To Jubilee Crystal Simpson
Somewhere on earth
Hi Jubilee! I was going to text you, but Mum took my phone away. She says you’re a bad influence and I’m not allowed to talk to you. She says you must have known all along that your dad was stealing sheep.
So I told her you didn’t know anything about it. Because you didn’t. Did you?
Anyway, that’s why I’m writing a letter instead of texting.
School’s horrible without you here. Everyone hates me except Mrs Savage, who has to like me because she’s our teacher. But I bet she secretly hates me too.
And everyone’s sucking up to Olive Hennessey, because her pet chook Clara was the one who got your dad arrested.
I hate Olive Hennessey. I hate her pet chook and her cousin Digby. I hate everyone except you.
Mum says you were never really my friend, and that you just used me. But I know that’s not true.
I hate Mum, too. And my stepdad Laurie. And I’m pretty sure they hate me and wish they only had the twins brats.
Anyway, Laurie’s got this new job, fly-in fly-out, so he’s away for a couple of weeks at a time. Which is good, because he’s horrible, just like you said.
I wish my real dad was here, instead of in Queensland. I wish I knew your address, so I could post this. Then you could write back. You would write back, wouldn’t you?
Love from your best friend Tracy
PS. We’ve got this really stupid homework. We have to write an acrostic poem about friendship, using the word FRIEND. Like this.
Friendship is stupid
Really stupid
I haven’t got any friends except you
Everyone else hates me
No one likes me
Do I care? No.
Except I can’t hand that in, because Mrs Savage would have a talk with me. Remember her talks?
Yeah, me too.
We’ve got a couple of weeks before it’s due. Maybe I’ll say I did the homework, but the brats ate it. Ha ha.