78 Home

78 Home For once, the tube journey was quick. They popped to Melody Road so that Peanut could change into her uniform. She ran up to her bedroom while Little-Bit and Rockwell waited downstairs. Peanut looked around her room. She saw the drawing of the broken vase and the dead flower on her bed, the slightly damp Fantastic Four postcard on the wall, the empty piece of paper stuck to the wardrobe door, and the small pile of grey powder on the carpet beneath it. Then she saw the wooden box full of Post-it notes. She couldn't quite believe that Little Tail wasn't in the secret compartment any more. She thought about everything that she had seen in

Chroma and all the characters she had met: the kaleidoscoppi, the ink storm, Jonathan Higginbottom, the Bunker, Lulu Kawaii, the Rainbow Lake, the Markmakers, Table Guy, 72. How she wished she could tell her dad about it. He was the one person she wanted to share it all with. 'Soon,' she said under her breath. 'I'll tell you everything soon.' As she folded up her dungarees, a piece of paper fell out of the pocket. It was the map of Chroma that Mrs M had given her. She picked it up and added a little drawing of a door and the words 'Queen Victoria, National Portrait Gallery' at the edge of the Green Valleys district. She wondered if there were any more portals elsewhere in the city. Maybe one day she would find out. She put on her school uniform, headed back downstairs,

grabbed three apples from the fruit bowl and handed them out. 'Come on then,' she said to Rockwell and Little-Bit. 'Those lessons aren't going to learn themselves.' The two friends dropped Little-Bit at her school before taking the shortcut to St Hubert's through the churchyard. Oh no! The physics test!' shouted Rockwell, startling Peanut so much that she almost dropped her apple. ' Er, and...?' 'And... I HAVEN'T DONE AN ADEQUATE AMOUNT OF REVISION!' 'Well, I guess that's cos you've been too busy RESCUING PEOPLE AND HAVING AN AMAZING ADVENTURE!' Rockwell ignored her. 'I bet Newton's Second Law comes up! Must remember... acceleration is inversely proportional to mass... acceleration is inversely proportional to mass... acceleration is inversely proportional to mass...' Peanut couldn't help but laugh. 'What's so funny about not wanting a detention with Death Breath?' 'Nothing.' Peanut smiled. 'Nothing at all. Go on then, give me that textbook and I'll test you. But I'm warning you, if you get any questions wrong, I'm going to make you walk five metres behind me. Peanut Jones cannot be seen to be friends with a doofus.'