Free Project Best Friend by Chrissie Perry Page A

loveliest and most complicated piece of jewellery Penelope had ever created.
    Giving away the tiara hadn’t been easy, and sometimes (only very occasionally) Penelope felt a pang of regret about it. But Penelope’s stepmother had told her Sienna loved it so much she even tried to wear it to bed.
    That definitely helped the pangs. Of course, the tiara was too pointy to wear to bed. (Penelope had tried, too. It had made a dent in her forehead that stayed there the whole morning.)
    Penelope scanned over a row of earrings, making a mental note to give one pair to Brittany, absolutely for free, once they became best friends.
    Next, Penelope zoomed in on a picture of a Gemini symbol, the twins.

    Some days Penelope might think she was going to do one thing – say, be really kind to her brother – and then end up doing something entirely different, like shouting at him to leave her alone.
    This would be an excellent thing to discuss with Brittany O’Brien, once they became best friends.
    Just as Penelope pondered this, her phone buzzed with a text message. Careful not to look, she immediately covered the screen with her right hand and used her left thumb to stop the video recording.
    She sat on her bed, her phone turned over so she couldn’t cheat. Then she closed her eyes and ran through the possibilities. Who might have sent her a message?
    It could be her mum, even though she was just downstairs. That had happened before, but it was normally when Penelope had her headphones on and couldn’t hear her mum yelling up the stairs.
    It was also possible it was her brother, Harry. Sometimes he would send Penelope a text ordering her to go to the milk bar and buy him some lollies. Penelope had never – not even once – obeyed him, but Harry was a slow learner.
    Actually, there was almost no chance it was Harry. Penelope could hear him playing on his computer – even though it was Sunday night and Harry probably hadn’t finished his homework or put his dirty clothes down the laundry chute. When he was playing World of Warcraft it took an absolute emergency to interrupt him. Perhaps a mass of actual assorted dragons flying though his bedroom window, breathing blazing fire down the back of Harry’s hairy neck would do it. Probably not.
    It could be from her dad, but Sunday was his family day, so that was unlikely.
    There were only two other people in the world who had Penelope’s phone number. Alison Cromwell (the girl with twenty-one awards) was the only other kid Penelope knew who had her own phone. She doubted it was Alison, though. Penelope had sent her three different messages – once inviting her to meet in the library to compare awards and twice to suggest a play date at Alison’s house – and she hadn’t received a single message back.
    She was pretty sure Alison must have run out of credit.
    Penelope opened her eyes, keeping the phone face down. She even liked looking at the back of it.
    Harry had an iPhone too, but his had been given to him, just because he was starting high school. Penelope had earned hers.
    Fifty-two per cent of the money had come from her jewellery stall. The other forty-eight per cent had come from her dad. Penelope sent him copies of all her school reports, and he gave her twenty dollars for every A she got. She wished school reports came every week. Then she would be rich.
    Penelope picked up the phone and held it against her chest. Her best guess was that the message was from Grandpa George. She flipped it over. Her guess was correct.

    Penelope smiled. Grandpa’s messages were long, and sometimes a bit hard to understand, but this one truly did make sense.
    Penelope could hardly wait for school tomorrow so she could get started on her latest project.
    Project Best Friend.

Penelope awoke to the soothing harp sounds of the alarm on her phone. She changed into her school dress and made her bed carefully, so there wasn’t a single wrinkle.
    She was just arranging two teddies on her pillow