Authors: Jess Vallance
Birdy (20 page)
I’m pretty sure Bert would like the chance to apologise to me too actually. It’s all because of her that I’m here after all. If she hadn’t grassed me up to the police they would never have known I was to blame for the fire. If she hadn’t been so off with me in the den that day when I caught her with Jac I wouldn’t have lost my temper and gone at her with the scissors. And I suppose, ultimately, if she hadn’t been so erratic and changeable I wouldn’t have been so constantly afraid she was going to leave me for Jac or Pippa or anyone else that came along, and then none of it would have happened at all. We’d probably still be OK now, still walking to school together, still going up the high street to look at the shops, still chatting in the Egg. Maybe I should’ve been more vigilant from the start, spotted what she was like and steered clear. I don’t know. It’s always easy to say, looking back, what you would’ve done differently, isn’t it? In truth though, I don’t know that I would’ve changed anything really. I certainly wouldn’t have chosen not to meet Bert, not for anything.
Anyway, I’ve just got to keep my head down. Do my time. I’ll be out soon enough. And I know that Bert will be waiting for me, ready to pick up where we left off. Maybe we can even get some of our plans back on track – the rowing-boat picnic for sure, maybe even that day trip to Brighton. Bert knows it would take more than a little row to get between us.
Because friends like us, like Bert and me, we’ll always be together.
Thank you to my agent, Jo Williamson, to my editor, Emma Matthewson, and to everyone at Hot Key Books. All are much cleverer than me.
Thank you to James Dawson for the inspiration and the introduction.
Thank you to my mum for all the library trips. Thank you to my dad for doing the voices.
Thank you to Amber for the patience, the ideas, and for everything else.
Jess Vallance works as a freelance writer specialising in educational materials, and has written articles on everything from business accounting to embalming a body. Jess lives in Brighton.
Birdy
is her first novel. Follow Jess at
www.jessvallance.com
or on Twitter
@JessVallance1
.
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First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Hot Key Books
Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0AT
Text copyright © Jess Vallance 2015
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4714-0476-4
This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher
Hot Key Books is part of the Bonnier Publishing Group