I walked in the house, still mad at mum, and slammed the door. No one was in, which was good, because there was a little blue note addressed to me just inside the hall. I double-checked that Mum and Dad were out at work, then opened it excitedly.

         “Lou,
                 I just heard that your Mum wouldn’t let you keep my card, which I think is a bit mean.
                 It was just a card after all. Not that I didn’t mean what I wrote. I did, a lot. I’m
                 going to keep writing you these notes-keep them to yourself though, I don’t want
                 your Mum banning any more.
                 I want to let you know how I feel about you. I’ve tried a couple of times, but
                 every time the words are about to come out, something goes wrong. So I want to
                 let you know now how much I care. I always have, even though it may not have felt
                 like it. I wish I could do something about it, but I can’t-I’m not allowed. There’s a
                 lot going on you have no idea of, and all I want to do is let you know, so we can show
                 everyone that they have no idea what they’re talking about. But like I said, I’m
                 banned from saying a lot of things to you. I’m surprised we talk as much as we do.
                 If Rupert had his way though, we would never have met. He knows how I feel, and
                 he hates it. He’s actually managed to get your Mum to stop me talking to you, but
                 apparently if we shut up now, it’ll look suspicious. Don’t think of me as someone you
                 know, please, or I’ll get found out, no one knows about these notes. Well, three
                 people do, people I’ve known for a long time, and know you well too. We can trust
                 them.
                 I wouldn’t even be doing this if it weren’t for one of them. They told me they think
                 it’s best if I do; they hate you not knowing. I have to say-you have some pretty
                 great friends. They want to see you happy, and they think you can be with me.
                 I’d better leave it here. I hope I haven’t stopped you trusting everyone. And
                 thanks for not hugging Rupert as much since Ben told you about his crush-it’s
                 easier for me to deal with.
                 I’ll write again soon.
                 X.
                 P.S. If you need to talk about this with anyone, go to Nat. She’s pretty
                 trustworthy on this. But she can’t tell you who I am.”

         I read it over again. How had he heard so fast? And he knew Rupert, Ben and Nat. I saw the name Ben . . . so it’s not him. I felt myself start crying-why can’t it be Ben? Unless he wrote that on purpose. I sniffed and went to my room to hide the note under my pillow, before sitting on my bed, and hugging my teddy.

         I know that it sounds weird, but I still needed to cry after reading that note. He just said everyone’s talking behind my back about something I don’t know about. How awful is that? At least he felt he should tell me. Unless he’s lying-but whoever he is, he wouldn’t, would he? I mean, if he really does care about me, he’d be the one telling the truth. He was right; I needed Nat. I reached over to my phone and called her.

         “Hello?”
         “Hi Toby, it’s Lou. Is Nat there?”
         “Oh yeah-Nat?”

         Nat must have been waiting by the phone. Did they all know this was going to happen?

         “Lou? Oh, please say you got the note; it was hell in school knowing you didn’t know what was in it. We wrote that before we sent the card-we KNEW your mum would recognise the handwriting!”
         “Yeah I got it. What’s going on? The note said talk to you.”
         “Yeah, you need to. I so need to get this off my chest-I just wish I could tell you who else is involved with breaking every single rule your mum’s set down behind your back. But I can’t, we’ve agreed to strict rules we have to follow.”
         “Really?”
         “Yeah. Are you okay? I’d be so excited if I were you, all this mystery and stuff.”
         “I’m not. I just wish I knew him. Properly, I mean. I feel like I can’t trust anyone now.”
         “Oh, it’s so mean that you can’t know! And you can still trust everyone, everyone you know knows about the situation, but it’s definitely everyone under eighteen-except Mark and Rupert, because Mark’s eighteen now-who’s on your side about it. Don’t stop acting the way you have been though, your mum will know what we’re up to, and who exactly is doing it.”
         “But she’s my mum!”
         “You do know why she’s so against it, right?”
         “No?”
         “He’s not in our school. We’re year six, right?”
         “Right.”
         “He goes to the high school. Your Mum’s so mad at him; she thinks that he should be after more girls his own age. Rupert’s so mad at him too.”
         “Well, Rupert is my best friend, he should know that-”
         “Hey, Lou, calm down! I can’t change Rupert’s mind! I’ve told him so many times that you just think of him as a best friend and he should settle for that but he won’t, especially with all of this going on.”
         “Okay. Do I like this guy?”
         “I can’t tell you, if I say anything like that, you’ll work it out. Toby says he has to talk to me again before we can talk. See you later. Bye!”
         “Yeah, bye.”

         She hung up. I don’t think Nat really told me anything in that call, but at least I know I can still trust my friends-or at least her.