Holly looked closely at Lily, wondering how to begin. She felt pretty nervous about having this sort of conversation. She didn’t want it to turn into a fight.

‘Well, anyway,’ Holly began, hoping she’d be able to think of something as she went along. ‘About this captain thing –’

‘Holly, I’m so sorry!’ Lily blurted out. ‘I know I’ve been a total dag, and I don’t even know why. I’m supposed to be your best friend, and I’ve been acting like a jealous … a jealous … a jealous something.’

Holly laughed in surprise. ‘So, you’re not mad with me anymore?’

‘No!’ Lily pulled a face. ‘I wasn’t really mad. It was more just total embarrassment. Like, I was so embarrassed about mucking up reading out my poster, and then I was jealous of you getting nominated. But I thought, It’ll be OK, as long as she doesn’t get voted in, because then we’d sort of be even. But how horrible is that! To want your best friend to lose so you can be losers together. And so then I was embarrassed about that. It was a mess!’

Holly laughed again, but kindly. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Yeah, it does! I wish I could do something to make it up to you, to prove that I’m not jealous anymore, and that I really want to be your best friend.’

‘What are you talking about? Of course you’re my best friend. Whoever said you weren’t? But if you really want to make it up to me, not that you have to –’

‘Anything!’ said Lily. ‘Anything at all. You tell me and I’ll do it.’

‘Excellent,’ Holly smiled. ‘Because I need your help.’

Holly and Lily both caught a bus from the stop outside the school, but they took different buses. So Holly had to be quick explaining her plan to Lily as they walked.

‘So, you know the thing with Mr Mack at lunchtime, right? When I couldn’t talk to you?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Well, he said he talked to Miss Kyle about my tree-planting idea, and she wants to do it! I have to announce it in assembly with Oscar and get the whole school involved and everything!’

Holly was excited as she said it, but underneath she was still a bit wary.

I hope Lily means it when she says she’s not jealous anymore, she thought to herself. If she’s secretly jealous and trying to hide it, then telling her all this will only make it worse.

But to Holly’s relief, Lily looked as excited and proud as Holly felt. ‘That’s awesome, Holl!’

‘Yeah, but there’s more. The assembly’s next Monday, and as well as needing to write an announcement and practise reading it out, I also want a poster to take up on stage with me.’

Lily didn’t say anything. She just looked at Holly with her eyes shining.

‘So, Lils, are you going to help me?’ asked Holly.

‘Yes!’ shouted Lily. ‘Of course I will! I thought you’d never ask!’

‘Cool,’ grinned Holly. ‘Then I’ll ask my dad if you can come over to his place on Saturday, and I’ll get all the stuff we need for the poster.’

‘And I’ll bring all my glitter glues and poster paints from home, too.’

‘See?’ said Holly. ‘I knew you’d be the best person for the job.’

Lily smiled and then said more quietly, ‘Thanks, Holly. You’re such a top friend, and I’m really glad you were voted captain, you know.’

Holly smiled back. It was amazing how long a day could be and how many things you could fit into it. She didn’t think she’d ever had a day quite like it.

Arriving at school with her poster seemed like a million years ago. Now Holly was back on track with Lily after their very strange not-quite-a-fight, and she was also girl captain of the class, with a major project to organise!

‘Thanks,’ she said to Lily. ‘I’m just glad you’re going to be helping me.’

That Saturday, Holly and Lily were trying to think up the best name for the treeplanting idea.

‘Mr Mack said each class will get to raise money its own way, so there will be loads of competitions and cake stalls and stuff,’ said Holly. ‘But I get to announce the actual name of the place where we are going to put the trees.’

‘That’s cool,’ said Lily. ‘If we left it up to the teachers, they’d probably call it something boring.’

‘That’s so true,’ Holly giggled, but then she shook her head. ‘On the other hand, coming up with a cool name is going to be kind of tricky.’

Lily threw a tiny pink rubber at her head. ‘Get lost!’ she snorted. ‘That’s what you said about coming up with ideas for your poster, and you did the best one in the whole class.’

‘Well, I did have one idea,’ Holly admitted. ‘But it might be a bit lame.’

‘Go on.’

‘OK, but don’t laugh. You know how Ms Kyle wants us to plant trees in that weedy old space behind the shelter sheds? Well, there’s a little stream in the corner, and I thought we could call it the Shelter Creek Garden.’

She looked at Lily nervously, but Lily just closed her eyes.

‘See, what I thought was,’ Holly hurried on to explain, ‘we shouldn’t just have a bunch of trees that are roped off and we never get to see. We should make a little garden where kids could sit quietly and read and stuff, and –’

‘It’s perfect,’ said Lily, opening her eyes.

‘Really? You don’t think it’s boring?’

‘No, it’s good, and we can write on the poster, Help us build Shelter Creek Garden, and then it already sounds like a real place.’

Holly smiled. ‘That’s kind of what I thought.’

‘See? Psychic sisters! We’re the ultimate team. Special hand slap!’

Holly laughed and held out her hands to be slapped. It was so good having Lily back to normal.