Friday 21 November

The end of the first week, and today we had to make our showstopper toy.

Things started well enough. I designed my lemur on the computer, then made my cookie-cutter pieces. I used the same super-soft fur that I use for my own lemurs, and the same coloured eyes. Then I used the sewing machine to stitch it all together.

But somehow it just didn’t look the same – like it wasn’t alive, or even that friendly.

I still had an hour left, so I decided to scrap it and start again.

So I made a lemur my way. He definitely seemed alive, but he wasn’t exactly… perfect.

Had I done the right thing? I wasn’t sure. But by then it was too late; we had to hand our toys in to Ola.

‘Very good,’ he said, as he examined Holly’s drone. ‘What’s the range?’

‘Ten kilometres,’ answered Holly, ‘and you can cloak it.’

‘Impressive. May I?’

Holly handed him the controls, and Ola flew the drone three times around the room. Then he flicked a switch and it disappeared! Looking around the room for it, I suddenly felt it hit me on the back of the head.

‘Well, that’s a pass. And what about you, Max?’

‘I made a next-generation VR headset,’ said Max. ‘And as a bit of fun, I designed some games for it.’

‘What sort of games?’

‘There’s a dancing one. And a motor-racing one. And an ice-skating one. You can actually play that with a partner,’ said Max, and I saw him catch Holly’s eye.

‘Ice skating?’

‘Holly and I have entered the Boxing Day Pairs Competition,’ explained Max. ‘And I thought this might be a good way of practising.’

My insides deflated like a burst balloon when he said that. I realised that deep down, even though we had never skated together and I had only ever spoken to her three times, I’d hoped that Holly would enter the Boxing Day Pairs Competition with me.

‘Ingenious,’ said Ola. ‘You two seem to have a lot in common. And, Tog, what’s this?’

‘A lemur,’ I said.

Max stifled a giggle.

‘A lemur?’ Ola lifted it up for a closer look.

I nodded.

‘Not a honey badger with indigestion? Or a panda who’s swallowed a wasp?’

I shook my head. I had to admit, next to Max’s VR headset and Holly’s fixed-wing drone, my lemur looked a little bit… well… home-made.

‘Max and Holly, welcome to the Toymaking workshop,’ said Ola.

He looked at me and paused, as if he wanted to be as tactful as possible.

‘Tog…’

I looked at him hopefully.

‘How do you feel about reindeer?’