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ready,’ she muttered.
    ‘I think it would be good to adapt something from a book so we don’t have to start from scratch,’ Ruby said. ‘I haven’t read Little Women, but I know you two love it. Or we could do something from Jacqueline Wilson. She has some great girl characters.’
    ‘Or how about Harry Potter?’ Laura said.
    ‘Oh that would be brilliant,’ I said. ‘Although I don’t know how we’d manage the magic bits – it might be too tricky.’
    We talked a bit about how we’d actually go about adapting scenes from a book. It seemed like a lot of work for one person.
    ‘Why don’t we pick a story we like, and when we know what characters we’re playing we can all write their lines?’ Meg said.
    ‘I like that idea. A joint effort,’ Ruby said.
    ‘It can be sort of improvised, as well,’ Meg said. Seeingpuzzled looks, she explained, ‘That means you make it up as you go along.’
    ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ Ruby suddenly sat bolt upright on her bed, her stretches forgotten. ‘I know! We can do Ballet Shoes ! You know the one by Noel Streatfeild? There are three sisters in that, and the fourth person could be the teacher or the nanny, maybe. It’s perfect.’
    ‘Plus, you know, there’s ballet in it,’ Laura said with a grin.
    ‘Well, that too,’ Ruby admitted. ‘I just love the scene where Posy goes to audition for Manoff. I feel like I know exactly how she feels.’
    Ruby’s eyes were shining, and I had to admit she’d come up with a fantastic idea.
    ‘Is it all about ballet?’ Meg wanted to know.
    She sounded a bit sceptical, so I rushed to reassure her.
    ‘No, it’s about three sisters who are orphans and they go to a theatre school. Pauline is the oldest – she loves acting. The youngest one, Posy, loves ballet, and the middle one, Petrova, isn’t really interested in any of it, but she has to learn it anyway, because they need to earn a living.’
    ‘Definitely not just ballet,’ Laura chimed in. I was glad to see her sticking up for Ruby’s idea. ‘There’s all the stuff with the tenants in their house, and about the way the sisters get on together and with their guardian and everything.’
    ‘You’d love it,’ I promised. ‘There’s loads about the theatre in it, and about how Pauline really wants to be an actress. I’ll lend you my copy so you can see for yourself.’
    ‘OK, well, it sounds great,’ Meg said. ‘Let’s go for it!’
    ‘YAY!’ shouted Ruby, turning head over heels off the bed and finishing up by doing the splits, her arms held gracefully over her head.
    ‘OK, how about we all pick out our favourite bits for the next time we met up?’ I suggested. ‘Then we can decide who’s going to play who.’
    I already knew who I wanted to play and was hoping no one else would have the same idea, but I didn’t say anything about it yet.
    Laura looked at her watch. ‘Have we talked about everything?’ she asked. ‘I need to get home soon – Mum said I have to help Andrea with dinner.’
    Laura’s mum works full time, so often the two girls help with stuff around the house. Andrea is the oldest – she’s sixteen – so she does more than Laura, but Laura’s pretty good for doing her share too.
    I looked down at my notebook. ‘What about when we should meet, and where? Should we pick a few set days every week?’
    ‘I think we should just meet as often as we can during the holidays,’ Meg said.
    ‘Yes, that makes sense,’ Laura said. ‘We’ll probably needa stricter schedule once we’re back at school,’ (Ruby groaned) ‘but none of us have anything else on at the moment.’
    ‘Apart from me,’ Ruby pointed out. ‘I’ve got ballet camp in the mornings, but I’m free in the afternoons, so can we have the meetings then?’
    Everyone was fine with this. I suggested that we could take it in turns to host the meeting, though I did wonder how I would get to Laura’s house if Mum wouldn’t let me take my bike.
    ‘We can meet in my house next