Lucky Jars and Broken Promises Read online

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT PAGE

  Family was very often important to Penelope Kingston. She thought about the expression family ties, because her family ties had to stretch a rather long distance. You see, Penelope’s dad had a new family, and they lived in another state.

  Penelope loved her weekly Skype sessions with her dad. He usually called on Thursdays at 5.20 pm, between work and his regular squash game. The first fifteen minutes were totally for Penelope, and the second fifteen minutes were supposed to be for her brother Harry. But lately Harry hadn’t always shown up for his turn.

  This worried Penelope. Didn’t Harry realise how important family ties were? Especially really stretchy ones like theirs. But on the positive side, Harry skipping his turn meant Penelope got an extra fifteen minutes of her dad – all to herself.

  While Harry checked that the sound and picture were working, Penelope prepared for the call. She gathered all of her latest schoolwork and put it in a neat pile on her dressing table. Then she did an extra tidy-up around her bedroom, making sure it would look as organised as the study her dad called from. She brushed her hair, smoothed the creases in her shirt and double-checked that there was nothing stuck in her teeth. It was essential to be absolutely ready and sitting at the dressing table with the laptop in front of her by 5.15 pm. Six weeks ago, her dad had called four minutes early, while Penelope was in the bathroom. He had left a message on Skype.

  When they finally Skyped a whole week later, Penelope had almost certainly forgotten some of the very important things that had happened the previous week. In fact, she had a hollow, antsy feeling about all her lost news. All the things her dad would never know about her. Since then, she’d kept a list of important events in her iPhone, just in case.

  Penelope was absolutely ready and sitting at her dressing table when the Skype call came through. In one corner of the screen, she could see herself. The biggest area, though, was taken up by her father. He had already changed into his squash gear. Penelope preferred seeing him in a suit and tie, but even in sports gear he looked neat, tidy and very well-groomed.

  Suddenly she had a flash of him trimming his nose hair in their bathroom.

  Penelope’s memories of living with her dad were strange that way. Penelope couldn’t remember anything about the day he left them for good, but she could remember him trimming his nose hair! (Penelope did not – as far as she could tell – have nose hair, but if she did she would most likely trim them too.)

  As Penelope listened to her dad talk, she looked at the books on the shelf behind him. She wanted to check if they were still arranged in alphabetical order. They were. (Penelope’s own books were currently organised by colour. She made a mental note to tell him this.)

  Really, the two of them were extremely similar. Sometimes (and this was an absolute secret) Penelope wondered what it would be like to live with her dad and his new family. Whenever she thought about this, she pictured herself sitting at her dad’s desk while he looked through her excellent school reports, nodding his approval.

  Sometimes Penelope’s Very Pleasant Images grew into Lovely Daydreams, but this one never did. It was always interrupted by a Very Big Worry about her mum and Harry. How would they get along without her?

  She loved her mum and Harry, but they were messy and disorganised. Without Penelope around to look after things, who knew what would become of them?

  Her dad took off his glasses, polished them, and put them back on. ‘My goodness, Penelope Kingston,’ he said. ‘Have you grown?’

  Penelope shook her head. Because she sat up very straight, people often made the mistake of thinking that she was quite tall. Until she stood up. When she was standing, NOBODY made that mistake.

  ‘I have been trying to grow, Dad,’ she explained. ‘I’ve been eating growing-type foods and I even did stretching at a pilates class with Mum the other week. But Ms Pike has a wall chart in our classroom and she measures us every month. I’m the only one who hasn’t grown. For two whole months!’

  Penelope paused for a moment before adding the next bit. It felt like a slightly mean thing to say. ‘I think some people have been cheating, though.’ Rita Azul had been wearing new shoes on measuring day, and they had seemed Very Chunky.

  Plus, Penelope had a strong suspicion that Joanna (the naughtiest girl in the class) had been standing on tiptoe when Ms Pike measured her.

