HOLLY
• JAYNE SHARRATT - CHAPTER FIVE OF THIS GREAT KID'S ADVENTURE

Holly might be odd and annoying at times, but Nic found that she did like her,

---

“That is so weird,” said Nic.
“You really scared her, Holly,” said Sam.
“What did you do?” Nic asked.
Holly shook her head. She looked very pale. “I...I didn’t think I’d done anything.”
They looked at Max. He looked shaken too. “She is a bit eccentric, isn’t she? A bit...dramatic,” he said.
Nic looked at her watch. “Half past six,” she said. “We really have to go now.”
“But we haven’t looked for any clues yet,” said Holly.
“We can do that tomorrow if you come back,” said Max.
“Of course we’ll come back,” Nic said. “We could meet on the beach tomorrow morning.”
“No, we’ll meet here.” Holly was firm.
“That might be easier - we could get some food to take with us then. And it would be good to explore the house a bit and see what we can find,” Max said.
“What about your Gran?” Sam asked.
“Well I don’t think she minds, exactly. And she stays around this bit of the house mainly. There must be lots and lots of rooms we can look in, in the other wings. You saw outside how big it is. Maybe we could get up in some of those towers.”
“It’s always the same, though,” said Nic. “All the best, most interesting stuff is in the rooms we can’t go in.”
“If we did find the treasure...whose would it be?” Sam asked.
“I guess it would belong to my gran. It’s her house.”
“Even if we found it? You don’t think she’d buy me a car, do you?”
“What do you want with a car? You’re only eight.”
“Well I’ll need one, one day.”
They were climbing back down the stairs .
“She was her stepmother wasn’t she?”
“What?” Max stared at Holly’s question.
“I mean your gran. She’s not your mother’s mother. Just her step mother,” said Holly.
“How do you know that?”
They were emerging blinking into the sunshine once more. Holly blinked in a confused way.
“I don’t know how I know. I just had a feeling...”
“It’s no wonder you scared her if you can read her mind,” said Nic.
Holly shook her head. “She just seemed the type, that’s all. She looked like she would have been a step-mother, when she was younger. Spoiled. Silly. Like she
doesn’t notice much that goes on.”
“I don’t see how you can tell all that from meeting her once,” said Max. “You’re right, though, I don’t think my mom and gran do get on too well.”
“I’m sorry.” Holly sounded as if she really was sorry. “I shouldn’t have said anything, I just thought it...”
“It’s cool Holl,” Max grinned. “I’ll see you all tomorrow, yeah?”
Nic nodded. “We’ll come to this back door,” she said. “Holly, we really need to go now.”
“Can you find your way back?” Max asked.
Holly said that she could.
“We have to go back the same way,” Sam reminded them. “I left my bike at the bottom of those steps, remember?”
“I’ll take you back to there,” Holly said. “Then I might go and look at the sea...”
“Oh no you don’t,” Nic cut in. “You’re coming home with us. Mum won’t be able to get too mad at us for being late if there’s someone there. Come on, now.”
Nic’s tone of voice stopped anyone from arguing with her. Holly led the way, and they called goodbye to Max before he went back inside. It didn’t take as long as they expected to get back, Holly didn’t take them by such a round about route through the woods this time, and they were soon back at the loose railing which they crawled through wordlessly. All the same it did take some time, and Nic could feel the familiar tightening in her stomach, a feeling she always had when she knew she was going to be in trouble. She only had to look at Sam, clearly exhausted, cut knees and covered in leaf mould and slime to know that. She remembered that she had wanted to upset her parents and make them wonder if moving to the countryside was such a good idea after all. Now she realised it was very important that her parents were not too angry with her and did not realise exactly what they had been doing that day. She had enjoyed herself and she wanted to be able to go back inside Tempest Park to see Max again and go to the beaches. If her Mum and Dad thought it was dangerous, or didn’t approve of Holly she knew she would face another day in the garden being bored and tormented by Sam.
“You must be tired, Sam?” she said.
“What?”
“You’re never normally this quiet, that’s all.”
“No.”
They had reached the bottom of the steps which led down from the meadows. Sam picked his BMX up and began to wheel it very slowly towards home.
“I’ll push it for you if you like,” Nic offered.
Sam stared as she took the bike from him. “Are you feeling OK?”
Nic nodded, smiling sweetly.
“What do you want then?” Sam asked.

