Double Trouble (Zodiac Girls) Read online

  Lilith looked surprised. ‘You had a hiding place that you didn’t tell me about?’

  ‘You don’t know everything about my life, you know.’

  She looked miffed. ‘Apparently not. So what did you keep in there?’

  ‘Oh, nothing important. Things from when I was a kid, like old stones or seashells that we’d collected on holiday, that sort of thing.’

  ‘But why didn’t you tell me?’ asked Lilith.

  ‘Dunno. I just wanted … dunno. Anyhow, I hadn’t put anything in there for ages,’ I lied. ‘But I went to dig it up because it was a nice old tin. I got it one Christmas with chocolates in it. It had doves on it. You got one the same, Lilith; mine was red and yours was green. I think you threw yours out.’

  Adam looked bored. ‘And what? You dug it up and there’s a couple of mouldy old chocolates in it and a dead rat?’

  ‘No. I dug it up and there were two packages in it.’

  ‘That you left there,’ Lilith prompted.

  ‘No. That I hadn’t left there.’

  That got their attention.

  ‘No way. You’re making it up,’ said Adam.

  ‘No, I’m not.’

  ‘So what was in the packages?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know yet.’

  ‘Why didn’t you open them?’

  ‘I, er … ’ Once again I hesitated as I didn’t want to tell them the whole truth and a part of me wished that I hadn’t opened my mouth at all, but I was desperate to get them out of the cemetery. ‘Mum came in and I didn’t want her to see.’

  ‘She probably put them there,’ said Adam, and Lilith nodded in agreement.

  ‘No. I don’t think she did. She didn’t know about my hiding place. And both packages were wrapped in crimson paper. Nicely wrapped and we all know that Mum doesn’t do nice wrapping. She shoves things in parcels and whacks a bit of Sellotape on.’

  Lilith nodded. ‘That’s true. So what did they look like?’

  ‘Like they were wrapped at the mall. Nicely … but what was even more interesting was that one had a label on it and it said: To the Zodiac Girl.’

  Adam burst out laughing and clapped slowly. ‘Oh, good effort, Eve. Not very scary, but nice try.’

  ‘No, I’m telling the truth.’

  ‘OK,’ said Adam. ‘So when was the last time you put anything in your ickle tin box, ickle Zodiac Girl.’

  ‘Ages ago,’ I lied. Actually it had been a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t going to tell them that in case they found my papers.

  ‘Only one way to find out if she’s telling the truth,’ said Lilith.

  ‘I guess,’ said Adam. ‘So let’s go check it out.’

  At last, they began to move towards the gap in the conifers.

  ‘Goodbye, cemetery,’ Adam called out.

  ‘Shush,’ I said. ‘You’ll wake Mum and Dad.’

  ‘As well as the dead,’ said Lilith with a laugh. ‘But don’t you think we ought to do a ritual with the candle and everything? Do it properly?’

  ‘No. Let’s go back and, er … come back on a special night. Like Halloween night or something. That’s only at the end of the month, so not long.’

  ‘I suppose it is getting late,’ said Lilith, ‘and we have to get up early in the morning.’

  ‘Goodbye, ghosts and ghouls, goodnight, all you who rest here,’ said Adam in a loud whisper.

  ‘May your tormented souls find peace,’ said Lilith as I pulled her along.

  When it was my turn to crawl through the conifers, I glanced back to make sure that no one was behind us or following us. And, once again, I swear I saw someone. Just for a second as the moon came out from behind a cloud and illuminated a gravestone, I glimpsed a tall, dark man in a cloak. For a split second, the moonlight caught the whites of his eyes as he turned and I was certain that he was looking straight at me. I pushed through the trees, misplaced my hand and almost fell into the conifers, but I couldn’t resist turning around one last time. The man had gone and all that I saw was a beam of moonlight like an empty spotlight falling upon the grave where he’d stood, only seconds before.

  Chapter Five

  PJ?

  ‘You go into the living room,’ I said, once we were back in the kitchen, ‘and I’ll go and get my box.’

  ‘Nah, we’ll come with you. You might cheat,’ said Adam.

  I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. ‘Like I’m going to be able to wrap two packages in five seconds. Do me a favour. And why would I want to cheat on you? Trust me, Adam, I just don’t want to wake Mum or Dad.’

  ‘Yeah, give her a break,’ said Lilith. ‘She’s either got these packages or she hasn’t.’

