When Dad and Matthew eventually came home, my brother was looking miserable.

‘But the school sign was just a prank, Dad,’ Matty was saying as they came in the door. ‘Even Jake’s dad thought that was funny. Surely we don’t have to tell the school it was us. I mean, what if we get suspended? I’ll do really badly in my exams if I miss too many classes.’

‘You should have thought about that sooner then, shouldn’t you?’ Dad retorted. ‘Prank or no prank, you still destroyed school property, which is why we’re going to speak to Mr Thackery tomorrow.’

They had just been to see Mr Stevens, and apparently our dad and Jake’s dad had agreed to pay for the damage to his car. Matty and Jake were going to pay them back over the next few months – which in Matty’s case meant giving up the money he had saved from his summer job, having his allowance cut right back and washing Dad’s car every week until the debt was paid off. Dad had also volunteered Matty to wash Mr Stevens’s car every week for free, but luckily for my brother Mr Stevens had declined, saying that he didn’t trust anyone else to clean his car the way he liked it.

‘Is Mr Stevens going to tell the police?’ I asked anxiously. ‘Is Matty going to get arrested?’

‘I’m going to take Matthew and Jake down to the police station myself tonight,’ Dad said. ‘They’ll get a talking-to, but I don’t think they’ll get arrested.’

‘Can’t you just give them a talking-to, Dad?’ I asked. ‘Or does it have to be a policeman who’s in charge of vandalism rather than murders?’

‘Oh, shut up, Esmie,’ Matthew grunted.

‘OK, Matthew, get upstairs,’ Dad told him sternly. ‘You can write a letter of apology to Frank and then you can write one to Mr Thackery and Miss Dumont.’

‘Jake isn’t having to write any letters,’ my brother said sulkily.

‘Yes, well, if Jake was my son, he would be. Now move it.’

Later that evening while Dad was at the police station with Matty and Jake, and Lizzie was downstairs watching television, I decided to phone Holly. ‘I’m sorry I upset you, Holly,’ I said, ‘but I didn’t think you’d mind me telling Nevada you fancied Matty.’

‘Of course I mind! I don’t go around telling everyone who you fancy, do I?’

‘No, but that’s only because I don’t fancy anyone,’ I said. ‘But I’m sorry, OK?’

‘Yeah, well I just don’t like being left out of things, that’s all,’ Holly said sharply.

‘How do you mean?’ I asked, thinking for a moment that she had somehow found out about my mother’s message.

‘Just because I wouldn’t agree to help get Matthew and Jennifer back together, you went off and got Nevada to help you instead.’

‘Oh, that!’ I immediately saw my opportunity to make things better. ‘Holly, you were so right about Matty and Jennifer. We shouldn’t have interfered.’ I filled her in on Matthew’s date with Carys – and how it had seemed to work at first, because Jennifer had wanted to go out with my brother again. ‘But now Ian is really angry and he’s put a note through our door telling Dad it was Matty who painted the school sign and our neighbour’s car – and Dad’s grounded Matty, so he won’t be able to see Jennifer again for ages anyhow.’

‘Matthew painted a car?’

‘Yeah.’ I quickly filled her in on that part too, and about how much trouble my brother was in because of it.

‘Poor Matty,’ Holly said with feeling.

I was about to tell her not to feel too sorry for him, since in my opinion he’d brought most of this on himself, but I decided to keep quiet. Holly can get very defensive about Matty – which just goes to show that love is blind. (And in Holly’s case, deaf too, since my brother only ever speaks to her when he’s telling her to get lost.)

‘Holly, I told Nevada she can walk to school with me tomorrow. You don’t mind, do you? She doesn’t know anyone here, except me.’

‘OK – just as long as she doesn’t want to hang out with us all the time in school too,’ Holly answered grumpily.

I didn’t say anything because I was pretty sure that Nevada would want to hang out with us for most of the time in school tomorrow. If only I could tell Holly about that message in my mother’s jewellery box and how if it wasn’t for Nevada I’d never have found it. Then I was sure Holly would like her a bit more. But Nevada had made me promise not to tell Holly anything, and I was too scared to disobey her. After all, she was the expert on the spirit world, not me, and if she said the spirits didn’t want Holly to know about it, then who was I to disagree?

When Nevada called in for me the next morning, I could tell at once that she’d been crying.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

‘My mum and dad want Carys and me to go and join them in Saudi Arabia. They were supposed to only be going there for a few months, but now Dad thinks his job is really good and Mum says they want to stay. She says she can home-tutor me if I want, or I can go to an English-speaking school there.’

‘When would you have to go?’ I asked.

‘Soon. But Carys says there’s no way she’s moving to Saudi, and my aunt says we can both stay here with her and Uncle Frank if we want to. I don’t know what to do. If I stay here I won’t be living with Mum and Dad any more, but if I go there I won’t know anybody again, and Carys won’t even be there this time. Dad will probably get a different job after a year or two anyway and we’ll have to move on again. I wish we could all just stay put for a while so I can live with Mum and Dad and make some friends.’

‘Well, you’ve already made one friend here,’ I said, trying my best to cheer her up.

She sniffed. ‘Really?’

‘Of course!’

‘But Holly’s still your best friend, right?’

‘Well . . .’ I felt sorry for her but I also knew that I couldn’t lie about this. ‘Holly’s been my friend for a really long time – I mean I’ve known her for nearly my whole life. But I think you and I are really good friends considering we’ve only just met, don’t you?’

She sniffed again. ‘I suppose.’ She pulled out a tissue to wipe her nose. ‘Well, you’re my best friend in any case.’

I didn’t know what to say to that, so we walked along in silence for a bit and she seemed to have cheered up by the time we met Holly at the school gate.

At lunchtime we were all standing in the canteen queue together when Holly suddenly asked me if I wanted to go round to hers after school. I was just about to agree when Nevada announced that she wanted me to go back to her house today instead.

‘Well, she can’t,’ Holly said abruptly.

‘Esmie, you need to,’ Nevada said, giving me a meaningful look.

I managed to get Nevada on her own at the sandwich counter while Holly was waiting for her baked potato. ‘Look, Holly did ask me first,’ I told her.

‘I know, but I think I’ve worked out what your mum is trying to tell you,’ she whispered. ‘Though I need to see that message again before I can be sure. Look, if you’re not interested that’s fine, but—’

‘No, I am interested,’ I interrupted her. ‘Just let me figure out a way to tell Holly without upsetting her, OK?’

I didn’t know what to do until Miss Dumont came to find me in Registration that afternoon and inadvertently took the whole thing out of my hands. She looked quite grave-faced as she walked into our classroom and announced that she wanted a private word with me, and I had a momentary panic that something had happened to Dad. (I’m always imagining he’s been killed in a high-speed car chase, or shot by one of his murderers, even though he keeps telling me he hardly ever chases any dangerous criminals in his day-to-day work.)

As soon as Miss Dumont got me out into the corridor she said crisply, ‘Your brother is starting a week of detentions today, Esmie. That means there’ll be no one at home after school, so your father has arranged with Holly’s mum for you to go home with Holly.’

When I went back into the classroom and told Holly (who sits next to me), she was so overjoyed that you’d think I hadn’t been round to her house after school in ten years or something.

I had to wait until the bell rang to let Nevada know. ‘I’ll try and come round to yours after Dad picks me up from Holly’s tonight,’ I told her apologetically.

‘Yeah, well just make sure it isn’t too late,’ she replied, scowling.

‘Nevada, do you really think you know what my mum’s message means?’ I asked, hoping she might give me some sort of sneak preview.

She nodded. ‘I had another dream.’

And then Holly joined us and she completely clammed up.