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Back Stargazing for Beginners Save as PDF
Contents ( 64)
  1. A Letter from the Author
  2. ONE
  3. TWO
  4. THREE
  5. FOUR
  6. FIVE
  7. SIX
  8. SEVEN
  9. EIGHT
  10. NINE
  11. TEN
  12. ELEVEN
  13. TWELVE
  14. THIRTEEN
  15. FOURTEEN
  16. FIFTEEN
  17. SIXTEEN
  18. SEVENTEEN
  19. EIGHTEEN
  20. NINETEEN
  21. TWENTY
  22. TWENTY-ONE
  23. TWENTY-TWO
  24. TWENTY-THREE
  25. TWENTY-FOUR
  26. TWENTY-FIVE
  27. TWENTY-SIX
  28. TWENTY-SEVEN
  29. TWENTY-EIGHT
  30. TWENTY-NINE
  31. THIRTY
  32. THIRTY-ONE
  33. THIRTY-TWO
  34. THIRTY-THREE
  35. THIRTY-FOUR
  36. THIRTY-FIVE
  37. THIRTY-SIX
  38. THIRTY-SEVEN
  39. THIRTY-EIGHT
  40. THIRTY-NINE
  41. FORTY
  42. FORTY-ONE
  43. FORTY-TWO
  44. FORTY-THREE
  45. FORTY-FOUR
  46. FORTY-FIVE
  47. FORTY-SIX
  48. FORTY-SEVEN
  49. FORTY-EIGHT
  50. FORTY-NINE
  51. FIFTY
  52. FIFTY-ONE
  53. FIFTY-TWO
  54. FIFTY-THREE
  55. FIFTY-FOUR
  56. FIFTY-FIVE
  57. FIFTY-SIX
  58. FIFTY-SEVEN
  59. FIFTY-EIGHT
  60. FIFTY-NINE
  61. SIXTY
  62. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  63. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  64. ONE

FORTY-SEVEN

Christine herself comes to the door when I drop Elsa off at nursery.

‘Where’s your mum?’ she says, peering over my shoulder like I might have Mum hidden behind me.

I shift Elsa to my other hip and make myself look directly at Christine’s red glasses. ‘She’s got that horrible bug Elsa had. She’s written you this.’ I pass over the letter. ‘Oh, and she said to say thank you so much for helping her out while she’s had the slipped disc.’ I pull a box of Ferrero Rocher out of my bag and hold them out. ‘She’s so grateful!’ These had better work, I think. They cost five pounds that we really don’t have.

Christine takes the chocolates and her face softens slightly. ‘It’s been hard work for you too, I imagine.’

‘It’s been fine,’ I say with a shrug. ‘I’ve not had to do too much.’

With this final lie, I give Elsa a kiss and hand her to Christine. I can hear Christine opening the letter and as I walk down the path I wonder if my sign off – with love and energy – was a bit much. ‘So she’ll be bringing Elsa in next week?’ she calls after me.

‘Definitely,’ I shout over my shoulder.

I get through the morning by holding Ed’s figure of one in 294,000 in my head like a talisman. When I get to Biscuit Club, Rose and Annie are already there and so is Mr Curtis. For the first time, they’re sitting around a table and it’s covered in books.

‘What’s going on?’ I say. ‘Where’s Jackson?’

‘Over there.’ Mr Curtis points to the corner of the room where Jackson is sitting on his beanbag, playing on Annie’s iPad. ‘He’s promised not to talk so that we can concentrate.’

Jackson waves at me, his lips clamped shut.

‘Concentrate on what?’ I sit with them at the table and notice that all the books are on maths, physics or astronomy.

‘On your competition,’ says Annie, not looking up from the book she’s reading. ‘Did you know that on the International Space Station they once tried to grow tomato plants on a pair of dirty pants?’

‘I don’t think Meg should mention that,’ says Rose to Annie. She turns to me. ‘Annie told us all about your problem.’

‘With the competition,’ Annie adds quickly.

‘So we’re going to help you,’ says Mr Curtis.

‘That’s kind,’ I say, and I know they’re trying to help, but just looking at this enormous pile of books overwhelms me, ‘but it’s happening this Saturday and I know my speech isn’t good enough. I think it might be too late to do anything about it.’

‘Too late, Meg?’ says Mr Curtis. ‘How can you ever hope to become an astronaut if that’s your attitude?’

Annie looks up from her book and shrugs. ‘I might have told them about your whole astronaut-thing too.’

‘It’s so exciting!’ Rose clasps her hands together.

‘Rose, it isn’t happening. The likelihood of me going into space is so infinitely small it’s slightly embarrassing that I consider it a possibility.’ I glare at Annie. ‘That’s why I never tell anyone.’