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‘That will stretch our acting abilities,’ Snowball pointed out. Us cats were superior to all other animals, so I knew exactly what she meant.

Chapter Ten

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Something rained on our parade, both literally and figuratively, and the excitement of the show, and having found the perfect venue, was suddenly overshadowed. Our families were incredibly tight knit, so when something happened we all heard about it, we all felt a part of it. The good and the bad. And this was bad.

Tommy had been excluded from school for a week for cheating on an exam. He had written some answers on his arm and of course, because it was possibly the most stupid thing in the world, he got caught. Honestly, where did that boy get it from? Aleksy told Connie, and Connie told Sylvie, and Hana overheard so she came round to tell me and George. At the same time, Claire was on the phone to Franceska who, by the sounds of it, was crying. Then Matt, who had been to see Tomasz, told Polly and everyone ended up at our house to discuss it and what they were going to do about it. Everyone apart from Tommy, of course, and Aleksy, who had been asked to keep an eye on his troublesome brother. I didn’t envy him that job.

They had called a meeting of the adults, and I sat along with Claire, Jonathan, Matt, Polly, Sylvie, Marcus and Tomasz and Franceska in our living room. Connie was babysitting Theo, who would probably be much easier to look after than Tommy.

‘We don’t know what to do,’ Tomasz said. ‘I’m so angry.’

‘You had to go to the headmaster’s office again?’ Matt asked.

‘Yes, I felt like I was in trouble too as their headmaster is quite scary. Tommy had been warned already about his behaviour and now here he was, acting up again, and he wouldn’t say anything. Just kept mumbling. They even asked if there were problems at home,’ Franceska was tearful as she explained. Tomasz put his arm around her.

‘What did Tommy say when you left the school?’ Polly asked.

‘He actually was upset and said he was sorry. He said he was trying to do better, but he was worried he’d fail the test and he wanted to work with Jonathan, so he needed to make sure he did well in the exam.’

‘Oh God, I told him he had to get good grades if he wanted work experience. I hope it’s not my fault.’ Even Jonathan sounded upset.

‘No, of course not,’ Tomasz said. ‘I think he’s just a bit lost as he’s at that age where it can go either way. But of course, now he’s been excluded, we need to get him on the straight and narrow. We thought rather than keep shouting at him we’d come and ask for advice.’

‘He’s been grounded for so long, he’ll be fifty before he can go out at this rate,’ Franceska added with a sad smile.

‘Rather than punish him, maybe give him tasks to do, to keep him busy,’ Claire said.

‘Look, I meant what I said,’ Jonathan added. ‘He can do some work experience with me, at some point, but let’s make sure he gets his act together first, as it would seem like too much of a reward for bad behaviour now.’

‘Hey what about this Christmas show?’ Marcus said suddenly.

‘We can’t talk about that now, we need to focus on Tommy,’ Sylvie pointed out.

‘No, I mean get him involved with that. It’s such a great thing that Aleksy and Connie are doing. It will keep him busy, and because we’re all involved we can all keep an eye on him,’ Marcus explained.

‘He doesn’t like being on stage, he refuses to be in any school plays,’ Franceska said.

‘But we need so much more than just people to be in it. Posters, for starters, then help building props. Tomasz, you said you’d be in charge of that so he could help you!’ Claire sounded excited.

‘He loves social media and making videos,’ Franceska added helpfully.

‘Yes and we’ll need all that to help raise awareness,’ Polly added.

‘So we tell him he has to help with the show to prove to us that he really is trying to change things around?’ Franceska still sounded doubtful.

‘I think it’s great. It also means that he can work with Aleksy, which would help re-build their relationship. We can all do our bit to help him, great idea, Marcus,’ Matt sounded excited.

‘Yes, nice one, Marcus,’ Jonathan said. ‘Can we also get him to work with the little ones? He used to be so good with them.’

‘Great idea,’ Claire replied. ‘I know Toby and Summer miss playing with him. He can make posters with them.’

‘That’s sort of a punishment,’ Jonathan said with a laugh.

‘Jonathan, our kids are great, so of course it’s not a punishment,’ Claire chastised, but with a giggle.

‘Well, it might be. I mean, Summer will probably try to boss him around something chronic.’ Jonathan laughed.

‘So we keep him busy, we get him involved with the good cause, he’s forced to spend time with the family, and it’s sort of a punishment but not a terrible one?’ Franceska summed it up.

‘Exactly.’