Feeling Sorry for Celia (32 page)

ELIZABETH (AND CHRISTINA!) !!!!

WELCOME HOME.

I DROVE HOME ALMOST AS FAST AS YOU SPRINTED THE LASTBIT OF THE MARATHON, EUZABETH. THAT WAS
ASTONISHING
. CONGRATULATIONS!!! (ARE YOU SURE IT’S NORMAL TO WALKHOME AFTER A MARATHON?)

GUESS WHERE I’VE GONE NOW?

CELIA’S PLACE!

GUESS WHY?

YOUR MISSING FRIENDS ARE ALL THERE!

THEY′ VE BEEN FOUND!!!

CELIA’S MOTHER PHONED ME, BUT SHE IS BEING VERY MYSTERIOUS ABOUT THE DETAILS AND REFUSES TO TELL ME UNTIL I GET THERE.

CHRISTINA, YOU’D BETTER PHONE YOUR FAMILY AND LET THEM KNOW THAT MADDIE IS ALIVE AND WELL AND NOW HERE NEAR THE TOP OF AN AMERICAN TOURIST ATTRACTION.

EUZABETH, YOU’D BETTER PHONE YOUR DAD AND TELL HIM THAT HIS SON IS
STILL
IN THE COUNTRY.

I’LL BE BACK AS SOON AS I HAVE THE DETAILS AND WE’LLHAVE A CELEBRATORY CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR THE BEST MARATHON RUNNER IN THE
WORLD
!!!

LOTS OF LOVE

FROM

MUM

PS I SUPPOSE SOMEONE HAD BETTER PHONE SAXON’S

MOTHER TOO. TRY TO AVOID BEING UNNECESSARILY POLITE.

Mum,

I’m taking a shower if you’re looking for me, and Christina’s just taken a bus home because she wanted to tell her family in person. She’ll be back soon.

Thanks for phoning as soon as you got the details.

I can’t believe that they have been living in the attic at Celia’s place all along.

I can’t believe that they still had not agreed on the best brand of hang-glider or worked out a way to get plane tickets.

And I really can’t believe that Celia’s mother didn’t notice four extra people raiding her refrigerator while she slept each night.

I phoned Dad and he didn’t seem to care about where they were. He’s just happy that he doesn’t have to fly to New York with Uncle Rosco.

I phoned Saxon’s parents too.

I recommend that Celia’s mum go into hiding from Saxon’s family lawyers. (Tell her to try the attic.)

Thank you for the congratulations about the race. It was just a half marathon, not a marathon, so it was a piece of cake.

Still, one of my toenails has turned purple.

And I’m VERY excited about the chocolate cake.

Lots of love

from

Elizabeth

ELIZABETH!!!

LOOK AT THIS NOTE!! SLIDING UNDER YOUR BEDROOM DOOR! I HAD A MARVELLOUS DAY. IT WAS EXCITING WATCHING YOU AT THE MARATHON, AND EXCITING WELCOMING YOUR RUNAWAY FRIENDS BACK FROM THEIR ATTIC. IT WAS ALSO A LOT OF FUN CELEBRATING WITH YOU AND CHRISTINA, WHO IS
LOVELY
AND VERY FUNNY.

I KNOW THAT IT IS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT BUT I JUST WOKE UP WITH A SUDDEN BRAINWAVE. I AM GOING TO PUSH THIS NOTE UNDER YOUR DOOR, AND I MIGHT KNOCK, BUT VERY
LIGHTLY
. YOU SHOULD ONLY WAKE UP
IF YOU REALLY
FEEL LIKE WAKING UP.

IT’S BECAUSE I HAVE AN IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ASK YOU: IF DAD AND UNCLE ROSCO DON’T HAVE TO GO TO NEW YORK AFTER ALL, WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO THEIR PLANE TICKETS?

MUM

Dear Elizabeth,

Yes, we realise that things are going quite well for you. We realise that you recently held a fantastic party, that you finished a half marathon in the TOP FIVE, and that you have just been asked out on another date.