  Just then, Penelope had a thought. It wasn’t very nice, but unfortunately Penelope was no more in control of her thoughts than she was of her memories, or her height. The thought was that her very best friend Bob had sticky-up hair that really should have been flattened before Ms Pike did her measuring. Still, there was no doubt that Bob had grown. They had been almost exactly the same height when Bob first arrived at Chelsea Primary. Now, Bob was a whole head taller than Penelope (not even including her sticky-up hair).

  ‘Well, Penelope, if kids aren’t being honest, they’re only cheating themselves,’ her dad said. ‘Perhaps you should see a doctor. I’ll suggest it to your mother.’

  Penelope had mixed feelings about this idea. On the one hand, it was nice to be taken seriously about not growing. Her mum didn’t take it seriously at all. Even Grandpa George (who was excellent to discuss most things with) just told her to let things happen in their own time.

  On the other hand, her mum almost certainly wouldn’t like her dad’s suggestion. Her dad made quite a lot of suggestions that her mum didn’t like.

  ‘Sienna is quite tall for her age,’ Penelope’s dad said. Sienna was Penelope’s half-sister. ‘She’s on the seventieth percentile.’

  Penelope wasn’t sure what a percentile was, but whatever it was, Sienna was obviously doing well on it, and her dad seemed very pleased.

  Penelope quickly held her schoolwork up to the screen so he could be happy about that instead. So far this year, except for sport, she had received nothing but As and A+s. It was very nice to share that with him (even if it was over Skype and not while she was sitting at his actual desk).

  ‘You’ll send me broke when you get your report,’ he said proudly.

  Penelope smiled. She knew he was joking. Still, if things stayed on track, her report would be worth $140 ($20 for each A), which was a Very Good and Welcome thought.

  ‘Also, I have some news!’ Penelope said. She waited a moment so her dad could let his excitement build up. ‘Our school fete is in just two weeks. And I’m on the Lucky Jar committee!’

  Penelope and Oscar Finley had been asked to organise the Lucky Jars because of their excellent work on charity days. Penelope had been honoured to be asked. Lucky Jars were often the biggest seller (after fairy floss, of course). Which wasn’t a surprise. A regular, empty glass jar could look Very Enticing once it was decorated and had an assortment of lollies and trinkets inside.

  Saying she was on the Lucky Jar committee wasn’t completely correct. The words just snuck out of Penelope’s mouth. She wasn’t entirely sure you could call two people a committee. But she did know that her dad (who was a politician and getting quite famous) was on several committees, so she suspected he would approve.

  ‘That’s terrific, Penelope!’ her dad said, confirming her suspicion. ‘I wish your brother would take a leaf from your book.’

  Penelope didn’t know exactly what that meant, but she could guess. And just as her dad said it, Harry came into Penelo
pe’s bedroom. At the moment, Harry’s hair was even longer than Penelope’s bob. It was tied in a ponytail. He had mud down one of his legs, most likely from playing soccer.

  It was 5.36 pm, which meant it was Harry’s turn to Skype, but Harry whispered that she could stay. Penelope was pleased. Even though he had mud on his leg, she moved over so he could share her chair.

  ‘Harry,’ their dad said, ‘what’s your news?’

  ‘Nothing much,’ Harry replied.

  Penelope bit her lip. Their father waited, but it seemed that Harry was going to stop right there.

  Penelope decided to continue for him. ‘Harry’s soccer team is in the grand final!’ she said. ‘Which just happens to be on the same weekend as the Chelsea Primary fete, only on the Sunday.’

  ‘Well, well, well. Good on you, Harry,’ their dad said. ‘It sounds like an important weekend all around. Can you both wait a moment?’ He moved away from the computer and out of sight.

  Penelope clicked the stopwatch on her iPhone to measure the time he was off the screen. It was eleven seconds until he returned.

  ‘It looks like I’ll be in town for work on the Friday of that weekend,’ he said. ‘So how about I get a hotel for the Saturday night? The three of us can go to the fete and the soccer game – and have a mini-holiday together!’

