THE OWL CLUB: CHAPTER ONE
In a town not far from your town, on a street a lot like your street, there are three houses, just the same. The first house has a red door and there are flowers growing in some window boxes at the front. The second house has a blue door and there’s a little wooden fence along the front. And the third house has a green front door and there’s a wall along the front, just high enough to sit on without your feet touching the ground.
Olly lives in the house with the red door. He lives there with his mum and his dad, and a cat called Monty. Monty is a ginger cat.
Will lives in the house with the green door. He lives there with his Mum. Will’s dad had to go away a long time ago, but Will hopes he’ll come back one day.
Who lives in the house with the blue door? Nobody lives there. Not yet. There’s a sign on the house that tells people they could live there if they want to, but nobody’s wanted to. Not yet. Maybe soon.
There isn’t another house next to the one with the green front door. Instead, there’s a park. If you walk through the park, past the swings and the big square of grass where grown-ups play a really big game of marbles, and past the little house where the park-keeper keeps his mower and his rakes, there’s a school.
It’s the school that Olly and Will go to. They’re not in the same class but they like to walk to school together, and they like to walk home together. So that’s what they do. Every morning, Olly says goodbye to his Mum or to his Dad, because sometimes his Mum gets him ready and sometimes his Dad does. When it’s time, he walks out his house and turns left. He walks past the window boxes with the flowers growing in them and past the house where nobody lives. Then he reaches Will’s house.
Sometimes Will is waiting for Olly. Sometimes Olly has to wait for Will. Most of the time, though, Olly just rings the bell at Will’s house and sits on the wall outside, with his feet not quite touching the ground. One day, Olly thinks to himself, I’ll be tall enough for my feet to touch the ground when I sit on the wall. Then we’ll see. Oh yes we will.
This morning, Olly doesn’t have to wait for Will because Will is already at his front gate. Will’s Mum looks at Will and says to him:
“William, your shirt should be tucked in and your tie should be straight. Look at Oliver, he’s put his tie on lovely, he has.”
Will gets a bit miffed at this. He thinks ties shouldn’t have to be straight all the time because if they were, there’d be no wonky ties for people to put straight, and then what else would they have to moan about? But Will just says ‘Alright, Mum.” Then his Mum gives him a little kiss on the top of his head, just to make him feel a bit squirmy in front of Olly.
Then they go through the park gates and begin the walk to school.
There’s a path in the park. It runs all the way around the outside. Will and Olly walk from the park gates to their school, which is on the far side of the park. When they’re quite close to school - close enough to see the head teacher standing outside, for instance, or close enough to not be able to change their minds about going and run back home and pretend to be ill instead - they see someone else.
They see this someone every day, at the same time and in the same place. And here she comes, looking really really happy like she does every day, She looks really really happy because she really is really really happy. She’s really really happy all the time.
This is Lucy.
Will and Olly see her skipping along, and they see her ponytail bouncing up and down - even her ponytail is happy - and they smile, because seeing her makes them happy too. Maybe not as happy as she is. But happier than before, and happier than before is always better than sadder than before.
“Hello Will!” says Lucy.
“Hello Lucy!” says Will.
“Hello Olly!” says Lucy.
“Hello Lucy!” says Olly.
“Hello School!” says Lucy.
“Lucy?” says Olly. “The school can’t talk.”
“I knows that!” says Lucy, and she laughs at Olly. “Everybody knows that! I’m not stupid, ams I?”
“No, Lucy. I suppose you’re not.” says Will.
And they all walk past the head teacher and go to school.
Now, this is where you expect to be told all about what they did at school that day. This is where you expect to be told about their lessons and their teachers (one of whom is very nice, and one of whom is rather horrible, but maybe we’ll meet them later). This is where you expect to be told all about what they had for lunch, and the game of Who’s The Sheep they played at breaktime, and about how Peter Lightbody did something silly in Science and had to go home for a bath.
But that isn’t going to happen.
Because something far more important was going on back in the street where Will and Olly live.
And we really should go and find out about that.
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