~ 12 ~
BirthdayThey hardly ever use the dining room. Only at Christmas time or when some distant relative comes for Sunday lunch. Cassie and Alex use it to play Monopoly if the mood takes them, and every January they spread their school books out over the smooth polished table before they cover them in brown paper and plastic.
Cassie pushes on the window, punching the corner of the pane to get it out of the warped window frame. The sunlight oozes through the coloured glass, streaking Cassie’s arm with translucent red and green.
Her mother comes into the room with knives, forks and plates. ‘Leave the windows, help me set the table.’
Cassie picks up the chattering pile of cutlery. ‘Why can’t Athena come?’
‘I told you already, this is a family dinner.’
‘It’s my birthday. My fourteenth b
