When Isla came downstairs for breakfast the next morning, she found the hallway piled high with furniture.
“Furniture fort!” Milo yelled, pushing past Isla to dive beneath a table.
“Oh, sorry, Isla,” Gran said, peering over the top of an upside-down armchair. “I didn’t realize the furniture was being delivered quite so early! The kitchen’s a bit blocked off at the moment. You’ll have to get breakfast at school.”
Isla groaned. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Langford High – even though she’d only been there a week, starting secondary school hadn’t been as scary as she’d thought it would be … so far she’d only got lost once. But making new friends was a lot harder than she remembered. Her best friend Grace was at the same school but she was in a different class and it wasn’t like primary school at all.
“I thought you said there were only a few bits being delivered?” Mum puffed, trying to drag a large chest of drawers into the lounge.
Gran frowned. “There seems to be a lot more than I remembered.”
“Never mind,” Mum said. “I’m sure we’ll find space somewhere.”
“Talking of space,” Tilda said, appearing at the top of the stairs, “maybe it’s time Isla found somewhere else to sleep…”
Since Gran had come to stay, she’d been sleeping in Isla’s room, while Isla shared with Tilda. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but Isla had enjoyed spending more time with Tilda – even if her big sister was on her phone for hours on end.
“I thought you liked having me in your room,” she said, feeling a little hurt.
Tilda gave Isla an apologetic look. “It’s just so cramped.”
“You’ll have to make do, I’m afraid,” Mum said. “We don’t have any spare space.”
“But there is another room in the house,” Tilda insisted.
Mum slapped a hand to her head. “You’re right. I can’t believe we didn’t think of it sooner!”
“Where?” Isla asked, confused.
“The attic!” Mum and Tilda said together.
“I’m not moving into the attic!” Isla shuddered, imagining the cold, dark attic, full of cobwebs and pigeon poo.
“It’s a lovely room,” Mum said. “We’ve only used it for storage because we didn’t need the extra space – until now.”
Isla scowled. “Why can’t Tilda move up there?”
“I have a room already,” Tilda said. “Besides, your things are still packed up so it makes sense.”
“A lick of paint and a clear-out, and it’ll be nice and cosy,” Mum promised. She leaned over the chest of drawers to kiss Isla on the head. “Now, off to school.”
“Don’t forget the forms!” Isla reminded her, ducking beneath a table to the front door.
The morning crawled by and Isla was relieved when the lunchtime bell finally sounded. She hurried out of the classroom and headed for the courtyard, desperate to see Grace and tell her all about her disastrous day.
As if double PE hadn’t been bad enough, she’d forgotten her kit. Isla had hoped she would be allowed to sit the class out, but Mr Bennett the PE teacher had made Isla search through lost property to find some suitable clothes. She’d ended up wearing a mouldy-smelling green T-shirt, and a pair of tiny white shorts. She had felt so embarrassed.
As Isla waited for Grace, she jotted down more notes for Poppy’s Place. She’d found a cat café online that also rehomed cats. On their website, they had a list of rules similar to those Tilda had mentioned, so Isla was adapting them for Poppy’s Place.
This wouldn’t be a problem for Benny – she loved nothing better than a lap to curl up on. The tricky part was going to be when the customer tried to leave!
They couldn’t risk any of the cats being grabbed at or chased, which led Isla to rule number three…
Lucy, the vet at Abbey Park, said it was vitally important that the cats were happy.
Isla looked up and sighed. If Grace was any longer, there wouldn’t be any tables left. She noticed a girl from her form called Bonnie sitting with two other girls. One was tall with short blond hair, the other had the longest bright red curls she had ever seen. Isla took a deep breath and closed her notebook. If she wanted to make friends, she was going to have to actually start trying.
“Hi,” Isla said shyly, approaching their table.
The tall girl whispered something Isla couldn’t quite hear, making the red-headed girl laugh. Isla hesitated and looked at Bonnie. “I … I think we’re in the same form – 7B? You’re Bonnie, right?”
Bonnie nodded. “I—”
“What is that?” the tall girl interrupted, pointing at Isla’s hand.
Isla looked down. The top of her pen had a small furry cat on a spring. It bounced wildly back and forth as she frantically stuffed it into her backpack.
“Nothing,” Isla squeaked, wishing that Grace would turn up.
“A cat! How cute,” the tall girl taunted.
The red-headed girl laughed and looked at Bonnie, who gave a weak smile. Isla’s face flushed as she fumbled with the zip on her backpack. In her panic to get away, she pulled a little too hard and the entire contents spilled on to the ground.
