When You Wish upon a Rat (10 page)

“That necklace is cool.” Lou reached out to touch the tiny
beads of the lovely black stone necklace that Mary Ellen had left Ruth. Lou's eyes narrowed. “Where did you get it?”

“Picked it up at the market.” Ruth tried to sound careless.

“Now, who is going to have Coke?” Mrs. Craze was behind the kitchen bench getting out glasses.

Ruth went to help her mother, pretending this was normal. They never had bottles of soft drinks sitting around in the fridge normally, so her mother must have gone out especially.

“Now, I hope you girls have a nice time at the mall. I have to go to work for a few hours,” Mrs. Craze said, looking at the clock as she set a couple of bowls of crackers on the table, “but I'll see you all back here after you've been shopping.”

“Bye, Mrs. Craze,” they all caroled politely.

Ruth noticed the amused way Lou took in her mother's stout figure in her worn jeans and plain shirt as she walked out.

“Work must be relaxed,” she muttered, one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, it is,” Ruth said, flushing even more furiously. “She doesn't have to dress up. So … you want a drink first?”

“Sure.”

Ruth poured the drinks and they all sat down at the table without speaking. She had a feeling that something wasn't right but couldn't work out what exactly.

Eventually, Lou took a deep breath and fixed Ruth with one of her haughty stares. “Why didn't you tell us?”

“Tell you
what
?”

“That you were so upset about your aunt.”

The others murmured in agreement. They'd obviously had
a discussion.

“I mean, we knew she'd died and everything, but we thought she was just some old relative. We didn't know that you and her were totally …
close.
”

“Why didn't you tell us you were so …
upset?
” Bonnie sniffed.
When in doubt, always use the same words as Lou.
“Why keep it to yourself?”

“I didn't think you'd be interested,” Ruth mumbled. Imagining her mother blabbing on to everyone about how her daughter was missing Mary Ellen so much made Ruth just want to curl up and die.

“Not interested?” Lou laughed. “But we're your friends!”

“I know, but … I didn't want to carry on about it.”

“You've got to be joking!” Lou had on her deeply offended face. “You
know
I'm going to be a psychologist!”

Ruth tried to look apologetic. In fact, she hadn't known that. Last she knew Lou was going to be a pilot, and before that a vet. From second to fifth grade she had been going to be a top fashion model, but that got sidelined when she didn't grow as tall as everyone else. Needless to say, Bonnie and Katy and Susie were looking on seriously, nodding and frowning, agreeing that Ruth had committed yet another incredible blunder.

“Well, sorry,” Ruth said. “I just didn't think.”

“Anyway, now we know,” Lou said magnanimously. “We're your friends and we're here to help.”

“Thanks. It's great of you all to come.”

They all smiled at this.

“We want to cheer you up.”

“Absolutely,” Bonnie mumbled.

“So what now?” Lou said, looking around. “Shall we go check out the shops?”

“That would be awesome,” Susie answered for them all.

It
was
exciting at first. The mall was very crowded, full of all kinds of people: gangs of teenage boys, families with little kids, street performers, businesspeople, and ordinary shoppers, girls like themselves on the prowl. Although it was only a quick tram ride from the Craze house, Ruth had hardly ever been there, mainly because she'd never had any money to spend. There was so much to check out, and it was exciting to feel the gift certificate in her pocket. She followed her friends around, staring at everything, not really listening too closely as they laughed and chattered and pointed things out to one another.

Finally, they came to the store that Mary Ellen had picked out. Lou threw an arm around Ruth's neck and pointed at the big bright letters. Ruth stared in at the shining black-and-gray counters and strategically placed spotlights illuminating the racks of clothes. No way in the world would she have ever dared
to enter this place on her own, but with her willing bevy of friends, why not?

“Cool, huh?” Lou shouted over the loud, pumping music.

“Yeah.” Ruth smiled tentatively. “Cool.”

