‘It was my pleasure, Miss Molly,’ he replied, smiling. ‘You saved me from terminal boredom. Let’s do it again sometime. Now, if you could give me a shove off, I’d better get back, before the old lady goes mental. Wish me luck.’

That evening, I took out my diary and revisited my list of ‘good’ and ‘not good’ things about Wormley:

For the first time, the ‘good’ column was longer than the ‘not good’ column and I felt happier than at any time since arriving in Wormley. I took out my notebook and wrote the next chapter.

THE UGLY DRAGON

by Molly Goddard

Chapter 2: The importance of forgiving yourself

Jimmy was feeling sad. A few days ago he’d been playing and fell from a wall, hurting someone else on his way down. His father was angry and told him off.

To cheer him up, Jimmy’s sister Molly suggested that now the weather was improving they should return to the lake to see whether they could find the dragon again. They decided to take something to eat, in case they got hungry.

They spent the morning baking and, after lunch, walked down through the woods to the lake. Just as before, the dragon appeared as if by magic out of the still, dark waters of the lake, with only a small ripple on the surface before her long green snout popped out of the water.

‘Hello, dragon. How do you always know we are here?’

‘I can hear your voices,’ she said, hauling herself onto the bank. ‘Sounds travel quite well through water. And my ears are very sensitive.’

‘I can’t see any ears,’ Molly said.

‘They’re inside,’ she said, rather mysteriously. She tilted her head and flared her nostrils, peering at Jimmy. ‘Can I smell something nice in that bag, by the way?’

‘Rock buns,’ Jimmy said, ‘for our picnic.’

‘Yum, yum. I’m very hungry,’ the dragon said, her voice more like a growl.

Jimmy pouted. ‘They’re not meant for dragons.’

‘That’s silly,’ she said. ‘Of course they are.’

‘I’m not silly,’ Jimmy snapped.

‘What’s got into you today, my young friend?’

Molly explained that Jimmy was still smarting from something their father had said to him. ‘But Pa is in a funny mood at the moment,’ she added. ‘He’s got big things on his mind.’

‘Ten to one he’ll already have completely forgotten why he was cross with you,’ the dragon said, munching on a bun. ‘Mmm, these are delicious. Most people forgive and forget very easily,’ she added.