The School for Scruff: 3.

We bought Scruff her school uniform, and it looked very smart too. Or it would have if she'd brushed her hair or done her tie up properly. But then, we don't call her Scruff for nothing!
The days went quickly. We had a lot of things to buy, books, pens, pencils, all the sort of things you have to buy when you're packing your little sister off to boarding school. Ms. Madison, the Green Man, ad the Outsider did their best to help, but poor old Emily's a little limited by her appearance.
And Lynette told me that she and the Green Man were going away on a case, so I'd have to look after the Outsider (she can't exactly go shopping looking like that, can she?).

At last the day came. Scruff actually woke early, and when it came for me to use the shower, I found it was occupied.
"Scruff!" I called.
"Sis!" she replied.
"Just checking!"
I returned to the kitchen to find Emily making breakfast. She was looking very black and smoky that morning.
"Hello!" she greeted me. "What's going on?"
"First I'm dropping Scruff off at Liverpool Street Station, then you and I are driving from London to Sir Richard Arcos' place at Little Pudding. Can you stay invisible that long, or will we have to resort to disguising you as a Muslim?"
"I'll stay invisible. Won't we be in your grey car?"
"Too risky. And not enough space in the boot for our things. No, we'll go in my Jaguar."
"And you don't want me to help load the car?"
"Emily, you'd scare the neighbours."
Scruff emerged from the shower wrapped in a towel and went off to dress. I quickly nipped into the shower before Emily could.

I sdropped Scruff and her luggage off at Liverpool Street Station, helping her load the things into the carriage. In her school uniform (Pudding Norton College likes to know who its students are) she looked kind of funny.
"Okay, Scruff, don't worry," I told her. She laughed.
"I won't." She started to get her ipod out of the pocket in her gymn-slip and I laughed.
"Then behave yourself. I'll see you later. You've got everything?"
"I think so."
"Good. So long."
"'Bye, Sis!"
The tannoy started telling everyone who wasn't travelling to leave the train, so I did. I waved Scruff off, then returned home to find that Emily had got all her luggage ready. Not that it was a lot, Apparently being black and smoky rather limits a girl's wardrobe.
"We're off?" she asked eagerly a I entered the room. I nodded.
"We're off, Emily. Just as soon as I've loaded the car."
And we were. As I drove away from the front of the building, an invisible Outsider in the front passenger seat and everything I might need in the boot and the back seat, I could not help wondering what this strange adventure would bring.
And I rather envied Scruff, sitting on the train with her ipod while I had to drive to Norfolk.