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sensible thing to do.”
    “Agreed,” said Fang. “How you humans get by I can’t imagine. Rabbits now — they would have been off like the wind. And rabbits have no brain at all. But you humans
seem even stupider than rabbits. How you’ve done so well as a species is beyond me.”
    “I think,” said Lucie slowly, “because they didn’t
expect
a wolf to be there, they decided that there wasn’t a wolf after all.”
    “That’s it,” Fang agreed. “They didn’t believe their eyes and nose. Not that you humans have much of a nose. Now rabbits —”
    “Or was it your Magic Powers?” Lucie interrupted. “Maybe they protected you?”
    “No,” said Fang cheerfully. “It wasn’t magic. It was just what you said. They decided they couldn’t have seen something, so they didn’t.”
    “Well,” said Lucie, “at least it means we can go to the playground whenever we want.”
    So they did, and to lots of other places too. If people ever looked at Fang strangely, and even muttered the word “wolf”, then Lucie knew what to do: “Whoever heard of a wolf
in a garden centre!” or “Whoever heard of a wolf in a skate park!” or “Whoever heard of a wolf on a bus!” and then laugh as hard as she could. It always worked.
    So the days went by until one Sunday Lucie was quieter than usual. She grew quieter and quieter, until by evening she hardly said anything at all.
    Fang noticed. “What’s the matter with you?” she asked just before bedtime.
    “Oh, nothing.”
    “There must be something. You look like a bear that’s woken up only to find it’s still winter.”
    Lucie sighed. “It’s the opposite really. I keep hoping and hoping it’s still summer, but today is the last day of the school holidays.
    “Tomorrow I go to school.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
School
    “W hy are you wearing those terrible clothes?” asked Fang the next morning, as instead of her usual jeans and T-shirt Lucie pulled on a
grey skirt and white polo shirt.
    “They’re my school clothes,” said Lucie gloomily. “Look at these horrible shoes! And this! This is the worst of all!”
    She waved a red sweatshirt at Fang. It was a very peculiar red. Exactly the shade of red, in fact, to clash most horribly with Lucie’s gingery hair.
    “Don’t you hate this red?” demanded Lucie. “It looks like raw meat!”
    “What’s wrong with raw meat?” asked Fang. “I find raw meat attractive.”
    “Only because you can’t see the colour,” said Lucie.
    They had already discovered that Fang could not see colours in the way that Lucie did. Fang said this was only fair. After all, Lucie could not smell or hear half the things that Fang could, and
in some ways her eyesight was worse too. “At dusk and dawn,” Fang remarked, “or in a dark and shady wood, you see barely half the things that
I
do. I would hesitate to take
you hunting by moonlight, for fear that your poor sight would get you into trouble. So it is only fair that you can see these “colours” where I cannot.”
    Now Lucie sighed. “Well, I wish I couldn’t see this red sweatshirt, and I wish nobody else could either!”
    Downstairs Lucie’s parents were eating breakfast. Lucie tried to force down some cornflakes but she was not hungry.
    “Lucie!” said Mum suddenly. “You look different.”
    “Of course,” said Dad. “It’s school today. I expect you are looking forward to seeing all your friends!”
    They beamed at her. Lucie mashed her cornflakes with a spoon.
    “
Why
do I have to go to school?”
    They stared at her, astonished.
    “To see your friends,” said Dad.
    “To learn things,” said Mum.
    “I don’t have any friends,” Lucie muttered, “and I could learn at home from a book.”
    Her parents looked at each other.
    “But
everybody
goes to school!” said Mum. “So you must too.”
    They both nodded, as if they had proved something. But really, as Lucie said to Fang later, in the garden, they had proved nothing. Why
should
Lucie go to