Keep the Faith by Candy Harper Page A

them. Maybe call for the executioner?
    Mum was looking at me.
    ‘What? Is it illegal to even think about chopping your family’s heads off now?’
    Mum huffed. ‘I’ve thought of a kind of club that you’d enjoy.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘When I was at college, I was a member of the debating society. Oh, we had a really good time.’
    ‘Sounds riveting,’ I said, but she carried on in that selfish way of hers.
    ‘I can still remember the two debates that I won. The first one was about animal testing and the other was about nuclear power. Kids used to be really interested in the environment in
those days.’
    I nodded like the queen does when she’s forced to listen to some idiot. ‘So you did this debating with boys?’
    ‘That wasn’t actually the sole purpose of the society, but yes, I remember there were several boys. In fact, I dated one of them.’ A look came over her face like Lily eyeing a
peanut butter and marmite sandwich. Gross. ‘I remember this one time we were in the canteen and he leant over and—’
    ‘Please, Mum! I still haven’t managed to erase the memory of you and Dad holding hands at the cinema that time; I don’t have the mental energy to block out any more toxic
images.’
    ‘All right, all right! I’ll say no more about his lovely full lips.’
    ‘Mum!’
    ‘Or the fact that he knew how to use them.’
    ‘Mother!’
    ‘He used to turn me to jelly.’
    I stuck my fingers in my ears and started singing the hokey-cokey.
    Mum fanned herself then pulled my hands down. ‘Do you want to hear about debating then?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said, but I was unable to nod regally because I still felt queasy.
    ‘It’s quite easy to set up a debating club. You just need someone to organise things. We had a different debate each week. Usually, you have a proposer of the motion and a seconder.
Perhaps you could do boys against girls.’
    I thought about this. ‘Debating is basically arguing, isn’t it?’
    Mum nodded.
    ‘I think we’ve found something I can shine at.’
    ‘Good. Now do you think you could wipe the table?’
    But I was already off up the stairs giving her a royal wave.
FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY
    Finally, Finn has sent me a text. It says, Football on Sun? Which I assume means he wants me to go and watch him play football.
    I rang Megs.
    Eventually, she picked up her phone and said, ‘What do you want?’
    ‘There she is! My sunshine in the dark winter months.’
    ‘Oh God, you
do
want something, don’t you?’
    ‘You’re going to watch Cam play football on Sunday.’
    ‘Don’t you mean, “
Are
you going to watch Cam?” ?’
    ‘No, I mean you are. You have to because Finn has asked me to watch him.’
    ‘Oh well, if you need me to hang about because it’s convenient for you then obviously I’ll drop everything. It’s not like I’ve got my own mind, or my own interests,
or even a voice to speak up about what I want. I’m just here to please you. You may as well write me a timetable.’
    ‘I’ll do that. In the mean time I’ll meet you by the swings at nine.’
    She hung up.
    Which I took as a yes.
LATER
    That Megs has got a cheek. I’ve just remembered that time I dragged myself out of my comfy bed in the early hours to go and hang about the frozen football pitch and
support her with her Cam-love. I wanted to say this to her in a text, but I couldn’t be bothered to type it all so I just put, I did it for you!
    Two minutes later she said, Oh, all right. You'd better bring me some sweeties.
SATURDAY 21ST JANUARY
    Granny came round for lunch. I said, ‘Have you not got anything to eat at your house, Granny? That’s because you’re always out having a good time with
your boyfriends. You ought to concentrate on your shopping and your knitting like a proper old lady.’
    Granny gave me a smile like a crocodile about to snap the head off a baby frog. ‘When I actually get old, I might give that some thought.’
    I don’t believe a word of it. She’ll be winking at