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Back The Lollipop Shoes
Chapters (96)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Book
  3. The Lollipop Shoes
  4. Dedication
  5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  6. PART ONE
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. PART TWO
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. 6
  19. 7
  20. 8
  21. PART THREE
  22. 1
  23. 2
  24. 3
  25. 4
  26. 5
  27. 6
  28. PART FOUR
  29. 1
  30. 2
  31. 3
  32. 4
  33. 5
  34. 6
  35. 7
  36. 8
  37. 9
  38. PART FIVE
  39. 1
  40. 2
  41. 3
  42. 4
  43. 5
  44. 6
  45. 7
  46. 8
  47. 9
  48. 10
  49. 11
  50. 12
  51. PART SIX
  52. 1
  53. 2
  54. 3
  55. 4
  56. 5
  57. 6
  58. 7
  59. 8
  60. 9
  61. 10
  62. 11
  63. 12
  64. PART SEVEN
  65. 1
  66. 2
  67. 3
  68. 4
  69. 5
  70. 6
  71. 7
  72. 8
  73. 9
  74. PART EIGHT
  75. 1
  76. 2
  77. 3
  78. 4
  79. 5
  80. 6
  81. 7
  82. 8
  83. 9
  84. 10
  85. 11
  86. 12
  87. 13
  88. 14
  89. 15
  90. 16
  91. 17
  92. 18
  93. 19
  94. Epilogue
  95. About the Author
  96. Also by Joanne Harris

I could only hope it wouldn’t be too garish. Zozie’s colour schemes tend towards extravagance, and I had visions of a sign in lime-green and red and brilliant purple – perhaps with a picture of flowers or a unicorn – that I would have to display or hurt her feelings.

And so it was with a slight feeling of trepidation that this morning I followed her out of the shop – with my hands over my eyes, at her request – to see the result.

‘Well?’ she said. ‘What do you think?’

For a moment I couldn’t speak. There it was: hanging above the door as if it had always been there, a rectangular yellow sign with the name of the shop carefully lettered in blue.

‘It’s not too chichi, do you think?’ There was a trace of anxiety in Zozie’s voice. ‘I know you said write something plain, but this just came to me and – well – what do you think?’

Seconds passed. For a time I could not take my eyes away from that sign – the neat blue letters, that name. My name. Of course it was a coincidence: what else could it be? I gave her the brightest smile I could. ‘It’s lovely,’ I said.

She sighed. ‘You know, I was starting to worry.’

And she gave me a smile and tripped over the threshold – which, by some trick of the sun or the new colour-scheme, now seemed almost luminous – leaving me craning my neck at a sign that read, in Zozie’s neat, cursive script:

Le Rocher de Montmartre

Chocolat

PART FOUR

Change

1

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Tuesday, 20th November

SO NOW I’M officially best friends with Jean-Loup. Suzanne was away today, so I didn’t get to see her face, but Chantal made up for both of them, looking really quite ugly all day long, and pretending not to look at me while all her friends just stared and whispered.

‘So are you going out with him?’ said Sandrine in Chemistry. I used to like Sandrine – a bit – before she fell in with Chantal and the rest. Her eyes were round as marbles and I could see the eagerness in her colours as she kept saying, ‘Have you kissed him yet?’

If I’d really wanted to be popular, then I suppose I’d have said yes. But I don’t need to be popular. I’d rather be a freak than a clone. And Jean-Loup, for all his popularity with the girls, is nearly as much of a freak as I am, with his films and his books and his cameras.

‘No, we’re just friends,’ I told Sandrine.

She gave me a look. ‘Well, don’t tell me, then.’ And stomped off in a sulk to rejoin Chantal, and whispered and giggled and watched us all day, while Jean-Loup and I talked about all sorts of things and took pictures of them staring at us.