Flip Side: Chocolate Truth

"If you always tell the truth," Mum says to us over and over again, "you'll never have to remember what you've said!"

I wish a few of my mates at school would take that in. I can't trust them at all.

For a start, there's Russel, who bunks class nearly every day. You should hear the excuses he comes up with. "Lost my books." "Missed the bus." "Got chased by a dog." Anything but what really happened. He bunked class.

And there's Ryan, who nicks things from shops and then tells everyone he found the stuff on the road. He can keep a straight face while he tells you he's been to a birthday party, when he hasn't been anywhere. He can say just about anything with a straight face.

And there's Pete, who cheats at everything. He can forge signatures, and write fake notes. "Please excuse my son Peter from school yesterday, as he was not feeling well," and if anyone checks up on him, he says he doesn't know anything about it and blames someone else for "setting him up."

I could name a few more liars but I can't see the point. It's pretty obvious the mess they get themselves and other people into but they don't seem to care. Mum's right about what she says about people who tell lies. The more they do it, the worse it gets for them.

Which is why I have to tell you about this amazing new invention which my sister and I have come up with.

It all started when Mum took us to town. She told me and Gena, that's my sister, to do some window shopping for a while, and then meet her back at the car in about an hour. I think window shopping is cool. You can look at all the things you'd love to buy but you never have any money in your pocket, so you just enjoy imagining owning all the stuff. I think it's more fun wanting something than actually having it.

Anyway, we were wandering along the street when we came to one of those junk shops. I call them "new junk shops" because they sell piles and piles of things made of plastic, and most of it is OK until you take it out of the shop. After that, it is junk! (Gena bought a beautiful-looking doll in one of these shops last year. As soon as she unwrapped it, the doll fell to bits.)

We went round the shop, looking at everything. Plastic this, plastic that. Dinosaurs, beads, brooches, combs, bears, cats, trucks, pictures, ornaments, useless stuff, all plastic, all sickly green or red or blue, all sprayed with paint, plastic, plastic, plastic. Along one