‘Come on, Mia!’ called her mum from the front door. ‘Time to go!’

‘Coming!’ Mia said, grabbing her school bag and rushing down the hallway.

Her older sister Rose was still in the kitchen, waiting for her friend Ashley to come over. They walked to high school together every day. Rose was concentrating on her mobile phone as Mia hurried by.

Probably sending text messages to James, Mia giggled to herself as she ran outside. Now that Rose had a boyfriend she seemed to be permanently glued to her phone!

Mia’s brother Nick was already in the front seat when Mia jumped in the car. He was talking to Jack in the back seat.

Jack Pang lived next door to Mia’s family. He was in Mrs Bonacci’s class at school, just like Mia. Mia’s mum often gave him a lift in the mornings.

‘Hi, Jack!’ said Mia, giving him a high-five.

‘Hey, Mia!’ said Jack, flashing her a cheeky grin.

‘About time,’ grumbled Nick. ‘It’s OK for you little kids. We older ones get in trouble if we’re late.’

Mia looked at Jack and rolled her eyes. Nick was only one grade ahead of her and Jack at school. But sometimes he acted like he thought he was way older!

Jack grinned at Mia. ‘Don’t worry, Grandpa,’ he said, leaning forward to pat Nick gently on the back. ‘We’ll make sure you get to class on time. Would you like me to help you up the stairs, or did you remember your walking stick today?’

If I said something like that to Nick I’d be in BIG trouble! Mia thought to herself.

But Nick just grinned and gave Jack a pretend punch in the arm.

‘Ha ha, very funny!’ he said. ‘I’m not that old!’

Mia grinned. Jack’s lucky he can get away with it! she thought. I guess that’s one of the reasons I like him.

It was funny. The Pang family had been living next door to Mia’s family for as long as she could remember. But for ages Mia didn’t know Jack very well. He’d always come over to hang out with Nick.

Mia used to stay out of their way. Nick was fun to hang out with when he was on his own. But Mia felt a bit shy around her brother’s friends. They always seemed so loud and rough!

Mia’s own friends from school — Michiko and Shae — didn’t live walking distance from her house. So she hardly saw them outside school.

If only Jack was a girl, Mia used to sigh to herself when he came over to see Nick. It’d be so nice to have a friend living right next door to me.

But then a weird thing happened. Gradually Mia realised that Jack was really nice. They had lots of things in common! He liked the same kind of music that she liked. He was learning to surf, just like she was. And best of all, he loved playing pingpong! In fact, he had way more things in common with Mia than with Nick.

Jack started coming over after school not to see Nick, but to play ping-pong with Mia in her family’s shed. They started playing a huge ping-pong competition. Jack named it the ‘Ping-Pong-A-Thon.’

‘Whoever wins the most games out of one hundred will be the ping-pong champion,’ Jack had announced.

So far, Jack had won twenty games and Mia had won twenty-five. It seemed like the more games they played, the better they both got at ping-pong. And the better friends she and Jack became!