  ‘Exactly,’ I said, and ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs before they changed their minds again. Up in my room, I reached under the bed, grabbed the tin, pulled the wad of secret papers out and stuffed it in my rucksack then went back down the stairs, two at a time. Lilith and Adam were waiting in the living room.

  ‘Here you are,’ I said, and handed Lilith the tin.

  She looked down at it, opened the lid and there were the two crimson packages. She lifted them out and was about to open them when Adam stopped her hand.

  ‘Actually, they’re Eve’s packages. She ought to open them.’

  For a brief second, annoyance flashed across Lilith’s face, but she soon pushed it away. ‘Yeah, course,’ she said, and put the parcels back in the tin and handed them back to me.

  ‘I don’t mind, Lilith,’ I said. I felt bad that she hadn’t got anything to open. Up until now, there had always been presents for both of us. Nobody ever gave one of us something without including the other – apart from prizes at school, that is.

  ‘Whatever,’ said Lilith. ‘Like I care.’ But I knew she did. We often knew what each other was thinking or feeling.

  ‘I tell you what: you open one, I’ll open the other,’ I said, and I handed her the smaller package. I could see that despite trying to act like she wasn’t bothered, like me, she couldn’t wait to rip the paper off and see what was inside.

  ‘Oh, come on, you two,’ said Adam, ‘this is getting boring. On the count of three, open the package. One … two … three … ’

  We ripped.

  ‘Oh,’ I gasped when I saw what was inside mine. It was a dinky mobile phone, totally exquisite, stylish and goth. It was blood red with a black opal stone. ‘It’s gorgeous.’

  Lilith glanced over and I saw admiration flare in her eyes, but like the annoyance only moments ago she squashed it down. ‘Yeah, but does it work?’

  I pressed a few buttons then held it up to my ear. ‘Not sure.’ I looked in the package to see if there was an instruction book, but couldn’t see one. I was about to chuck the wrapping paper in the bin when a little gift tag floated out.

  Adam grabbed it and read it. ‘Zodiac Girl, I’ll call you soon. Yours truly, PJ.’

  I felt a shiver go down my spine. This wasn’t any story made up by Lilith or Adam. This was really happening. ‘PJ? PJ who?’ I asked.

  Adam shrugged. ‘Secret admirer? Stalker? Axe murderer? Could be anyone. What’s in the other parcel?’

  Lilith looked down. She had unwrapped a small box, the type that usually held jewellery, but she hadn’t opened it yet.

  ‘Go on,’ urged Adam.

  She opened the box and a lovely woody scent filled the air. Inside was a silver chain with a pendant. She held it up. The pendant was in the form of a tiny scorpion and, like the phone, it was exquisitely made. I could see that Lilith wanted it and it seemed only fair to me that we share the gifts. One for her, one for me. In fact, I was starting to feel spooked by the whole thing, whereas I could tell that Adam and Lilith were totally enthralled.

  ‘You can keep that, if you like,’ I said. ‘And be Zodiac Girl too. It’s not really my thing.’

  Lilith smiled, but then she noticed that inside was a small tag like the one with the phone. She picked it up and read. ‘For Eve Palumbo, this month’s Zodiac Girl.’
She handed the pendant to me. ‘I can’t keep it. Whoever sent it clearly meant it for you.’

  ‘No. They probably didn’t realize that we’re twins. No, really, you keep it,’ I said, and tried to hand it back to her.

  ‘No. I don’t want it,’ she said, pushing my hand away. ‘I can get my own like that any time from the market.’

  But we both knew that she couldn’t. The one I held was like nothing I had ever seen down the local market or the shops that sold goth accessories, plus it looked very expensive.

  ‘So you’re saying that these things just arrived in your tin box that had been buried in the garden for ages and that you didn’t put them there?’ asked Adam.

  ‘I swear. But who do you think did? And how did they find out about my box? It’s weird, isn’t it?’

  Lilith got up and went to the door. ‘It’s perfectly obvious,’ she said. ‘You put them there yourself because you wanted to make up a mystery story and draw the attention to yourself for a change.’

  Her words made me reel. Sometimes Lilith could say things that really stung. ‘Don’t think I don’t know that you get jealous sometimes – I know you do … ’

  I opened my mouth to object, but it was true: I did get jealous sometimes and just as I knew what Lilith was feeling sometimes, of course it worked both ways and she knew what I felt too. However, there was no way that I’d planted the gifts myself.

