Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt

up a –’ Mum stopped suddenly.
    I followed the direction of her eyeline over the hedge and into next door’s garden. Lindz’s dad was standing there, staring into space. We watched him for a while, but he seemed frozen to the spot. Mum put her arm round my shoulders. ‘Come inside,’ she whispered.
    ‘Do you think we should say hello?’ I whispered back.
    She shook her head uncertainly. ‘I think we’d better not, Jen. Last time Dad and I tried to speak to him, he got very upset. I don’t think he’s well at all just now. We might make him feel worse and we don’t want to do that.’
    Maybe I was like Lindz’s pony – too much for him to see. I sort of understood that. I think perhaps I understood it better than anyone.
    Charlie’s friend’s mum brought him home after football practice, and he came stomping into my bedroom, mud-spattered.
    ‘I got dropped from the team for the next game,’ he said, flopping on to my bed. Normally I’d have yelled at him for messing my duvet up, but he looked too upset.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Doh – someone else was better than me.’
    I put my homework down. This was going to take a while. ‘You’ve trained loads. Maybe you had an off day.’
    He prodded my teddy bear in the eye with a stiff finger. ‘I was beyond bad, and anyway, it’s not the same now.’
    ‘Don’t do that to Barney. It’s not his fault. Why isn’t it the same?’
    ‘Because you used to be in goal for me before and I could practise shooting better.’
    ‘You said I was rubbish in goal!’
    ‘Yeah, you are, but it’s still easier when you have a goalie to aim around, even if they are useless.’ He prodded Barney again viciously. ‘You never do anything with me now.’
    That was true. I’d hardly spent any time with him since the accident. ‘I was worried about getting my face hit by the ball.’
    He pouted. ‘It’s better now though and you still don’t do stuff with me, even other stuff, not like we used to.’
    I hadn’t realised he’d missed that. Maybe I had been too wrapped up in me. Most little brothers would have sulked like anything over how much attention I’d had over the past months, but Charlie hadn’t. ‘OK, so tomorrow night when you get home, we’ll practise your shooting. How about that? And we’ll keep doing it until you’re so awesome, they can’t wait to get you back on the team.’
    His face lit up. ‘Thanks, Jen! Maybe you’re not the suckiest sister ever.’
    ‘Thanks, Charlie. Your compliments slay me.’ I laughed and shoved him off the duvet. ‘Now go shower – you’re minging.’
    He stuck his tongue out and tried to rub his sweaty, muddy shirt on me, then trotted off to get cleaned up.
    I finished my homework when he’d gone and went for a long soak in the bath before I went to bed. I fell asleep almost immediately.
    A couple of hours later, something woke me with a start. I saw the landing light go on under my door. Dad shouted, ‘Stay in bed. I’ll sort it out.’ He thundered down the stairs. I heard him swear briefly and throw the front door open. Mum yelled, ‘Clive, don’t go out there,’ but I heard the crunch of his feet on our gravel drive, then Mum’s feet running downstairs too. When I crept to the top of the stairs and looked down, I saw the hall carpet was covered in broken glass. A brick lay on the floor by Mum’s feet and the window beside the door was smashed.
    Dad came back in. ‘No sign of them now. And no sign of a car. That proves it was someone local.’ He snatched the phone up. ‘I’m calling the police again. Friendly chat, they said. Warn him off. That didn’t do much good. He needs locking up.’
    ‘I’ll go and check on the kids,’ Mum said. ‘Ask the police to keep the noise down if they come out. It’s school tomorrow.’
    I scooted back to the bedroom. Charlie had slept through it all. If the roof blew off, he’d not wake. I pulled the covers over my head and pretended I was asleep because I was too