Double Trouble

© 2009 by Susan Stephenson

The first time I saw Claudia Hubble, I knew she was trouble.

Our mothers became friends at work. For some weird reason, they expected we would be friends, too. When Claudia’s mother went into hospital for a week, Claudia came to stay with us.

I stared as she got out of our rusty Commodore. She was beautiful. Her hair was long and shiny, she wore trendy clothes, and there wasn’t a freckle on her creamy skin. I hated her on sight. I could just imagine what she’d think of my ripped jeans and spiky hair.

Mum introduced us. “You have such lovely manners,” she told Claudia.

I rolled my eyes and stared out the window at my tree house. How could our mothers think we’d get on together when we were exact opposites? I loved to ride my bike and play outside. Claudia looked like a try-hard who spent her whole life indoors, fooling with her clothes and hair.

“Show Claudia around,” Mum suggested, nudging me.

I looked once more at my tree house, back at Claudia’s pretty dress, and sighed.

“Come on then,” I said and stomped upstairs.

I jerked my thumb at the first two doors. “That’s my little brother’s room and the bathroom. This is my room. You can have the bottom bunk.” I kicked some magazines under the desk and pushed my wardrobe door shut.

She set her suitcase down and tried the bunk. “Nice bedcovers. I like Betty Boop, too.” I figured she was being snarky and didn’t answer. Our cat, Missy, wandered in.

“She’ll probably scratch you; she hates strangers.” But Missy jumped up and settled in Claudia’s lap. Stupid cat had joined her fan club, too.

Mum called, “Kel and I are off to the gym. I need you to watch Mikey for me, Jess. Could you and Claudia please make us dessert for tonight? There’s lots of different stuff for a fruit salad to put with the low-fat ice cream.”

Mum’s new girlfriend, Kel, was as skinny as a rake. Since Mum had met Kel, she’d become a born-again health freak, always working out and never buying lollies or donuts. No more pizza on Saturday nights, either. Probably the Beautiful Claudia ate teensy meals and loathed junk food, unlike me.

I plonked Mikey into his high chair and gave him a plain biscuit. Claudia and I stared at each other. At last she suggested, “Chocolate cake would be good for dessert.”

“I think Mum wanted us to make fruit salad.”

“Did she actually ban us from cooking a cake?” asked Claudia. “There’s a yummy looking one in this recipe book I got for my birthday. Look.”

She showed me the picture of a huge Mud Cake, dripping with chocolate frosting. My stomach rumbled, and Claudia giggled. I suppose her body never made strange noises.

“Can you really cook?” I asked, lifting my eyebrows just like Mr. Trent at school.

She copied my eyebrow lift. “How hard can it be? Don’t tell me you’re chicken, Jess?”

I jerked the pantry door open. “Read out what we need,” I ordered.

Soon we had all the ingredients in the mixer. Claudia turned it on with a flick of her wrist. Chocolate goo spurted out of the bowl. It splashed onto the ceiling, the walls, and us.

“Goo-goo,” said Mikey, and smeared brown batter into his mouth and over his face.

“Uh-oh!” said Claudia. She turned the mixer off, and we stood there looking at the sticky mess.

“You’d better clean it up before they get home,” I said.

“It’s your kitchen,” she said.

“It was your idea!”

In the end, we both did it. Claudia mopped the ceiling, and I did the floor. We scraped as much as possible from the bowl and the bench into the cake pan and put it in the oven to bake. Boring jobs don’t take as long when you share them.

By the time we’d finished, Mikey looked like a little chocolate pudding with bright blue eyes and two white teeth. He held his arms up to me.

“I’d better give him a bath,” I said. “I guess you’ll want to change your dress.”

“No, I’ll help you,” Claudia said. “It must be fun having a baby brother.”

We stripped Mikey and dumped him in the bath. The water turned mud-colored straight away. Claudia grabbed the soap but let it slip so it splashed me.

“Hey!” I laughed and sloshed bathwater her way. It was on! We had the best water fight. Mikey joined in by scooting backwards and forwards, making waves.

When we ran out of puff, the bathroom was one giant puddle. I looked at Claudia. With stringy wet hair, a chocolate-smeared nose, and a sopping dress, she looked nothing like a stuck-up try-hard. I was glad I’d gotten to know the real Claudia. I grinned at my new friend.

“Claudia Hubble,” I said, “you’re nothing but trouble.”

“Jessica Knight, you’re probably right,” replied Claudia. We giggled again, got Mikey dressed, and went downstairs to grab the mops.

“Uh-oh!” I sniffed. “What’s that burning smell?”

Susan Stephenson