The first day of the summer holidays arrived as first days of holidays should always arrive. Both Lucy and Michael stayed in bed for nearly an hour longer than they would have done on a normal school day.

They were not asleep, and they were not particularly tired. They did not get up because they did not have to get up, and because no one told them to get up. On a normal day Michael Turner was usually out of bed long before anyone else in the Turner household, and at least an hour before he needed to be ready for school. Today was different. With plenty of time to do all the many things he wanted to do, there was simply no rush. It was a luxury to have nearly six long weeks stretching out before them without the need to hurry in the mornings.

Finally, it was the sound of other children outside in the street that roused Lucy and Michael from their beds. The urge to play was greater than the temptation to enjoy the luxury of being able to do nothing.

"Mum! Mum! Mum! Can I go out? Can I go out?"

Lucy rushed down the stairs. "I'm tired," she announced a little less loudly as soon as she reached the living room.

"You stayed in your bed too long," her mother told her with a smile. "Yes, you can go out as soon as you are dressed, but stay where I can see you. I don't want to be searching high and low for you when it's lunchtime."

Michael also dressed and went outside. It was another scorching hot day, and many of the children who went to their school were already out in small groups, talking, laughing, and playing with toys, bicycles, skateboards or scooters. Although each of the houses had a perfectly good garden, the children were always out at the front on the pavements or even in the road. Being a small road that did not lead anywhere, the only vehicles were usually those of the people who lived there who knew very well to expect children playing in the road as they approached their houses. It was safe, or at least it was as safe as any road possibly could be. Even so, Lucy and Michael's mother had warned them to watch out for cars and to stay well away from the corner where a vehicle might come round unexpectedly.

"Look." Michael nudged Lucy as they went out of their front door.

"WHAT?" she said in annoyance. "Don't do that. I'm going to play with Emily."

"Look up the road. What are they doing? They don't usually come anywhere near here."

Lucy looked, and saw four of the Riley children in a group on the far corner of the road.

"I don't know," she said. "And I don't care. As long as they don't come down here I don't care. I'm not playing with them. I'm ignoring them."

Lucy walked determinedly in the opposite direction. She was less than half way to Emily's house when she stopped as though suddenly frozen to the spot. Very slowly, she turned.

"Go away," she shouted. "I'm not talking to you."

Michael hurried up to her. "What's the matter?" he asked, concerned. "I thought you were going to ignore them."

"I am," she insisted. "I was ignoring them until they shouted. Make them go away."

Michael looked up the road at the Riley children. They had not moved. They stood in a silent group.

"They're not bothering us," he said. "They're just standing there. They aren't doing anything."

As if she had heard him, Myra raised her arm. They were too far away to be absolutely certain, but Michael was sure she was smiling. He turned back to Lucy.

"They aren't doing anything," he said, now less sure of himself. "Look."

He pointed towards the end of the road to show her that they were just standing there doing nothing. His arm fell back to his side in surprise. They were not there.

"It's OK. They've gone," he told Lucy. "They didn't do anything."

"I hate it when they shout to me like that," Lucy said. "Someone might think they are my friends, and they're not. I hate them." She shook her head, her long blonde hair waving from side to side emphasising her words.

"They didn't shout," Michael said in surprise. "They didn't say anything. They just stood there, then Myra put up her hand and they went."

Lucy stamped her foot. "You don't know anything," she said angrily. "You can't hear anything. You don't know what it's like."

She stalked off towards her friend's house; leaving Michael once again firmly convinced that girls, even his sister, were considerably sillier than boys. All the same, the Rileys were certainly a little odd, except possibly Myra. She, he thought, might be quite nice to get to know a bit better. He had found himself thinking about her from time to time. Her long dark hair and tanned skin was such a contrast to his sister's fairness, and it would be awfully nice if she were his friend.

Michael shook his head to clear his thoughts. He did not like girls and that was that. They were silly creatures with none of the common sense of boys. Dark or fair they were all the same. They just did not make sense.

He rushed up the road as Jack kicked a football in his direction. That was better. Football was a proper boys' game. He looked over his shoulder as he kicked the ball, to make absolutely and completely sure that Myra Riley was not there, watching him. She most definitely was not, and for some reason he did not understand that made him terribly disappointed.

