Soon most people did wander away, probably remembering that they had lives that didn’t involve sitting around fields trying to stop trees from being chopped down.
In the end only Kate, Lily and I remained.
Kate stood up and started to pick up the fencing tape that had been trampled into the grass around the tree.
‘Jeremy gets upset when there’s a mess around him,’ she said.
I hate it when she says weird stuff like that.
I looked to see what Lily thought. She was laughing.
‘You say the craziest stuff, Kate,’ she said, but in a nice way. Then she went on. ‘I remember your dad once—’
I was just wondering how come Lily was brave enough to mention Kate’s dad, when Kate raced over and stood right in front of Lily.
‘Don’t talk about my dad,’ she said fiercely.
‘But—’ began Lily.
‘Don’t even mention him,’ said Kate. ‘If you say one more thing about him I’ll—’
Lily raised her hands as if to surrender.
‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I won’t mention him again. I promise.’
She looked at me, and I shrugged. How was I supposed to know why Kate was being so defensive? Most of the time I could only give the wildest guess as to what was going on in her mind.
Kate sat down again, and after a minute, she spoke quietly.
‘Sorry for shouting at you, Lily. All that family stuff is private, and I don’t like talking about it.’
Lily smiled. ‘That’s OK,’ she said.
Then she stared at Kate for so long that it was beginning to be a bit rude.
‘Know what, Kate?’ she said in the end.
I sat up straight, afraid that there was going to be a big row.
‘What?’ asked Kate.
‘You should wear a hairband,’ said Lily. ‘It would really suit you.’
I breathed a big sigh of relief.
Kate looked at her blankly, but Lily didn’t seem to notice. She was busy scrabbling around in her hand-bag.
‘I think I might have one in here,’ she said. ‘And short hair held back with a hairband is the latest thing.’
She pulled out a cool green hairband and a cute little pink hairbrush decorated with small red hearts.
‘May I?’ she said, and without waiting for an answer, she started to brush Kate’s hair.
I expected Kate to shout at her, but she didn’t. She just sat there meekly while Lily worked.
By the time Lily had finished with Kate’s hair, it looked completely different – all shiny and nice. Then Lily put the hairband on Kate, using it to hold back part of her fringe.
‘Wow,’ I said.
Kate looked completely different. She gave a big smile and I gasped.
How come I’d never noticed how pretty she was?
Lily found a small mirror in her bag and held it up so Kate could see herself. Kate looked in the mirror for a long time. Then her cheeks began to go pink, and a slow smile spread over her face.
‘Thanks, Lily,’ she said.
Lily rooted in her bag again. ‘Maybe it’s time for a bit of lip-gloss,’ she suggested.
Kate looked interested, but when Lily produced the lip-gloss and leaned towards Kate, Kate jumped back like Lily was holding a poisonous snake to her face.
‘Don’t do it,’ she said in a panicky voice. ‘I thought it was for you.’
Lily and I laughed, and Lily put the lip-gloss back into her bag.
‘I’m not giving up,’ she said. ‘I bet I’ll have you wearing lip-gloss before the week is out.’
‘Bet you won’t,’ said Kate.
I looked at my two new friends, wondering who was going to win that strange bet.
Lily still wasn’t finished though.
‘Why do you always wear tracksuits?’ she asked Kate.
That was something I’d wondered about too, but I’d never dared to ask. Lily seemed to have a way of asking that wasn’t insulting though.
Kate thought for a while. Then she shrugged.
‘Don’t know, really. I just do.’
Lily wagged her finger at her.
‘Well you shouldn’t. You should wear nice clothes.’
‘Martha hasn’t got much money, and nice clothes are expensive.’
I turned to look at Lily. How was she going to answer that?
Lily tossed her head.
‘That’s just stupid,’ she said. ‘You don’t have to be a millionaire to dress nicely.’
‘Lily’s right,’ I said. ‘When both my parents lost their jobs last year, I didn’t know how I was going to manage without the weekly shopping trips I was used to. But after a while, I got used to just buying the occasional nice thing.’
Kate didn’t look convinced, but she smiled anyway.
‘I like those jeans you were wearing the other day, Eva,’ she said. ‘They’re not too girly or sparkly. I hate sparkly stuff.’
I smiled and tried not to stare at Lily’s sparkly flip-flops.
‘I got those jeans in a sale,’ I said. ‘And because they’re kind of plain, they go with everything.’
Kate leaned over and felt the edge of Lily’s totally cool cardigan. ‘That’s lovely,’ she said.
Lily smiled. ‘Thanks. And it wasn’t that expensive. I got it on the internet.’
Kate put her head down. I knew why. She didn’t have internet. She didn’t even have a computer.
Suddenly Lily realised what she had said.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I’ve got loads of clothes. I can give you something.’
‘I don’t need charity,’ said Kate.
Lily just sighed. ‘I don’t mean charity. I can lend you something. It’s what I do with all my friends.’
I nodded. ‘She’s right. I do that too, with my friends Victoria and Ella. Even Ruby, who’s not that into fashion, has one or two cool things she lends me.’
Kate looked doubtful. ‘I’m not used to having friends. How am I meant to know what friends do?’
I hugged her.
‘You’ve got friends now, so just do what we say. OK?’
‘Are all friends as bossy as you two?’ asked Kate, and we all laughed.