Lemonade Sky Read Online Free Page A

reluctantly, but at least it stopped her arguing. The one thing we were terrified of was people asking questions. We’d be safe in Tesco cos nobody knew us.
    I put all the money in my purse except for five £1 coins and five 20p pieces. Tizz watched, suspiciously.
    “What are you doing with that lot?”
    I said, “Saving it. I’m going to put this –” I scooped up the 20p pieces – “in here.” I dropped them into the saucer that Mum kept on the windowsill. “They’re in case we need a bit extra. And this –” the five pound coins – “is our emergency fund. I’m going to leave it indoors so we can’t spend it. I’m going to hide it somewhere. Somewhere safe. Like…” I roamed about the kitchen, looking for a hiding place. “In with the flour!”
    There was a half packet of flour in the cupboard, with an elastic band wrapped round it. I pushed the coins in there and put the flour back on the shelf.
    Tizz said, “I bet that’s the first place a burglar would think of looking.”
    I told her that I wasn’t scared of burglars. “I’m scared of it getting lost.”
    “Like it absolutely would,” said Tizz, “if it wasn’t hidden in a bag of flour. I mean, if it was just put in an ordinary purse like any normal person would put it.”
    “I just don’t want us being tempted into spending it,” I said. “We’ve got to have something to fall back on.”
    Tizz said, “Yeah, like living on bread and marge. Yuck! ”
    Sammy said, “Ugh! Yuck! Bluurgh.”
    They both bent over and pretended to be sick.
    “We want chips,” said Tizz. “We want pizza! We want—”
    “Fishy fingers!”
    “Yay!”
    Tizz and Sammy smacked their hands together in a triumphant high five. I was glad that Sammy had cheered up, but I did hope we weren’t going to have scenes in Tesco. I wasn’t sure I could cope with that. It would be just so embarrassing! Everyone would look at us, especially if Sammy worked herself up into one of her states. Just now and again, if she can’t get what she wants, she’ll throw herself on the ground and drum her heels and refuse to get up. Mum is the only one who knows how to deal with her.
    “ I think,” said Tizz, “if you want my opinion, we ought to be allowed to have whatever we want to have. Without you dictating to us!”
    “Just buy nice things,” said Sammy.
    “Yeah! Right. ‘Stead of all that boring muck!” Tizz waved a hand at my list of things we had to have.
    I felt quite cross with her. She wasn’t being at all helpful.
    “Let’s put down some other stuff.” Tizz snatched up the second list and added CRISPS in big capital letters at the bottom of it.
    “Sweeties!” shouted Sammy.
    “SWEETIES,” wrote Tizz.
    She was being deliberately provoking. I almost felt like throwing my purse at her and telling her to get on with it. Let her take the responsibility. But of course she wouldn’t; not when it came to it. She just wanted to challenge my authority. It is very difficult, sometimes, being the oldest, especially when you have a sister who refuses to do what she’s told. And keeps getting the littlest one all worked up. I could see that Sammy was well on the way to having one of her screaming fits.
    “Listen,” I said. I squatted down beside her. Even a five-year-old can be made to see reason. “We’ll try to buy some nice things, I promise you! But nice things are expensive and we can’t afford too many of them, so—”
    That was as far as I got because at that point someone hammered on the front door and we all froze. Well, me and Tizz froze. Sammy hesitated for just a second, then with a joyous cry of, “ Mum !” went galloping off.
    It wasn’t Mum. It was Her Upstairs. Mrs Bagley. Mum calls her ‘that woman’. We call her Her Upstairs. We don’t like her.
    She came pounding into the room with a scared-looking Sammy trailing behind her. She is such a huge great woman that the floor trembles as she walks.
    “Where is your mother?” she said, in