Title Page

Dedication

To LJ for bringing people together to change this

Contents

1. Title Page
2. Dedication
3. Chapter 1
4. Chapter 2
5. Chapter 3
6. Chapter 4
7. Chapter 5
8. Chapter 6
9. Chapter 7
10. Chapter 8
11. Chapter 9
12. Copyright

Chapter 1

I’ve got my needles. I’ve got my wool. And now, I’m gonna knit. Some folks like to pray. Some folks like yoga. My foster mum, Annie – she’s one of them yoga people. But me, I knit when I’m stressed out. Today was a big stress out. It’s lucky I’ve got something big to knit. I mean proper big. Dinosaur big.

I don’t even like dinosaurs. (Of course I haven’t met no dinosaurs face to face. And most of them have faces way too high up for me to see anyway.) But some kids are obsessed with dinosaurs. They know what every dinosaur is called. Their full Latin names and everything. My little sister, Kandi, is one of those kids. I’m knitting something special, just for her.

I haven’t seen Kandi for two years now. When our mum died, there wasn’t no one around who could look after both of us. Kandi went to live with her dad. But no one knew where my dad had gone and our aunty had baby twins and didn’t have room for me.

So I live with Annie. I’ve been here for ten months now. It’s the third place I’ve lived since me and Kandi got split up. Annie’s been fostering kids like me for ages. Her parents used to foster kids too. Me and Annie get on all right. She tells me she’s in it for the long term. But sometimes we have to work at our relationship, as she puts it.

Annie runs a yoga studio in an alley off the high street. She says to me, “Charlene, yoga’s perfect for slowing down our minds and easing our stress.”

Annie’s offered me free classes any time I want. But I got my knitting to slow down my mind and help me deal with stress. I don’t need to stare at other people’s bums for an hour.

Annie’s got a son called Blake. He’s at uni, so I’ve got his old room. I know he’s not happy with that. He wants it free for when he comes back here. Still, the third bedroom he sleeps in isn’t that small. At least he doesn’t have to share like me and Kandi did until we got separated.

Last time Blake was here, Annie made him wash his own clothes, the same way I have to. I heard them arguing. Annie said, “I’m your mother, not your slave, Blake. You know how the washing machine works.” Blake acted like it was my fault she was making him do this, despite him seeing me unloading my clothes and hanging them out in the garden to dry.