The Friends Forever Collection. Jean Ure

who’s to say he’ll be there again this year? In any case, what about Ty? He’s gorgeous, too! And he’s stacking shelves in the supermarket … I might drop by there tomorrow.

      Jem says she and him are on the same shift. She says that sometimes they even stand and stock the same shelves together … I’m just glad she doesn’t fancy him!!! Well, she does, but she’s got Kieron. Otherwise I’d be tearing my hair out! I think tomorrow I’ll definitely go down there. Just to suss things out. The two dwarfs can manage on their own for an hour or so. I mean, they’re nearly twelve years old, for heaven’s sake! That’s quite old enough to start taking responsibility for themselves.

      They’re downstairs at the moment, watching a video. Moaning and whining because I made them go into the garden and run about. Left to themselves, they’d never move anywhere at more than snail’s pace. The little fat thing is all squashy, like an overripe plum. The other one is so skinny she looks like a puff of wind would blow her over. They don’t get enough exercise! If I had my way I’d make them do two laps of the hockey field every morning, before school. I think I’ll get them running round the garden again tomorrow, before I go and see Jem. That way, they’ll be too EXHAUSTED to get up to mischief.

      Even if they’re not, who cares? I’m sick to death of them!

      

      Mum came to collect me at four o’clock. Annie and me were still collapsed on the sofa, watching videos.

      “You look as if you’ve had a busy day,” said Mum.

      I couldn’t decide if that was her idea of a joke, or if she was being serious. Rachel was there. She said, “I made them go into the garden and get some exercise.”

      “Good for you!” said Mum.

      “She only did it because she wanted to practise hitting things,” said Annie.

      “Excuse me,” said Rachel, “I did it because you need to lose weight.”

      “Megan doesn’t need to lose weight! If you’ve made her lose weight she’ll probably disappear down the plughole next time she has a bath, and it’ll be all your fault.”

      “I just hope they behaved themselves,” said Mum. “It’s very good of you, Rachel, to keep an eye on them.”

      “She’s paid for it!” shrilled Annie.

      “People are paid for emptying dustbins,” said Mum, “but I wouldn’t want to do it.”

      “It doesn’t need any skill,” said Annie. “You just have to be a big bully, is all.”

      Mum laughed. “Well! Sooner Rachel than me. I trust Megan hasn’t been too much bother?”

      “It’s not Megan,” said Rachel, looking hard at Annie. Annie stuck her tongue out. “It’s her,” said Rachel.

      As Mum and me walked back through the Estate, Mum said that Annie was obviously “a bit of a handful”.

      Of course, I immediately leapt to the defence of my best friend.

      “It’s Rachel,” I said. “She’s so bossy!”

      “It’s difficult,” said Mum, “when you’re only sixteen. And after all, she has been left in charge.”

      I grumbled that it didn’t give her the right to make us go and chase balls all round the garden.

      “That’s not what she’s there for!”

      “I’m sure she’s doing her best,” said Mum.

      “Bossy,” I muttered.

      “Just keeping you out of trouble.”

      “We didn’t need to be kept out of trouble! We weren’t in trouble.”

      “Maybe she thought you were going to be.”

      “Well, we weren’t!”

      “You promise?”

      “Promise!” I said. “We weren’t doing anything.”

      “All right,” said Mum. “I believe you.”

      Mum always does believe me, which is why I feel that I have to tell her the truth. It is quite hard at times!

      We walked on, through Snicket Link, to our part of the Estate. It’s only, like, fifteen minutes from Annie’s, but Mum doesn’t like me going through the Link by myself, which is why she always comes to collect me. The Link is this very long, narrow path between blocks of flats. It has high walls on each side, so that even in daytime it’s quite dark and scary.

      Annie’s mum doesn’t seem to mind Annie going through it when she comes to visit me, but Mum says it’s too dangerous. She says anyone could be lurking there. If I go to Annie’s by myself I always take the long way round, by the road.

      Annie lives in a house, but Mum and me live in a maisonette, which I know from French lessons means a little house. What it is, it’s two little houses, one on top of the other. We have the one on top. It is quite tiny, but it is a real little house; not a flat!

      Mum asked me what I was going to do after tea, and I said I was going to write my book review for school.

      “Harriet Chance, I suppose?” said Mum. Mum knows all about Harriet Chance! She can hardly help it, considering my room is full to bursting with Harriet Chance books. “Which one are you doing?”

      I said I was going to do Candyfloss, because a) I’d just watched the video – for about the ninety-eighth time! – and b) it was one of my favourites. This is what I wrote:

      CANDYFLOSS

       Candyfloss is eleven years old and lives with her mum. She has no brothers or sisters, but often wishes that she had. She has no dad, either. Her dad left home when Candy was only little, so that she can remember hardly anything about him. This makes her sad at times but mostly she is quite happy just to be with her mum.

      I have just had a sudden thought: maybe this is why Candyfloss is one of my big favourites? Because Candy is like me! Lots of Harriet Chance characters are a bit like me, one way or another. For instance, there is Victoria Plum, who loves reading; and April Rose, who gets into trouble when her best friend leads her astray. But Candyfloss is the one who is most like me!

      To continue.

       Candy is quite a shy sort of person, who doesn’t think very highly of herself. If anything happens, she always assumes she is in the wrong. Like if someone bumps into her in the street she will immediately say sorry, even if it was not her fault.

      Like at school, just the other day, this big pushy girl called Madeleine Heffelump (that is what