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  Dawn played around with my hair, draping it up and under.

  ‘Oh yes! Perfect. Right, dear, hop up on a chair and we’ll start snipping,’ said Dawn.

  Mum winced as she cut the first lock of hair, peering at me worriedly, but by the time Dawn was making the last little tidying up snippets she was smiling.

  ‘It looks lovely! Look, Beauty!’ said Mum.

  She held up her powder-compact mirror so I could see for myself. I stared at the face in the mirror. I didn’t look a bit like me. I stuck my tongue out just to make sure it was me, and the mirror girl stuck her tongue out too. I looked so different. My face seemed so much smaller with its smooth cap of honey-coloured hair. I didn’t look especially fashionable or grown up, but for the first time ever I felt I looked like me.

  Mum smiled, Dawn smiled, the baby smiled – and Mike mimed that he was struck dumb by this vision of beauty before him.

  I wondered if I really was a new person now. Maybe this was the start of a whole new me. Cookie, cool and confident . . .

  But on Monday morning I felt the old scared shaky Beauty – and I looked awful. Even my new hairstyle looked dreadful. I’d tossed and turned so much in the night it was all sticking up sideways, and it wouldn’t lie down properly, even when I drenched it with water.

  ‘Come on, Beauty. You need to get a bit of breakfast down you. You’ve got to leave at ten to eight. Hurry, sweetie,’ Mum urged me.

  I stood in front of the mirror, brushing dementedly.

  ‘It won’t go right,’ I said, stamping my foot, almost in tears. ‘I look ridiculous!’

  ‘Hey, hey, don’t hurl that hairbrush whatever you do. You’re a menace when it comes to mirrors,’ said Mum. ‘Your hair looks fine. Tell you what, I’ll slap some gel on it. Don’t worry, I won’t turn you into a totally punky girl.’

  ‘I look a totally pukey girl,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t use that horrible word,’ said Mum, fussing with my stupid hair.

  ‘I feel like I’m going to puke. I don’t want my breakfast. I feel so sick.’ I felt my forehead. ‘And I’m all hot. You feel, Mum. I’m sure I’ve got a temperature. You can’t send me to school when I’m ill, they’ll think you’re a terrible mother.’

  ‘Sweetie, you’re not ill. You just don’t want to go to school and I understand but you have to go. There! Look at your hair! It looks great now, truly.’

  I glared at my reflection. Mum had made my hair look a lot better, admittedly, but the rest of me still looked ultra-depressing.

  ‘Stop scowling!’ said Mum. ‘You must smile at everyone in your class, then they’ll all want to make friends.’

  ‘I don’t want to make friends with any of them,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a friend already, Rhona.’

  ‘Maybe there’ll be someone at your new school you’ll like even more than Rhona,’ said Mum.

  ‘Don’t be so stupid, Mum,’ I said sulkily.

  ‘Hey!’ Mum caught hold of me by the shoulders. ‘Don’t you be so rude to me! You’ve been so good and grown up until now. Please, give this school a chance.’

  ‘OK, I’ll try, but it won’t work. They won’t like me, I know they won’t.’

  Mum shook me in exasperation.

  ‘Look, get your Sam and Lily DVD, go and sit in Mike’s living room and watch it for five minutes. It’ll calm you down. I’ll bring you a little bowl of cornflakes and some juice, OK?’

  I did as I was told. Mike was busy in the kitchen so I had the living room to myself. I skipped along the Sam and Lily DVD to an episode right at the end, called Starting School. It was aimed at very little kids going to school for the first time, but inside I felt like a very little kid. I couldn’t even sing the Sam and Lily song when the episode started.

  ‘Hey there!’ said Sam.

  Lily looked up at me, her nose twitching.

  ‘Are you about to start school?’ said Sam.

  I nodded mournfully, spooning up cornflakes.

  ‘Are you getting excited?’ Sam asked.

  I stared at him. Even Sam was being stupid today.

  ‘OK, maybe you’re just a little bit scared,’ said Sam softly. ‘I don’t blame you for feeling like that, Beauty. I wish you could go to Lily’s school, you’d absolutely love it. There’s just five other rabbits in her class and they have such easy-peasy lessons. They learn how to groom their fur and make a comfy bed and how to lap water delicately so it doesn’t dribble down their front. They run races with each other all round the vegetable patch and they have a little snack every ten minutes.

  ‘Lily was a little bit shy her very first day and wouldn’t talk to the other rabbits in her class. She crept round by herself at playtime and sucked the tip of her ear for comfort but she soon made friends with the others. Now they’re all best friends. When they’re playing they all go into a huddle together, cosying up close, little white puffball tails in the air.’

  ‘How did she make friends, Sam?’ I whispered.

  ‘She sidled up to the rabbit she liked best, a funny friendly one, and snuffled her nose at him.’

  ‘Hmm. Well, if I sidle up to some funny friendly boy in my class and snuffle my nose he’ll think I’m a total nutter,’ I said.

  Mike came into the room, a big paper bag in his arms. I blushed and switched off the DVD player quickly.

  ‘Hi, Beauty. Did you finish your cornflakes? Your mum’s fussing. Are you just about ready?’

  ‘I suppose.’

  ‘Let’s have a look at you,’ said Mike. ‘Mm, cool hair, nice T-shirt, cute skirt. Your trainers are a bit scuffed and grubby though.’

  ‘I know. I’ve tried brushing them but they still look rubbish,’ I said.

  ‘Well, see if these fit,’ said Mike, throwing the paper bag at me.

  I opened it up – and found a pair of scarlet baseball boots, little versions of Mike’s own funky boots.

  ‘Oh, Mike! Oh, I love them! Can I really wear them to school?’

  ‘That’s what they’re for, kiddo. Do they fit OK? I got a half-size bigger than your trainers so that they’d last you a while.’

  They fitted perfectly and looked incredible.

  ‘There! Maybe your new nickname will be Booty,’ said Mike, laughing.

  I gave him a hug and I gave Mum a kiss. I clutched my carrier bag – my own school bag and lunchbox were at home so I had to make do for the moment. Mum wanted to go with me to call at number two and number seventeen but I was scared the kids would think me a baby so I went by myself.

  A red-haired freckled boy about my own age opened the door of number seventeen. I’d seen him several times rollerblading along the terrace. He’d always pulled a hideous face at me. He pulled a hideous face now.

  ‘Yuck, are you the girl I’ve got to go to school with?’ he asked.

  I certainly wasn’t going to snuffle my nose at him. I felt like bursting into tears – but I didn’t. I pulled a face back at him.

  ‘Yuck, are you the boy I’ve got to go to school with?’ I said.

  ‘Come on then. My mum says your name’s Beauty. Is that right?’

  ‘Yeah, so what?’ I said, pretending I didn’t care in the slightest. I felt horribly shaky and peculiar inside.

  He ran full-tilt down the terrace and banged at the door of number two. Another boy came tumbling out, smaller, with curly hair.

  ‘Hi, Toby!’ he yelled excitedly.

  ‘Hi, Ben,’ Toby said, and they did this silly high-five routine.

  Ben totally ignored me. I didn’t know if this was better or worse. Either way, I hated the thought of going backwards and forwards to school with these two boys. But then a girl came out of number nine, much older, about fourteen, a big bouncy girl with spiky black hair and a lot of black eye make-up. I blinked at her, biting my lip. She smiled at me.

  ‘Hi, I’m Angie. You’re Beauty from Lily Cottage? Mum said you’d be coming on the bus with us. I hope for your sake you’re not in Ben or Toby’s class! They both drive me absolutely nuts. It will