A Desirable Residence - By Madeleine Wickham Page 0,51

round to see Ginny and Piers and Duncan quite a lot, she hadn’t really ever spent any time with Piers. He unnerved her slightly; his voice was so loud, and sometimes she wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not.

Ginny and Duncan were much easier to get along with. They always seemed pleased to see her, and made her cups of tea, and asked what had happened at school. Which was, in a way, Alice admitted to herself, just what her parents did—but with them it was completely different. When she told Ginny and Duncan about things, it all suddenly seemed far more interesting than before. Duncan always listened really intently, and made loud exclamations all the time, and called it the Unfolding Saga of St Catherine’s. And Ginny always knew what she meant and understood why things were important, not like her mother, who always said things like, But if you’ve got a free period, why can’t you spend it getting some of your homework done?

Sometimes Ginny would tell her to come upstairs, and show her some clothes she’d bought, or some perfume, or make-up. Once, she’d made Alice up to look really glamorous, and another time she’d actually given her a brown jumper which she said she couldn’t wear and would look stunning on Alice. Sometimes she brought stuff home from work and asked Alice to give her a hand, folding up press releases and putting them in envelopes, or labelling photographs of big country houses. She’d promised that when Alice had to do work experience for school, she could come and work in her office, and actually go on a press trip with real journalists.

Duncan didn’t ever seem to do any work, but he always had funny stories about what he’d done during the day and about what he called the Good Burghers of Silchester. At first Alice thought he meant Burger King and McDonald’s, but then she’d realized he actually meant all the people he met in the town centre. He seemed to go into town nearly every day, and he always saw something exciting or weird or revolting, or had a long conversation with a complete stranger. He never seemed to do normal things.

Sometimes Alice wondered whether she went round to see them all too much. Once or twice, when she’d arrived, Ginny had said kindly, ‘Actually, Alice, this isn’t a great time,’ and Alice always felt like running away and never ever going back. But then Ginny always said something like, ‘But how about tea on Saturday?’ or ‘You will come back tomorrow, won’t you?’ And so she always did.

And, really, she couldn’t bear to keep away. When she was with them, everything seemed exciting and glossy and fun. It made home seem even more drab and boring. Once, Ginny suggested that they should invite Alice’s parents round for a drink, to meet them properly.

‘They’re very trusting,’ she said, ‘letting you spend all this time with a bunch of people they hardly know. Why don’t you bring them round sometime?’ Alice wriggled uncomfortably on her chair, and said her parents were very busy, and never went out, and they didn’t mind where she went, honestly. In fact, that wasn’t quite true. When she’d eventually told Liz and Jonathan where she was spending all this time after school, Liz had immediately suggested that Ginny and Piers come round for supper. Alice gasped in horror.

‘They’re really busy,’ she said, ‘and they never know when they’re going to be free. But I’ll ask them,’ she added hurriedly, as she saw her mother opening her mouth to protest. ‘I’ll ask them.’

Ask them! Alice shuddered at the thought of it; of leading Ginny and Piers and Duncan through the empty passages and classrooms of the tutorial college; of taking them up the narrow stairs to the tiny flat, of expecting them to sit down and eat shepherd’s pie and talk to her awful parents. Her mother would pretend to be really hip, as if she knew all about acting, and her father would say things like, ‘Which one is Summer Street? Is it the one in Australia?’

Alice now knew all about Summer Street. She knew that Ian Everitt was leaving the series, that they’d definitely decided to recast his part and that they’d asked Piers to audition for it. And she knew that he simply had to get it.

A few weeks ago, she and Ginny had spent the evening together alone while Piers and Duncan were seeing a