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curled-upline, like a pig’s tail, coming out of the end of the ‘e’. Pity she had to be a girl, though.
    Then, for the first time, he noticed the stamp. The Queen of England was standing on her head.
    Luke stared. Was she copying him, or had she just stuck it on in a hurry without realising? Were English people allowed to stick the Queen on upside down?
    He took Mrs Hutchinson’s envelope from his schoolbag and wrote Elma’s name and school address on it. Just for the laugh, he put a curled-up line coming out of the end of the ‘y’ of ‘Davey’. She probably wouldn’t even notice.
    He stuck on some famous church, with its steeple pointing down, in the top right hand corner, and then he opened his notebook.
    Dear Penfriend,
    I’m sorry to hear about your dad. I hope he recovers soon. He sounds brave.
    I have two sisters, one older and one younger. I’d like a brother, but I don’t think I’ll have one now.
    It’s funny you didn’t think I had a mam. She works in a travel agency. My granny lives with us too – she moved in about three years ago – so there are six peoplealtogether in my house. Sometimes it’s a bit too many, especially when my older sister is in a mood.
    No, I never heard of Vanessa-Mae. I don’t listen to the radio much, I prefer my dad’s collection of music. He has loads of stuff like The Beatles and The Kinks and The Doors and bands like that. My favourite band is Supertramp – have you ever heard of them? They were famous in the seventies, and they had loads of hits. One of their albums is called Breakfast in America (they’re from there) and it’s the name of a song too. They’re cool.
    Maybe I was wrong about your mother’s gravy. It sounds like she knows a lot about it. I never knew there was more than one kind.
     
    Well, that’s about it,
    Luke
     
    PS I don’t think I’d be much good in an orchestra, as the only thing I play is the fool (ha ha).

ELMA
    As soon as the bell rang for break, Elma raced out of the classroom, across the playground and behind the bicycle shed. There she hid, clutching her side and panting as she struggled to catch her breath. She had to avoid Tara at all costs. Elma liked Tara very much. And Tara liked Elma. All the other girls in the class had given up on her years ago, soon after Dad’s accident. But Tara was new in her school, and she still thought that Elma was a normal girl from a normal family. She thought that the only strange thing about Elma was her mother’s bad cooking. Except for the lumpy gravy and the soggy carrots, she figured that everything was just fine with the Davey family. Tara knew about Dad’s accident, ofcourse, Evil Josh had seen to that, but she didn’t know how bad things were at home. She had absolutely no idea.
    Now though, everything was starting to go wrong. Tara was no longer satisfied with just being friends at school. She wanted to do other stuff with Elma, stuff that involved seeing each other outside school. And how could that ever happen?
    Elma had to mind Zac and Dylan every day. If she left them with her dad, it just wouldn’t be safe. It would be like leaving a baby in charge of her baby brothers. Since his accident, Elma hadn’t trusted Dad very much, but after the day when Zac cut his face so badly, and Dad hadn’t even managed to drag himself out of bed to see if it was serious, she knew he was no help at all. So there was no way Elma could leave the boys and go to Tara’s house.
    And how could she invite Tara to her house?
    What if she saw the mess in the kitchen – the breakfast stuff all over the table, and probably some of the previous night’s dinner things, too?
    What if Tara looked out of the window, expecting to see a lovely garden with flowers and swings, and instead saw Snowball rampaging around the yard, snarling?
    What if Tara saw Elma’s dad, who hadn’t shaved orcut his hair in months, lying on a couch in his old tracksuit bottoms, and whining for a cup of tea and a ham