Elizabella ran and ran and ran through the fete until she ran straight into her dad.

“Elizabella!” he said.

She sniffed the air. Something was strange. “Dad, are you wearing cologne?”

“Darling, I need to tell you something.” He took her by the hand and walked her to one of the silver benches in the school. Toddberry was sitting there already. He was eating a toffee apple, by shoving it between his hair curtains into where his mouth presumably was.

“Elizabella, I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while, but you may find it a little bit upsetting,” said Martin.

“What is it, Dad?”

“The thing is . . . I’m here on a – a–”

“Date,” offered Toddberry. “Dad’s on a date.”

Elizabella flung her arms around her dad. “Dad, that’s wonderful!”

“Oh!” said Martin, a little taken aback.

“I’m so happy!” said Elizabella. And she really meant it. Martin hadn’t been on a date since Elizabella’s mum died and he really deserved to go out and have some fun.

“You won’t be so happy when you find out who it’s with,” said Toddberry.

“What, it’s not Miss Duck, is it?”

“Darling,” said Martin, “I’m on a date with . . . Leanne.”

Elizabella was confused. “Leanne? But the only Leanne I know is . . .”

“That’s right,” said Toddberry. “Huck’s mum.”

Elizabella froze, her eyes wide as cupcakes.

Suddenly, from the other side of the playground, she heard a giant:

It was Huck. He was standing there, staring at his mum.

Elizabella joined in on the scream.

And their collective scream rang out over Bilby Creek.

Elizabella was walking around the fete, anxiously. She had been avoiding everyone. Her dad, Toddberry, her friends, anyone who wanted to know why she screamed and, most of all, Huck. A million thoughts were running through her head. So much so that she didn’t notice she’d run into Minnie until she’d bounced right off her.

“Elizabella!” said Minnie. “Did you see the eleven-legged race?”

“How could I have missed it?” asked Elizabella. “I thought you were going to be in all the trouble in the universe because Miss Duck broke it off with Mr Gobblefrump, but apparently he’s still happy.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” said Minnie. “Because I’m just getting started.”

Elizabella stared at her. “Do you ever get in trouble? Like ever?”

Minnie shrugged. Then she skipped off towards the library.

Elizabella saw Huck standing just a few metres away. He was clearly avoiding her as much as she was avoiding him. But the playground was only so big and they’d have to deal with each other eventually. Elizabella bit the bullet and walked over to him.

They had a lot to talk about. It was extremely awkward.

“That poem,” began Huck.

“Oh, yeah, don’t worry about it,” said Elizabella.

“Okay,” said Huck.

They walked along in silence for a little while.

“Actually,” said Huck, “I just want you to know that before we were practically brother and sister, I read your poem and I liked it. Like like liked it.”

Elizabella smiled, then her smile fell away. “Boo,” she said. “It’s our parents.”

Martin and Leanne were sharing a fairy floss. They spotted their respective children.

“How’s it going, kids?” asked Leanne. She turned to Elizabella. “I just won this monkey for your dad in that silly squirting-clowns-in-the-mouth game!” Elizabella mustered a smile. “Maybe he’ll let you have it?” said Leanne, handing her a giant monkey plush toy. Then she looked at her own son, who seemed a little sad.

“Sorry, Huck,” said Martin. “I’m sure your mum can win you one too, she’s very good.”

“I know she is,” said Huck, with a tiny smile.

“Dad,” blurted out Elizabella, “are me and Huck going to have to be brother and sister now?”

Leanne and Martin started laughing.

“What?” said Huck. “Are we!?”

“Kids, kids,” said Martin. “We’ve been on one date before tonight.”

“To a ridiculous action film,” added Leanne. “Not even a romantic one!”

Oh . . . thought Elizabella, that’s where Dad went in such a hurry the day of the Pit Pool incident! No wonder he didn’t want to tell me.

“We have no idea what’s going to happen,” said Martin. “But as far as you two becoming siblings? Well, if anything like that was going to happen – which is the biggest if in the world – then we’re talking ages away.”

“Like years,” said Leanne.

“Maybe decades,” said Martin.

Elizabella and Huck glanced at each other. The two of them had barely been alive for a decade, so if they were ever going to be brother and sister, that was a lifetime away.

Elizabella smiled to herself.

“Hey, what’s going on over at the monkey bars?” asked Leanne. Everyone turned around to see Minnie walking over towards them, dragging beanbags from the library behind her. When she got to the monkey bars she threw them on top, where they joined several other beanbags that were already there.

While everyone had been busy eating and playing and having a good time, Minnie had taken advantage of the other distractions to sneak into the library and pull out all the beanbags. She’d also gone to the janitor’s closet and found a leaf blower. She’d put the blower and the beanbags on top of the monkey bars and was now climbing them.

By now everyone at the fete had realised something was going on and they were all looking at her. A giant grin came across her face. She unzipped one of the beanbags, revved up the leaf blower and blew white beans high into the sky, which then rained down on the playground coating it in a layer of . . .

“SNOW!!!!!” everyone cried as they ran and skipped and played in the little white beany snow droplets. “IT’S SNOWING IN BILBY CREEK!”

As the bean snow mingled with the baubles and tinsel and all the decorations and thickened on the ground, magic filled the air. Elizabella looked around at everyone. Miss Duck collected the bean snowflakes from her hair, put them in her hands and then blew them away. Then she jumped about as they fell back down on her head. Ava and Evie were synchronised skiing in their sandshoes from one end of the playground to the other, while Sandy spun around in circles like an ice skater. Elizabella saw her dad, dancing with Leanne in the snow. He gave her a big dip like in the movies. Even Toddberry was holding the hair curtains away from his head, and his eyes were wide as party pies as he took in the sight.

Minnie descended the monkey bars and walked through the playground watching everyone play. She was glad to have made everyone so happy. And there was just one person she wanted to talk to about it.

“So?” said Minnie, bounding up to Elizabella. “What do you think?”

Elizabella couldn’t hide how impressed she was. And she didn’t even really want to.

“Minnie, it’s amazing. You’ve made the whole of Bilby Creek happy. And the logistics alone . . . how long have you been planning this?”

“Since you told me you’d never seen snow before,” said Minnie, smiling.

Elizabella stared. “But that was on your first day!”

“Yep. I could tell you were cool from when I first met you. And I wanted to do something nice for you.”

Elizabella couldn’t believe it. “You did all this . . . for me?” she asked.

“Yep,” said Minnie.

The girls smiled at each other.

“Well, you and Mr Gobblefrump,” said Minnie, gesturing towards the middle of the playground where Mr Gobblefrump was on the ground rolling about in the snow.

“He looks like the happiest puppy in the world,” said Elizabella.

“Yeah,” said Minnie. “Who needs romance when you have a playground full of beanbag snow to play with?” And with that she lay down on the ground and started moving her arms and legs out from side to side. “Come and make snow angels with me!”

Elizabella giggled and lay down next to her friend. They both moved their arms and legs from side to side, making snow angels on the ground and laughing and cracking jokes as the moon shone down on the first and last ever snowy summer night in Bilby Creek.