Once inside, Lou, Bonnie, Susie, and Katy split up and prowled about like experts, leaving Ruth floundering, not knowing where to start. Her friends called out loudly to one another, giggling and picking stuff out for praise or ridicule.

“Can I help you girls?” The young sales assistant was watching them warily.

“Not yet, thanks,” Lou called back breezily.

“Hey, Ruth, you like this? What size are you? Is this the kind of thing you're after?”

Ruth nodded uneasily. She felt foolish that she had no clear idea what she was looking for or how to find it.

Within minutes, they were all heading toward her with armfuls of clothes and shoes and pointing her toward the dressing room.

“Here you go.”

“This goes with that,” Katy said, holding out a pair of bright red cutoffs and a tiny striped, frilly top. “And here are the shoes.”

Ruth could see immediately that the things they were choosing were all wrong. Nice things, but not her style. They were trying to make her look like them! But she took the first pile of clothes and disappeared behind the curtain.
Relax,
she
told herself. Her friends were helping her choose her new wardrobe, that was all. Maybe she did need to loosen up a bit about what she thought was right for her.

Ruth looked at herself in the mirror and tried to get the glum expression off her face.

The first outfit she tried on was a long black T-shirt dress with a red belt. The other girls insisted that it went with shiny, flecked tights that Ruth didn't much like, but she hardly dared to say so because when she came out of the dressing room they were all so admiring. Bonnie brought over a little pink jacket, to go over the top, and Lou started pinning Ruth's hair back with some iridescent clips she'd found. Bonnie ran back for a different pair of shoes.

“You like it?” Katy wanted to know.

“I guess so,” Ruth said uncomfortably. She looked fashionable, she supposed, and that was the point …

…
wasn't it?
The trouble was that she could hear Mary Ellen's voice in her head. She tried to push it away, but it kept butting in.
You have a natural inclination toward an interesting, arty look, so go with that, Ruthie. You have taste, so use it.

“It's great,” Lou declared. “You're so lucky to be tall. You look at least fifteen!”

And so it went on. By the time Ruth was on to her tenth outfit, the changing cubicle was beginning to feel like a prison, cramped and claustrophobic and hot. She hated seeing all sides
of herself under such harsh light. Her thighs were too white and her undies were worn and grubby. Her face stared back at her, so serious and dour.
I'm ugly,
she thought.
I'm too skinny and my ears are too big.
“Thanks, but I've tried on enough,” she shouted when Katy pushed yet more clothes through to her.

“Please, I don't want to do this anymore.”

The excited chatter subsided into a sudden hushed silence.

“Are you okay in there?” Lou's voice was sharp.

“Yeah.” But Ruth didn't feel okay at all. She felt as if she was going to be sick. “But I think I might have drunk too much Coke or something,” she mumbled feebly.

“One last top!” Bonnie pleaded. “You gotta try this!”

A weird kind of anger surfaced inside Ruth, and before she could caution herself, the words jumped from her mouth.

“No!” she snapped. “I've had enough.”

“Oh, come on, you'll love it.”

“No!”

“But why?”

“I've had enough!” Ruth shouted.

Trembling slightly, she climbed back into her own clothes and opened the door. The four of them were standing there waiting. They stared at her in unforgiving silence.

“What is
up?
”

“Nothing.” Ruth was wretched with confusion.

Lou rolled her eyes and sighed. “We're only trying to help!”

“I know.”

“You have all this money and—”

“I know!” Ruth hardly dared speak. “But I …”

“Do you want to shop on your own?”

“No.”

“We thought you
wanted
to do this!”

“We thought it would be fun!” Bonnie wailed.

“I know …”

“Do you want to do this with your
mother?
” Lou asked.

“No!”

“So what's the problem?” she demanded.

“No problem.”

