Becky's Terrible Term Read Online Free PDF Page B

After a little while, Katie decided on a little ring with a purple stone in it. Being a definite jeans person, she didn’t wear jewellery very often – but it was nice to have it so you could really dress up sometimes. Becky had found a perfect present for herself – a pendant like a silvery cat’s face, with tiny green jewels for the eyes. She was convinced it looked just like Pixie. Only Annabel was left, wavering between some nail polish that somehow – no one was quite sure how – had two colours in the same bottle, so that you got a marbled effect when you put it on your nails, or a pair of hairgrips shaped like pink butterflies. In the end she went for the hairgrips – but she knew she’d be back for that nail polish pretty soon.
    Mum paid for their presents, and then they headed on home. She had just managed to find time to fit in the shopping, but once the triplets were home, they got the impression she might have been worrying about how they were doing at school while she was wandering around the supermarket as well.
    â€œMum, where did you put the cat food?” asked Becky, ransacking the cupboard.
    â€œOh! Cat food!” squeaked Mrs Ryan in horror. “I knew there was something. Oh, Becky, I’m sorry!”
    Annabel and Katie, who were sitting on the kitchen counter examining the slightly random stuff that their mother had bought, rolled their eyes at each other. Becky grinned and went back to the cupboard, which was a bit of a black hole. At last she discovered a tin of the cats’ least favourite brand lurking behind the orange squash. Orlando and Pixie’s whiskers drooped in disbelief.
    Mum still had some work to finish off – she really had been worrying about them, and it felt nice. She promised tea soon, if they’d just let her have half an hour. The triplets changed out of their uniform into comfy clothes and curled up on the sofa to watch TV – with the packet of minty biscuits that Mum had luckily remembered to buy! They didn’t have any homework to do – none of the teachers had been that cruel. So they looked forward to an evening of just recovering from school. Although, looking at Katie and Annabel, Becky wondered why she felt like she had to do so much more recovering than they did. School had been an ordeal, and she was hugely relieved it was over. The only problem was, she had to go back tomorrow, and keep on pretending that she liked it. Or at least that it wasn’t making her feel hollow inside. Katie and Annabel didn’t look hollow at all – they were practically bouncy.
    The triplets had half an eye on the TV, and most of their attention on the horoscopes in Annabel’s Girl Talk magazine when the phone rang. Katie jumped, and considered making a dash for it, but then remembered that Mum was in the kitchen working, practically next to the phone. They all listened carefully, though, to see if it was one of their mum’s friends, or something to do with them. Their mum sounded pleased to hear from whoever it was. “Oh, hello! Well remembered. Yes, I’m sure they’d love to talk to you, Dan.”
    Dan! It was their dad!
    The triplets looked at each other in delight, and then there was an undignified scramble off the sofa to get to the kitchen and speak to him.
    Mum laughed. “Can you hear the approaching herd of elephants, Dan?” She handed the phone to the triplets, who huddled round it excitedly, all desperate to hear him. “Here,” Mum said, reaching over to press a button. “Put it on speakerphone – then at least you can all hear, and you’ll just have to take it in turns to talk!”
    â€œHello, loves!” came their dad’s voice down the line – everybody jumped. Dad was shouting, as it wasn’t a very clear line, and that made him very loud on the speakerphone. “How was your first day? I’m really sorry, I can’t be too long as