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Andy asked. “You and your mum?”
    “A fair bit,” said Jewel. “Did you hear about that big motorway protest last year? We were there for ages. Mum actually got arrested for lying down in front of the bulldozers. They let her off with a fine, luckily.”
    Lyndz gasped. “Weren’t you terrified she’d go to prison?”
    Jewel shrugged. “Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in.” She started taking mugs down from their hooks. “Anyone take sugar?”
    Frankie gave one of her fake yawns. “Doesn’t it get boring, protesting all the time?” she asked. “I mean, don’t you ever do anything that’s just FUN?”
    “Of course she does, bird-brain,” said Kenny. “She’s not a protest clone.”
    “Of course I do, bird-brain,” echoed Jewel, in a zombie voice. “I’m not a protest clone.”
    We all burst out laughing. Even Frankie cracked up! Jewel was a real laugh.
    “So, are you guys going to tell me about this film?” Jewel asked, pretending to be fierce. “Or do I have to DRAG it out of you?”
    “No, we want to tell you,” giggled Lyndz. “Come on, Frankie. You’re the media star.”
    Jewel picked up a cute little bracelet she was making. “You don’t mind if I get on with this, do you?”
    Jewel seemed unusually keen on bracelets. She was wearing loads, and there was a pile of them beside her.
    Frankie started to explain about the school Millennium Dome and how we’d got lumbered with a zone we knew absolutely zilch about. I think Jewel was genuinely interested, because she kept interrupting to ask us questions.
    She wanted to know all about the Sleepover Club. “I’d love to do that,” she sighed. “But this van is WAY too titchy.”
    Also Jewel was dead sympathetic about our big feud with the M&Ms. In fact, everything was just buzzing along nicely when Kenny dropped a HUGE clanger.
    “It’d be so-o great if you’d agree to be in our film, Jewel,” she chipped in. “You’d be perfect, because you’re really nice and normal. I mean, some protesters are a bit, you know…” She turned bright red.
    “Sad?” Jewel suggested, a little shortly. “Weird? Hippie dippie? Happy clappy?”
    Poor Kenny totally lost the plot at this point! “Phew, you’re right about that stove. It’s really hot in here,” she said, fanning herself.
    “What Kenny means,” Lyndz corrected quickly, “is that other kids will be incredibly impressed to realise someone their own age can, like, care so strongly about ecology that they’re willing to do something, even taking risks, to make a difference.”
    Are you impressed? We were totally stunned!
    To everyone’s relief, Lyndz’s little speech really did the trick.
    “OK,” said Jewel calmly. “Count me in. What do you want to ask me?”
    She added the finished bracelet to the pile beside her. Then she started on another one, using different colours.
    Unfortunately, none of us had actually thought to prepare any questions! We stared at each other in a panic. It was
so-o
embarrassing. I mean, media people are meant to be dead cool and smooth. The Sleepover girls were really letting themselves down.
    This time Frankie saved the day. “Why don’t we let Jewel speak for herself?” she said sensibly “She’s the one who knows about ecology, not us!”
    “OK,” Jewel agreed. “If you’re sure. Ready to roll, Andy?”
    Andy gave her a nod. Jewel took a big breath and started talking to the camera.
    “Some people think it’s really weird,” she said, “that people like me and Mum would actually choose to live in a van, or a tent, or even up a tree, like a wild bird or a squirrel, just to save some old field.”
    Jewel added that if being normal meant
not
caring about things, and shutting her eyes while people destroyed the beautiful planet she lived on, she’d rather be weird any day, thanks very much. At least that way, she’d done the best she could.
    Jewel was so relaxed in front of the camera, you’d think people popped