Radiance, Alana Curran [book series for 12 year olds txt] 📗

Karen explained.

I smiled at him and he looked at his feet shyly.

“What about your things?” I asked them.

“Our mums are going to drive our bags up,” Hattie answered.

I turned to Trevor and gave him one last hug to thank him for finding me and probably saving my life!

“Thanks, goodnight,” I smiled.

“Goodnight,” he said quietly, waving goodbye to us all and then heading back down the hill.

The trick or treaters weren’t far behind as they ran down the hill giggly yelling,

“Thank you, Mrs. Lombardi!”

“You’re welcome, children!” she called back, waving happily. “Are you girls coming in?”

We all nodded and ran into the house quickly to take off all our makeup and stuff.

I kicked off my giant boots, my feet aching and went to my mirror to take off all my makeup. Hattie did the same because she was wearing really high heels on her shoes, but Karen didn’t need heels, she was wearing moccasins. She got it easy, but she did need to wipe the red marks off her face.

Not long after we went into my bedroom and took off our shoes, grandma came in holding Hattie and Karen’s bags which their mothers had just dropped off.

When we were all changing into our pyjamas, Karen asked me why I had a British accent if I came from an island near America.

“My mum’s always had an English accent because she came from here, so I guess I picked it up from her instead of the people around me,” I explained.

“There is a little hint of an American accent in your voice, but mostly British,” Hattie stated, poking through her trick or treating bag for the best candy.

“Oh yes! I bought you this little ghost thingy,” Karen gasped, jumping at her bag and pulling out a cuddly toy.

“Thanks, that was sweet of you,” I smiled, taking the toy from her and throwing it onto my bed.

“So where are we supposed to be sleeping tonight?” Hattie asked.

“Oh, I completely forgot about that,” I replied. “I think grandma has a waterbed that you two can share.”

“Waterbed? Sounds cool!” Karen squealed. “I’ve never slept on one of those before.”

“I’ll just go and ask her.”

I ran out into the hall and went into grandma’s bedroom where she was reading a book and eating some leftover Halloween candy with Arthur and Daisy nestled together at the foot of her bed.

“Gran, can Hattie and Karen sleep on the water bed?”

“Of course, sweetheart, I’ll get it blown up and you lot can sleep in the living room,” she smiled.

“The living room?”

“If you want.”

“But...”

“I just assumed you’d want to watch some TV on the flat screen,” she interrupted.

I thought for a moment and decided to take up the offer.

“True.”

“You can sleep on the sofa, Ali, go and get the blankets from the hot press,” she ordered.

I went to the airing cupboard and pulled out all the warm blankets I could find and told Hattie and Karen to wait until grandma got the bed pumped up.

 

“Maybe this is the chocolate talking,” Hattie began when we were watching TV in the living room. WE looked up to see what she was about to say. “But I think Trevor’s quite keen on you, Alessia.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Oh, come on, Al,” Karen giggled. “It’s so obvious that he has a crush on you.”

I felt myself turning red.

“No he doesn’t,” I insisted.

“Alessia, I’m his sister...his triplet duplicate in fact...”

“It’s just triplet...”

“Don’t interrupt!” she scowled. “The fact is, I have his DNA and us triplet dup- I mean just triplets, have send telepathic messages to each other and I can’t tell what he’s thinking and understand everything that goes on in his tiny, monkey brain.”

I looked at Hattie.

“She knows her brother like I know my way round a mars bar,” she defined.

“And he so fancies you.”

“So what? I hear Blake fancies you Karen, remember him? The blue haired freak?”

“Yes, yes, we all know about that and he’s not that bad, so leave the guy alone,” she moaned. “He has EXCELLENT taste.”

I rolled my eyes and switched the channel to wear ‘Live Spelt Backwards is Die’ was on.

“Oh, this is the one where the evil, Swedish Au pair murders Angelica and Roddie!” Hattie gasped.

“Hattie! Stop spoiling the ending!” Karen whinged.

“Come on, this same episode has been repeating for three weeks and you mean to tell me that you haven’t seen it yet!” Hattie grunted. “Outrageous!”

“Outrageous!” I imitated in a posh voice to copy the way she had said it.

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Publication Date: 11-12-2013

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