spoil my skin if I get too much sun.”
“You can’t spoil that skin, Mona,” I said. She grunted.
But just then, there was Di rushing across the grass and looking very excited. From the look on her face I guessed she was bursting to tell me something. Well, let her burst! I wasn’t going to show any interest in anything she had to say. That would show her.
She always has to be first with the gossip. She’s not always right, either. Oh, I know she was right about Miss Spencer dating Mr Burton, but she keeps going on about it as though that made her an expert or something.
I watched her coming closer, and she waved. She obviously didn’t know I was mad!
Dianna Wilson and I are both in Miss Spencer’s fifth grade class at Merrywood school, together with Heather Ames and Leslie Green; and we have all been best friends since kindergarten. In fact, Dianna is the best friend I have in the world; but sometimes I wonder why!
My name is Mercy Meadows, and I live with my parents and my awful older sister, Mona, in a small town called Riverview, which nobody else has ever heard of. It’s very small but my mom says it’s big enough for us so we’ll probably stay here forever! Actually, I like Riverview; it suits me. I know everyone’s business, and I enjoy that. I can keep tabs on whatever Mona’s doing if I want to, and that’s important. If we didn’t have Mona to talk about and annoy, my friends and I would be quite bored sometimes. We have a Kwik Burger, a movie theatre, a bowling alley and lots of country to explore; so all in all our days are pretty full. Best of all, I have my friends, although I didn’t feel very kindly towards Dianna at the moment.
By this time she had reached me, but I didn’t give her a chance to say anything.
As she opened her mouth to speak, I said “Where have you been? You were supposed to meet me over an hour ago so that we could go swimming. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?”
She closed her mouth and looked at me. I could see she was trying to decide whether or not to tell me her news. But I knew she’d have to. She can’t keep anything inside her. If it’s in her head, it’s coming out of her lips. She just can’t help it.
“I won’t let you annoy me, Mercy Meadows, because I’m just too excited, and you’re not going to spoil it for me.” She tossed her curls around and sat down next to me on the grass.
Her eyes sparkled, and she leaned close to me. “Guess what?” she said.
I stared at her. “Guess what!,” I spluttered. “I don’t want to guess anything. If you’ve got anything to tell me, you’d better spill now. And it had better be good, I can tell you.”
I knew she wasn’t going to be able to hold it in any longer, and I was right. She took a deep breath. “There’s a new girl on my block, and I think she’s going to be going to our school. Isn’t that great?”
Personally I didn’t see what was so great about it. I don’t need another friend, and certainly not anyone Dianna’s so interested in.
I wondered what was so different about this girl. I hadn’t seen Dianna so excited for a long time. Not since she’d sent her school photo into a Modelling Agency and waited to be discovered in the “Hair of the Century” competition. I should add here that Dianna is very vain about her hair, and she was crushed when she never heard from the Agency again. I told her she wouldn’t, but she didn’t listen to me, of course.
I couldn’t imagine anyone sending a school photo anywhere. My parents don’t even like to send mine to my grandparents, and they’re supposed to love me! But Dianna never learns.
“So what?” I said. “Has she got two heads or something?”
“You’re so jealous, Mercy,” she sniffed. “This girl happens to be very nice, and she’s travelled.”
She looked at me expectantly.
“Where’s she been? To the moon?” I sniffed back. “I’ve travelled as well. I’ve been to Calgary three times.”
“Calgary!” she cried. “That’s next door. That’s not travelling.”
“That’s just because you’ve never been there,” I said. I glared at her. Boy, she really knows how to get me mad!
“Well, this girl has spent most of her life somewhere in Arabia, and she’s been all over the world on her vacations. Now they’re back here to stay, and they’ve inherited the mansion. Can you imagine living there? It’s so big, and it’s got a pool.”
Now I could see why she was excited. The mansion had been empty for about a year ever since the owner had died. It was a great big house in a huge yard. We’d seen people working on it all summer, and my parents had expected it to be made into apartments. Now it looked like one family had bought it. They must really be rich. No wonder Dianna was so impressed. She loves rich people.
I didn’t care who this girl was. I already didn’t like her. She probably wasn’t a bit nice. Mind you, if she’s rich, she doesn’t have to be nice. There are lots of girls around like Dianna.
“How do you know she’s going to go to our school?” I asked her. “If they have that much money, she can afford to go to a private school. Why would a stuck-up rich kid, who’s seen the world, want to go to our school?”
Dianna turned red and looked at her feet. “Well you see that’s why I’m late. I went to Abby’s house, and she wanted to come swimming with us. The only problem was that she couldn’t come until now. So I said I’d wait for her. I knew you wouldn’t mind. Anyway, her mom is going to bring her here; and we can go to the pool in her car. It’s a Jaguar.”
I stared at her. “You left me here waiting for over an hour, just because Little Miss Arabia wasn’t ready? Me, your best friend! You don’t even know her properly, and you’re already putting her in front of me. Anyway, who cares if she has a Jaguar car? I was going to go to the pool on my bike. I don’t need a lift from your new friends.”
I got up and stood over her, glaring. I really wanted to put my hands in her hair and pull all her curls straight. And I might have done it if Mom hadn’t heard the fuss and joined us in the yard.
“Whatever is wrong with you two? I could hear you all the way in the tv room.”
“It’s not fair, Mom. You know that Dianna and I were supposed to be going to the pool together an hour ago. Well, she found a new friend and decided that I didn’t matter. So she left me waiting here wondering where she was. That’s not being much of a friend, is it?”
“Whatever Dianna did, I’m sure she had a reason for it, Mercy,” said Mom, looking at Dianna. “You two shouldn’t be fighting like this. It isn’t worth it.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Meadows,” said Dianna. “I didn’t mean to hurt Mercy, but I thought it would be nice to make the new girl feel welcome. It must be awful to be new in the neighborhood and not know anyone. I was only trying to be kind, and I didn’t realize how late it was.”
“I think that’s a very nice thing to do, Dianna. Mercy, you should be proud that Dianna wants her new friend to meet you. It’s never nice to be new in a place. Who is this girl?”
I could see Dianna getting excited all over again. “Oh, you’d really like her, Mrs. Meadows. She’s called Abby Prince, and her family just bought the mansion at the corner of our block. Her dad’s been working for an Oil Company somewhere in Arabia, and they’ve been living there for years.”
I noticed she didn’t mention the fact that they had lots of money this time. Mom doesn’t appreciate remarks like that. She doesn’t think money’s important.
“Well, how interesting!” said Mom. “You’ll have lots to talk about when you get to know each other better.”
Just then a car stopped outside our yard, and a lady and a girl of my age got out.
“Here they are!” breathed Dianna. “Perhaps you’d like to meet them, Mrs. Meadows.”
“I’d be delighted, Dianna,” said Mom. She walked towards the gate.
I followed, feeling even madder. I didn’t want to meet them, but what could I do?