THE next morning, Lina caught the late bus to school. She caught a glimpse of the person she was looking for and pushed her way through the mass of bodies, sticky with the morning’s heat. ‘John!’ she called, as she squirmed her way closer to her friend.

‘Lina!’ he called back, waving his hand high so that she could find him.

She broke through the mass and found him wedged between two stout ladies with very full hessian bags, on their way home from the Victoria Market. As Lina glanced down, one of the bags jiggled and a chicken’s head poked up over the top and clucked irritably. Lina giggled. ‘You really should catch the earlier bus,’ she scolded. ‘It’s nowhere near as crowded and most days you can even get a seat.’

John grinned. ‘If I caught the earlier bus I wouldn’t be able to sleep in, would I?’

Lina moved closer, avoiding the chicken’s nasty beak, and lowered her voice. ‘So, did you hear about the Closing Ceremony?’ she said.

John turned to look at her and tapped his lips with his finger. ‘Actually I missed it,’ he said. ‘But I saw it on the television news in a shop window the next day. Pretty good, huh?’ He grinned again. ‘I didn’t really think they’d do it, to tell you the truth.’

‘John, it’s not just pretty good, it’s amazing!’ Lina said, excitement making her voice rise.

John tapped his lips again and Lina lowered her voice to whisper in his ear. ‘You’re famous! Everyone wants to know who the mysterious Chinese boy is!’

‘Just as well I know that I can trust you to keep our secret then,’ John said, dropping his eyebrows to show how serious he was.

Lina sighed. ‘You’re so modest, I can’t believe it. If I were you I’d want everyone to know it was me. You could be on the front page all around the world! They’d probably even name a street after you, or something.’

John shrugged. ‘My father always says: It’s not important to know who it was that made a difference, only that a difference was made. Besides, my family would freak out if they knew it was me. They’re not really into calling attention to themselves. It’s not very Chinese, if you know what I mean? Look,’ he said, finding a way to change the subject. ‘Did you see they’re pulling all those old houses down?’

Lina nodded, feeling slightly annoyed. She had wanted to ask John’s permission to write a story about what he had done. It was a story that everyone would want to read. A story that might even get published in a real newspaper! But now she knew if she asked him he would just say no. And if he said no then she wouldn’t be able to write the story.

She sighed again. Then another thought came to her. But if I don’t ask him  . . .  well then, he can’t really say no, can he? And if I don’t mention who it was, don’t write his name, I’m not really breaking her promise, am I? Lina tucked her idea deep into her mind.

She turned back to John who was looking out the window at a row of tiny terrace houses that had been partially knocked down. ‘My parents are worried they might want to pull our house down soon. My dad goes to meetings to talk about how to save all the old houses in Carlton from being knocked down by developers. Our house may be old and crummy but we can’t afford to move. Everyone in our street is the same.’

John frowned. ‘One day people will love all these old houses,’ he said. ‘They’re part of our history! Newer isn’t always better.’

‘Maybe,’ sighed Lina. ‘But this is the third week in a row our water pipes have been leaking and yesterday a big piece of ceiling fell down in our hallway. Our house might have lots of history but it’s not very comfortable to live in. I’d swap it for a new house any day.’

Lina’s school week was filled with excitement as many more girls came up to congratulate her on the magazine. Some of them asked if they could help make the magazine next year and Lina explained that she couldn’t decide herself and that they should really check with the Mother Superior. The truth was she didn’t know if she wanted to do the magazine next year anyway, especially if it meant spending time with Sarah again. Now that Lina had become friends with Julia, Sarah pretended that they’d never even been sort-of friends, and that working together on the magazine was just something she’d been forced into. Mary, too, had resumed her nasty looks and whispering eye-rolling every time she passed Lina and Julia in the corridors.

‘She’s so ridiculous!’ Julia snorted in laughter one day, after passing Mary huddled in her little group of mean girls. ‘Like we would even care what she and her friends were saying about us!’

‘I know,’ Lina agreed, her confidence growing daily now that Julia was by her side.

‘The thing about girls like that,’ Julia continued, ‘is that you have to feel a bit sorry for them. They think everybody wants to be their friend, but the truth is that nobody wants to, once they really get to know them. That’s why they have to latch on to new girls like you, who haven’t discovered how awful they are yet. Honestly, I have no idea how you spent so much time with either of them!’

‘Me neither,’ said Lina quickly, even though she remembered having had some good times with both of them. But then she reminded herself that even during the best times, she had never felt completely comfortable. She’d never felt good enough somehow, and she’d been ashamed of her family, who weren’t as stylish or wealthy as theirs. Yet with Julia, Lina felt, for the first time in a long time, that she could completely be herself.

On the last day of the week, when she and Julia were sitting under the peppercorn tree behind the Science labs at lunchtime, Lina finally screwed up the courage to ask something she had never dared ask anyone from St Brigid’s before. She swallowed her mouthful of bread and took a deep breath before she spoke, feeling suddenly nervous.

‘Um, I don’t know if you’re free tomorrow, if you’re not, don’t worry, but if you are, and you have nothing else to do, I was wondering if you’d – um – like to come over to my place?’ The last bit came out in a hurried mumble.

‘Great!’ said Julia, smiling broadly, like it was the most normal thing in the world for Lina to be asking. ‘I’d love to! Where do you live? I’ll ask Dad to drive me. He’s been wanting to meet you and your family for ages!’

‘Really?’ said Lina, surprised.

Julia nodded. ‘Ever since he read your story.’

‘Oh,’ Lina said, feeling a thrill pass through her. ‘That’s nice! We, um, live in Carlton, though. Do you know where that is?’ Lina tensed, waiting for Julia’s reaction. Would she look down on Carlton the way Mary and Sarah had?

‘Of course I know where Carlton is!’ Julia scoffed. ‘Dad goes there all the time to buy his coffee. He says it’s the only place to get good coffee in the whole of Melbourne.’

Lina giggled, relief and happiness making her light-headed. ‘Your dad and my dad are definitely going to get along.’