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she feels ready to tell you.”

      “Yes, I was going to,” I said. I am not like Lily! Lily always goes rushing in with both feet. “Where is your dad?” is probably the very first question she’d ask. I try to consider other people’s feelings, ‘cos I know how I would feel – which just makes it all the worse when I go and say stupid things like I did to Ayesha about her face.

      Mum folded the letter and handed it back to me. “It’s nice she lives so near,” she said. “When you get to know each other better, you’ll be able to meet.”

      I said, “Mm!” Doing my best to sound enthusiastic.

      “In fact,” said Mum, “why don’t y —”

      “Look!” I waved the envelope in the air. Quickly, quickly, before Mum could get carried away and start arranging things. “She’s sent me a photo! D’you want to see it?”

      I was just handing the photograph to Mum when Lily came crashing into the room. Needless to say, she had to come bundling over to take a look.

      “Who’s that?” she said.

      I told her that it was a picture of my pen pal. “Katie.”

      “Hm!” Lily studied it, critically. “Her nose is like a blob.”

      “I think she looks rather cute,” said Mum. “Like a little pixie!”

      Lily said, “Pixie,” in tones of deepest scorn.

      “Munch munch munch,” said Dad, pretending to nibble a carrot.

      Lily flushed bright scarlet. Our front teeth are just the tiniest bit rabbity, so that we have to wear a brace. Lily really hates it! She is really self-conscious about it.

      “Well, I’m sorry, but people who live in glass houses,” said Dad.

      Angrily, Lily said, “What’s that s’pposed to mean?”

      “It means,” said Mum, “that we do not mock the way other people look unless we want to be mocked in return. What are you doing down here, anyway? I thought you were going to have a bath?”

      “Am! Don’t want anything!” shouted Lily; and she slammed out of the room and went thudding back up the stairs.

      “That girl!” said Mum.

      I pointed out that it was all right for Mum, she was only her mother. “I’m her twin!”

      I decided that I would write back to Katie straight away and tell her that being a twin was not always as much fun as you might think.

       Hi, Katie!

       Thank you for writing to me so quickly. And for writing such a lovely long letter. I am SO glad you want to be my pen pal! I am writing back at once as I know what it is like when you are waiting and waiting for something to come, and thinking that it never will and worrying to yourself in case you have said something to upset the person.

       First of all I will try to answer your questions! The girl at the end of the row that you thought looked like me is my sister, Lily. We are twins but NOT IDENTICAL. In fact we are just about as different as two people can be! You mum is right, it is not always fun to be a twin, although sometimes of course it can be. Like for instance if you dress the same and pretend to people that you are each other. We used to do this quite a lot when we were little but we don’t do it so often now as we are so completely different that it probably wouldn’t work. And anyway Lily wouldn’t want people to think that she was me and I wouldn’t want them to think that I was her. No way!

       What I would really, really like would be if it was just me on my own, but if Mum was to have another baby I would love a little brother! But this unfortunately is not very likely to happen as Mum says two children are quite enough for one family what with the world being over-populated and people starving, etc., and in any case they are both so busy they probably wouldn’t have time for one. A baby, I mean.

       You asked me to tell you about my mum and dad. My mum is called Emma and my dad is called Steve. They both work all the time, which is why they are too busy to have another baby. (Plus over-population, etc.) Dad does things with computers and Mum has a flower shop, where sometimes I help on a Saturday. Lily doesn’t help. She has lots of posh friends and thinks it is beneath her to have a mum who works in a shop, even if the shop is her own one. You can see it is true that we are not at all alike.

       Another thing you ask is what I will be when I grow up. I haven’t yet decided! But it will not be anything to do with computers, I don’t think. Maybe I could be a flower artist and make flower arrangements for weddings and parties, etc. But if I cannot do that (as I may not be artistic enough) then perhaps I will be something to do with writing. I really love to write stories! But I cannot do the pictures to go with them. You are so lucky that you can draw! I wish wish WISH that I could. All I can do is stick figures.

       I expect you will say that this is utterly pathetic and the sort of stuff you would do in Reception, but it is just one of those things. I can see pictures in my head, but when I pick up my pen my hand won’t do what I want it to. This is probably something that you will not understand, as I expect when you pick up a pen it does exactly what you tell it to.

       It would be just SO brilliant if I could write stories and you could illustrate them! But only if you want to, of course. You might not want to. You would most probably be too busy doing drawings of your own.

       I just loved the pictures you did of your cats! It is so nice that you are a cat person. One of my nans has a cat allergy, which means that whenever she comes to stay poor Horatio is banished. He has to go to a cattery for what Mum calls “a little holiday”. But I am sure he hates it and thinks we have abandoned him. He probably wonders what he has done wrong when in fact he hasn’t done anything. It is just my nan, wheezing and sneezing and complaining of cat hair on the furniture.

       My school is called Lavendar House. It is very titchy and tiny. We have sixteen people in my class but on the day when the photograph was taken two of them were away. It is all girls. No boys! Do you have boys at your school? Most people do. Sometimes I wish that we had but on the other hand they can be a pain. A girl called Francine Church had some at her birthday party last term and they ruined everything by rushing about, shouting and showing off and spoiling all our games.

       Do you have a uniform at your school? We have to wear:

      Mauve blouses

      Purple skirts Brown shoes Plum-coloured coats and BERETS! (also plum coloured)

       It is SO naff! Some rude boys in our road call us the Plum Puddings. Dad calls us the Lavendar Hill mob, which is the name of an old movie that he loves.

       Do you like to watch TV? I don’t watch a lot, except for wild life programmes (where I always make ready to shut my eyes TIGHT if there is any killing as it upsets me to see animals torn to pieces) and also the soaps, which I am a big fan of, and especially Riverside. Do you watch Riverside? If so, who is your favourite character? Mine is Tony. Last year I wrote him a letter and he wrote back and sent me a signed photograph.“To Violet XXX Tony”. it is on my bedroom wall, right opposite my bed, where I can see it first thing when I wake up in the morning. As you will probably guess, I am in love!!!

       Besotted, is what my dad calls it. He loves to tease me, and I always go bright scarlet! It is for this reason that when I watch Riverside I like it best if my dad is not there. Otherwise I spend the whole time all boiled up like a beetroot!

       You know I said I don’t like to see animals torn to pieces? It is one of my things and is why I am against fox hunting. I have a badge that says BAN BLOOD SPORTS. I got it off an animal stall at a summer fete and I signed a petition to the Government asking them to

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