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didn’t like school much, but it was better than being home with Dad. Mid-term had been awful. Really, really awful. Mum didn’t have to do school dinners, but she did extra hours at her cleaning jobs. So Elma just hung around the house with the boys, and brought stuff upstairs, or into the living room for her dad, and counted the days to when she could go back to school and some kind of normality.
    Both boys were asleep by the time Elma got around to writing her letter. Zac was snoring, and she could see a big bruise forming on his forehead. She’d have liked to tell Luke about what happened,but how could she? As far as Luke was concerned, Zac didn’t even exist, so how could he have fallen down and cut himself badly? She wished she hadn’t lied, but it was too late now.
    She addressed her envelope first – the boring bit – best to get it over with. She wrote ‘Luke’ and then on a sudden whim, finished the ‘e’ with a curly line. It was meant to look kind of cool, but ended up looking a bit like a pig’s tail. She hoped he wouldn’t mind. When she’d finished writing the address, she grinned to herself as she peeled her stamp from its backing paper, and placed it firmly upside down on the envelope. She hoped the Queen wouldn’t mind standing on her head. And she really, really hoped there wasn’t a law against that kind of thing. Still, too late now, Mrs Lawrence had given her only one stamp, so it would have to do.
    Would Luke notice?
    If so, what would he think?
    And why did she care what stupid liar Luke thought anyway?
    Dear Luke,
    I’m so sorry to hear about Rocket. I would be very sad if anything ever happened to Snowball. She’s lying next to me now, purring. Her fur is all soft and warm.
    Jessica got her hair cut last week. It’s not so long now, but she’s still cute.
    I’m glad you enjoyed your mountain climbing. The only mountain I was on was Space Mountain in Disneyland Paris. It was soooo scary. I went on everything three times because my dad got special passes. Jessica’s favourite ride was ‘It’s a Small World’.
    Making gravy might not sound exciting, but believe me, it is. Mum’s thinking of writing a book about it. She says gravy is the heart of every meal. I bet if you had tried some of my mum’s gravy on your octopus it would have tasted much nicer.
    Is it just you and your dad and your sister in your family? I didn’t tell you about my dad yet, did I? He’s great – really funny and exciting. He can’t work at the moment. He had a terrible accident. A little girl wandered onto a building site and got trapped under a big heap of planks. She nearly died, but Dad heard her screams, and rescued her. The planks fell on him, and he hurt his back very badly. We hope he’s going to be better soon, thoug h .
    Have to go now. Time for ballet class.
    Your penfriend,
    Elma
     
    PS If you’ve never heard of a pop star playing violin, maybe you should get out more. Ever heard of Vanessa-Mae????????
    There’s NO way I’d ever play in an orchestra. It would be much too boring for me – more like the kind of thing for someone who wanted to be a brain surgeon .

LUKE
    The horse butted his head impatiently against Luke’s coat. This close, his body smelt like straw. He pushed his long nose up under Luke’s armpit, snorting loudly.
    ‘Hang on, hang on.’ Luke pulled an apple out of his pocket and held it flat in his palm, just under the horse’s nose. The horse sniffed it and then took it whole into his mouth and crunched it loudly. Little bits of apple flew out of his mouth.
    Luke watched him, his hand wrapped around another apple in his pocket. He wondered what his mother would say if she knew that he saved his lunchbox apples so that he could feed them to a horse. He thought she’d probably go mad.
    The horse wasn’t sleek and graceful, like a racehorse. He was a big, heavy farm horse with a shaggy mane and enormous strong legs, and his name was Chestnut. He belonged to