A MILLION ANGELS Read Online Free

A MILLION ANGELS
Book: A MILLION ANGELS Read Online Free
Author: Kate Maryon
Pages:
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breakfast, Mum starts getting ready for the car boot sale.
    â€œYou go with Milo,” I say, “and leave me here with Granny. I hate hanging out with Jess.”
    Mum gives me her beady eye that means, ‘Please do as you’re told, Jemima, because I am not so full of patience.’ But I ignore it. I do not want to do as I’m told. I do not want to go to the car boot sale!
    â€œDon’t start, Mima,” she says. “Not today.”
    I have a beady eye too, but I wait until her back is turned before I give it to her.
    Milo clings on to my leg.
    â€œPlease come, Mima,” he says. “Please come! Please come! Please come!”
    He hangs off me like I’m a tree and twists the skin on my leg.
    â€œMima! Mima! Mima!” he chants like I’m a football match that needs cheering on.
    â€œOuch, Milo,” I say. “You’re hurting me!”
    â€œI said, don’t start, Mima!” says Mum. “Today is hard enough for us all without you making things worse.”
    When she turns her back I poke out my tongue. I wish I could stand up and say, YOU’RE THE ONE WHO IS UNHINGED, MUM. But I don’t. The things I really want to say always get choked up in my throat until I’m forced to swallow them down. It’s the same with Jess. She says worrying stuff that frightens me, she gossips with her mum and tells me stuff my ears don’t want to hear. So many times I want to say, SHUT UP, JESS! But as hard as I try I just can’t.
    I hope one day my voice will unblock itself like a drain and I’ll be able to speak up so clearly, like LALALALAALLLAAAA! Then everyone will hear everything that’s all blocked up inside.
    Â 
    It’s heaving at the car boot sale. Everyone shoves and pushes in search of pathetic old treasures and silly magical gems. Milo has a pound burning in his fist. He rummages through buckets and baskets of wrecked toy cars looking for trucks and tanks.
    â€œLook, Mima,” he says, holding up a rusty old tank. “Isn’t it great? D’you think Dad drives one like this?”
    Jess bounces around like a spaniel looking for strokes. She tries to act cool and flirts her fringe when we pass a stall with boys selling a few broken old skateboards. Jess is as pathetic as the car boot sale. I wish we could put her on a stall and sell her, but I’d feel sorry for the poor family who ended up buying her. They’d be really disappointed, even if they only paid fifty pence for her.
    I wouldn’t buy her for a penny. I wouldn’t even want Jess for free, even if she was going to be my slave.
    I look at my watch. I wish I was at home. Thinking.
    â€œCalm down, Jess,” says Georgie. “Oooh… Mima, what do you think of Jess’s new jacket? We got it yesterday. Isn’t it just so pink!”
    â€œErm…” I say, bending down to tie the lace on one of my big black boots. “Yes, Georgie, it’s definitely pink.”
    â€œI think it’s gorgeous,” says Mum. “You should trysomething like this, Mima. You know… a bit pretty. Get yourself out of those boots for a change. Look,” she says, shoving a ten-pound note in each of our hands, “why don’t you girls go off together and see what you can find?”
    I glare at Mum. I don’t want to be left with Jess. And she knows that! I’d rather look after Milo. I’d rather wander around alone.
    I flash my eyes at Mum, trying to say, DON’T LEAVE ME WITH JESS. But she ignores me and shoos us both away. I bet her and Georgie want to talk about our dads. In private!
    Jess slides over to the skateboard boys.
    â€œHi,” she says, twiddling with her fringe. She picks up a cruddy old board. “How much for this?”
    â€œA fiver,” says one of the boys.
    Jess flashes her eyes at them.
    â€œThat’s a rip-off,” she says, pulling me away. “We had a huge sigh of relief this morning
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