  ‘Yeah, but … who wouldn’t be jealous of you? You’re always the best at everything, always first, but I swear on my grave and on the grave of our first cat, Monty, who is buried out there in the garden, I swear that I did not put those packages in there.’

  Lilith and Adam scrutinized my face.

  ‘She’s telling the truth,’ said Lilith.

  ‘In that case, there has to be another explanation,’ said Adam. ‘I think, my leetle seester, that your hiding place was known to Mum or Dad. I think that Mum felt sorry for you because you don’t win prizes and that when she heard that Lilith had won the poetry prize today she got you some presents to make up for it and had them wrapped at the shop, which is why they looked so professional.’

  Lilith and I nodded. It was exactly the sort of thing that Mum would do. She was always on about the importance of equality and sharing and looking out for those less fortunate than ourselves.

  With Adam’s possible explanation, I felt marginally better and with my presents in my hands, we went up to bed. It was only when we had turned the lights off and snuggled down that I remembered the computer print out, the banner announcing that I am Zodiac Girl and the gift tags in the packages saying for Eve Palumbo, Zodiac Girl. Mum felt exactly the same as Dad and Adam when it came to horoscopes and astrology. She thought it was for fools. So it really couldn’t have been her, after all. But, if it wasn’t her, who was it that had left the parcels? How had they known to hide them in my secret hiding place? Who the heck was PJ? And what did he or she want with me?

  Chapter Six

  New House

  ‘Matteo, Matteo! Put me down!’ Mum cried as Dad gathered her up in his arms.

  ‘But I’m going to carry you over the threshold,’ Dad said as he staggered up the pathway that led to the porch on our new house. ‘New house, new start.’

  Lilith glanced up and down the street behind where our car was parked. ‘How totally humiliating are our parents? I so hope that no one is watching and can see what a pair of lunatics we have as a mum and dad.’

  I laughed. I thought it was sweet and Lilith needn’t have worried because the fiasco didn’t last for long. Even though Mum is slim, verging on skinny, Dad isn’t as fit as he used to be and I could see that his knees were beginning to go. Seconds later, both of them fell in a heap on the front lawn.

  ‘I really can’t take any more of this,’ said Lilith, and made a run for the front door. ‘We’ve only just got here and already I am so embarrassed!’

  At that moment, I heard a phone ringing. Not mine or Lilith’s as we have Mozart’s Requiem on ours. Adam downloaded it for us. He thinks it’s a hoot and, to give him his due, no one else at our school has got anything like it on theirs. No. This was a tone like someone was playing a church organ. It was weird.

  ‘Where’s that noise coming from?’ asked Mum as she got up off the grass and brushed down her trackie bottoms.

  Adam pointed at me. ‘You. It’s coming from your rucksack, Eve,’ he said.

  ‘Aren’t you going to answer it?’ asked Mum.

  I had an awful feeling that it was my new phone, so I shook my head. ‘I’ll get it later.’

  ‘Come here,’ said Mum. ‘I’ll answer it. It’s probably one of your friends. I’ll invite them over to help unpack.’ Before I could stop her, she’d grabbed my bag and next thing I knew she’d pulled out the phone from the side pocket where I’d put it. ‘What’s this?’ she asked. ‘This isn’t your usual phone.’

  ‘I … I … it was a present.’

  Dad came to join her and looked at the phone which, although still ringing, had gone quieter. ‘From who?’ He took it from Mum, turned it over in his hand then gave it back to Mum. ‘It looks expensive. Who gave you this, Eve?’

  I couldn’t think of an answer fast enough and I felt myself going red. Mum’s face clouded. ‘You haven’t taken this from someone in a year below you, have you? I’ve read about the way teenagers mug each other for phones.’

  ‘Mum! How could you think that? Even for a second?’ I asked. I felt appalled that she would think that.

  Mum grinned. ‘Only joking, love. No need to look so serious.’

  ‘Course we wouldn’t think that,’ said Dad. ‘But maybe you bought it from someone who had mugged someone?’

  ‘You have to be kidding! Don’t you even know me? Your own daughter!’

  Mum and Dad both laughed. ‘Only winding you up, Eve,’ said Dad. I gave them my best filthy look. They had a very strange sense of humour sometimes.

