‘Don’t be like that,’ Iona said, hanging her head to one side. ‘We’re friends, you just have to trust me.’

But Bonnie couldn’t bring herself to accept that. In fact, the way Iona was looking at her, threatening to break into a grin, made the knots in her stomach tighten again. ‘I don’t get why you can’t tell me who you’re seeing.’

‘It has to be a secret, that’s why. No one can know.’

Bonnie’s head started to whirl. It had to be someone she knew. Maybe he already had a girlfriend. Or maybe he was much older. She slumped back against the tree as Iona started talking about something different and soon Bonnie knew she would have to wait before she found out.

‘Don’t be cross with me,’ Iona said as she reached for Bonnie’s wrist.

Bonnie felt a tug and looked down to where Iona was pulling on the threaded bracelet Stella had given her the day before. Her cheeks flushed when she realised she hadn’t taken the thing off. Her sister had made such a fuss of it being the first one she’d made but Bonnie was going to remove it before anyone else saw.

‘What’s this?’ Iona said. ‘Is it a friendship bracelet?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh no, who’s your other friend?’ Iona was laughing. ‘Should I be jealous?’

Bonnie wished she would be and toyed with the idea of making up a friend just to see how Iona would react. Only deep down she knew Iona wouldn’t be bothered at all. And on top of that Stella had already made a dozen more bracelets and had started selling them, and if Iona found out the truth Bonnie would look stupid. ‘My sister made it,’ she said eventually.

‘Well, it’s cute.’

Bonnie peered down. ‘I want you to have it,’ she said, untying it.

‘Oh, okay, thank you,’ Iona was saying though Bonnie didn’t even look up as she focused on wrapping it around her friend’s wrist.

And that way, she thought, everyone will know you’re my friend.

Danny was grateful his mum had stopped asking him about the incident at the beach. Hopefully she’d accepted it hadn’t meant anything.

It really hadn’t. He’d been just as shocked as Tess had when she came into the cave and acted like she was going to have a wee. Danny had leapt up. There was no way he could keep hiding if she was going to pull her pants down. It would be awful if he watched and then someone found out.

Instead he ran past as quick as he could but the cave was narrow and he ended up slamming into her on his way through. He almost hit the rocks when she started screaming, a little too dramatically, in his opinion.