But YOU realise, we assume, that NONE of this makes you into a teenager? You realise that you still fail to meet several of our regulations? You realise that Jared might have asked you out again, but you won′t have a clue what to do if he wants to kiss you. You realise –

Dear Association of Teenagers,

I am writing to let you know that I chose not to finish reading your last letter. I am also writing to let you know that I am no longer especially interested in your opinions. In the last few months you have been very helpful pointing out my faults, tripping me over every time I was about to feel happy, and making me cry into my pillow each night before falling asleep.

I am very grateful for this but I would like you to remove my name from your mailing list. Before we end our correspondence, you should know this: Last week I had a party with dancing, drinking and all-night talking.

Tomorrow I am going out AGAIN with the sexiest guy alive, who I think is about to become my boyfriend. (Okay, I don’t know how to kiss him. But I have a feeling you’re not supposed to TRAIN for kissing. I think you just do it. I think I can’t wait for it to happen, actually.)

Next week, I’m going on a trip to New York City with my mum,
to hang out in cafes and galleries, and check out the route of the New York Marathon.

And guess what else? I think I have a new best friend.

So if you excuse me, I would like to go to sleep.

Write to me again? I won’t even open the envelope. I’ll rip it into tiny shreds and flush it down the toilet.

With very best wishes,

Elizabeth Clarry

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM PAN MACMILLAN

Jaclyn Moriarty
Finding Cassie Crazy

Year 10 is pretty crazy for best friends Lydia, Cassie and Emily, and when their English teacher starts a Pen Pal Project so that they can experience the Joy of the Envelope with boys from scary Brookfield High, life gets even crazier.

As Lydia turns into a secret agent and Emily a relationship expert, it is not so clear what is happening to Cassie. She is writing to someone, but not even her friends know what’s going on. Does she even have a pen pal? Or has Cassie really lost it?

The eagerly-awaited, deliciously-humorous new novel from the author of the award-winning bestseller, FEELING SORRY FOR CELIA.

Praise for FEELING SORRY FOR CELIA

‘Elizabeth Clarry is exactly the sort of person I’d love for a best friend’
MELINA MARCHETTA

‘I absolutely love it. I wish I’d written it’
MARIAN KEYES

‘Moriarty’s writing is a hoot and her sense of irony perfectly placed in this hilarious addition to the genre of genuinely comic Australian young adult novels’
THE AUSTRALIAN

John Marsden
The Tomorrow Series

The feeling of reality you bring into your work is extraordinary. It makes you feel as if you are running along the dangerous streets with Ellie, tense and alert, about to blow up a bridge, or a couple of houses, or waiting quietly inside a container in the bottom of a ship, about to do the biggest thing of your life.’
KIM, MOUNT GAMBIER

‘We have bags under our eyes thanks to your books, because we can’t put them down long enough to sleep!’
COURTNEY & DIANNA, YORKETOWN

Readers across Australia are unanimous: this is the greatest series ever published in this country.

Seven books charged with high emotion, drama, action and even a dash of romance.

When you open the first page of
Tomorrow, When the WarBegan
you’ll enter a world that’ll change you forever.

A world of danger, risks, challenge and self-discovery.

A world that will stay with you, through all the years of your life.

Tomorrow, When the War Began
is the first of the
Tomorrow
Series, and is followed by
The Dead of the Night, The Third Day, the Frost, Darkness, Be My Friend, Burning for Revenge, The Night is for Hunting
and
The Other Side of Dawn.

PRAISE FOR THE
TOMORROW
SERIES:

‘ . . . compulsively readable’
NEW YORK TIMES

‘ . . . without a doubt the best series for younger readers that an Australian writer has ever produced’
DAILY ADVERTISER

‘ . . . makes for reading as exciting, disturbing, provocative as we have had for many years’
JUNIOR BOOKSHELF (UK)

‘Like ancient myths, the stories confront the purpose of life, death, betrayal, killing, love, hate, revenge, selflessness, sacrifice and, in the most recent book, faith’
THE AGE