Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty Page B

not until you agree that we get to stop and talk before I walk out of there, leaving you heartbroken with nothing but your red rose.
    Seb

    Dear Seb
    I already made the rules. Trust me, you’ll be glad to have the opportunity to leave when you see what I look like.
    Here are my questions:
1.
How do you take your coffee?
2.
What is your favourite song at the moment?
3.
Do you smoke?
    Catch ya
    Lydia

    Dear Lydia
1.
Black.
2.
I haven’t got one but I like Tom Waits.
3.
No.
    I’ll give you some time to think about the answers before I send my questions. I seriously don’t know what use my answers will be to you. Maybe you’re thinking of playing a song on the jukebox and then looking around to see if anybody in the café looks happy when they hear it? Ingenious.
    Wait until you see my questions.
    Watch and learn.
    Seb

    Dear Lydia
    Okay, it’s me again. Here are my questions:
1.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody cut it down, why did it fall?
2.
If you were an astronaut and you noticed that your spaceship was running out of petrol and the nearest petrol station was on Venus, would you:
(a) scream and get upset?
(b) convert to solar power?
(c) go to Venus and get petrol?
3.
Who won the 1998 World Cup?
    I still say we should change the rules and stay and talk.
    Seb

    Seb
    Keep your mouth shut or you’ll get a cold. The rules can’t be changed.
    Your questions are intriguing but you must have a master plan because I know what kind of an undercover spy you are.
1.
Why did the tree fall if no one cut it down? Because it got struck by lightning. That happened to me once and I fell over. It was the shock.
2.
(b)
3.
I haven’t got a clue who won the World Cup in 1998. Do you actually need me to find the answer to that question? Do you not know?

    Dear Lydia
    DO I NOT KNOW?
    You want to know every finalist, semi-finalist andquarter-finalist ever in the World Cup, FA Cup and European Champions League? I’m your guy.
    I asked that question for a reason, Lydia: a person who knows who won the ’98 World Cup will have a kind of shine in their eyes, which I would recognise right off across the floor of the Blue Danish.
    I now know that you will have the flat, sad, lost eyes of the person who doesn’t know who won. That makes my challenge harder because the café will be full of girls like that.
    Out of interest, what kind of perfume do you wear and if you choose anything to eat at the Blue Danish, what would you normally choose? Also, what kind of shoes do you wear and what colour is your hair?
    Seb

    Seb
    The winner of the 1998 World Cup was France.
    See you tonight.
    Lyd
    * Stands for Arse-Kicking Agent.

PART 13

AUTUMN TERM
CASSIE AND
MATTHEW

    Dear Matthew Dunlop
    Okay, I give up. What do you do to people you don’t like? I asked around at school but most people hadn’t heard of you. Bindy Mackenzie said she thinks she’s heard of you and she thinks you’re a trumpet player. I asked her what you do to people you don’t like and she said maybe you play the trumpet really loud in their ear.
    But she was just trying to be funny.
    Em says I’m not allowed to talk to Bindy Mackenzie any more.
    I went to counselling again last night and the counsellor played some applause for Mum and me. She had a whole tape full of applause and all three of us sat in her corduroy couches and listened to cheering, clapping, whooo! , whistling etc.
    It’s hot today, eh? I was thinking there should be like a tribunal or something you can complain to when the weather is incorrect for the season. It’s autumn. There should be crisp air and orange leaves. Lydia is sick at home with the flu and that’s the kind of thing that happens when the season gets the weather wrong.
    â€˜Any complaints, take them up with the management,’ is what my dad used to say when it rained on a netball day. Actually, he stole the line from Lydia’s dad; he heard Lyd’s dad say it