“I was just wondering what you were going to tell Mum about today. I don’t think you should tell her where we’ve been . Just say we’ve been on the beach here, and looking in rock pools or something...at least if we say we’ve been on the beach she won’t know which beach, will she?”
“But can’t we tell her about Max? If he lives in the house it can’t be bad to go there, if he lets us, can it? Even if it is private property.”
Nic shook her head. “I just have this feeling we should be careful, that’s all.”
“It can be our secret.” Holly had been silent until now. “Didn’t you say you’d tell your Mum you scraped your knee falling off your bike?”
Sam nodded.
“You could say you fell off on the green, and all these marks are grass stains,” Nic added encouragingly.
“You wouldn’t like to get your sister in trouble for not looking after you properly, would you?”
Normally Sam would like to get his sister into trouble. But when Holly asked he found himself shaking his head and agreeing on a story to tell their Mum.
When they reached Nic and Sam’s new home Holly hesitated.
“I’m not sure I will come in, after all,” she said.
“But why?” Nic asked. “You can phone to let your dad and step mum know where you are.” Even though she had fallen out with Holly earlier, Nic really did want Holly to stay longer, and not just because she knew Holly could stop Sam getting her into trouble. Holly might be odd and annoying at times, but Nic found that she did like her, and she liked her brother better when she was with her, too.
Mrs. Reynolds was stood on the doorstep with her arms folded.
“Where have you been?” she asked. Then she saw Sam. “What happened?” she asked slowly.
“I fell off my bike...”
“You look like you’ve been pulled through a hedge backwards,” she said. Sam, Holly and Nic stopped themselves from laughing.
“Well, you’d better come inside and have a bath - before you do anything else.”
They followed her inside. “I was worried about you when you were late Nicola. You should ring me if you’re going to be late.”
“We just forgot the time, Mum. Anyway, I forgot my telephone...”
“Well you shouldn’t forget it...it’s dangerous to be wandering about the countryside without any way to get help...where were you anyway?”
“Only on the beach...Mum, this is Holly.”
Mrs Reynolds seemed to notice Holly for the first time. “Hello Holly. Well I suppose there’s plenty of food for everyone - it’s salad and pasta. Do come in, come in...leave your shoes by the front door though. Sam! Where are your trainers?”
“I’ve got one of them,” Sam said. “The other it...it floated out to sea.”

“Do you think your father and I are made of money?” Mrs Reynolds was not as angry as Nic had expected her to be. She had had a successful afternoon filling out application forms, and now she couldn’t really be bothered to have a huge scene with her children. She was relieved they had been so well occupied all afternoon. “Go and say hello to your father, Nicola. Take Holly with you. Sam, come upstairs with me...we’ll find something to put on your knee for now.”
Mr Reynolds was beginning to help himself to the food that had been laid out on the dining room table.
“So you’re the famous Holly? Sam was telling me all about you last night.” Mr Reynolds smiled at Holly. He was definitely less stressed than his wife.
“Hello, Mr Reynolds,” Holly gave him one of her best smiles.
“So, what adventures have you been up to today, Nicola?”
“What?”
“Not been causing any trouble in the village have you?”
Nic shook her head. “We were on the beach. We looked for shrimps and..er, things, in the rock pools.”
“Well you must have built up an appetite, anyway. Help yourselves to food both of you..wash your hands first...So Sam fell off his bike then?”
“Yes. It wasn’t my fault.”
“I didn’t say it was. You can’t look after him all the time, can you? Can’t stop him riding that bike like there’s no tomorrow. Aren’t you hungry, Holly?”
Holly had been hanging back while Nic piled her plate high. She shook her head.
“You can’t stand on ceremony in this house, you know, or you won’t get anything. Nicola and Sam are like human dustbins...”
“Dad!”
Mr Reynolds handed Holly a plate, and put some salad and pasta on it for her. He then poured both girls a drink of orange juice. After a while Sam and Mrs. Reynolds reappeared and also helped themselves to what was left of the food.
“Do you live in the village, Holly?” Mrs Reynolds asked.
“My dad and my step mum live near here, in a converted farmhouse,” Holly said.
“Oh, how lovely.”
“They can’t really afford it. They can’t afford the mortgage repayments.”
“Oh.”
Mr Reynolds changed the subject. “I hear your step mother’s a model, Holly?”
Mrs Reynolds glared at him. “That must be very interesting,” she said.
Holly shifted uncomfortably. “I’m really sorry, I really have to go now. It’s nice to meet you...I have to go, bye Sam..Nic..” She made a bolt for the door.
“I’m going out too, see I’ve finished,” Nic told her Dad. “It’ll be light for ages yet. You didn’t need to keep asking questions...you’re so embarrassing.” She followed Holly.

