We were hiding in her room one day when she told me about school. She said she had no friends, even the people she hung around with had turned against her. Calling someone “Penny” had become the ultimate insult amongst her year group.
People from her brother’s year were picking on her, too scared to get back at him. One day a boy she didn’t know walked up to her, punched her and said “that’s for your brother!” and walked away. The other kids around her seemed not to notice. No-one commented. She was so sad. She stopped doing sports and dance and hid in her bedroom much of the time writing poems or in her diary.
One day a few weeks later she got home well before her brother. She was different. I could feel the sadness from her but she pushed me away, locking me back in the kitchen and went upstairs. I knew something was very wrong.
When her brother got back, I slipped past him to find her. She wasn’t downstairs so I did something I’d never done before. I went upstairs without being taken by her. Her bedroom door was pushed closed. I nudged it with my nose and went in. She was sat on the bed with one of her dad’s drinks and a bottle of sweets or something that she was eating. I went and put my head on her lap willing her to understand that I loved and needed her. She looked at me and tears fell onto my head. I lifted my paw up to her and she took it and held it.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, “I don’t want to leave you but it’s too hard to stay. I’m sorry. I do love you.” I looked up and nudged her arm with my nose. I wanted her to cuddle me. She lifted me onto her lap and held me tight, crying harder now. After a while she spoke again. “I won’t leave you. No one else will feed you or walk you or care for you properly. I promise I will stay till you don’t need me anymore. Then it won’t matter.”
I stayed up there with her till her mum was home and shouted upstairs to see where she was, and to call me down. What happened that day was our secret.
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