‘Oh, which is why you should come to Manchester for my birthday! The first of November is on the last weekend of half term too, so hopefully you’ll be able to travel. It’s my eighteenth, after all. What do you think?’
‘Really? Are you sure you want me there, not your new friends?’
‘Well, yes, but you should come too, so you can meet everyone. What are you thinking about doing for your birthday?’
I feel a surge of delight. Ollie hasn’t forgotten about me after all. ‘Oh, you know I’ve got until the beginning of December to think about what I want to do about mine. But I will be there for yours.’
Twenty-One
Notes on a postcard
Etched in forever
I’ll keep these words
For worse or for better
‘Postcard’ fromDreamers
To Secret Sender,
Please do not forgive your friend. If it’s important to you, they should have remembered.
Dear Secret Sender,
Your latest post worried me. It’s not about being the bigger person. Did your friend acknowledge what they did wrong?
Secret Sender,
GIRL cut out this toxic boy. And I can tell he’s a boy. Not revealing the gender was a sign of boy problems. And the best way to get out of boy problems, is to get rid of the boy.
Did you write this last one?’ I say to Kira, who’s peering over my shoulder to look at my inbox. It’s Monday and it’s filled up over the weekend.
‘No, but I kind of wish I had,’ she says. ‘They have a point.’
‘I didn’t realise I was going to receive so much unsolicited advice,’ I say. The messages don’t make me feel good. They don’t know the full story, and I can’t reply back with it, so it feels unfinished.
‘Not only that, you’ve managed to divide the school,’ says Faye. She holds out two badges in her palm. One saysTeam Senderand the other saysTeam Friend.‘People are literally picking sides.’
‘People have too much time,’ I say, picking up the badges and throwing them into the bin.
‘It’s because Secret Sender doesn’t feel like a real person,’ says Kira. ‘This is the problem with anonymity. The person behind the mask feels less human.’
‘Hey, you’re the person who gave me the mask,’ I say. ‘And it’s fine. I can handle some unsolicited advice and some stupid merch.’
Just then Mia comes running up to us. Kira and Mia were in a lot of classes together during our GCSE years, and they bonded over the teachers mixing them up because their names sound similar, despite the fact they look nothing alike.
‘What’s going on?’ says Kira.
‘I need some advice, quick,’ says Mia, ‘and Farah and Tori are in Spanish class.’ Mia looks around. ‘It’s just that my friend – she’s my friend from when I was a Brownie, she doesn’t go here . . .’ She pauses, collecting herself. ‘I found out there’s this story going around her school and it’s about a girl who mistook an “Around the World” dress-up theme and instead of coming as a specific place, they bought an inflatable Earth costume and couldn’t fit through any door of the church hall.’
We all start laughing. ‘That is pretty funny,’ says Kira.
‘The person was me,’ hisses Mia. ‘I got confused about the “Around” part of “Around the World”. Anyway I told her not to tell anyone, and it turns out she has.’
‘Is it that big a deal?’ says Faye. ‘It was a while ago, no?’
‘Yes, but it’s hurtful because I told her not to tell anyone, and she did.’
