Dear Katie,
I will write a proper letter soon. I love the idea of doing a magazine! Here is a poem I have written for it.
xxx Violet
PS What shall we call it? The magazine, I mean.
POEM
I’M HAVING A VERY BAD HAIR DAY,
MY HAIR SIMPLY LOOKS SUCH A SIGHT!
IT STICKS UP IN SPOKES, ALL OVER THE PLACE,
IT WONT DO ANYTHING RIGHT!
OH, WHAT CAN I DO WITH MY HORRIBLE HAIR,
HOW CAN I MAKE IT BEHAVE?
I’M OFF TO A PARTY TOMORROW,
IT’S GOING TO BE QUITE A BIG RAVE!
HOW CAN I GO WITH MY HAIR IN THIS STATE?
IT IS SUCH A TERRIBLE MESS!
AND TO THINK THAT I’VE BOUGHT SOME NEW SHOES,
AND A HUGELY EXPENSIVE NEW DRESS!
I KNOW WHAT I’LL DO! I’VE GOT A GOOD PLAN.
I WONT GO AND SULK IN MY BED.
I’LL INVENT A NEW FASHION, I’LL BE REALLY COOL,
I’LL JUST WEAR A CAT ON MY HEAD!
Dear Violet,
Your poem is really funny! It made me laugh. I have tried to draw some funny pictures for it. I hope you like them. XXX Katie
PS How about GIRLZONE (Girls’ Own… Girlzone! Geddit?) But you can suggest something else if you prefer.
Hi, Katie!
The pictures are ace! And I think GIRLZONE is cool. Now I have made up some problems for a problem page. I will type them out on the computer and send them with this letter. But I have not done the answers as I think it would be better if you did those.
Your last letter that you wrote me was not in the least glum and gloomy though I am sorry if I upset you by asking about your nan. I know that I am very lucky to have a family even if I do sometimes complain about my sister. She is quite a tiresome sort of person, but in future I will try to complain a bit less and just put up with her.
It is true you have to pay to go to my school, but we are not rich!!! Mum said to Lily just the other day that “We are not made of money”. This was because Lily was nagging about these new riding boots she wants. She says her old ones are naff, and she can’t be seen in them. She has to have SPECIAL ones like her friend Francine has. So Mum told her she couldn’t and Lily got into one of her sulks and that was when Mum snapped we weren’t made of money.
I have asked Mum if we can sponsor you for your walk! She says that we can and we would like to give you a pound for every mile. Just let me know how many you do! We got Horatio from a lady that comes into Mum’s shop, but if ever we get another cat we will go to the Cats’ Protection League. That is a promise!
I look forward to hearing your answers to my problems!
Luv and kisses (lots of them!)
From
Violet
PS I keep all your letters, too! In a special box with a LOCK.
PROBLEM PAGE
Dear Katie,
My sister has such a big head that if I walk behind her no one can see me. What do you think I should do? Please help! – Norah Nobody.
Dear Katie,
I have a confession to make… I am frightened of my own shadow. This is so pathetic! How can I cure myself? – Scaredy Cat.
Dear Katie,
When I go to parties I stand in the corner and nobody talks to me. How can I make myself more noticeable? – Mouse.
Ever since the incident with the riding boots, Mum and Lily had been on really bad terms. Lily, as usual, said that Mum was ruining her life, because how could she hope to be a top class rider and ride for Britain if she didn’t have the proper riding boots. Mum said the riding boots she had were perfectly adequate and that Lily was a spoilt brat.
She said, “Sometimes I wonder why your dad and I bother! We work our fingers to the bone, all the hours God sends, and what for? Just so that you can go to your snotty little school and mix with your snotty little friends and be thoroughly grasping and disagreeable!”
Wow!
She said she had a good mind to take Lily away from Lavendar House and send her to the local comprehensive.
“Why just me?” said Lily. “What about little Shrinky Winky? Of course, she couldn’t go to the comprehensive, could she? She’s too delicate. She’d get crushed.”
“I could go there!” I said. Though as a matter of fact I am the reason that Mum and Dad work their fingers to the bone and send us to our snotty little school. (Which is quite nice, really.) It is because of me being a shrinking violet and Mum being scared that I couldn’t cope. Which maybe I couldn’t.
The thought of being with boys, and lots of tough kids, is scary. It wouldn’t scare Lily. She’d be all right! She’d be one of the tough kids.
But she was really resentful.
“Why just me? Why is it always me?”
“Because Violet doesn’t constantly make demands,” said Mum.
“No, ‘cos she never does anything!” screeched Lily. “She just sits upstairs writing letters to the Blob!”
“I’m not just writing letters,” I said. “We’re doing a magazine. We’re going to call it GIRLZONE… Girls’ Own. Geddit?”
Lily said, “Hey! That’s quite cool,” in tones of some surprise. She then got a bit sidetracked, wanting to know when the magazine was going to be finished and what sort of things were going to be in it and
