The Flower Power Collection - Jean Ure

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picked out the ones that sounded like they’d be most fun. Maybe she hated Riverside. Maybe I should have mentioned that my favourite band is Flying High, except that Lily says it is a nerd’s band and anyway not many people have heard of it.

      Maybe she’d taken one look at my photograph and thought, “Puke! Purlease!”

      Maybe I was doomed to just never have a real proper friend ever, and that was all there was to it.

      And then I got home on Wednesday, and there it was, waiting for me… my letter!

      Lily said, “Who does she know that writes letters?”

      “None of your business,” I said.

      “Who’s it from?”

      “Not telling!”

      I turned the envelope over in my hands. It was pink and smelled of fruit and had two little furry cat stickers in one corner.

      “Aren’t you going to open it?” said Lily.

      “Not right now,” I said.

      “Why not?”

      “Because I don’t want to!”

      “So w —”

      “Lily, just leave Violet alone,” said Mum. “Letters are personal! How would you like it if she pried into yours?”

      Lily tossed her head. “Wouldn’t ever have one! Don’t know anyone who still writes them!”

      She can say what she likes. I enjoy having letters! I like seeing my name on the front of the envelope and I like looking at the stamps and studying the postmark and trying to guess who could have sent it. (Though I have so few that I almost always know!) I could guess that this was from Katie by the little cat stickers; and anyway, who else would be writing to me?

      I waited till we’d finished tea then I rushed upstairs to my room and tore open the envelope. I’d gone all trembly because I had this fear she might be going to say, “Thank you for writing to me but I’m afraid I have found someone else to be my pen pal.” Someone who sounded like more fun!

      It is terrible to have so little confidence, but it is what happens when you are one half of a twin and the other half keeps telling you that you are a nerdy party pooper. I tell her that she is a noisy windbag, but being a noisy windbag is not necessarily such a bad thing to be. Being a party pooper is the worst.

      I slid the letter out of the envelope r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y. It was quite thick. It was three pages! I couldn’t believe it!

      The first thing I saw was the address, which was in London. I would rather it had been somewhere miles away, such as for instance the Outer Hebrides, as all I wanted was a pen pal. I didn’t want to meet her! But I thought that I would read the letter first and worry about other things later.

       Hi, Violet!

       This is Katie, writing back to you. I was really pleased to get your letter! It came just this morning, so here I am replying IMMEDIATELY.

       I would love it if we could be pen pals! You sound incredibly interesting and exactly the sort of person I have dreamt of writing to. I hope I sound like the sort of person you have dreamt of writing to!

       I will tell you about myself, and then you can decide. I live with my mum, whose name is Clare. I don’t have any brothers or sisters but I do have two cats. They are:

       Bertie, who is small and stripy

       Bella, who is small and black.

       Bertie is full of fun! The other night while we were asleep he stole a toilet roll from out of the bathroom and carried it all the way downstairs, then chewed it to pieces and spat out the bits. When we woke in the morning it looked like confetti! We thought someone had got married!

       Bella is a sweetheart. She is very round and cuddly. She just loves her grub! Mum says she cannot decide whether she should be called Belle of the Ball or Bella the Ball!

       Please tell me about your cat Horatio. I would love to see a picture of him!! Thank you for sending me your photo. I am sending you one of me. I hope it will not put you off!!!

       I noticed in yours that there was another girl at the end of the row that looked just like you! Is she your sister?

       Are you twins? I would love to be a twin! I think it would be so neat for there to be two of you and no one knowing which was which. I said this to Mum and she said you could get up to all kinds of mischief. But she also said, maybe it would not be quite as much fun as I seem to think. Is it??? Tell me about your mum and dad. My mum is a teacher, she teaches violin and piano. She does it partly in a school (not my one!) and partly at home. When she is teaching violin the house is full of unearthly screechings and scrapings and sometimes my cat Bella sits outside the door and joins in. She thinks she is a violin!

       I love to draw! I am not very musical but I think when I grow up I will be an artist of some kind. What will you be?

       Underneath your photo it says “Mrs Frost’s class”. But I counted up and there are only fourteen people! We have twenty-eight in my class. I go to St Saviour’s Juniors. Where do you go?

       I hope you don’t think I am being too nosy but it is just because I am so interested. Whatever you want to know about me, you can ask!

       I had better stop now in case I am boring you. Please, please, PLEASE, write back! If you would still like to be my pen pal, that is.

       Lots of luv

       From

       Katie Saunders XXX

       PS Where does an elf go to get fit? To an elf farm! Ha ha!

      The minute I’d finished reading the letter I went hurtling back downstairs, thump thud bang! I sounded like Lily.

      “Mum!” I cried. “I’ve got a pen friend!”

      “Really?” said Mum. “That’s wonderful! Where did you find her?”

      “If it is a her,” said Dad.

      “Dad! Of course it is,” I said. I wouldn’t want to write to a boy! “Her name’s Katie and she’s the same age as me and she has two cats and her mum teaches the piano and she advertised in Go Girl for someone to be her pen pal!”

      “So you wrote to her?” said Mum. “That’s very enterprising! Can I have a read, or is it private?”

      I hesitated. “You can read this first one,” I said. “But after that they’ll be private!”

      I thought that in future letters we would probably share all kinds of secrets that I certainly wouldn’t want Mum reading! But there wasn’t anything secret yet, and I was just so bursting with pride. Katie found me interesting! Katie wanted us to be pen pals! I thought if Mum read her letter it would make her happy and she would stop worrying quite so much about me living in Lily’s shadow.

      I was right. It worked!

      “She sounds lovely,” said Mum. “I think that was such an excellent idea, Violet! Finding yourself a pen friend. I see she lives with her mum… I wonder what happened to her dad?”

      I said that I had wondered that, too. “Maybe they’re divorced?” I said. Lots of girls at school have mums and dads who are divorced.

      Mum

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