The next day, Billie can’t stop thinking about the spooky woman. What if she really is a witch? she thinks. What if she comes looking for me? A shiver passes through her.

She goes downstairs to sit in the kitchen with her family.

Being with her family always makes her feel better.

Noah is sitting at his little table, scribbling on paper with crayons.

‘Hey, Noah,’ Billie says. She pats him on his soft brown hair. He smiles and hands her his drawing.

‘Oh, that’s nice!’ says Billie. She looks down at the red and yellow scribbles across the page. ‘What is it?’

‘Giwaffe!’ says Noah proudly.

‘Oh yes, of course!’ says Billie, grinning. She turns the paper around three times but she can still only see scribble, no giraffe.

‘Hey, Billie, have you seen the picnic basket?’ her dad says. He is on a stepladder searching in the top cupboards.

‘Oh!’ says Billie. She suddenly remembers. ‘Um, why?’

‘Well, we thought we’d go for a picnic this afternoon because it’s such a nice day,’ Billie’s mum says.

‘But we can’t find the picnic basket anywhere. You haven’t been playing with it, have you, Billie?’

Billie feels her cheeks get hot and her ears sting. ‘Um, no!’ she says in a squeaky voice.

‘Billie?’ says her mum, looking at her suspiciously.

‘Oh, that’s right. I borrowed it,’ she says. ‘For a game I was playing.’

‘Oh, good,’ Billie’s dad says, climbing down the stepladder. ‘I’ve been looking for it everywhere!

Can you run and get it then?’

In her mind Billie sees the basket sitting on the front step of the spooky house. ‘Um, well, I don’t have it anymore,’ she says. ‘I, er, I lent it to someone.’

‘Who?’ says her dad.

‘Jack,’ Billie says. He is the first person she can think of.

‘Well, can you go and get it?’ Billie’s mum says. She sounds a little bit annoyed.

Billie slips down off her stool and trudges towards the back door. ‘OK,’ she says, worried. ‘I’ll go and get it now. I’ll be back soon.’

Billie slides open the back door and runs down the steps towards the hole in the fence. Then she squeezes through the gap and into Jack’s backyard. Now that Billie is getting bigger it’s harder to slip through, but it is still the quickest way to visit her best friend.

‘Is Jack home?’ Billie asks Jack’s dad when he opens the back door.

‘Sure, Billie,’ he says. ‘He’s upstairs. Shall I call him down?’

‘No, that’s OK. I’ll go up,’ says Billie. She runs up the stairs two at a time and swings open his bedroom door. Jack is sitting on the floor building a Lego spaceship.

‘Jack!’ she says, panting. ‘I need your help! I’m in big trouble.’