After school, Annabelle had orchestra practice. Her friends Siri and Freya were already there when she arrived. Siri played the viola and Freya played cello. Annabelle played violin. She’d been learning for over a year now.

Playing in the orchestra was good fun. At the moment everyone was practising really hard because they had a concert coming up. It was at the town hall and everyone had to wear their best clothes to perform.

Annabelle had gone shopping with her mum to buy a special outfit. They bought a purple skirt with a pink ribbon around the bottom and a silky pink shirt to match. They also bought some cute shoes with bows.

Annabelle always concentrated really hard when she was playing in the orchestra. She knew all the violin parts really well because she practised them at home. But there were more things to think about when she played with everyone else. She had to follow the music on the page and make sure she knew which bit they were up to, even when she wasn’t playing. Otherwise she might miss her cue to start.

After they had played through all the pieces, Mrs Bailey clapped.

‘Good work, everyone,’ she said. ‘The strings section sounded particularly good.’

Siri, Freya and Annabelle all grinned proudly at each other.

They were in the strings section!

During the break, Annabelle pulled out the last two party invitations.

‘These are for you,’ she said.

‘Cool!’ said Freya, looking at hers. ‘I’ve never been to a mocktail party before. Do you still play games and stuff?’

‘Um …’ said Annabelle.

She hadn’t really thought about the games yet. At all her other parties they had played things like musical chairs and the chocolate game.

At her school pool party they had played party games in the pool. Even pass the parcel! Annabelle’s mum had wrapped each layer of the parcel in a plastic bag so it didn’t get soggy. Everyone agreed afterwards that playing it in the pool was even more fun.

But Siri and Freya were a little bit older than her other friends. They might think that those games were for little kids.

Then Annabelle remembered what the Party Princess had said.

‘We’re going to play croquet!’ she said.

Annabelle still wasn’t really sure what croquet was. But it sounded like a grownup type of game.

‘Oh, and guess what?’ Annabelle added. ‘All the food is going to be served on silver platters!’

‘How excellent!’ said Siri. ‘What kind of food?’

‘I’m not sure yet,’ admitted Annabelle. ‘But it won’t be anything baby-ish.’?

‘I can’t wait!’ smiled Freya. ‘It sounds totally cool!’

Annabelle nodded.

‘Yep, it will be,’ she said.

At least, I hope it will be, she thought.

During the second part of orchestra practice, Annabelle didn’t play nearly so well. She missed her cues. And she played some wrong notes, too. The problem was that her head was full of party thoughts now. Like, how was she going to find out about croquet? And what kind of food should she serve?

Then, during the final piece, Annabelle thought of something else.

The same people had been coming to her parties for years. They all knew each other. But Freya and Siri had never met them before.

What if Freya and Siri don’t get along with my other friends? worried Annabelle. They are older than everyone else. And they probably like totally different music, too.

But it was too late to change anything now. All Annabelle could do was cross her fingers and hope that everyone got along.