Over the Moon by Jean Ure Page A

is one.”
    I wondered if that meant he didn’t get on too well with his mum, but I didn’t like to ask in case it seemed like prying. And I didn’t like to ask what it was, exactly, that he had against professional women in case hethought that I approved of them, or worse still was aiming to be one. Me a lawyer! No thank
you.
    He told me, anyway. “There’s just something about them … so damn
bossy
all the time. Too busy trying to beat men at their own game. Know what I mean?”
    I nodded eagerly. “My dad would agree with you! That’s what he thinks, too.” I told him how Mum had recently got this bee in her bonnet about not having had enough education.
    “And she’s taking it out on me! Like I’ve got to work
really
hard and pass
all
these exams to make up for her not passing a single one.”
    “Gross,” said Matt.

    “Actually” – this was where I started to get bold – “I am sort of working a bit harder than usual, but it’s nothing to do with Mum. It’s because I’m trying to get selected for Founder’s Day.”
    Matt said, “Yeah, I’ve heard of that. It’s quite a big do, isn’t it?”
    So that was when I got
really
bold and asked him if he’d like to come with me as my partner, and he said that he would, and I was, like, over-the-moon!

    It had been good having Simon to talk about, because while I have always been into boys in a really big way I do sometimes find them quite difficult to actually
converse
with.
    Like with Hattie, for example, I can chat about absolutely anything for hours on end, no problem at all, but with boys I am not always sure what will interest them. It seems to me that you can’t
gossip
with a boy like you can with a girl. They are quite odd in their own way, but I do like them!
    Mum slightly annoyed me next morning by saying, “My goodness, what a flash young man! He thinks the world of himself, doesn’t he?”
    I asked her how she could possibly know, since as far as I was aware she hadn’t even spoken to him, apart from just saying hello. Mum said, “I didn’t need to speak to him, I could tell just by looking.”
    I said, “Well! Talk about judging people by their appearances. You are just
so prejudiced.
I suppose if he’d been black, you’d have said he was a mugger. Or if he’d had a ring in his ear, you’d have said he was on drugs. Or— ”
    Mum said, “Scarlett, don’t be silly. You know better than that.”
    I thought, well, but really! Just because Matt was good looking, was that any reason to take against him? Mum really could be quite impossible, at times. I complained to Dad about it. I said, “What does she want? Would she rather I went out with some geeky little nerd?” I knew Dad wouldn’t agree, cos last term when I’d gone out for a short while with Jason Francis he’d said we made a handsome couple. (Just a pity Jason was such a gunk.) “I mean, what is her
problem?”
I said.
    Dad told me not to pay too much attention. “Your mum’s going through a funny phase at the moment. Taking life a bit too seriously. Don’t worry! She’ll come through it.”
    I said that I hoped she would cos I was beginning to find all this constant criticism quite tiresome. Dad said, “Tell me about it!”
    “I mean, what is
wrong
with her?” I said.
    “Nothing,” said Dad. “It’ll pass.”
    For just a moment, when he said that, I thought I could hear a note of doubt in his voice, like maybe he wasn’t so sure, after all, about it being a phase.
    “God,” I said, “please don’t let it be permanent!”
    “I’ll second that,” muttered Dad.
    Oh, but it couldn’t be! I couldn’t bear it if Mum was going to turn into some sour-faced harridan without any sense of humour. I didn’t think Dad could bear it, either. And then where would we be?
    I decided to put it to the back of my mind. It was between Mum and Dad; there was nothing I could do about it.

    In the meantime, me and Hattie didn’t forget our vow to have a fundraiser