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  ‘Yes, isn’t it exciting? You will come, won’t you? Don’t pull faces at me, though – I have to stay very serious. Oh, Matty, I’m getting nervous now just thinking about it! Did you get very nervous when you were a bridesmaid for your Aunt Rachel?’

  ‘No, I just felt a right fool. Especially when I had to follow the bride and they told me to keep my head up because no one wants a stooping bridesmaid, and yet I also had to keep my head down because they were all terrified I’d stomp on Aunt Rachel’s hem and tear it. Honestly! So I kept looking up and down until I felt my head was going to nod right off my neck.’ Matty demonstrated her technique. I could see why her mum sighed whenever she talked about the wedding.

  I rather wanted Matty’s mum to see me as a bridesmaid.

  ‘So you will come, won’t you? St John’s Church at noon. I so want you to see what I look like,’ I said. ‘If I look all scared and trembly, you can give me the thumbs up and your special smile, and then I’ll feel better, won’t I?’

  ‘Mmm,’ said Matty. ‘Well, I’ll see if I can come, but actually I think I might be going out on Saturday. If it’s this Saturday. I mean, I absolutely know I can come the Saturday after.’

  ‘Well, that’s not much use. I can’t get Miss Bloomfield to change her wedding day! Oh, Matty, please come. I want someone to see me in the bridesmaid’s dress.’

  ‘Your dad will be there, won’t he?’

  ‘Yes, I know, but he’s just Dad. Weddings aren’t really his thing.’

  ‘They’re not mine either! And it isn’t as if this is a proper wedding anyway,’ said Matty. ‘You said this Miss Bloomfield is ancient and she’ll just be inviting a few of her chums from some old folks’ group.’

  ‘Don’t be mean! I didn’t say that, not in those words. It doesn’t matter that she’s a bit old. You can get married at any age. And she seems so happy too. And I’m happy that I’m getting to be a bridesmaid at last. Don’t spoil it,’ I said, clenching my fists. ‘What are you going to do that’s so important that you can’t come to the wedding?’

  ‘Don’t get so het up! I’m going to the zoo, if you must know. And don’t get upset, but I’d much sooner see a lot of monkeys and tigers and elephants than some stupid old wedding,’ said Matty. ‘If you were absolutely honest, you’d far sooner see a whole lot of animals too.’

  ‘No I wouldn’t. I hate zoos! They’re horrible places. I wouldn’t be seen dead in a zoo,’ I declared. I was being reasonably truthful, because zoos always made me think of those desperately sad Saturdays after Mum left when it was all Dad and I could think of to do together. But I didn’t want to tell Matty that, so I started to pretend I objected to zoos on principle. Which I actually did too.

  ‘Think of all those poor wild animals cooped up in cages like they’re in prison. They want to be running free in the jungle or the savannah or wherever they live,’ I declared.

  ‘Free to be shot at. Free to starve to death. Free to be eaten by some other bigger animal,’ said Matty. ‘Most of the animals in zoos are specially bred there anyway. And they’re not in cages nowadays – they’re in big enclosures.’

  ‘Oh, shut up about your stupid zoo,’ I said.

  ‘Well, you shut up about your stupid wedding,’ said Matty.

  We barely talked to each other for the rest of the day. It was very awkward seeing as we sat right next to each other at school. Miss Hope paused midway through the afternoon, putting one hand on my shoulder, and one on Matty’s.

  ‘What’s up with you two today? You’re normally natter, natter, natter, but now you’re as quiet as little mice. You’ll be growing whiskers next and twitching your noses,’ she said. ‘Watch out. I might turn into a cat.’ She pulled a magnificent cat face, baring her teeth and miaowing.

  Matty and I couldn’t help giggling. Then we were somehow friends again, just like that. She didn’t say sorry. I didn’t say sorry. But we kept making cat faces at each other and collapsing into giggles. Miss Hope had to tell us off eventually but she couldn’t help smiling too.

  We made cat faces all the way home, miaowing at the tops of our voices. Lewis joined in too, even louder.

  ‘For goodness’ sake, calm down, all you pussycats,’ said Angie. ‘Or I might have to throw a bucket of water over you.’

  Matty and I pretended to throw water over each other and laughed even harder. It felt so good to laugh and be so silly. I hadn’t laughed till my stomach ached for so long.

  When we got to Matty’s house, Angie said she had half a mind to give us cat food for our snack. She looked in her special treat tin instead and broke a chocolate wafer biscuit into four sticks.

  ‘KitKat!’ she said, giving Matty and Lewis and me one stick each with a glass of milk, and eating the last herself. Then we went upstairs to play, though we were still all in such a silly mood that we didn’t manage the usual game of Warrior Princesses. Matty seized one of Lewis’s soft toys. It was originally a podgy zebra, but Matty insisted it was a cat.

  ‘Yep, it’s a killer cat. Watch it grow! It’s ginormous, the hugest cat in the whole universe and it’s hungry, it’s soooo hungry, it’s going to eat up all your other animals, Lewis. It’s going to eat you.’ Matty made the zebra-cat leap at Lewis’s neck, which made him squeal.

  ‘Stop it! Stop it, you’re making it too real,’ Lewis shrieked, batting at Matty with both hands.

  ‘It is real,’ she said. ‘All the cats in the world have mutated and are getting bigger and fiercer and hungrier.’

  ‘Better watch out when you go to the zoo on Saturday then,’ I said, a little tartly. ‘All the lions and tigers will be bursting out of their cages to gobble you up, Matty!’

  ‘I’m almost glad I’m not going!’ said Lewis, diving for his bed and cowering under his duvet.

  ‘You’re not going?’ I said. ‘Why on earth not? Your mum and dad wouldn’t leave you behind.’

  ‘We’re not going. It’s just Matty, the lucky thing,’ said Lewis, muffled.

  I looked at Matty. She didn’t quite look back at me.

  ‘Who are you going with, Matty?’ I asked.

  There was a long pause. Matty picked up Princess Powerful.

  ‘Come on, let’s stop mucking about with silly baby toys and play Warrior Princesses,’ she said, as if she hadn’t heard my question.

  ‘Who are you going to the zoo with, Matty?’ I repeated, though I already knew.

  She still wouldn’t say it though. She just started fussing with Princess Powerful, making her do kick-boxing so that all my ponies fell down like skittles.

  ‘She’s going with that Marty,’ said Lewis, sticking his head out of the duvet. ‘And it’s not fair that they didn’t invite me.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me, Matty?’ I asked very quietly.

  ‘Because I knew you’d go all weird on me. Like you are now,’ she said.

  ‘I’m not being weird,’ I said, though I knew my voice sounded strange. My heart was thumping. I seemed to be thumping all over. Even my eyelids pulsed. ‘You’re the one who’s being weird. Why do you want to keep secrets from me when we’re supposed to be best friends?’

  ‘It’s not a secret. Look, it’s no big deal. I’m going to the zoo with Marty and her family. She Skyped me. They’re all going this Saturday and Marty thought I might want to come too. Simple,’ said Matty.

  ‘So she’s your best friend now?’ I said. I didn’t mean to say it. The words just blurted out of my mouth before I could stop them. It sounded so lame, so pathetic, so needy.

  ‘She’s not my best friend. You are. She’s just a friend friend. I don’t get you, Tilly. Why can’t we both have heaps of other friends? It’s more fun that way,’ said Matty impatiently. She was making Princess Powerful do karate chops with her arms. It looked like she wanted to karate-chop me.

  I didn’t have heaps of friends. I didn’t spend any time with Cathy and Amanda now. I didn’t get in touch with any of the girls from my old school. I just wanted to have one best friend. And now