  ‘Yes. Yes! YES PLEASE,’ Penelope said.

  Beside her, Harry shrugged. Penelope wished Harry wouldn’t do that. Shrugging was NOT a good thing for stretchy family ties – particularly when there was talk of mini-holidays. She didn’t want their dad to think that Harry didn’t care about spending time with him. Penelope could tell that Harry was actually quite excited by the way he was tapping his foot very quickly on the carpet.

  ‘You might want to get a haircut before then, Harry,’ their dad said.

  Harry stopped his foot-tapping then, and started to wriggle around as though he was about to stand up. Penelope knew that he hated being told to get his hair cut. But just at that moment Sienna came into their dad’s study and climbed up on his lap. Harry stopped wriggling.

  Sienna was wearing a hat with bunny ears and eating what looked to be a bubble-gum flavoured ice-cream (even though it was quite close to dinner time and Penelope was absolutely sure her dad had been very strict about that sort of thing when he lived with them).

  It was also cute when she pushed her face up to the screen and sang Old MacDonald Had a Farm, with their father suggesting animal after animal to keep her going.

  If the rest of the Skype session was about Sienna counting to ten (several times, and always missing the five and eight, even though their dad kept interrupting to remind her) that was also fine. And if Penelope didn’t get to tell her dad about her books currently being organised by colour, that was OK too.

  Penelope would have PLENTY of time to share everything with her dad when he visited. She was quite sure that Harry’s team was going to win the grand final. Plus (and this was the best bit), there was a good chance that she and Oscar Finley would break the school record for the number of Lucky Jars sold at the fete. When a record was broken at the fete, it was announced over the loudspeaker. That would certainly impress her dad.

  Also, Penelope would finally get to show him the jewellery she’d made for the craft stall. She’d been making some very intricate pieces lately. Her best piece was a bow-tie badge, made with modelling clay. It was amazingly neat around the edges. Her ladybird pendant was a close second.

  ‘I’m going to give this to Dad, absolutely for free, when he visits,’ Penelope told Harry after the Skype call had finished. She pointed at the bow-tie badge on her jewellery stand. ‘Don’t you think it will look perfect on his business suits?’

  Harry stood up but didn’t say anything.

  ‘I bet he’s going to book a fancy hotel, too,’ Penelope continued. ‘Will it have a pool and a spa, you think?’

  Harry wasn’t very good at showing his excitement. Instead of staying to talk to Penelope about hotel spas, he turned and started walking out of her bedroom.

  ‘You’ll be able to show him your soccer moves, too!’ she added.

  Harry paused as he got to the doorway, and turned around. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, then closed it again. Sometimes Harry was slow at finding words.

  ‘Sure, Penelope,’ he said eventually. Penelope couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem excited about the mini-holiday they’d just planned.

  Penelope wasn’t much of a dancer, but when Harry left, she got up and spun around her room.

  The three of them were going to have a great time together! Her dad would probably want to start having mini-holidays like this all the time.

  Maybe it would become a regular thing. It was even possible that he would regret leaving them in the first place.

  On Friday, Penelope sat on the bench seats by the basketball court eating lunch with Bob (Penelope’s very best friend) and Tilly. Since they’d shared a hut on school camp, Tilly had started to sit with Penelope and Bob quite a bit.

  Penelope was chewing on a carrot and conjuring up Pleasant Images. After yesterday’s Skype call, she had a new Pleasant Image – her dad lifting her up on his shoulders and walking around the fete. A lot of people stared at them because they recognised Penelope’s (quite) famous dad from being on TV. Some kids (including the absolutely most popular girl in the entire school, Ellen Semorac) even asked for his autograph. Luckily, Penelope was able to pass her dad a pen she’d been carrying in her pocket.

  Of course, Penelope knew she was too old to be lifted onto her father’s shoulders, and it would be embarrassing if it actually happened. But it was a nice image.

