Free How to Get the Friends You Want by Jenny Alexander

to tell her I was sorry for saying what I said, but there wasn’t really a chance.
    I went into the farmhouse to see Sam while Becky was finishing up. It was lovely being able to hang around longer and not be in a rush because of going to Abina’s. Sam seemed to think it didn’t matter too much about saying sorry. ‘She knows you didn’t mean it,’ he seemed to say.
    â€˜I did mean it, though.’
    â€˜All right then, she knows you were just being stupid.’
    Harsh but true, Sam.
    After lunch we laid all the prizes out on Becky’s kitchen table. It was completely crammed. Half of them were normal tombola prizes such as tins of peaches and supermarket showergel, but the rest were much too good for a tombola, where every 50p ticket wins. There were expensive glossy books and arty picture frames and vouchers for free facials at Beachside Beauty. There was a hamper from Healthy Ways and a gift box from the chocolate shop.
    We decided to split the prizes into two sections and run a raffle as well as a tombola.
    When we had organised everything for Becky’s stall we went to my house to do a practice withDennis. I picked him up and put him on the table, like they do in the pet parade, and Becky pretended to be the judge.
    Dennis got a bit edgy when Becky stroked him and I thought he might bolt, so I rested my finger gently across his nose, and he settled again. I explained how he would sit still for hours, quite happily, as long as he had his nose underneath something. That was his rabbit nature.
    Becky took a penny out of her pocket.
    â€˜Would it work with this?’
    I shrugged. I didn’t think so. Really I meant he liked to put his nose under a hand or foot, not have something light and small balancing on it.
    Becky gently placed the penny on Dennis’s nose. He sat completely still until she took it off again. I put him on the floor and gave him a bit of cream cracker. He munched it up and then licked up all the bits, getting crumbs all over his whiskers.
    â€˜That is one happy bunny,’ said Becky. ‘He deserves to win first prize.’
    â€˜Being happy won’t be enough against a beautiful pet like Heavenly Honeybun or one that’s clever and well-trained like Pookie,’ I said.
    â€˜Well, it should be,’ said Becky.
    I had some pictures of pot-bellied pigs and Blue French Angora rabbits in my book of unusualpets so we went upstairs to look for it. First stop, the living room. Primrose’s duvet was still draped over the settee from her Saturday morning TV-fest and there was a snow-storm of tissues on the floor – she must have been watching something mushy.
    Next stop, my bedroom. The super-size mug Matt gave me with the photo of Sam on it had a crust of last night’s hot milk round the inside and my tiger bedspread was all crumpled up in the corner of my bed, with my wish list poking out from under it.
    I whisked it into my pocket and as I did so – more wish-magic – I suddenly knew how to break friends with Sasha, Tammy and Abina without upsetting them.
    As soon as Becky went, I phoned Sasha.
    â€˜As I couldn’t come to Abina’s today,’ I said, ‘I was wondering if you would all like to come to my house tomorrow?’

Chapter 13
The Tick-list of Fear and the Normal Sunday

    When I wanted to be friends forever with Sasha, Tammy and Abina, there was a list of things I was scared might happen if they came to my house:
    1 Mum cooking anything except frozen pizza
    2 Dad saying something mad and meaning it
    3 Primrose being a drama queen
    4 The house looking as if an earthquake had hit it – which it mostly had, that earthquake being Primrose.
    If I still wanted to be friends and they were coming to my house, there was a list of actions I would have to take to try and stop these things from happening:
    1 Hide the vegetables
    2 Make sure Dad wasn’t around
    3 Make sure Matt was
    4 Do the housework myself