Keep the Faith by Candy Harper Page B

the pall-bearers when she’s in her coffin.
    ‘And what are you concentrating on at the moment, Faith?’ Granny asked. ‘I hope you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to work hard at school.’
    ‘I don’t make resolutions. You’re always telling me not to make promises I can’t keep. Anyway, I don’t think I should start trying to improve on my
almost-perfection. If I became totally perfect then people would find it hard to root for me when I’m warring with teachers.’
    ‘I’ve made lots of resolutions,’ Granny said, turning to Sam, which is her way of letting me know that she doesn’t think I’m doing the conversation the right
way.
    Sam didn’t look up from his terrible drawing of a skeleton army. ‘What resolutions, Granny?’ he asked.
    ‘I’ve decided to try something new every week. I’ve signed up for three evening classes and I’m going to be more adventurous with what I eat.’ She looked round at
us, waiting for us to be impressed or excited or something.
    She was lucky I was still awake.
    I think my resolution is to spend less time with my family.
SUNDAY 22ND JANUARY
    Football was surprisingly good fun. If you’ve got to watch sport then it helps if your boyfriend happens to be the fittest player on the pitch, in both senses of the
word. Afterwards, we all went for hot chocolate, which reminded me of Finn: sweet, warm and delicious.
    I could tell that Megs was making an effort to chat to Finn. She’s not a bad banana sometimes. Cam and Finn mostly talked about football, with a little bit of surfing and skateboarding
thrown in. Their whole conversation was a bit too much like an activity holiday and I had to eat half of Megs’s cookie to keep my strength up. When Finn was getting another drink, I asked Cam
what he thought of Finn.
    ‘He’s an old-fashioned centre half: strong in the tackle and a sweet left foot. I haven’t seen him surf, but I’ve heard he’s really good.’
    ‘Mmm,’ I said. ‘That’s a pretty thorough PE report, but really I was wondering what you thought of him as a person.’
    Cam shrugged. ‘Yeah, he’s all right.’
    Which I took to mean that Cam thinks Finn is as brilliant as I do. I don’t know why Ethan doesn’t like him.
    And we’ve arranged another date. We’re meeting up on Thursday.
MONDAY 23RD JANUARY
    I told the girls about my brilliant plan for an inter-school debating club. You know when you assume that people are as intelligent as you are and that they will receive
your obviously genius idea with the cheering and hugs that it deserves? Well, I never assume that with my lot because they’re all idiots. Which is why Megs pulled a face and Ang said,
‘Oh.’ And Lily tried to look at the label inside the neck of her jumper while she was still wearing it. (Although, to be fair to Lily, she had been doing that for several minutes before
I even suggested the debating club.)
    ‘Thanks for your support,’ I said.
    ‘Just a minute,’ Megs said. ‘Let me get this straight; you want us to have shouting matches with the boys? Is that a good way to impress them?’
    ‘Megan! If a boy only likes me if I agree with him then I am not interested in him.’
    Angharad nodded vigorously. Lily nodded as vigorously as she could while her head was stuck half in and half out of her jumper.
    ‘I mean, anyone is welcome to adore me from afar,’ I said. ‘But that’s as far as it goes. I couldn’t possibly date someone who didn’t respect my
opinions.’
    ‘You normally just beat up people who don’t agree with you,’ Megs said.
    ‘And have you learnt nothing from that? We all need to be firm in our beliefs.’
    Then Lily chipped in. ‘My mum says we should all be ourselves. That’s the only way to find someone who is perfect for you. There’s a lid for every pot. That’s what she
says.’
    There was a moment of silence while we all contemplated exactly what kind of crazy boy-lid would match Lily’s potty pot.
    ‘Actually,’ said