  Tilly had barely reacted when Penelope told them her dad was coming to town for the weekend, and Bob had just groaned about her own dad volunteering at the fairy-floss stand. Neither of them seemed to understand how special it was going to be for Penelope to have her dad for the whole weekend. People whose dads lived with them never really got it.

  ‘This is the perfect place for seeing who’s crushing on who,’ Tilly said.

  Even though it interrupted her Pleasant Image, Penelope started on her little packet of sultanas and concentrated on what Tilly was saying.

  The girls in their year had recently started playing basketball with the boys. Penelope suspected it might be a fad. There had been several fads at her school over the years, like swap cards and Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon and yo-yos. In a way, Penelope hoped that playing basketball with the boys was a fad. She wasn’t (not even a tiny bit) interested in playing. For one thing, she wasn’t exactly sporty. For another thing, there was something a bit gross about bumping around on a court with boys.

  Still, she was interested in what Tilly knew about crushes. Penelope was normally very good at deducing things. But, for some reason, she didn’t seem to understand much about crushes. Although she would never (at least not until she was practically a grown-up) be silly enough to have a crush herself, Penelope at least wanted to understand what they were.

  ‘Joanna and Alex are sooo crazy in love!’ Bob said.

  She pointed over to the side of the court where Alex had Joanna in a headlock. They watched as Alex pulled Joanna around in a circle then released her. If anybody tried to put Penelope in a headlock, she would definitely not be pleased. But Tilly was right about Alex and Joanna. They’d even admitted it.

  ‘What about Sarah, Tilly?’ Penelope asked. ‘Do you think she likes anyone?’

  Tilly nodded. ‘Yep,’ she said. ‘She likes Felix Unger. It’s obvious.’

  Penelope frowned. She could not see anything obvious. ‘Look at how she’s watching him,’ Tilly continued.

  ‘Well,’ Penelope said, ‘he does have the ball.’

  It would be extremely hard not to watch Felix Unger at that moment. Felix was extremely good at basketball. As he ran up the court, he bounced the ball under his legs and behind his back in a very tricky way.

  ‘True,’ Bob joined in. ‘But wait
until he doesn’t have the ball.’

  Penelope wasn’t quite sure what she was waiting for. But soon, Felix passed the ball to Oscar Finley. Oscar Finley was a terrible basketball player. In fact, Oscar’s bouncing looked dangerous. One minute, the ball was so low to the ground that Penelope suspected no amount of thumping would lift it up again. The next minute, it was (literally) bouncing off Oscar’s own chin. It was a great relief when Oscar managed to roll the ball to Alex.

  ‘See? Sarah is STILL staring at Felix, even though the ball is nowhere near him now!’ Bob exclaimed.

  It was true. Sarah seemed frozen to the spot. It was only when Felix glanced her way that Sarah broke her stare, looking down at the ground instead. But Penelope doubted that was proof of a crush. After all, she had just been staring at Oscar Finley and that definitely had nothing to do with a crush.

  ‘Poor Sarah,’ Tilly said. Now Penelope was extremely confused.

  ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

  Bob and Tilly looked at each other in a way that was (Penelope had to admit, even though Bob was her very best friend) quite annoying. As though they both knew something Penelope didn’t.

  ‘Felix Unger doesn’t like her back, Pen,’ Bob said.

  ‘How could you possibly know that?’ Penelope demanded (a little snappily).

  ‘He hasn’t even noticed that Sarah’s been staring at him,’ Tilly said in the type of explaining voice that Penelope used when she was coaching Joanna in maths.

  Penelope wished Tilly would say something that made sense.

  ‘And in class,’ Tilly continued, ‘he just chats to Sarah, no worries. If he did like her, he’d tease her or get her in a headlock or something like that.’

  Penelope was tempted to put her head in her hands and leave it there forever. What Tilly had just said was not even logical. In fact, it was the absolute opposite of logical.

  Tilly was being annoying, and (unfortunately) even Bob was making Penelope feel a bit cross. Feeling cross was something Penelope tried hard to avoid. Penelope was usually calm and sensible.