  ‘But tell me where you did get it from,’ said Dad. ‘It didn’t just fall from the sky, did it?’

  Adam sniggered. ‘It might have done. It was in her secret tin box that was hidden behind the shed in the garden at the old house.’

  ‘What secret tin?’ asked Dad.

  I shot Adam a filthy look too, but he shrugged his shoulders as if to say, ‘What else could I say?’ I shifted about on my feet while I desperately scanned my mind for an explanation.

  Mum looked from Adam to me then back to Adam then back to me. ‘I’m waiting,’ she said, ‘for the truth.’

  ‘It’s from someone called PJ. I got it because I am this month’s Zodiac Girl. And I found it in my secret tin box when I went to dig it up last night.’

  ‘Secret tin?’ asked Mum.

  Dad sighed and looked wearily over at Mum. She looked like she was waiting for an explanation, but at that moment the removal van came down the street tooting its horn. Dad started waving like mad at the driver to show him where to park.

  Mum was still looking at me. ‘You and I are going to have words later, young lady,’ she said, then she gave me back the phone and went off to join Dad in giving the removal men their instructions.

  ‘Aren’t you going to answer it?’ asked Adam.

  I glanced down at the phone. It had started ringing again even louder when Mum gave it back to me. ‘Suppose,’ I said, and I pressed the button that looked like it might be the answer button. ‘Hello.’

  ‘At last,’ said a foreign voice at the other end. ‘Iz Eve Palumbo who I am speaking viz?’ I couldn’t quite place the accent. He sounded like a mixture of Italian and Russian.

  ‘Um … yeah. Who’s that?’

  ‘I iz PJ Vlasaova. I iz phonings to say I iz your guardian for one month.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘You iz Zodiac Girl, ja?’

  ‘Oh, that? Um. People keep telling me I am.’

  ‘You iz Scorpio, ja, ja?’

  ‘Ja, ja. I mean, yes.’

  ‘So, I iz your guardian. Pluto, i
t be ze ruling planet of Scorpio, so I be your guardian.’

  ‘Guardian? Ruling planet. But what does that mean?’

  ‘It mean you get ze help of me and ze other planets for one month vile you iz Zodiac Girl. But me especially as I am beings the ruler of Scorpio.’

  ‘You and the other planets?’ I asked as I pulled a face at Adam who was listening in.

  ‘Yes. Ve are all here in human form. Iz no big secret unless you vant to make it von.’

  ‘Who is it?’ Adam asked.

  I put my hand over the phone. ‘Some guy called PJ. He sounds bonkers.’

  But Adam had stopped listening. He was watching a car come down the road. A chauffeur-driven black Mercedes with tinted windows.

  ‘Vot iz happening zere?’ asked the voice at the end of the phone.

  ‘My grandmother’s just arrived. Er … I have to go. We’re in the middle of moving,’ I said. I wanted to get him off the phone. Partly because I wasn’t sure who he was and partly because I wanted to go and say hi to Nonna. Nonna is the Italian name for grandmother.

  ‘Ja, ja, you go. Ve be meeting very shortly,’ said PJ as Lilith came out. ‘Sayings hidie hi to grandmothers.’

  ‘Ja, ja. Byeee,’ I said, and clicked the phone shut. I went to join Adam and Lilith who were waving at the car from the pavement.

  Nonna’s car slowed down and her driver parked in front of the removal van. Moments later, she stepped out in a haze of the signature perfume that she always wore that smelt of orange blossom. It was called Zagara DiSicili. I know because she gave Mum a bottle one Christmas. Mum never wears it, but I love to dab a little on for special occasions as it makes me feel grown up and posh.

  Nonna looked elegant and stylish as always in a smart tailored suit, court shoes and a red pashmina thrown over her shoulders, her silver-grey hair cut sleek on her shoulders. She held out her arms to us. Nonna is the only person who Adam lets hug him. Lilith says it’s because he’s working on being her favourite grandson in the hope of inheriting a pile of her dosh. Nonna is loaded. Her family is in the hotel business in Italy and owns a chain of six-star resorts on the Amalfi coast. Adam says that when she pops her Gucci clogs, she’s going to leave one serious legacy. Not that I care. I just love her. She’s one of the few people who can tell Lilith and me apart even when we’re not standing side by side (a lot of people can see the difference when we’re together, but not while we’re apart), plus she knows everything about fashion and design.