Truly Tan Baffled

behind her puffy collar. ‘Only one more week of school. I can’t wait for the Lantern Festival and I can’t wait to see who wins Winter Queen.’ ‘Me too!’ I say. ‘I hope it’s Rose. She would be the most magical Winter Queen in the history of this school.’ ‘And the most poetic,’ says Gloria. ‘Blow, blow, thou frozen bum,’ I say, and Gloria and I nearly have a fit. We are still laughing when we notice Mr Lamble is frowning and pointing his finger at us. So we stop giggling and start singing the glowing-candle chorus because that is the deal. That is the code of Mr Lamble’s pointing finger. KAPUT: say ca-poot . This is a good and funny word that means something is broken or dead. Dad’s vet van went kaput the other day, but he got it fixed. Here at school, we are not happy that the heating in the hall has gone kaput and there is ice on the windows and it is hard to think, let along sing, when you’re sitting in an igloo.

HARROWING : say, ha-row-ing . This is a sophisticated word that means ‘scary’. Gloria is the queen of sophisticated words. I wonder if Gloria and I have stumbled into a harrowing mystery? I hope so.