Ms Jenson Junior leaves the room and closes the door behind her.
I unpack the rucksack that Sarah gave me.
It contains my ChargDisc, my rainbow T-shirt, my red corduroy-style skirt and a piece of paper money. It also contains the Vermillion 1010 Colour-E-Zee Wide Fibre Tip pen, the blue-twist marble, the red cellophane fish and my warehouse label with the sparkling sticker and strawberry drawing on it.
My belongings.
I put them all away in my cupboard.
CHAPTER 20
Dear Ivy
How are you? I’m missing you very much. (My room has become very untidy again since you left!!!)
I hope everything is OK there. I’ve been watching the news and I’m guessing you might not have been able to leave the house much. I hope you are staying safe.
Are there some interesting things to do at Ms Jenson’s house? (Has she got Aces Blast!?????)
Things are going OK back here. You’ll be pleased to hear I apologised to Milly as soon as I could and she even sat with me and Keanna at lunch last week.
Mum and Dad say hello. I finally managed to get them to calm down enough to listen to me and they realise now that you actually saved me from the new river. (You never know, perhaps they might start to listen to me a bit more now – some hope!)
Anyway, Dad says to tell you that he has been teaching me to play Ball-In-A-Sock (tragic, I know, but it keeps him happy) and Mum says to tell you that she saw a rainbow the other day and it made her think of you. They both say they’re sorry for what happened with the police by the river. And also they both hope Ms Jenson is treating you well and said you must let them know if there’s anything you need.
I went with Keanna to her mum’s last weekend. It was great! Keanna’s mum’s boyfriend (Nigel) has got a puppy called Spam and we took him for a walk three times on Saturday and twice on Sunday. And Nigel’s sons (Joe and Isaac) were there – they’re 14 and 16 and they thought it was really cool that I slept at the bottom of a river for a whole night and got carried out by an android!!!
And guess what? Our biggest news is that, because Mum’s work is going so well at the moment, Dad is stopping work for a while. So he’ll be around every evening after school and every weekend and we’re going to do loads of stuff together. He says he wants us to “explore the great outdoors” so he has bought a tent and two blow-up beds and we’re going camping tomorrow! I’ll let you know how it goes. (I’ve banned him from bringing his Ball-In-A-Sock ball and sock.)
Anyway, write back to me, Ivy, and tell me what you’ve been doing.
Keep safe.
Lots of love from Sarah,
your true friend.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Acknowledgements
I’d like to send my huge thanks to:
My editor, Kirsty Stansfield, and the whole brilliant team at Nosy Crow.
Nancy Miles, agent extraordinaire.
Illustrator Sam Kalda and designer Nicola Theobald, who created TrooFriend’s amazing cover.
The awesome Bath Spa University MAWYP class of 2016.
All my lovely fellow Whatnots, with a special mention for Di, whose childhood story inspired this book.
Adam Forster and Faith Lowe, who gave advice along the way.
Katy and Naomi, who reminded me about the fortune-telling fish.
My good friend Margaret, who always keeps my writing electronically safe without even peeping.
Simon, who loved this book from the very first chapter and hassled me for further instalments.
Dennis, Victor, Janice, Alan & Claire, who are all completely wonderful.
Copyright
First published in the UK in 2020 by Nosy Crow Ltd
The Crow’s Nest, 14 Baden Place
Crosby Row, London, SE1 1YW
www.nosycrow.com
ISBN: 978 1 78800 347 6
eISBN: 978 1 78800 348 3
Nosy Crow and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Nosy Crow Ltd
Text copyright © Kirsty Applebaum, 2020
Cover and inside illustrations copyright © Sam Kalda, 2020
The right of Kirsty Applebaum to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of Nosy Crow Ltd.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A. Typeset by Tiger Media
Papers used by Nosy Crow are made from wood grown in sustainable forests
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
TrooFriend Page 14