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minutes. She seemed nice and friendly, but I felt so jealous it gave me a pain in my head. I couldn’t bear the thought of Alice having a best friend who wasn’t me. When she’d gone, I tried to act casual. ‘Do you like her?’
    Alice thought for a moment. ‘Yeah. She’s nice.’
    It was like a knife twisting in my heart. Then Alice continued. ‘But she’s not half as nice as you.’ I felt a lot better then.
    After that, we went for a walk, and got more chips and then it was four o’clock.
    We went back to Alice’s apartment. Alice rooted around the kitchen and found some chocolate biscuits. We took them into her room, but I didn’t feel like eating them. I felt kind of sick after all the chips. I sat on the beanbag again, and played with the zip of my jacket. I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to leave Alice behind in this place that wasn’t home. She was very quiet. She was looking out the window with her shoulders all sort of hunched over. I went over and stood beside her. There was no garden outside – just an ugly old car park. I felt like crying, but that would have been really mean. Alice had much more reason to cry than I had.
    She made a sudden kind of a croaky noise. I felt sick. I hadn’t seen Alice cry since she was about six. I wondered if I should hug her. Then I looked at her, and saw that she wasn’t crying. She was laughing. As I watched, she turned to me and laughed out loud. For a minute I thought that she had gone completely mad. She lookedlike she had completely lost it.
    ‘What is it, Al? What’s so funny?’
    ‘I’ll tell you what’s so funny, Megan. I’ve just had the most wonderful idea ever. I have a plan.’
    ‘What kind of plan?’
    She laughed again. ‘A plan to put an end to all this. A plan so you and I can be together again.’
    Now I knew she’d gone mad. Nothing would persuade her mother to move back to Limerick. I felt sorry for Alice again. She’d have to tell me about her plan, and I’d have to be the one to tell her all the reasons it wouldn’t work. Sometimes, being the sensible one in a friendship was very hard work.
    I sighed. ‘So tell me about your plan.’
    She shook her head. ‘No, I won’t. You’ll only tell me it won’t work.’
    I went red, but she didn’t seem to notice. She went on talking. ‘But it will work, I promise. I just have to work out a few details.’
    Now I was interested. ‘Please, Al, tell me.’
    She shook her head. ‘No, Meg. Sorry. Just trust me for once. I’ll tell you when I see you again.’
    ‘But when will that be? I know Mum won’t bring me up here again.’
    She shrugged. ‘Well, sometime soon, Mum will have to let me go to Limerick. Don’t worry, I’ll see you soon, and everything will be fine, I promise. All will be revealed the next time I see you.’
    Alice was good at keeping secrets. I knew there was no point in pushing her. And also, I knew that underneath all her laughing and joking, she really was very unhappy. She missed her dad, and she missed her old life. She was my best friend, and it was my duty to help her. I had a funny feeling that however mad or crazy her plan was, I’d end up helping her to put it into action.
    Just then, I saw a taxi pulling up outside. Mum got out and walked to the entrance of the apartment building. The buzzer in the hall went. Alice walked me downstairs. She chatted to Mum for a minute, and then winked at me when Mumwasn’t looking. Then Mum checked her watch. ‘Sorry, girls, but we have to go. I don’t want to miss the train.’
    Alice and I had a quick hug, and then I got into the taxi with Mum. I looked back as we drove off. Alice was still grinning madly, and for one precious minute, I really believed that she could fix everything.

Chapter seven
    I t was strange going back to school on Monday. Everything was just like before, and it was kind of like the weekend had never happened. I wanted to tell someone about my trip to Dublin, but the only person I