How to Get the Friends You Want Read Online Free Page B

Jane was the kind of friend who went along to watch when Gran had swimming club and stuff.’ I wondered if me and Sasha would still be friends when we were a squillion years old.
    After everyone had gone I sat on the floor in front of the radiator again and Dennis came lolloping over. I held my hand close to the ground. He pushed his nose underneath my fingers and I gently stroked his side with my other hand.
    Everything was perfect. Dad was famous, Mum’s business was going well, Primrose was in a good mood. Gran was moving back to Polgotherick and Dennis was going to win the top prize at the pet parade. As well as Toby and Jess, now the coolest girls in the class wanted to be friends with me.
    Life was good, like a big shiny bubble. But the problem with bubbles is, they burst.

Chapter 5
Heavenly Honeybun and the Winning Team

    The Young Voices competition was only a few weeks away and we hadn’t had a single practice. Jess got into a stress because Toby was still off school and we didn’t know when he’d be back. It turned out he’d fallen off a wall at the weekend and hurt his ankle.
    â€˜How long does a sprained ankle take to get better?’ she said. ‘And why does he have to keep doing such stupid things?’
    That seemed a bit harsh considering it wasn’t a very big wall. He just landed badly.
    I said, ‘Don’t worry, he’ll be fine, he’s really good at public speaking.’
    This was true. Last year we had got through to the regional semis with Toby’s talk on Sir Hugh Munro, who made a list of all the highest mountains in Scotland and then tried to climb them. He would have managed it too, if he hadn’t died just before the one he was saving for last. That’s got to be the definition of bad luck.
    We bagged the bench at the far side of the tennis courts at lunchtime and Jess read me her speech. It was called ‘Five Fascinating Facts.’ Jess likes facts and she likes fives. She lives in a house called Five Trees and collects sets of five facts in her notebook.
    â€˜Five is the perfect number of facts,’ said Jess, reading from her notes. ‘It’s not too many so you get confused, but it’s enough to make you feel you know something worth knowing...’
    Her speech included five fascinating facts about the Young Voices competition. It was really clever and interesting, and that’s what I was planning to say in my vote of thanks.
    We ran through it again to make double-sure it was the right length and then we walked back across the playground together. I told her about going to Sasha’s house on Monday and how Sasha, Tammy and Abina had regular days for going round each other’s houses.
    â€˜Tonight they’re going to Tammy’s. Actually, I’m going too. You don’t mind, do you?’
    I didn’t want Jess to think I wasn’t still friends with her, just because I was hanging out with other people too.
    â€˜Why should I mind?’ she said.
    I told her about going along to watch the netball and doing things just to support each other in that matching-set kind of way.
    â€˜It sounds a bit boring, just watching,’ she said. ‘I know five facts about netball – would you like to hear them?’
    It turned out Jess also knew five facts about Polgotherick Mill when I told her that was where Tammy lived. It wasn’t a mill any more, but the big wheel was still there on the side of the house, and so was the stream. You had to go over a little footbridge to get to the front door. I couldn’t wait for school-out.
    Tammy’s dad picked us up in his seven-seater and we all piled into the back.
    I don’t know how, but we got talking aboutDennis. They thought it was odd, him living indoors.
    â€˜What about all his pees and poos?’ said Tammy.
    â€˜He does them in his litter tray,’ I said. ‘Rabbits are fully house-trainable.’
    â€˜But if they were