Outlanders: Part 2

By MARGARET BEAMES, Illustrator SAM WHEELER

Just the day before I'd got up full of good intentions. Then I'd tapped on Shay's door - that's Scherazade, my best friend since the day we started Board School together - to ask if she had done hers. I might have known; she'd thrown a collage together in five minutes, a glorious maze of glittering, sharp=edged colours, and was amusing herself now by messing about with her hair, threading little coloured cylinders onto tiny braids. They tinkled musically every time she shook her head. Before I knew it she'd coaxed me into helping her and then it seemed too late to start any serious work and that was another day wasted.

"Rhiane, this is not like you," Phineas told me. "I'm giving you two days study leave. No classes, go wherever you need, do whatever helps you, but do something!" He meant what he said.

Publisher: Scholastic, $13.95

Age group: 11 + years