Emily's Worst Day

I push off from the front step. It takes me a couple of seconds to find my balance, but then I’m whizzing down the road. I ring the bell on the handle bars. Ring ring, ring ring. Everybody looks at me as I fly past them and I laugh at how fast I’m going. The pink pom-poms on the handles tickle my knuckles, which are white from the cold but I don’t care. Mam said I should make the most of the sun shining for the first time this year.

            I ride past loads of people on the way down our street.

            ‘’Morning, Mrs. Anderson!’

            ‘Ee, morning, Emily. Don’t go too fast, mind.’

            ‘I won’t,’ I say as I speed up. Old people are so boring and annoying.

            I ride past Mr. McGuvvin and Miss. Berry, and a big man in a long coat and leather gloves. He’s the only one I don’t say good morning to. I turn round the bend at the bottom of the road. My light-up trainers come out of the pedals and I let the bike take me down the hill. I scream with excitement as I get faster and faster and faster. I can feel my hair blowing behind my head and I feel like a lion.

            A woman on the other side of the road answers her phone. The ringing sound is exactly the same as Mam’s. It reminds me of yesterday. The phone rang while me and Mam were in the kitchen. She was making me soup because I was poorly and couldn’t go to school, even though I was faking a little bit. It was the same kind of soup Dad used to make when he was here. Her face went funny when she looked at the phone.

            ‘Hello?’ she asked, and then she went really white. She looked at me with massive eyes and then walked out of the room. She shut the door behind her, but didn’t realise that I could still hear.

            ‘What d’you want?’ There was a pause. ‘No, I don’t have it yet... Tomorrow? No, I- I can’t ... I’m aware of that ... Aye, it was very kind of you ... I just cannit pull together that kind of money so quickly. How about Friday? ... Thursday? That’s the earliest I can- ... Thank you. Geez, thanks so much ... Meet me after work on Thursday, I’ll have it by then.’

            Mam came back into the room. Her face was all sweaty. Then she got really angry at me.

            ‘Emily, what have I told you about dippin’ your chips in your drink? It’s disgustin’. That’s it, I’m taking that 3DS off you. I’ll send it back.’

            ‘No, Mam. That’s not fair!’

            ‘I’m sorry but I’ve told you hundreds of times. What else have you got that you don’t need, hmm? That ice-cream maker, you never use that, like. And that dollhouse, a ten year old doesn’t need a dollhouse anymore. And what about your bike?’

            ‘No, not me bike!’

            ‘You never ride it.’

            ‘I do, I will! You’re so unfair.’

            ‘Right, well. We’ll see. I’m poppin’ out to the shops, Jamie’s upstairs. Be good.’

            Then she grabbed a handful of all the knives and forks that she saves for special occasions and put them in her bag. It was really weird, but she didn’t take my bike away so I didn’t ask her about it again. I’m going to ride it every day now.

            I have to stop at the bottom of the street because there’s a group of girls standing around laughing. They see me coming. It’s Freya and all her friends. I want to turn around and ride right back up the hill, but she’s already seen me.

            ‘Emily, what you up to?’

            ‘Just ridin’ me bike.’

            She laughs and all the other girls start too. ‘A bike? Bit old for a bike, aren’t you?’         ‘No. I can do what I want.’

            ‘You’re such a baby, Emily.’ She opens her little satchel bag and pulls out a bright pink lipstick. ‘D’you even look in the mirror before you leave the house?’

            ‘She obviously doesn’t, look at that outfit,’ says one of the other girls. They all start laughing.

            ‘I can wear what I want, too,’ I say.

            ‘Well, you’ll never get a boyfriend looking like that.’

            ‘I don’t want a boyfriend.’

            ‘You can’t go into high school without a boyfriend, Emily.’ Freya’s in Year Seven so she’s at the Grammar. She shouts to a boy across the road. It’s Mike from my year. ‘Hey, you. D’you want’a go out with Emily?’ She points at me.

            The boy scrunches up his face. ‘No.’

            All the girls start screaming with laughter. I feel myself getting redder and redder. I turn around and start cycling up the hill as fast as I can. This is the worst day of my whole entire life. I don’t say hello to anyone on my way back. I can’t stop crying. This is it. I’ll never get a boyfriend, or friends, or anything. I’ll be laughed at all the way through high school. I don’t even know how to put on lipstick or anything. I don’t have one of those side bags. This is the worst day ever, ever, ever!

            I turn the corner to our road. There’s police all around our house. The door is open and someone’s put yellow tape over it. A policeman sees me and asks me if it’s my house. I say yes. He tells me he has bad news.

            I can hear Mrs. Anderson talking to one of the other policemen. She blows her nose loudly on a tissue and wipes her eyes.

            ‘She was so young,’ she says. ‘And the poor bairn! Oh God, I saw him. I saw the man- long coat and gloves. I saw him, and I didn’t do anything about it!’