The clothes were wrapped and bagged in heavy silence. Ruth picked up her bags and followed the others out of the shop. None of them looked at her. Something had gone badly awry and it was her fault. No one spoke as they all made their way out through the busy shopping mall. Panic began to gnaw away in her chest. Had she wrecked it all? Undone all the good stuff? She knew the rules. Of course she did. Rule number one was that she must
join in
even when it was something she didn't like. And rule number two was that Lou decided what was cool and what wasn't.
Why couldn't she learn? Why did she always mess things up?

Lou was walking on ahead in a huff, eyes forward, shoulders back, and head held high. Katy, Susie, and Bonnie tried to keep
up with her on either side and Ruth was left trundling along behind, carrying all her bags. She could see that the other girls were waiting for Lou to give them a clue about what would happen next. Were they to stay mad at Ruth or not? But Lou continued the haughty silence and gave nothing away.

At last they were outside in the fresh air again.

“Why do you talk to that weirdo?” Bonnie suddenly asked Ruth.

The question caught Ruth off guard. In spite of the hot day a shiver of cold slid down her spine. She knew whom Bonnie meant, but more importantly she knew why she was being asked the question. Bringing up Howard was Bonnie's way of making things worse. Making sure Ruth stayed on the outs with Lou would give Bonnie the best chance of sliding back into the position of Lou's
best friend.

“What weirdo?” Ruth asked, to give herself time.

“Howard Pope,” Bonnie replied sharply.

They were all waiting for Ruth to speak. She knew in her bones she was meant to say something mean about Howard and deny their tentative friendship. Of course the girls had noticed when she hadn't bothered to find them at lunchtime and instead had hung out with Howard under his tree. The place he always went to at break times.
The weirdo!
This was her chance to get herself off the hook and back into their good books. But something in her couldn't say it.

She was filled with a fleeting but strong memory of standing with Howard under that tree away from all the other kids. She could almost see his coarse hair and the bright sunlight flickering into his clear eyes. Only the week before she'd noticed fresh bruises on his bare legs and had wanted to ask how they got there, but it had seemed too personal.

“What exactly is up with you two?” Bonnie said, feigning concern.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you
talk
to him.”

Ruth was suddenly desperate. She felt like she was drowning, struggling to get to the surface to breathe. What had possessed her mother to organize this terrible afternoon? Why not chuck the bags and make a run for it? Anything to get away!

“We've seen you near the water fountain.” Katy giggled.

“And the tree.” Bonnie flashed a glance at Lou to see how she was taking this turn in the conversation. “It looked like you were discussing something
really
important,” she added in her sweet, innocent voice. “Do you
like
him or something?”

“Why do you even bother to talk to him?” Lou asked.

They'd stopped at the light, waiting to cross the main road. Heavy traffic thundered past only a meter away. Ruth found herself wondering what it would be like to just step out into it and see what happened. She imagined the screeching brakes and burned rubber, the mayhem, the chaos, and the drama of
the ambulance ride to the hospital. At least she'd be away from this.

“Since when is it wrong to talk to someone?” she snapped.

They all stiffened. Nobody
but nobody
ever spoke to Lou like that!

“He stole my things, Ruth,” Lou said. “Did he ever say
why
?”

Ruth almost wilted under that cool, appraising stare, but then the same picture of Howard standing under the tree slid behind her eyes and it seemed to hold her together.

“No,” she said calmly, hoping none of them could see how tense she was.

“Did you ever ask?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Bonnie cut in excitedly.

“I just didn't.”

“But Lou is your
best
friend!”

“Why don't you shut up, Bonnie,” Ruth said furiously.

“
What?
” Bonnie's face turned bright pink.

“You heard me. Just
shut up!
” Ruth repeated loudly. “You're so
boring.
” She turned back to Lou, who was staring at her. “At least Howard isn't boring!”

Bonnie burst into a sudden flood of loud, dramatic tears.

All part of the strategy,
Ruth thought, watching her coldly.
She knows exactly what she's doing.

Katy and Susie moved in protectively on either side of
Bonnie. All three of them stared accusingly at Ruth, as though she'd turned into some kind of monster. But Lou didn't move.