The Great Ice-Cream Heist Read Online Free Page B

into her imaginings.
    â€˜Your brothers?’ Eva wasn’t exactly sure which of the many young men she’d seen in next-door’s garden were Jamie’s brothers.
    â€˜Michael and Drew. They’re older than me. A lot older. They’re grown up, but they still live at home. They like to party, and Mum and Dad don’t mind.’
    â€˜Do you mind?’ Eva asked quietly. She wondered if that was why he always seemed to be hiding, separate from the rest of his family.
    Jamie shrugged. ‘Your house is different,’ he said. ‘It’s quiet, calm. I think it must be nice, you know, to have your parents there when you come home from school, to have the house tidy and ordered and neat. That’s what I imagine, anyway, when I look at your house.’
    Eva felt a sudden piercing feeling in her chest. She couldn’t answer him.
    â€˜Look.’ Jamie was pointing up into the sky. ‘The first star is out.’
    Eva followed his gaze. The red and orange sky had sunk into inky blue and a bright twinkle of light had appeared.
    â€˜Do you know the best thing I ever saw?’ Jamie paused to make sure Eva was listening.
    Eva found her voice again. ‘No, what?’
    â€˜Once, where we used to live, there was a power cut. It was night-time and all the lights went out in the houses and the streets. The whole place went as dark as a cave. Mum fished around in the kitchen, looking for candles and banging into things. But I went outside. You could see better in the garden than in the house because of the moon and stars. I climbed a tree. I could see the sky the way it’s meant to be. There were so many stars. They were clustered together in a line, like the headlights on a motorway – a go-faster stripe in the sky. That was the Milky Way, I found out later. It was amazing.’
    A second star appeared, near to the first.
    â€˜And you know the most amazing thing?’ Jamie asked.
    â€˜No, what?’
    â€˜The stars are always there. Even when the lights are on. Even in the daytime. That strip of stars is always there, right above our heads. Millions of them.’
    Eva nodded slowly. ‘That is amazing,’ she said.
    They watched the sky as another star appeared, then another, until the pinpricks of light were tossed against the black like glitter on card.
    From her own house, Eva heard a shout. ‘Eva! Eva!’
    She could hear the worry, the panic, in Dad’s voice. She had been out too long.
    â€˜I have to go.’ She kept low over the shed roofs and dropped down into her own garden. She ran into the kitchen and through to the hall.
    Dad stood at the bottom of the stairs, his face twisted with anguish.
    â€˜Where were you?’ he asked. She could see a vein on his neck pulsing hard.
    â€˜Just in the garden,’ she whispered. ‘I’m sorry.’
    â€˜I thought . . .’ Dad gave a faltering laugh. ‘I don’t know. I thought you’d been stolen away. That the elves had taken you. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have panicked.’ He gave her a hug, pulling her into him with strong arms. ‘I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you,’ he said. ‘We’re all we’ve got now. You know that, don’t you? It’s me and you.’
    Eva knew that.
    But there was a part of her that wished she’d been able to stay to watch all the stars come out.

Chapter 7
    Eva and Jamie weren’t on litter duty the next morning. Instead, they had got their hands on some paintbrushes and were part of Shanika’s team. Jamie muttered that Shanika should be collecting litter, seeing as they’d done it yesterday. It was only fair to swap. Eva blushed – they hadn’t actually picked up any litter.
    â€˜Here’s an apron,’ Shanika said.
    â€˜Thanks.’ It was firework-splattered with paint. Eva slipped it over her head.
    â€˜What about me?’ Jamie asked.
    â€˜That was