Page 11 of Darling Girls

‘Really?’ Jessica cried. Her voice squeaked with emotion.

‘Why not? Mummy. I like the sound of it, don’t you?’

Jessica told her shereallyliked the sound of it.

‘Say it now.’

‘Mummy.’ Jessica giggled.

‘Sat it again!’

‘Mummy!’

‘Shout it!’

‘Mummy Mummy Mummy!’ Jessica screamed at the top of her lungs.

‘Yes,’ Miss Fairchild said with a nod. ‘I like it. It’s settled, my darling girl.’

Jessica’s heart was so full she thought it might burst.

6

JESSICA

BEFORE

School came as a rude shock to Jessica and Miss Fairchild both.

‘I don’t want to go,’ Jessica said on her first day. Her arms were wrapped around Miss Fairchild’s legs tightly, a pair of handcuffs. ‘I’mnotgoing.’

The classroom felt loud and cluttered and chaotic and made Jessica yearn for home, where she knew how things worked and who was looking after her. Compared to Wild Meadows, school felt barbaric.

‘It’s all right, honey,’ said Miss Ramirez, her prep teacher. She squatted beside Jessica, whose head was buried in Miss Fairchild’s skirt. ‘We’re going to have a lot of fun. And at the end of the day, Mummy will be here to pick you up, okay?’

Jessica looked up at her. Miss Fairchild nodded; her eyes were also full of tears.

‘Maybe I should stay for a bit . . .’ she started, but Miss Ramirez was firm.

‘No. Let’s start as we mean to go on.’

Jessica howled as Miss Fairchild walked away. And, for the next few hours, she stared out the window, hoping to see her mother hurrying back to declare it was all a misunderstanding. It was only when Miss Ramirez asked her to organise the coloured pencils into containers that Jessica turned away from the window. Since she was stuck here, she might as well help.

After the pencils, she did the crayons and then the textas. When she was done, she asked Miss Ramirez if there was anything else that needed organising.

‘Jessica!’ the teacher exclaimed. ‘Have you done all this? My goodness, aren’t you amiracle. Class, what do we say to Jessica for organising all our things so beautifully?’

‘Thank you, Jessica,’ they droned at her.

Jessica had to admit that she didn’t hate it.

By the end of the day the craft supplies cupboard was in perfect order. It broke Jessica’s heart a little to hear that, tomorrow, they’d be getting things out of there again. Just when it was looking so good!

When they burst out of the classroom, Miss Fairchild was standing at the front of a pack of anxious-looking mothers watching the gate. Jessica ran headlong into her arms.

‘I was so worried,’ she said, bending to cover Jessica in kisses. ‘Was it okay?’

‘It was!’ Jessica said. ‘I organised the craft cupboard and washed the paintbrushes and sorted the paper into colour piles. And I made a friend! Bonnie and I coloured in a picture of a fish!’