The Trouble With Nina E-Book

Elle McNicoll

• Herausgeber: Knights Of
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 45

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The Trouble With Nina From multi-award winning author Elle McNicoll comes an ebook exclusive short story set in the world of A Kind of Spark. Nina isn't used to being on the margins. But her sisters Addie and Keedie are close in a way she can't understand, and it's a brand-new feeling. On Halloween night, the most restrained Darrow sister is trying desperately to be the 'best'. But Nina is about to learn that sometimes it is better to let go of the rules...

Leseprobe

i

ii

iii

To Caitlin, for making me like Nina.

To the neurotypicals who respect my work, even if they don’t always understand it.

And to you, if you’re still here. Thank you!

Contents

Title PageDedicationPart OnePart TwoPart ThreePart FourPart FiveAlso by Elle McNicollPraise for A Kind of SparkElle McNicoll: AuthorAbout the PublisherCopyright

1

  Part One 

Halloween falls on a Friday this year and that means anything can happen. No school in the morning, no curfew and even the parents turn into teenagers.

Juniper, our village, takes Halloween very seriously. I’m at Farmer Muir’s pumpkin patch with my twin, Keedie. We’ve come straight from school because it’s already getting dark, and we have a list of things that we need to get done before we take our baby sister out for her first year of trick-or-treating. I cycle through the list again in my head:

Buy the best pumpkin.

Carve the pumpkin.

Put it out by the front door.

Put all of the sweets out.

Drop Addie off with her group for trick-or-treating.

Then Keedie and I will go to the village hall to enter 2the Juniper Halloween Costume Contest.

“We shouldn’t call it trick-or-treating,” Keedie says as we approach the large field of pumpkins. “That’s so American. It’s ‘guising’ in Scots.”

“It’s the same thing. Kids dress up and knock on doors. One ends up eating too much and gets ill. One has to go home because they’re scared. Someone picks up the wrong nine-year-old dressed as a mummy. It’s standard.” I sigh at Keedie’s back as she strides ahead of me.

“Yeah, but we invented it. Scotland, I mean. It should be called what we call it.”

I ignore her. I’m disturbed by the sight in front of us. There are so many people already here, inspecting the pumpkins. The large emerald field is littered with orange globes of all sizes, and the other villagers are inspecting them all. The good ones might be gone already.

“Nina,” Farmer Muir smiles warmly at me, then nervously greets Keedie. Everyone knows: she’s the fiery one, I’m the quiet one. “Some good ones hidden up at the back.”

“Thanks,” I mutter, not convinced. Mr Laird and Mrs Ross are already fighting over a particularly big 3pumpkin. Possibly the handsomest one of the bunch.

“That’s a good one,” Keedie says, and the disappointment I’m feeling is mirrored in her voice. We exchange baleful glances. “Come on. We’ll try the back.”

We pick our way through the patch, occasionally stopping to inspect a small, weak-looking pumpkin. We examine and discuss without ever saying a word. It’s an occasional twin thing. Everyone likes to believe that we can read each other’s minds, which of course we can’t. Keedie is autistic and I’m not; our brains could not be more different. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own wordless way of communicating sometimes.

Our younger sister, Addie, is eight and autistic, too. She’s only just started going to appointments for it. She and Keedie are closer than ever and this is the first time all three of us will be celebrating Halloween together. Addie has never been trick or treating until today. She wasn’t interested until she watched a pile of Halloween films with Keedie. That got her all excited for it.

I’m trying not to think about their closeness too much. They don’t seem to need me at all, they’re in 4their own world most of the time. It’s a place they’ve carved out for the two of them, because the world can be so unfair to them. I don’t have a key to that door.

I wish that I did.

“Look!” Keedie suddenly cries, pointing to something right at the edge of the patch. I see it in seconds. Large and bulging and proud. I don’t know how others have missed it. Maybe because it’s on the margins, right at the back where no one would think to look. We dive for it and lift it together.

“It’s the size of a car!” Keedie exclaims. She’s exaggerating but it really is big. We’ve outdone ourselves.

We move to carry it back to Farmer Muir. Mum and Dad gave me the money to pay for it. When—

“Drop the pumpkin!”

We turn at the sound of the order. It’s the Fox Boys. Callum, the eldest, is our age: sixteen. He’s with his two feral younger brothers, whose names I can’t remember. I keep my face impassive but Keedie scowls at them, her face filling with outrage.

“You’re not getting this magnificent beast,” she snaps at them, always ready for a tussle. “We found it first!”

“Did not,” Callum says, spitting over his shoulder 5in a way that makes Keedie and me grimace. “Saw it yesterday, called shotgun on it.”

“Well, your name isn’t on it,” Keedie says, before pretending to spit just as he did. She makes it look cartoonish and stupid and I see the insult spike through him. She’s so good at that. She’s so good at making the silly things people do seem pathetic. She doesn’t know how good she is. I’ve been on the receiving end of it many times and it’s brutal. Callum’s face is as red as a pepper.

“There are loads of other good ones near the back,” I say, desperate to keep the peace. I’m always nervous of confrontation. I don’t like the idea of being disliked. “Big ones, maybe better ones.”