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wasn’t the hug of a two-faced sort of person at all. And Izzy had never been like that anyway. She wasincredibly honest. Absolutely the worst liar ever, and terrible at keeping secrets. Poppy gulped and sniffed again, suddenly feeling very tired. If only she’d got more sleep last night, all this might not have seemed so important, she realised. But it didn’t mean she could stop crying.
    Izzy’s dad was leading them into the nice little coffee shop where Mum took her for hot chocolate sometimes, and once he’d got them sat down he told Izzy to order them both a drink, and pulled his mobile out of his pocket.
    “Are you calling my mum?” Poppy said, although she wasn’t totally sure anyone understood her – it came out as gulps.
    “I have to call your mum, Poppy,” he told her gently. “I don’t know if the school will have told her yet – they might not have realised that you’ve gone. But if they have – well, if Izzy had disappeared, I know how worried I’d be.”
    “She’ll be so cross!” Poppy wailed, and Izzy hugged her again.
    “Dad will tell her there’s something wrong. He won’t let her be cross with you.”
    Izzy’s dad nodded grimly, as though he thought that might be difficult, and tapped at his phone,clearly finding Poppy’s mum’s number.
    Poppy could only hear his side of the phone call, but she could guess what her mum was saying. The school hadn’t called her yet, and she was worried, but not frantic.
    “Yes, she’s obviously upset about something but she’s fine. Not hurt or anything, are you, Poppy?”
    Poppy shook her head.
    “Are you still at work? Do you want me to take her home with us? I can do tea for them both if you like?”
    Izzy nodded eagerly, and Poppy felt slightly better. She had got things mixed up somehow, she must have done.
    “Here, talk to your mum for a minute, Poppy. She needs to know you’re OK.”
    Poppy nodded and took the phone.
    “Poppy, what’s happening? I can’t believe you walked out of school like that!”
    “I’m sorry,” Poppy whispered. “Stuff was going on…” She didn’t want to tell her mum that she’d thought Izzy was being mean to her. Especially now she was thinking she might have got it all wrong. And she really wanted to go back to Izzy’s house, and try and find out why they’d all been soodd that afternoon. “Ali told me my design for the school garden was all copied and I was a cheat,” she explained. It was totally true, even if it wasn’t why she’d actually sneaked out of school.
    “That girl!” her mum snarled. “Right. Well, I shall be ringing the school and telling them exactly what I think of them for letting you walk out, and asking for a meeting with Mrs Angel and Ali Morgan’s parents. And don’t you think you aren’t in trouble either, Poppy. Now, hand me back to Izzy’s dad.”
    Poppy sighed and passed the phone over. Maybe Mum would calm down…
    “Oh, you’ll let the school know? OK, good. Yeah, I wouldn’t want Mrs Angel thinking I’d kidnapped Poppy. I might not survive,” Izzy’s dad joked. “I’ll bring her back about six-thirty, OK?” He ended the call and sighed. “Your mum sounds like she wants to yell at somebody, Poppy. I wouldn’t want to be your school secretary right now. So…” He eyed her thoughtfully. “Exactly what was going on? What did Ali say that made you so upset? Izzy’s always telling me how brave you are, and how Ali doesn’t worry you at all. She said she wishes
she
could be that cool about it!”
    “Dad…” Izzy moaned.
    Poppy nodded. “It wasn’t actually Ali.”
    “Who was it then?” Izzy demanded. “Was someone mean to you at lunch or something?”
    Poppy stared at her tiredly, and sighed. “Yes. You.”

FOUR
    Izzy stared at her, her pale-blue eyes going rounder and rounder, and red spots growing in the middle of her cheeks. “I wasn’t!” she said, shaking her head in bewilderment.
    Poppy sighed. “I don’t think you meant to be. Or