My Half-Sister's Half-Sister by Samantha Henthorn was published on 9 November 2021. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you today.
Extract from My Half-Sister's Half-Sister by Samantha Henthorn
My feet feel sort of cold, and the hall smells like washing powder and old oranges. Mummy queues up at the bottle tombola, and that’s when I look down.
No... no... please... Why didn’t Mummy tell me? I’ve come out to the school fair wearing my bedroom slippers. I try and put one foot on top of the other but that only draws attention.
Stop it. I look across the room, and I notice that girl from swimming. Why does this kind of thing always happen to me?
I hate swim class... wet hair on a cold day and my see-through costume. I hate it, can’t do it, and the swim teacher is grumpy and tells us off. She reckons that we should know how to swim at our age; it’s ridiculous. I swallowed chlorine from up my nose when my head went under. I tried to stretch my arms and legs out, but the pool was just wet air. So, I grabbed the side and tried to walk along with the movement of the water. It’s like I’m there now; I just can’t do it.
This girl never seems bothered that she can’t swim. I think she is a year older than me and from a different school. Different, except we all get banded together. The different ones, the ones who can’t swim.
She’s chewing bubble gum (banned at our house, definitely banned during swim class), and I wish Mummy had one of her long skirts on to hide my feet.
‘Jacqui!’ the girl’s mum puts a cigarette out in her hand.
‘India,’ Mummy says. She does not look pleased; she has the same look on her face when I ask to use the bathroom at the shops.
‘Our two are at the same swim class, then?’ India wears an eye patch on her left eye, and the girl pops her bubble gum bubble in my face (at least she hasn’t noticed my feet).
The smell in the school hall changes and all the parents try not to notice. I’ve smelt this smell before, sort of like flowers and being naughty at the same time... It stinks, but it’s nice too. It belongs to a man with red-rimmed eyes and nearly a beard. ‘How’s Heather?’ the smell says. Mummy bristles her shoulders. Heather is my big sister, and she’s late coming home from university. The girl chews her gum.
‘I believe you can’t swim either,’ the girl’s mum says to me. I open my mouth to say something, but I get a tickle in my throat.
‘I think we both know they won’t drown,’ Mummy does a laugh that isn’t a laugh because what she said was not a joke. Then we walk away, which is terrible because Mummy has given up her place in the queue. I had my eye on a bottle of Ribena (banned at our house), and Mummy had her eye on a bottle of brandy. At least I got away without anyone noticing what I’m wearing on my feet.
The girl looks straight at me and pops another bubble right in my face. ‘Nice slippers,’ she says.
is a disabled author.
No comments:
Post a Comment