Why My Sister Has Swimming Lessons

Chapter 7

I could barely concentrate. Life was driving me crazy the moment. I had so many things to focus on, school, friends, family and mostly Charlie.

Charlie lied to mum and dad. She said that she got a bit tipsy and fell into a lake, apparently it was a bundle of laughs. Joys! And she was crying because her foot was hurting and she was a bit scared. So everything seemed OK for mum and dad, because they didn't know the ugly truth. Yet I did and I was the youngest with the most pressure weighed on me. Great! I tried talking to Amy on the school bus, but she couldn't look me in the eye, she didn't want to be reminded of it, she was more embarrassed than Charlie. She thinks people will look back at her party and say 'Oh yeah, I remember...It was the party when Charlie almost drowned and there was no responsible adult.'

At lunch, in the canteen I saw Charlie sat with her usual group of friends, except Amy was missing! She was on the other side of the canteen sat with another group. Charlie was giving her looks that could kill. Charlie needed her most at the moment. It's not anyone's fault, it's just my sister keeping her whole life locked away and covering it up with a 'I'm OK' face.

That's when my sister started to show her rebellious side. She took a greasy chip from her plate and threw it at the back of Amy's perfect hairstyle. Tassels of hair started to fall gracefully down the back of her neck. Amy turned round and shot the evils at Charlie. Now my sister was really pushing her luck, because her other friends started to chuck chips. Directly hitting Amy. She turned round and started to walk towards them. Her 'illegal' (as the uniform police at school would say) high-heels making an echoing tense sound, every pair of eyes were staring at her. I watched nervously, what has my sister done now?

"You bitch!" Amy yelled at Charlie. "It's not my fault that you can't swim!"

Charlie replied some words that showered Amy with knifes. They started throwing insulting words at each other, until the whole canteen was drenched in a tense, negative attitude. A teacher was stood in the corner. He had seen and heard the whole of it. He walked over to them and dragged them away, my sister and her best friend were caught. And they were guaranteed to walk out of the school gates, with a punishment that would make them hate school forever and probably each other.

My parents had to pick up my sister. She and Amy were kept in after school writing lines. My sister's punishment was a month of detention every lunch time. However Amy's punishment was much worse, she was suspended for a week because that was her last warning. Her parents were very upset and said to my parents that Charlie was a bad influence! And after that we didn't here from them, they showered us with the cold shoulder and shot looks made of daggers.