Free Tessa in Love by Kate Le Vann Page B

rang and we could hear singing outside, and I realised it was Jane and Lara and Chunk and Wolfie. I ran to let them in.
    ‘The Wood is safe!’ Jane shouted.
    They all started talking at once, and Wolfie came in first and grabbed me round the waist and picked me up.
    ‘What?’ I said. ‘What’s happened?’
    ‘Come on, you,’ Jane said. ‘We’re all going to run around in the Wood to celebrate.’
    ‘The supermarket failed to get planning permission at the last meeting. All because of our brilliant . . .’ Chunk said, until Lara interrupted him.
    ‘Well, we don’t know that it was our . . .’
    ‘It can’t have hurt,’ Chunk said.
    ‘Is it really true?’ I said. ‘Is it definitely safe?’
    ‘Yes it’s true!’ Jane sang.
    ‘OK, no time to waste,’ Lara said. ‘Come on, Tessa.’
    ‘Can you come, Tess?’ Wolfie whispered in my ear.
    ‘Dad, is it OK? I’ll be back for dinner,’ I said.
    ‘Sure,’ my dad said, through a mouthful of cheese sandwich. ‘Go on.’
    We all tumbled out the door and ran to the woods. Wolfie and I walked a little behind the others. Once, Lara turned round to look at us, and she looked a little sad, and I felt bad, because it seemed so obvious that she had been wishing he’d ask her out, and instead he’d chosen me. I wanted Lara to like me. I was still very in awe of her, because she was so clever and talented and pretty.
    ‘I can’t believe it’s really safe,’ I said.
    ‘It had to be your fabulous essay,’ Wolfie said.
    ‘Or your fabulous picture,’ I said.
    ‘Well, they chose the most boring one,’ Wolfie said.
    ‘They were all beautiful.’
    ‘Well, the most beautiful one was ...’
    ‘Keep up, you two,’ Chunk said, beckoning us on without turning round to look at us.
    The woods were absolutely beautiful that evening because they were suddenly really ours; we’d saved them .Well, us and all the older people who’d held the meeting and talked to councillors and mailed petitions and gone to the planning permission appeal. But we’d made a difference. There were lots of other people there, and everyone was saying hello to everyone else and asking if they’d heard, and nodding and saying that was why they were there. People had brought out their children and were walking with them through the trees, explaining that they’d been saved from bulldozers. Jane started talking to a little white-haired old man: she told him what we’d done and he’d seen our page in the local paper, and he said it was ‘splendid, really splendid’ and added, ‘I know as an old git I’m duty bound to say that everything is changing too fast, but I’ve been walking by these trees my whole life, and it really didn’t need to be swapped for another new place to buy one hundred different types of toilet roll.’
    He shook hands with all of us before he left, and Jane gave him a little hug. I thought about how brilliant my new friends were, and then felt a little guilty that Matty wasn’t sharing in this lovely moment when she was my best friend. I knew I’d have to tell her about it, and would probably downplay how exciting it was. I didn’t want to gush, because it was the part of my life that most excluded her, and that made me feel bad.
    ***
    When I got back, after a very quick snog with Wolfie in the garden, I went in to find my mum in a bad mood.
    ‘Did you finish your work?’ she asked me. She knew I hadn’t.
    I’ll do it now!’ I said.
    ‘Have you eaten?’ Mum said.
    I paused. I was starving. ‘No,’ I admitted.
    ‘Your dinner’s in the oven,’ she said, ‘although it’s probably dried out now. It’s nearly nine, you know? Eat first, and then see how much you can get done, but I don’t want you going to bed late again tonight.’
    ‘OK, I just have to . . .’ I stopped.
    ‘Just have to what?’
    ‘I was just going to e-mail Matty to let her know the good news.’
    ‘No,’ Mum said. ‘You’ll start instant messaging each other, and you