“Well you’re staying here, anyway, Sam. You’re quite shattered. I think you need an early night.”
For once Sam did not argue. He really did feel too tired to go anywhere.
“You know she hasn’t touched her food.”
“Sorry, dear?”
“Holly, she didn’t eat her food, or touch her drink,” Mr Reynolds repeated.
“Such an odd child. Really quite rude,” Mrs. Reynolds felt quite annoyed. “Did you see how scruffy she was? And fancy saying that about her parents mortgage.”
“Maybe she was nervous of us,” her husband suggested.
“She didn’t seem nervous yesterday when she was sat on the garden wall, playing with Sam's football. You know I’m not at all sure she’s a good person for the children to be playing with after all.”
“She is! It’s not her fault they’re poor and...and her mums dead...and I don’t think she likes her step-mum very much...She’s nice!” Sam was indignant.
“I’m sure she is.” His Dad seemed to think something funny.
“Well,” Mrs Reynolds said, picking up plates and carrying them into the kitchen noisily.
Outside, Nic couldn’t see Holly anywhere. She walked up the lane a little, in the direction she thought Holly’s home must be. The lane didn’t wind too much at that point and Nic felt sure she should be able to see Holly, but she couldn’t.
“Holly?” she called, uncertainly. There was no answer. ‘If she was on her way home, I’d see her further up the road,’ Nic thought. ‘She must be around here somewhere, hiding.’ She decided to wait a while, as she didn’t want to go back inside yet.
A moment later she had to move quickly to the bank at the side of the road, when she heard a loud revving, the unmistakable sound of a car approaching at speed up the hill from the village. It was a red sports car with an open roof. Nic had time to see a flash of blonde hair and lipstick belonging to a woman, and a laughing dark-haired man in the drivers seat, before it passed her. She watched it enviously as it disappeared around the corner in the distance, wishing she could be glamourous and whisked away like that.
“Beautiful, isn’t she?”
Nic whisked around when she heard the voice behind her. It was Holly, stood in the middle of the road, also watching the car disappear, with a funny look on her face.
“Where were you?” Nic demanded. “Were you hiding?”
Holly shrugged. “Not really. I didn’t want them to see me, that’s all.”
“Who? Why? Who was that in the car?”
“Claudia.”
“That was your step-mum? Really?”

Holly nodded.
“And was that your Dad with her? Was that your car?”
“No. That wasn’t my Dad. I don’t know who that was.”
“Oh,” Nic felt as if she was seeing Holly in a new light. She hadn’t thought much about Holly’s family or home being glamourous, probably because Holly was so unglamorous herself. But suddenly she thought she really would like to meet them.
“Why don’t we go back to your house, Holly?” Nic asked. “You can show me where you live - I’d like to see it. Mum and Dad won’t mind. It can’t be far away, and I’d be back before dark.”
Holly shook her head vigorously. “No!” she said.
Nic was surprised. “Why not?”
“I just don’t want you to go there,” Holly said. “You wouldn’t like it, it’s boring.”
“I’m sure it’s not. I’d love to see your baby brother.”
“Why? Why does everyone always want to see him?”
“I..I don’t know. Because he’s a baby?”
“He’s two years old, people should stop fussing him. Anyway, he’ll be asleep by now. And my Dad doesn’t like being disturbed, and Claudia, you wouldn’t like Claudia..”
“How do you know?”
“Because I don’t like Claudia!”
Nic was about to say something else, but the look in Holly’s eyes stopped her.
“I’m going. I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” Holly said and turned to go.
Nic turned away. The look in Holly’s eyes had been half scared and half very sad. Nic remembered the same look in the blue eyes of Max’s gran when she looked at Holly. Despite the warmth of the summer evening she shivered. She felt worried by something, but she couldn’t quite think what it was.

© Jayne Sharratt 2001
email: jayneasharratt@hotmail.com

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTERS ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE

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