Chapter 12
Even though I was knackered from the past twenty or so hours, I found it difficult to sleep. I must have woken up five or six times and kept tossing and turning. During the short periods of sleep, I'd dreamed of giant, morphing worms, chasing us over mountains and deserts. And how much I would miss my over-protective, but loving parents. I couldn't bare to think how I would be having to leave them in only a couple of hours. I had no idea if I would even be able to say goodbye without breaking down. Then I thought I'd need an excuse for last night before saying goodbye. I glanced over at the clock. Ten AM. I'd been asleep for about three and a half hours. Suddenly, a loud knock on my door. And an angry female voice.
"Samantha Goddard!"
Ah. Mother. Quick, think of a story!
I sat up in bed and tried to make myself look slightly more presentable, as if I'd been awake for at least an hour and had simply been reading or something. My door swung open. My mother, a formidable woman, wearing the sharpest of suits and owning the sharpest of tongues, stood silhouetted in the doorway.
"Where have you been young lady?" she bellowed. "Your father and I have been absolutely sick with worry!"
"Mum, I- " I tried to get half a word in edgeways. No such luck.
"You disappear yesterday morning – you don't even open your exam results – I mean, what is more important than your exam results!"
Mum rambled on for a few minutes. I had been expecting this and was ready. There's always been a tactic I use with my mother – it's to give her the chance to let off steam as quickly as possible. If you try to avoid her when you know she's angry at you, she just bottles up all the angry and it's even worse when she does finally explode. Better a fuming train immediately than a nuclear bomb next week.
"So, have you managed to think up an excuse for you behaviour yet?"
"I'm sorry, mum." Another tactic – Be humble. Swallow your pride. Apologise ASAP. "I'd gone round to Janet's to meet some of the others from school. We were all going to phone up the school together to hear our results, before the post arrived, and celebrate. Then we went shopping and I stayed the night."
"Why on Earth didn't you phone?"
"Um…I had no signal?" I offered. "My phone was out of range." Got that right. Long, long way out of range.
My mum signed. Hopefully the worst was over.
"So how did you do?"
"Huh?"
"Your results? What did you get? I hope you got at least one A, Samantha, I've been expecting a lot more from you this year…"
"Oh right, err.." Uh oh. I hadn't even looked at my results yet. I had no idea what I'd got. "Um, pretty much what I expected, actually," I said vaguely.
"Did you get an A?"
"Well, I'll have to check, I can't remember all ten off the top of my head."
"But you passed them all?"
Damn. Yes or No. One of my mother's famous direct questions. She's a ruthless business woman, and can see straight through any waffle.
"Absolutely," I said confidently. "Let me go and get them quickly, then you can see for yourself. Where did you put them, by the way?"
"On the coffee table in the sitting room."
I rushed into the sitting room, and grabbed the large brown envelope. My hands were shaking. I couldn't believe how nervous I was – I'd been abducted by aliens and now had to escape to America by turning into animals – and I was worried in case I'd failed my exams! I could feel my mother's eyes burning a hole in the back of my neck as I ripped open the envelope, and pulled out the thick cream paper. I ran my eyes down the page. One A, three Bs, five Cs and a D. Thank god. I'd managed to scrape a D in biology. I really did think I'd failed. Bit disappointing about the string of Cs, especially art, in which I'd been expecting a B.
"There you go." I thrust the results at my mum. "Passed them all, and got an A in History. I can go on to do A Levels." I wasn't going to be doing A Levels now, of course. I wasn't going to be able to go to school ever again. But it pleased my mother. Her frown softened.
"Well I'm a bit annoyed about all these Cs, Samantha. And this D really is appalling. But at least you've got an A in something. And no failures."
I blinked. What a word to use. 'Appalling.' That's how rewarding my mother can be. I wasn't one-hundred percent sure I was going to miss her whilst I was away.
