Project Best Friend by Chrissie Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

movement of her head to indicate that Penelope should talk now. Penelope’s blood seemed to tingle in her head.
    ‘Well, I have some techniques I use to calm down too,’ Penelope admitted. ‘Though they’re not handstands.’ She took her voice down a notch. Penelope had never actually shared her top-secret calming techniques with anyone, but now seemed quite a good time to do it.
    ‘I like to read or draw when I want to calm down,’ she said.
    ‘Cool,’ Bob said. ‘Both those things are totally calming. What else?’
    Bob’s response made Penelope feel very pleased. She wanted to continue the conversation about calming techniques, but it seemed more important to explain something else first.
    ‘One thing I’d like you to know is that I never – well, hardly ever – blow up like I did at Dodgeball the other day. It was actually even a surprise to me. Normally I am quite good at being calm and sensible.’
    Saying she was normally quite good at being sensible while she was upside down seemed a little bit strange.
    It must have seemed funny to Bob, too, because she giggled.
    ‘Sometimes,’ Penelope tried again, ‘not very often, but just occasionally …’
    Penelope sighed. It was a difficult thing to explain, and even if she did manage to explain it, what if Bob thought she was weird?
    ‘Is it like this?’ upside-down Bob asked. ‘You think you’re going to do one thing and you end up totally doing another? Sort of like you’ve got different people inside you?’
    The feeling inside Penelope wasn’t just because blood was rushing to her head. Nodding when you’re upside down is quite hard to do, and Penelope’s hair actually swept the ground when she did it. But Penelope did it anyway. Several times.
    Bob blew out a breath before she continued. ‘That sounded kooky,’ she giggled. ‘It’s probably not what you were trying to say. I’m not making any sense at all. You probably think I’m nuts.’
    Penelope found that shaking her head upside down was a bit easier than nodding. At least this time, Bob seemed to notice what she was doing. Penelope could tell she was waiting for her to speak.
    ‘You’re absolutely not nuts, Bob,’ Penelope said. ‘Not to me, anyway. What you said makes perfect sense.’

‘Well, well, well,’ Bob’s dad said, standing in the doorway and looking around Bob’s bedroom. ‘You girls have done an amazing job in here.’
    Penelope quickly got out of her handstand and stood up.
    Bob stayed put.
    ‘I think banana smoothies are in order,’ Bob’s dad continued. ‘In fact, I’ve already made them. They’re in the kitchen.’
    Now Bob was very quick to get out of her handstand.
    ‘Thanks, Dad!’ she said as she zoomed across the room.
    As they crossed paths, Bob’s dad leaned down and kissed Bob on the top of the head.
    Of course, Penelope’s dad kissed her hello and goodbye when she visited. Sometimes he even kissed her goodnight when she slept over. It seemed to Penelope, though, that this kiss was for absolutely no reason. Bob and her dad didn’t even seem to notice it had happened. They acted as if those sorts of random kisses were totally normal.
    Bob and her dad both walked out of the bedroom. But the tickly scratchy thing in Penelope’s heart made her freeze for a second.
    Suddenly, Penelope imagined her own dad delivering a random kiss like that …

    Bob peeked around the doorway. ‘Are you coming or what?’

    The banana smoothie was so thick that the girls had to work hard to get it up the straws. Bob crossed her eyes as she sucked. She looked so funny that Penelope completely forgot about her dad and Sienna and random kisses. She giggled so much that her smoothie (which she’d managed to get three-quarters of the way up her straw) was slowly going backwards.
    ‘I give up!’ Bob said.
    She took the straw out of her drink and went to get some spoons. Penelope followed. On the way back, she noticed a framed photo sitting on the