Mia, Michiko and Shae made it to their classroom just before the second bell rang. Mia looked around at everyone in her class, remembering what Shae had said about who liked who.

She noticed Adrian playing with his fringe when Bec walked by. Then Cassie went bright red when Sam said hi. And on Brooke’s pencil case was a love heart with the letters O.R. written inside!

The door opened and Flynn entered, late as usual. Mia couldn’t help grinning as Michiko looked up and gave him a wave!

Maybe Shae does know everyone’s secret crushes! thought Mia. Then she started feeling weird. If Shae was right about everyone else, was she right about Jack, too?

Mia looked around. Jack was up the back, chatting with Hugo. He saw her looking at him and crossed his eyes and gave her a big smile.

Jack does smile at me a lot, realised Mia. Maybe he does have a crush on me!

Suddenly Mia’s stomach did a flip. She liked Jack a lot. But just as a friend.

‘OK, class,’ said Mrs Bonacci, clapping her hands to start the class. ‘Can anyone tell me what a friend is?’

Straight away lots of people put their hands in the air. But Mia scrunched down into her chair. She really didn’t want to be chosen!

‘Cassie,’ said Mrs Bonacci. ‘What do you think a friend is?’

‘Someone who is exactly the same as you?’ said Cassie.

Then Michiko put up her hand. ‘I don’t think a friend needs to be exactly the same as you, Mrs Bonacci,’ she said. ‘Shae, Mia and I are really different but we’re still best friends.’

Mrs Bonacci smiled. ‘Great answer,’ she said, looking around at the class. ‘What about you, Mia? Tell us what you like most about your friends.’

Everyone turned and stared at Mia. Straight away she felt her face getting hot and red.

Mia thought hard. There were heaps of fantastic things about her friends. She wanted to tell everyone about how funny her friends were, and how loyal. And how special she felt when she was around them. But when Mia opened her mouth, nothing came out!

Mia shook her head quickly, feeling tears in her eyes.

‘Don’t worry, Mia,’ said Mrs Bonacci gently. ‘You’ll have another chance to tell us later.’

Mia flushed, feeling so embarrassed. Michiko and Shae grabbed her hands, and gave them a squeeze. Mia felt a little better, and smiled gratefully at them.

‘The reason that we’re discussing friendship,’ said Mrs Bonacci, turning to the rest of the class, ‘is because we are going to make a friendship time capsule.’

Straight away, Michiko asked the question everyone was thinking. ‘What’s a friendship time capsule?’

Mrs Bonacci pointed to a large glass jar on her desk. ‘That’s one there!’ she said.

Everyone stared at the jar. There didn’t seem to be anything very special about it, except that it was very big.

‘It’s just a jar at the moment, of course,’ smiled Mrs Bonacci, as if she was reading their minds. ‘It’s our job to turn it into a time capsule. Your homework over the weekend is to write a tribute to your friends. Then on Monday we will put the tributes into this jar and bury it somewhere in the school grounds.’

Michiko rolled her eyes at Mia. ‘Homework over the weekend … yuck!’ she whispered.

‘I know,’ Mia whispered back, ‘but at least it sounds sort of fun.’

Flynn put up his hand. ‘Mrs Bonacci, what’s a tribute?’ he asked.

‘It’s a piece of writing that explains why we think someone or something is special,’ explained Mrs Bonacci. ‘Before we bury the time capsule, we will read our tributes out loud so everyone can hear why we like our friends.’

Mia felt her heart thump in her chest. She really wanted to write a tribute, but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to read in front of everyone. She tried to push the thought aside. I’ll worry about that later, she decided.

‘How long will the time capsule be buried for?’ asked Bec.

Mrs Bonacci looked around. ‘What does everyone think?’ she said.

‘We could dig it up on our last day of primary school,’ suggested Shae.

Mrs Bonacci nodded. ‘Perfect.’

‘Can we decorate our tributes?’ asked Jamie.

‘Definitely!’ said Mrs Bonacci. ‘And you can include photos, too.’

Even though Mia was nervous about having to read in front of everyone, she was excited, too. It was going to be cool doing this time capsule. And she could tell by looking around that everyone else felt the same way.