Poppy's Garden Read Online Free PDF Page A

only cheese, but she did have lavender-flavoured biscuits that she and her mum had made, which Izzy cheerfully told her sounded disgusting. So that was pretty normal. But no one mentioned garden designs at all, and there kept being odd little silences. Once she saw Emily giving Izzy a funny look when they thought she was busy finding something in her lunchbox.
    Maybe they were all annoyed with her and they were pretending not to be, Poppy thought unhappily. Maybe they hated her for cheating. She hardly ate any of her lunch – even the lavender biscuits, which she usually loved, tasted all dry and dusty. She pushed them back into her lunchbox, crumbled into little bits.
    “Umm, Poppy?” Izzy was staring at her.
    Poppy blinked. “Yes?” She hadn’t been listening. It looked like Izzy had been talking to her, and she’d missed whatever she said. “Sorry, I was thinking…”
    “We’re— Er—” Izzy swallowed and looked nervous.
    “Just going to do something for Miss Grace,” Emily put in firmly. “See you after lunch.”
    Poppy gaped after the three of them as they hurried away. She definitely had upset them then. It was obvious that Emily had made up the thing about Miss Grace. Poppy hadn’t been paying much attention that morning, but she’d have seen it if their classroom assistant had asked the others to do something. She’d have asked all four of them, anyway. She knew they always hung around together.
    Until now, clearly. Poppy swallowed, and pretended to eat a bit of biscuit, so no one would think she’d been abandoned. Then slowly, trying to look unconcerned, she got up, and put her lunchbox away in the class storage box. What was she going to do now? If she went out to the playground, she couldn’t just wander about on her own. But no one was likely to invite her to join in a game. And to be honest, she didn’t feel like it anyway. She’d have to go back to the library, she decided miserably. Then she gave a little sniff of laughter. She could go and read the book on aeroplanes again.

    Emily and Maya and even Izzy were still acting weird when Poppy crept back into the classroom after lunch. Their school librarian, Mrs Peters, was really nice when you wanted to ask her something about books, but she was a monster if people were noisy. She only worked part-time, but on days when she was in the library, everyone had to be silent or she’d just throw people out. And she wouldn’t let them borrow the book they’d been looking at either. After a whole break and lunchtime being silent, Poppy felt weird, as though she couldn’t have spoken louder than a whisper if she’d wanted to. And she didn’t, much. Especially when Izzy and the others kept giving each other conspiratorial looks, and smirking, and nudging each other.
    What she actually felt like was walking out of the classroom and going home. Except there wouldn’t be anyone there. Mum and Dad would both be at work, and Jake and Alex would be at school. She had to get all the way through afternoon school before she could go home and find the right essential oils for dealing with a really mean group of ex-friends who were laughing at her behind her back. She had a feeling she might have to make that one up for herself. It probably wasn’t going to be in the book.
    By the end of the afternoon, Poppy was feeling desperate. Izzy had tried to be nice to her a couple of times, but Poppy was already so confused and upset that she didn’t know what to say, and Izzy started frowning at her and looking just as confused as she was.
    What was going on?
    Maya and Emily had to rush off to catch their bus, but Izzy’s dad was picking her up so she hung around, trying to talk to Poppy while they put their things away.
    “Poppy, are you still upset about what Ali said?” Izzy crouched down and tried to peer up at her, as Poppy had her head ducked. “Honestly! She’s so horrible, you know that! You’re always telling me just to ignore her. Please