The Tall Tales of Daphne Monroe

Monday 9th March

9:00am

It's official. Prince Dreamboat is mad at us.

Well, not all of us. Eddie and me specifically. He's a right Chatty Cathy with the others if you ask me.

It's kind of pissing me off a little.

He gives us these dirty diva looks full of shade before asking all happy-like how Alex, Fee and Jade are doing, leaving Eddie and I standing there looking like right lemons.

Adeline saw it once and boy, did she look like the cat that got the cream.

Fine. They deserve each other then.

8:00pm

Why does he hate me, why??

I must get to the bottom of this.

Jason, fetch my deer-stalking hat! It's time to go full Sherlock Holmes on this mystery.

9:30pm

I'm just trying to start my History homework (painting my nails) when I hear the phone ring downstairs. A minute later Billy answers it and shouts 'hello!' down the receiver so loud I feel sorry for whatever idiot decided to call in the first place.

Then I feel sorry for myself when Billy kicks my bedroom door open and flings the phone at me.

'It's Rose,' he says, crawling onto the bed.

I scramble for the phone, forgetting about my wet nails completely when I realise my best friend is on the other end of the line.

'Hello, Rose?' I say excitedly.

'The one and only,' she replies and I squeal with happiness. We have barely spoken since the move, and it's so good to hear her voice.

Billy is still next to me, rummaging around through my bag of nail polishes and starting to paint on the back of my mobile. I would mind but Billy is actually really good at art- it's his only talent to be honest. And I'm mildly curious to know why my brother is hanging around in my room in the first place.

'How are you Daph?' Rose asks, and I can hear her fingers clacking against the keyboard of her computer.

That's Rose, always writing. She thinks she going to be the next Stephen King or John Grisham- only with more leading ladies. Well, that's what she tells me. I've always found those types of books a little scary, but I would never tell her that.

'I'm in hell.'

'Still? I would have thought it had gotten a little easier. Haven't you made any new friends?' Rose asks, concerned.

I think about Eddie, Fee, Jade and Alex, about all the fun we have been having over the past few months, and I sigh.

'Yeah, and they are great but...it's not the same,' I confess, and Rose makes a noise of sympathy. 'I miss you.'

'Oh, Daph. I miss you too. But you're not that far away, I'll come and visit in the summer, I promise,' she says with reassurance, and I feel a little calmer. I love my new friends, but I desperately need Rose here, especially with everything that's been going on with Prince Dreamboat.

I start filling her in about Théo and the whole party fiasco whilst she makes all the appropriate noises of confusion and outrage. We talk for over an hour until Dad shouts up he needs to use the landline to call the suppliers for the pub before he dies of old age.

So, in the next thirty minutes or so if I was to wager a guess then.

Rose says goodbye and I hang up feeling a little tearful. I hadn't realised how much I missed my best friend.

'You OK sis?' Billy asks, and I start. I had completely forgotten he was there.

'What do you want?' I ask, shoving him lightly.

'Want to spend time with you. Wanna watch a movie?' he asks, and I can see in his eyes that he knows how hard it is for me to be away from Rose. That's why he hung around, why he's sticking next to me for the night.

I'm touched. Tonight I'm realising that I miss my old life badly, and that my brother is actually not half-bad.

'Sure. As long as it's not...'

'-Lego Movie!'

'Ah, Christ.'