Lilah May's Manic Days

by Curtis, Vanessa

• ISBN13: 9781847802460
• ISBN10: 184780246X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-26
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Summary

Lilah May used to be angry. VERY angry. But not any more. She's got her temper - and her life - back under control. Or has she? Things with her best friend, Bindi, are going from bad to worse. The whereabouts of her brother Jay is still a mystery. And gorgeous Adam Carter is still out of reach. Groo! Can Lilah sort out her family, her friendship and her love life? Or is her anger about to reach all new levels? This funny and moving story is the follow up to The Taming of Lilah May.

Author Biography

Vanessa Curtis' first children's book Zelah Green: Queen of Clean (Egmont) was shortlisted for the 2009 Waterstones Children's Book Prize. The sequel Zelah Green: One More Little Problem was released in July 2010. Curtis is also a freelance book reviewer and the author of three books on Virginia Woolf. As a trained pianist, she also teaches the piano part-time. She works as a reader for a literary consultancy and lives near Chichester harbour, West Sussex, U.K.

Excerpts

'You should ring Bindi up, love,' Mum says. 'It's the right thing to do. You two were such good friends!' I sigh. It's nearly the Christmas holidays and I don't know what's right or wrong anymore I'm not even sure who I am. It's been a rubbish start to winter. Mum and Dad are being a bit stressful at the moment and although I know why, it's starting to make me angry. I have a bit of a problem with anger, you see. It doesn't take much for me to flare up into a rage or to start snapping at Mum or sulking with Dad. My parents are not, and never have been, exactly 'normal.' My mother is a clown. Yes, really. She entertains kids at children's parties and she used to be good at it until our family kind of fell to pieces and she decided to spend more time with me and go to yoga to keep herself calm but over the last few weeks I can see that she's getting all restless and really wants to go back full-time to her job as a clown. My Dad tames lions and he's quite good way at 'taming' ME when I get angry but he spends most of his waking hours obsessing about big cats and sometimes I wish I had a furry mane and a big set of teeth and claws 'cos then he might pay me more attention. We kind of got all this hope because my brother - Jay - rang up after two years when we didn't know whether he was alive or dead. I asked him if he was going to come home soon and the line made this loud humming noise and he wasn't there anymore. We couldn't call him back but the police have been trying to trace the phone box he called from. That was about two weeks ago. Jay's still not back. And Bindi? She let me down. Big time. Imagine the worst thing that a best friend could do to you, and then triple it. Well, that's what Bindi did to me. Groo.'Why won't you just ring her up?' Mum says again. 'Friendship is really important, especially at your age.' We're in the kitchen and Mum has come back from her yoga class and is ready to go to work later, standing at the cooker in her clown outfit which today consists of black and white checked baggy trousers, big black lace-up shoes, a frilly white blouse with giant black buttons on and a frizzy red wig which sticks out in tufts on each side. I glare up from where I've been staring at the television guide for about half an hour. Couldn't actually tell you what's on. All the time I've been staring at the black print there's this boiling feeling of heat rising up from my feet to my head whenever I think of my so-called best mate Bindi. When it first happened it didn't seem very important compared to Jay calling but now it's had a chance to sink in I'm fuming. Maybe I should start keeping my Anger Diary again. I've been too angry to write it for the past fortnight. 'Lilah,' my mother is saying. 'Did you hear me? I said you ought to ring Bindi and talk it through with her. She was always such a nice little friend to you.' I grit my teeth and take a deep breath like Dad has taught me to. I'm supposed to count before speaking in an effort to stop the anger bursting out of my mouth like water from a burst tap. 'Yeah, nice little boyfriend-stealing friend,' I mutter down at my lap. Mum hears me and turns around with a fish slice in one hand and the other hand on her hip. It's kind of weird having a clown giving you a serious look. Mum's lipstick is painted on in the shape of a big red smiling mouth but her eyes behind the white panda circles look stern and concerned. 'Adam Carter wasn't your boyfriend, Lilah,' she says. 'I think you're being a bit unfair.' I scrape my chair back and huff off upstairs to my bedroom and slam the door. Then I feel guilty 'cos Mum was making my favourite fish pie for dinner and I know she's all worried about losing her work during the recession so I creep back downstairs a few minutes later and shuffle back sideways onto my chair in the hope she won't comment on it. Benjie turns round three times under my chair, bites the end of his tail and goes to sleep. Sometimes I think that Benjie is my only true friend. Dad got him for me to help with anger and it's true, I'd never, EVER take out my anger on this sweet, furry puppy. Mum spoons out the pie, covers it in frozen peas and we sit at the kitchen table with the lamp on, steam wafting up from our plates and the radio blabbering away in the background. 'Dad's on his way home,' she says. 'Samson hurt his paw.' Samson is one of my Dad's lions at the zoo. He's a lion tamer, although they don't call them that anymore. Dad says that lions keep him sane. That and going out every Friday for his boy's night out at the pub. Mum goes to her yoga class every Wednesday evening and comes home all tired and bendy. And me? I write in my diary or I look at old family photos or I listen to Slipknot turned up way too loud. When I was twelve I used to confide in Jay until he went all strange and stopped wanting to hang out with his little Sis. After Jay disappeared I told all my feelings to Bindi. But that seems a long time ago now. I know I ought to talk to her but even looking at her makes me feel sick. There's all this uncertainty lurking about everywhere. I worry that Jay won't come back. I worry that I'll hate Bindi forever after what she's done. I worry that my anger will get out of control again. 'Lilah,' says Mum. She throws our plates into the sink and pulls off her itchy orange wig to rake her fingers through her short blonde hair. It stands up on end like a demented hedgehog. 'Give Bindi a call. Talk it through. For me?' She's picked up the phone and is holding it out in my direction. I take it, grit my teeth and try to calm my pounding heart. Then I take the phone upstairs, with Mum wishing me luck and making thumbs-up signs in my direction. I sit on my bed and look at the picture of Bindi and me at last year's school ball. She's got her arm round my shoulders and we're grinning in this stupid way. I'm in a blue strappy silk dress and she's wearing a gorgeous red Sari that her mum made her. I look carefully at the photo to see if I can see anything in Bindi's eyes that might give me a clue as to what happened only a few months after that photo was taken. I can't see anything there though, other than friendship and laughter. She just looks the same as always, eyes sparkling and that big wide grin and perfect white teeth. I bury my head in the pillow and throw the phone across the room.