The Kindness Club on Mapleberry Lane - Part One: A Summer Surprise

wondered how many of these rules had been set by her mum, or whether these were exactly the types of rules and regulations that had driven her mum away from Mapleberry. As far as Audrey understood it, Sam had got on better with her auntie than her own mother – that’s why they’d come down for her funeral. But Audrey had long since given up trying to work out what was going on in this family, certainly on her mum’s side. Her dad’s side was totally different. It was only him for a start. He was an only child; his parents were long gone and now he was in New Zealand. And his life looked amazing. When he’d written to Audrey a couple of weeks ago, he’d sent photographs of a holiday to somewhere called the Bay of Islands. He’d been scuba diving and sailing, and shared stunning pics of the landscape that Audrey yearned to see for herself.

Two weeks of this. Two weeks and the rules would have to relax when term finished.

‘What do you think about this colour?’ Veronica turned round the iPad to show her granddaughter the wool website she was browsing.

Audrey shrugged and instead went into the kitchen to cut a piece of the lemon drizzle covered by a plastic cloche.

‘Not that,’ Veronica called out, the sound of the cloche lifting enough to alert her. The woman didn’t suffer from hearing problems, that was for sure.

Audrey went over to where Veronica had taken out her sewing kit. ‘Why not?’

‘There’s not much left.’

‘There’s quite a bit.’ Audrey had seen three generous slices. ‘Expecting company?’

‘As a matter of fact, I am.’

Finally. ‘Who’s coming?’ Since she and her mum had arrived and Sam had subsequently left, not a soul – unless you counted the gardener who knocked on the door or the mailman who came this morning – had stepped over the threshold of the Bentley residence. Audrey was beginning to wonder whether Veronica actually had any friends – or wasn’t it a thing when you got to her age?

‘My friend, Layla.’

‘Then there’s one piece each.’ With less of a defensive attitude, she got her way when Veronica told her to help herself. ‘Thanks, Gran. All the studying makes me hungry.’

‘How much more is there to do?’ she called through to the kitchen where Audrey was lifting a slice onto a plate. ‘It must be wrapping up with the end of the school year.’

‘It’s starting to, thank goodness. After next week I’ll be free as a bird.’ When there was a knock at the door, Audrey headed off to answer it. She left her cake in the kitchen of course; she knew better than to run the risk of dropping crumbs. And now she was craving company and she wanted to meet this Layla, see what she was like; perhaps she’d inject a bit of life into the house. There certainly wasn’t much atmosphere here since she’d arrived.

But when she opened the door, it wasn’t anyone with grey hair or wrinkles, it was a little girl with a bright pink backpack. ‘Can I help you?’

‘I’m Layla.’ She held out her hand to shake.

‘Audrey.’ Stunned, she shook her hand and stood back to let her inside. Gran’s only friend wasn’t what Audrey had expected at all.

Audrey went back to her cake and listened to Gran give Layla a warm welcome, nattering on about a funny calendar of sorts.

‘Audrey, bring in the other two slices, would you.’ Veronica’s demeanour had lifted a notch, as though she wasn’t the same woman who’d done housework for the last few days, watched television, cooked and pottered about as though she had no place to be in the near future and was solely responsible for making sure Audrey didn’t get up to no good.

Audrey delivered a slice of lemon drizzle to Layla and one to Veronica. So they ate at the table or in the kitchen – unless Layla was involved. Favouritism ruled. Audrey would’ve found it funny if she didn’t see her favourite jeans on Veronica’s lap. She put down her plate. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ she boomed.

‘Excuse me?’

‘What are you doing to my jeans?’ She snatched them back before Veronica could push a needle into the fabric. She’d saved up to buy these, a trendy pair with rips at the knees, a pair she liked to wear with an off-the-shoulder black top that showed off her collar bones.

‘I’m fixing them for you. You won’t want those holes in them come winter.’

‘The holes are supposed to be there!’ Audrey yelled, shocking both Gran and Layla into silence. ‘It’s called fashion!’

‘You need to go to your room and calm down, young lady.’ Gran’s stern expression had Layla looking to Audrey and Veronica in turn, her mouth open as she pushed in another piece of cake, almost forgetting to chew with the drama that was unfolding.

Audrey stropped upstairs and pushed in her earphones, drowning out her thoughts with music, and she stayed there a good hour until her tummy grumbled that it needed to be fed the rest of the slice of cake she’d abandoned.

She crept downstairs and into the kitchen. Gran and Layla were talking about something called a kindness calendar. Layla was prattling on about boys and girls in her class and whose name was written down first. Audrey finished her cake quietly and took the opportunity to escape. Now Veronica had her friend, she might not launch into the usual questioning every time Audrey moved, particularly in the direction of the front door – but Audrey wasn’t quick enough this time.

‘Audrey, could you come here please?’

Audrey stood in the doorway looking at Gran.

‘I’m sorry I nearly ruined your jeans, Audrey, but this is my house – I won’t have you yelling at me.’

Audrey almost walked off and out the door, but something stopped her – either a desire to set the right example for Layla or the hope her mum wouldn’t hear about this. ‘I apologise.’

‘Fine, then let’s move on.’ Gran