School Run Read Online Free

drove along in silence, punctuated by bleeps as the girls texted their friends (they seemed unable to amuse themselves unless they had a mobile in their hands) and Jack’s occasional comments. ‘Look! Dog!’ he cooed, pointing to a car next to them at the lights, with a Border collie in the back.
    ‘Clever boy,’ said Natalie, and cuddled him.
    Even the girls loved him. Two was such a sweet age, thought Evie wistfully. At times, she resented Robin for having that precious time with Jack at home – time that her own relentlessly busy schedule refused her. She yawned. That meeting last night – on a Sunday, for heaven’s sake! – had gone on so late that it was still buzzing round her head. No wonder she found it hard to focus on the road. She wound down the window, bracing herself for the cool morning air that would wake her up, unlike the dull air conditioning.
    ‘Shut the window,’ groaned Natalie.
    ‘No, keep it open,’ giggled Leonora.
    ‘Bloody hell – who’s farted?’ asked Natalie admiringly.
    ‘Pooh. He who smelt it dealt it!’
    ‘Shut up.’
    Evie frowned, trying not to breathe in as the stench invaded the car. ‘Can’t you put those phones down for a minute? Why do you need to text your friends when you’re seeing them any second? And please don’t say “shut up” in front of Jack.’
    At the sound of his name, Jack leaned forward. ‘Flowers!’ he said, pointing to a bunch tied to a lamp post at the corner of Acacia Road.
    ‘Why did someone put them there?’ asked Leonora.
    ‘Because someone was killed at that spot, dumbo,’ snapped Natalie. ‘Just like Mum says we’ll be killed one day if Evie doesn’t stop driving so fast.’
    ‘What?’ Evie glanced furiously over her shoulder, and turned back just in time to stop as the car in front slowed. ‘Say that again.’
    ‘Nothing,’ mumbled Natalie.
    Evie could feel herself sweating underneath her cool, well-pressed Stella McCartney suit. ‘Well, you can tell your mother that I don’t drive fast. I drive very carefully. And if she’s worried she’d better come and talk to me about it or drive you to school herself. Got it?’
    For a few moments, there was silence in the back, punctuated by the odd titter from the girls, who had clearly enjoyed the effect they’d had on their step-mother. Evie promised herself a showdown with Robin over this one. Bloody cheek! How dare Rachel talk like that behind her back? Just because she didn’t hang around in the traffic – you couldn’t afford to when you were battling to make Registration – didn’t mean she was unsafe. She knew when it was OK to take risks, just like that red Fiesta with the dog in the back was doing now, sailing through an amber light.
    In fact, she prided herself on her skill with the school run, which was pure unadulterated chaos. You needed sharp instincts plus a finely tuned sense of distance to avoid car doors that opened in your path or idiots who forgot to indicate when pulling out from the school dropping-off bay and who would – if Evie hadn’t reacted sharply – have been recuperating at the bodyshop by now.
    ‘Badron, badron, badron,’ chanted Jack.
    ‘Not again,’ moaned Leonora. ‘That’s getting on my nerves.
    Where’s he picked it up?’
    ‘Probably a child at nursery who’s upsetting him,’ said Natalie. ‘Never mind, Jack. You tell this Ron kid that we’ll sort him out for you.’
    They loved Jack far more than they could ever like her, thought Evie, grimly. Thank heavens they were nearly at school. Now all she had to do was park. Good, a Volvo was about to move off. She honked to indicate she was in a rush. The driver – a skinny blonde in sunglasses – gave her a filthy look, put down a mobile phone and pulled out, only just missing her left wing mirror. Lethal. If that woman had had a ‘How am I driving?’ notice in her back window, Evie would have reported her. She wasn’t sure about Martine either, and wondered how Rachel