The Butterfly Club Read online

  Mum and Dad let me stay up for half an hour past my bedtime to get it finished.

  ‘Well done, darling! I’m sure Miss Lovejoy will be thrilled,’ said Mum.

  I was thrilled too. It was so lovely being able to draw. I don’t want to sound like I’m boasting, but I can draw better than either Phil or Maddie. I’ve never been better than them at anything before.

  I did wonder about drawing a picture for Selma too, but I decided she probably wouldn’t want one. I didn’t know what to give her for Christmas. This time last year I would never have dreamed of giving Selma Johnson anything at all, but now we were friends. Not best friends, but friends all the same.

  In the end I begged some beads off Phil – blue and green and purple, and five alphabet beads – and made Selma a bracelet.

  On the last day of term I took Miss Lovejoy’s picture and Selma’s bracelet in to school. Miss Lovejoy had lots and lots of presents. Her desk was completely covered. She looked very happy – but she looked happiest of all when she took my picture out of its envelope.

  ‘Oh, Tina!’ she said. ‘Oh my goodness, the work you’ve put into this! You must know more about Japan than I do! It’s beautiful.’

  ‘Do you really, really like it? Might you hang it on the wall beside my butterfly?’

  ‘I’m not going to hang it in the classroom.’ Miss Lovejoy smiled at me. ‘I shall hang it on my bedroom wall at home, and then every day when I wake up I shall see it and get excited about going to Japan. Now I have a little something for you.’

  She handed me an envelope. ‘Don’t get excited. It’s not a present. It’s not a donation for your butterfly garden – it’s more the promise of one. Do you remember I suggested sponsoring you in a spelling test?’

  ‘Oh, Miss Lovejoy! I hoped you were joking!’

  ‘Inside the envelope you will find fifty words I know you can’t spell. Learn them over Christmas. Then, the first day of term, I’ll give you a test. I’ll sponsor you fifty p a word. If you got them all right, then you’d get . . . how much for your butterfly garden?’

  I fidgeted, trying to work it out.

  ‘Oh dear, maths isn’t your strong point either, Tina. Perhaps I’ll set you an arithmetic test too!’

  ‘Oh please, no! It’s . . . it’s . . .’

  ‘Twenty-five pounds!’ said Alistair.

  ‘Alistair! I wanted Tina to work it out!’ said Miss Lovejoy.

  ‘Yes, I know, I couldn’t help it. When I know the answer for something, I have to say it or burst!’ he said.

  ‘Twenty-five pounds!’ I echoed, marvelling.

  ‘But you have to get every single word right. Fifty p a word. It will mean a lot of hard work.’

  ‘I’m used to hard work now,’ I said. ‘Right, Miss Lovejoy. You’re on!’

  Selma liked her Christmas present too. Very, very much. She put her bracelet on straight away and then kept lifting up her arm, showing it off to everyone. We weren’t supposed to wear jewellery to school, but nobody minded on the last day of term.

  ‘See my bracelet,’ she kept saying to everyone.

  ‘Of course I can see your bracelet. You’re dangling it right under my nose!’ Alistair told her.

  ‘My friend Tina gave me it.’

  ‘It’s just a baby one she made from beads. It’s not a proper bracelet from a shop,’ said Kayleigh.

  ‘It’s better than a shop bracelet. Tina made it specially,’ said Selma. ‘You’re just jealous.’

  She turned to me. ‘I need to tell you something when we’re private.’

  She waited until we were digging the very last piece of garden at playtime. Well, there was still quite a hard patch with a lot of bricks in the earth, but Miss Lovejoy said she might be able to come into school during the holidays and break it up a bit now that her back was better.

  ‘Tina, I haven’t got you a Christmas present,’ said Selma.

  ‘Never mind.’

  ‘I feel bad about it. And the thing is, you’re kind of my Christmas present,’ she said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I was having this conversation about Christmas with my mum, and she was asking me and my brother Sam what we want. Baby Joel’s too little to ask because he can’t talk yet. Sam was saying he wants all this stupid stuff, and I said all I really wanted was to have you come to tea one day.’ Selma went red as she said it and wouldn’t look at me.

  ‘That’s . . . lovely,’ I said uncertainly. I liked Selma and I’d enjoyed having her to tea with me. I wasn’t anywhere near as keen on the idea of going to tea with her. I didn’t like the look of Selma’s little brothers. Her mum seemed very fierce. And Selma herself said her stepdad could be really mean and scary. The more I thought about it, the more sure I was that I didn’t want to go to tea with Selma at all – but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

  ‘You’ll come then!’ she said, suddenly looking radiant. ‘How about this Saturday. Please say yes!’

  ‘Well, I’ll have to ask my mum . . .’ I hesitated. ‘She might not let me because – because I might have to help with all the Christmas shopping and that.’

  ‘I’ll ask her for you!’ said Selma.

  When all the mums came to collect us at the end of school, Selma charged across the playground, veered right round her own mum and threw herself at mine.

  ‘Can Tina come to tea with me this Saturday?’ she gabbled.

  Mum looked taken aback. So did Phil and Maddie. Selma’s mum looked surprised too.

  ‘Well, that’s very kind of you to ask her, dear, but . . .’ Mum began, obviously searching for an excuse.

  ‘I know you’ll be busy doing Christmas stuff, but you’ve got Phil and Maddie to help. Oh, please let Tina come. She really wants to, don’t you, Tina?’ Selma nudged me, so I had to nod.

  ‘But perhaps your mum will be busy too?’ said mine, looking at Mrs Johnson.

  ‘Yes, but I did promise our Selma,’ she said. She had to speak loudly because Sam had snatched baby Joel’s bottle and he was protesting bitterly. ‘Shut up, you two pests! So, Saturday afternoon, at ours. We live at 93 Turner block, on the Painters Estate. Do you know where that is?’

  Mum nodded. The Painters Estate was only two roads away from us but we’d never ever been there. The Painters Estate was famous for being ultra-scary.

  ‘Perhaps we’d better see how Tina is on Saturday morning. I think she might be going down with another cold . . .’ Mum started saying, but Mrs Johnson had already pushed off with Joel in the buggy, Sam yelling and Selma waving happily to me.

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Mum.

  ‘You can’t let our Tina go to tea with Selma!’ said Phil.

  ‘You’d be much too scared, wouldn’t you, Tina?’ said Maddie.

  They both put their arms round me. I suddenly wriggled free. I was scared, but I didn’t want to admit it. And Selma was my friend. She wanted me to go to tea with her so much, even more than a proper Christmas present.

  ‘I want to go,’ I said determinedly.

  ‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Tina,’ said Mum. ‘It might be different if Phil and Maddie were invited too, but I don’t like the thought of you going there on your own.’

  ‘But you let Phil go to tea with Neera on her own. And Maddie went to the football match with Harry and his dad on her own,’ I said.

  ‘I know, but . . .’ Mum didn’t quite like to say that she thought Selma and her family and her flat were scary. ‘Let’s see what Dad thinks,’ she said.

  She thought Dad would give a firm no and that would be that. But Dad was surprising.

  ‘I think Tina should definitely go to tea with Selma,’ he said.

  ‘But I’m not sure she’ll be all right. Selma’s the girl who bullied her mercilessly at the start of term,’ said Mum.

  ‘Yes, but she doesn’t any more, does she? She seemed a nice little kiddie when she came to tea with us. My dad took a real shine to her. I bet our Tina will have a whale of a time if we let her g