How to Write Really Badly (10 page)
‘Yes.’
‘And you did vote for me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Because he asked you?’
‘No,’ she said. And then, because she could tell that I didn’t really believe her, ‘But maybe because he did explain how
very much you had helped him.’
I thought about it while she went off to ask the van driver if he’d mind dropping the Wheel of Fortune off at her house after we’d been back to Joe’s, and then bringing everything she owned back to the Gardeners’, in fair exchange. And I decided that, if Joe had gone to all that trouble to explain to everyone, then I must have been
really
helpful. I must have
deserved
the prize.
I ought to tell Miss Tate my real name again some time, I suppose, if we stay in this godforsaken dump very much longer.
Then again, maybe I won’t. Howard is
nicer
than Chester, after all.
And, when you think about it, Howard’s
happier
.
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