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pencil thoughtfully and frowned down at her design. “It’s an awful lot to remember. I don’t think we have to work out the exact plants we want to use now though. It’s more like the shape of the garden. We could put vegetables here…” she murmured, pointing at the Taste section. “Peach tree up against this wall… Maybe even a little greenhouse in the corner here!” she added hopefully. “And the weather station bits wouldn’t need a whole lot of space, would they?” she asked Izzy.
    “Oh, no. You could put that wind vane on a pole anywhere,” Izzy agreed. “And a rain gauge wouldn’t take much space either. You could explain that you’re having them so that people in the school can take measurements every day. And they’d help with growing food – we’d know how much rain there’d been, and so whether we needed to water the plants.”
    “Yes, but wouldn’t we just know if it had been raining?” Poppy asked, and Izzy’s dad snorted with laughter.
    “She’s got a point, Iz.”
    “It isn’t the same as being scientific about it,” Izzy said firmly.

    “I can’t look…” Poppy muttered, staring down at the table. “Are loads of people giving their designs in?”
    “Nope.” Izzy shook her head. “Hardly any. I’ve got mine, and there’s Nick, and Lara; we knew about them already. And Ali, of course. Looks like Lucy and Elspeth didn’t dare do their own. Molly, Tilda – oh, and Jake. I wouldn’t have thought he’d enter. But that’s all. So, eight from our class. Maybe fifty or sixty from the whole school?”
    Poppy blinked. Izzy was unfairly quick at working things like that out.
    Emily leaned over. “No, all of Year Three had to enter – Mrs Taggart made them. Toby was throwing a wobbly about it. But you needn’t worry, Poppy. Toby’s design was a line of toilets, with flowers in.”
    That made Poppy look up. “Why?”
    “Oh, there’s a house round the corner from us in the village with a toilet full of flowers. James and Toby think it’s the funniest thing ever, so he thought school would like a loo garden too. Honestly, Poppy, yours deserves to win.”
    Poppy smiled at her. “If it does, Izzy and her dad have won too. They gave me loads of ideas.”
    “Don’t start stressing about whether you copied it again!” Izzy told her sternly. “We’ll all scream.”
    “I promise,” Poppy said meekly. “And if Ali says anything I’ll just pretend I can’t hear her.”

    It was a good thing that Poppy had decided just to ignore Ali, because two weeks later Mrs Angel announced in assembly that Poppy’s design had been chosen as the school entry. Mrs Brooker in the office had had Poppy’s design blown up to poster size, and there was a big display all about the competition in the main corridor on the way in, where all the parents could see it.
    Ali was spitting.
    “I reckon Mrs Brooker needs a security camera on that poster,” Emily said thoughtfully, the morning after the announcement. The whole class had gone through the main corridor on the way to IT, and Ali had glared at the poster hatefully.
    “She did look as though she fancied shredding it to bits with her nails,” Maya agreed. “If anything does happen to it, we so know who it was.”
    Poppy shivered. “She keeps giving me the meanest looks. I’m really glad the design’s all sent off now. I mean, there’s nothing she can do about it.”
    Izzy nodded slowly. “Ye-e-es… But just remember how horrible she was before – how much she got to you.”
    “Izzy! Don’t be such a gloom!” Emily snapped.
    Izzy shrugged. “I’m not trying to be. I just think Poppy needs to be careful,” she argued, wriggling round to look at Emily. They were all sitting squashed up together on one of the playground benches at lunchtime. It was the middle of April now, and the weather was finally getting a bit warmer. It was warm enough to sit still, anyway.
    “Oh no…” Poppy muttered. “Look, it’s like we called her