’That’s right, Lily’s nearly ten.’ Mum is busy at the hospital admissions desk, filling in paperwork and answering questions.

Lily D is busy squirming in her waiting-room seat. A part of her wants to just run away, and the rest of her is generally freaking out! Outside it’s still dark. It seems like the whole world is asleep, except for Lily D, Mum, the admissions desk lady and the girl sitting two seats down from Lily.

The girl looks about Lily’s age, and she’s wearing the MOST AWESOME BEANIE Lily has ever seen. It’s all the colours of the ocean: blues, greys, greens and white. The girl has her nose deep in a book, but keeps scratching her head underneath her beanie now and then, without once taking her eyes off the page. Lily is about to suggest she get checked for nits, like they do twice a year at school, when suddenly the girl whips her beanie off – and there is no hair underneath!

Lily stares … then looks at her hands, looks at Mum at the admissions desk, then looks at the girl. AARGH!

‘Stop it, Lily!’ she thinks to herself. ‘Don’t stare!’ So, Lily looks at the clock on the wall, then checks her bag to see if she had packed PJs and a toothbrush, and then looks at the girl.

This time, the girl is looking back at her!

’Hi!‘ Lily says, with an awkward little wave and a lopsided smile.

The girl waves back, smiling her own version of a half-smile, before returning to her book.

‘What are you reading?’ Lily asks. ‘Ah, Rapunzel,’ she says, reading the cover of the book the girl holds up to her. ‘Do you like fairytales?’

‘Ummmmm,’ the girl looks kind of startled that Lily is speaking to her. ‘Nah, I don’t like all fairytales, but I always read Rapunzel when I come into hospital for my treatments.’

Suddenly the girl blushes and looks down at her beanie, before quickly pulling it on over her head. ‘Sounds kind of dumb, I know … but this story makes me feel, um, braver?’

‘Totally,’ Lily says, nodding seriously. ‘Fairytales help lots of kids face their fears.’

The girl smiles. ‘Yeah! And it makes me feel better about this too,’ she says, pointing to her head.

‘Your beanie?’ Lily asks. ‘Oh! Coz it’s itchy, right? Hmm … does Rapunzel have an itchy beanie? I don’t remember that bit,’ Lily jokes. ‘Maybe she just has nits!’

This makes the girl laugh hard. She has an awesome, honking laugh that is so full of joy it makes Lily feel tingly all over.

‘No! Reading Rapunzel makes me feel better about my hair!’ the girl explains. ‘The treatments made it start falling out so we had the hairdresser shave it all off.’

’Oh … whoa!‘ says Lily. Now it is her turn to feel a bit embarrassed. ‘I just thought YOUR parents were really cool and let you shave your head. I begged Mum and Dad to let me shave my hair a while ago, so I could put tattoos all over my head. I wanted to practise being a character that looked different to everyone else, but they wouldn’t let me.’

‘Well, I sure know what that feels like,’ grins the girl.

‘What?!’ Lily says, her eyes wide. ‘Have you tattooed your head?‘

’NO!‘ laughs the girl, and there is that totally awesome laughter again. Lily feels so tingly she giggles too.

‘I mean,’ the girl starts, ‘wherever I go, my shaved head makes me look different, and I am smaller than the other kids my age so that makes me different too. All that difference kind of makes me feel bad … like I’m a bit ugly, so no-one will like me.’

The girl is facing Lily, but her eyes seem to be looking somewhere far, far away. Seeing things Lily can never imagine. Feeling things Lily doesn’t understand.

‘That’s why I love Rapunzel … because I am kind of like her. Being in hospital all the time is kind of like being locked away in a tower. It makes me different.’ The girl pauses, and takes a deep breath. ‘Rapunzel is beautiful, with amazing hair, but even after the evil witch cuts it off, she still gets her happily ever after. Well, I don’t think I’m beautiful, and all my hair is gone.’ The girl’s voice gets a bit croaky, and she takes off her beanie again and rubs her hand over her shiny scalp. Her words make Lily’s heart hurt. ‘But I am DETERMINED I am going to have my happily ever after,’ the girl whispers, like it is a very special secret. ‘And when I look in the mirror, I see that I am getting better, and I see how hard I have worked to get better … and so I guess I like what I see.’

The young girl with the big sad eyes and the tinkly, honky laugh rubs her head again. She obviously feels a bit weird without her beanie on.

Lily’s heart feels like a wet sponge that someone is wringing out to dry. Looking at the girl beside her, all Lily can see is someone who is incredibly brave and more deserving of a happy ending than any character in a fairytale.

Lily really wants to make this girl feel good, feel happy, but she is no fairy godmother, and she has no magic wand. But then she remembers what Mum tells her and Sonny every time they pass someone in the street who isn’t as happy, healthy and fortunate as them: ‘Show everyone kindness, and treat them with respect. That is the greatest gift you can give in this world’.

Lily sticks out her hand. ’Hey, I’m Lily D, V.A.P.‘

The girl takes Lily’s hand, and gives a firm shake that makes Lily’s bracelets applaud.

‘Samara Waterhouse … with no letters after my name. What do your letters mean?’

‘Pleased to meet you, Samara. The letters usually stand for Very Amazing Performer, but today they stand for Very Anxious Patient! I’m having my tonsils out, and I am totally freaking out!’

Samara laughs her tingly, honky laugh.

Lily leans in close to Samara’s ear and whispers, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but I am sooooo scared of needles!’

Samara leans in, and whispers in Lily’s ear in reply. ‘Don’t you tell anyone, but I am soooo scared of clowns. Sometimes in here, they bring clowns in to entertain the kids, and I am all like aaaaaarGHHHHH!^’

Lily laughs so hard she snorts.

Just then, a woman and a man walk up. They are wearing big smiles that are a mixture of happy and sad, and pride mixed with a bit of fear. Lily is wearing the exact same smile. Samara is too.

‘That’s Mum and Dad. I better go …’ says Samara.

Lily nods as Samara collects her book and turns to face her parents. The girl pulls her beanie on and gives her head a quick scratch as she walks away.

‘Hey, Samara!’ Lily calls. Samara turns back. ‘Your beanie is totally the amazing-est beanie I have ever seen, but if it makes you feel itchy, just don’t wear it. You look different, but

Samara smiles a huge smile.

‘Hey, while we are in here together, we should hang out,’ suggests Lily. ‘I could get my mum to bring in my special make-up from drama class, and we could tattoo your head!’

Samara laughs again, big and loud and tinkly. ‘That would be cool … and Lily, needles are nothing. If you have to have one, try saying the alphabet backwards, and I guarantee you won’t even notice it being done. Even better, imagine the doctor with underpants on their head!’

Lily giggles. ‘Thanks, Samara! Good advice! See you around.’