Hazel Wood Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

would either be my friend or leave me alone properly. I feel horrible and wish I could get back to just feeling numb.
    ***
    I did about an hour of French and then sat there looking at the stupid cows. Sammy-boy was doing the same thing from near their house on the other side of the field (staring, not learning French) and for some reason I got up and wandered over. As usual, he had his hands in front of his mouth with his sleeve-ends pulled up over his fingers, so I could just make it out when he said,
    ‘Mum said to ask would you like to come for tea today?’
    I was in the mood for nice normal people so I said,
    ‘Love to.’
    And he said,
    ‘Come on then,’ through his sleeves.
    It was good to sit and talk to Mrs Hooper. It made me feel I could be anywhere. Little Sammy-boy is so adorable. He really loves wild animals, and before I left he told me about a hedgehog he found and has been feeding on worms in their back garden.
    Her other young son, Christophe, wasn’t there, and I am pretty certain that maybe Mrs Hooper has invented a second kid for the purposes of child-support money or some kind of tax relief. 
    I die inside whenever I think of the girls from school being behind the notes. Why can’t they just like me?

DAY TWENTY-FOUR
    I almost fainted . It was eight o’clock in the morning and I was in the kitchen in my red long t-shirt that I wear to bed, and my old sweat pants from four years ago that are really too small, and the tall guy walked through our farmyard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
    He talked to Adam for a few minutes and then walked off back down the lane. I couldn’t even move . I’m just so grateful that (especially with me in my PJs) he didn’t come into the house or he would never have spoken to me again. Not that he ever has, or would, but you know what I mean. 
    There are some guys that speak to you, and some that don’t. I bet he’s the kind that only talks to whatever girl they want to snog that night, or whoever is the most popular or can do something for them. So that’s me out on all counts, but him walking through the farmyard is still the best thing to happen since that day in early spring when Dad finally worked out the heating.
    Anyway, I am now dressed (too nicely dressed for an ordinary day – sad and pathetic or what??), and am going to find out what he was doing here. Maybe he is one of the people stealing the veggies and eggs and stuff. Mum thinks the magpies are doing it, but I think that’s the defense lawyer in her coming out again.
    ***
    OK. Maybe, just maybe my life is not completely cursed! I just now went and asked Adam and Dad what that guy was doing in the yard and Dad said,
    ‘You mean Christophe Hooper?’
    And then I got it. The tall guy is Mrs Hooper’s other son. I AM IN SHOCK!! Real shock, the kind they give you brandy for when you’re older.
    But it’s all a bit messed up in my head because I thought Christophe was about ten and the tall guy is at least fifteen, so I was really confused. I think that because there’s two years between me and Mindy I presumed that Christophe must be two years older than Sammy-boy, or something. Maybe it was because Adam said ‘little boys’, and suggested I babysit. I suppose he didn’t know either at the time.
    I have no clue really.
    Anyway, once Mindy gets back they will be best friends because they are both about the same age and she’s popular, and I’ll be left out. I’m not going to even try to be friends with him because I’ll just end up being disappointed.
    So the tall guy is Christophe Hooper and he is my neighbour. I wonder if maybe he knows Barbara and she got him to collect notes from me so that she could use him to help make a fool of me.
    I bet he’s The Watcher.
    I’m not going to write back.

DAY TWENTY-FIVE
    I was up and dressed and staring out the kitchen window by seven and finally gave up at eight-thirty with a big, long day stretching in front of me. So I was lucky that FINALLY I’ve got