Horrified, Isla scooped up her things as quickly as she could, blinking hard to hold back the tears. She hurried away, sure that everyone was staring at her, and found a quiet corner on the other side of the courtyard. She leaned against the cold wall and took out her lunch. She’d been starving earlier, but now Isla felt sick.
Where was Grace when she needed her?
“How was school?” Gran asked as Isla curled up on the sofa with Poppy.
“Fine,” Isla mumbled, searching her backpack for her notebook.
Her heart sank as she realized she must have lost it when she dropped her things in the courtyard. All her notes and plans for Poppy’s Place … gone. It had been the worst day ever.
Gran gave a little frown, then her face brightened. “Your mum’s got a surprise for you.”
“Where is she?” Isla asked.
Isla groaned and plodded upstairs as slowly as she could. She couldn’t stop imagining creaky floorboards, dusty old boxes and spiders in every corner.
“She’s home!” Milo yelled, scuttling excitedly down the attic stairs to give Isla two thumbs up. “I wish I could sleep up there, but Mum says I’d make too much noise on the wooden floorboards!”
“Come on up!” Mum called in a muffled voice.
Isla anxiously climbed the narrow stairs.
Mum was standing in the middle of the room wearing tatty denim overalls and a scarf tied around her head.
“What do you think?” she asked. “I still need to find a home for those boxes and put up some blinds, but you can paint the walls whatever colour you like.”
Isla looked around the room, her eyes wide. The attic was huge – twice the size of her old room. There wasn’t a cobweb or speck of dust in sight, and Mum had wound some old Christmas lights around the wooden beam which crossed the ceiling. It looked magical.
“I put your bed beneath the skylight,” Mum said, “so you can see the stars at night.”
“It’s amazing!” Isla breathed.
There was a thump on the stairs behind them and Tilda appeared. “What are you—” She gave a little squeal. “You never told me the attic was this big!”
Mum smiled sweetly. “You never asked, Tilda.”
“But – it’s way bigger than my room!”
“I know,” said Mum. “It was such a nice idea of yours to let Isla have all this space.”
Tilda’s mouth opened and shut a few times. Isla covered her own mouth, trying not to laugh.
“About that,” Tilda started. “I know Isla wasn’t keen on the idea, so maybe I could move up here instead? I mean, it would be a bit of a sacrifice, but if it made Isla happy…”
Mum gave Isla a hug as she, too, tried not to laugh. “That would be very generous of you, Tilda, but it’s up to Isla to decide. Isla?”
Isla glanced around. “It is amazing up here,” she said, “but I think I’d rather be downstairs with the cats. They might not be able to climb those stairs. Thanks, Tilda.”
Tilda smiled. “What are sisters for?”
“That’s settled then,” said Mum. “We can do the big switch at the weekend, and you can both paint your rooms if you like.”
There was a sudden yell from Milo downstairs. Mum rolled her eyes. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Isla’s phone buzzed in her pocket with a text from Grace:
Sorry couldn’t meet at lunch. Had drama club. Totally forgot! G x
Isla paused. She forgot? Isla would never forget to meet Grace if they’d made plans.
No problem, Isla replied. Fancy coming over on Saturday with Ayesha for a room decorating party? x
Count me in, Grace replied. And watch this space for some amazing news! x
Isla shoved her phone in her pocket, wondering what Grace had to tell her. Hopefully it wasn’t that she’d joined more clubs and Isla would have to eat alone every lunchtime for the rest of her life.
“What’s up?” Tilda asked, plonking herself down on the bed.
“Nothing,” Isla mumbled.
“You can have the attic if you want…”
Isla shook her head and sat down.
Tilda gave her a quizzical look. “So what’s the problem? You don’t seem your normal annoyingly bouncy self.”
Isla shrugged and buried her feet in the shaggy rug Mum had placed beside the bed.
“Going to a new school and making new friends is harder than I thought it would be,” Isla admitted.
“It was the same for me when I started at Langford High.”
“Really?”
Tilda nodded. “Did something happen at school?”
Isla shook her head quickly. She didn’t want Tilda feeling sorry for her.
“Well,” Tilda said. “Just be yourself. You’ll soon make friends. And I’m here whenever you need a chat.”
Isla gave Tilda a small smile. “You know,” she said, changing the subject, “another downside of being up here is that you can’t smell Gran’s baking – I’m sure she mentioned something about chocolate cupcakes.”
“Better get down there before Milo eats them all,” Tilda laughed, and raced for the stairs.
Isla followed. There was nothing that Gran’s baking couldn’t fix.