Michael and Lucy would have been quite happy to spend the whole of the summer holidays doing little more than playing with the other children living in their road. Their parents, however, had other ideas.

"We've booked a holiday," their mother told them. "We're going down to Melmering-by-Sea to stay at Auntie May's cottage."

"I don't want to go," Michael said firmly. "Auntie May always wants me to play games with her, and I get bored."

"Auntie May won't be there," their mother told them, "She's going away on a cruise for three weeks. We will have the place to ourselves."

"I want to go to Disneyland," Lucy declared. "It's much better than Melmering. Melmering is boring."

Their mother smiled. "Not this year," she said. "We can't afford it. Maybe we can go another year. Anyway, you like Melmering. If the weather is nice you will have a great time on the beach, and now that both of you can swim properly it will be perfect."

"I never get to go anywhere I want," Lucy grumbled. "I never get to go anywhere at all. I want to stay here with my friends."

"Well, I have a surprise for you both. I was talking to Mrs Riley yesterday down at the school, and she says they are renting a house just up the road from Aunt May's cottage. So you will have all the Riley children to play with."

"No!" Lucy was horrified. "I'm not going."

"Oh come on, Lucy," her mother coaxed her. "You like Siobhan, don't you? She's in your class and your teacher says you get on very well with her. I know that Michael likes Myra too, don't you Michael?"

"Not particularly," Michael told her. "She's all right, I suppose." He turned away, thoughtfully.

"I'm definitely not going," Lucy said. "No way. I'm staying here."

"We're going, and that's that," their mother told them firmly. "You will enjoy it when you get there. You always do."

"I'm not going," Lucy said again to Michael later when they were alone.

"It will be all right," Michael said. "We don't have to go near them if we don't want to."

"You only want to go because you like Myra."

"I do not," Michael declared indignantly. "I want to go because it's good there. We can make sandcastles and volcanoes, catch shrimps, go fishing, go out places. We don't do that at home."

Lucy did not look convinced, but she did not bother to argue.

"I'm going out," she announced. "I'm going to play with Tara."

"Ask Mum first," advised Michael, turning his attention to the computer. There was a new computer game on the Internet he had just found, and he had also just realised that he would not be able to play it when they went to Aunt May's cottage. Aunt May did not have a computer, and neither did she have an Internet connection.

"Mum!" Lucy shouted as loudly as she could, without bothering to find out where her mother was at that moment. "Mum! I'm going out. OK?"

Lucy started putting her shoes on.

"I didn't hear her answer," Michael told her, now staring intently at the computer screen. "You'd better make sure she says it is OK."

"You're just deaf," Lucy informed him sarcastically. "Anyone would have heard that. She said I was to be back by four."

"She didn't," Michael insisted. "I never heard her." But Lucy was already out of the door.

They were there. They were at the end of the road again, all five of them this time. Lucy stopped at the top of her driveway as if she had walked into a wall.

"I'm NOT," she shouted. "I'm NOT. GO AWAY."

She turned her back on them and took a few steps towards Tara's house. Once again she stopped as if she had hit something solid.

At that moment, Michael looked up from the computer and saw his sister standing outside, quivering almost as though someone was shaking her. He jumped up, and ran outside.

"Lucy! What's the matter?"

As he reached her, he saw that her face was red and all screwed up. He thought something was hurting her, and he looked around wildly so see what it was. Perhaps, he thought, a wasp or a bee had stung her.

"What's the matter?" he said again.

"It's THEM," she said through clenched teeth, and only then Michael realised the look on her face was from anger and not from pain.

"Who?" He looked up and down the road, quickly spotting the Riley children. "What did they do to you?"

"They won't let me go to Tara's house."

Michael spun round. He could see nothing, other than the small group at the end of the road. They were at least a hundred yards away.

"No one is stopping you," he said. "Just go!"

Lucy was still shaking. She turned round with what seemed to be a tremendous effort and stared straight at the Riley children, her face screwed up in concentration.

"Go away," she said quietly and firmly. "Go right away right now."

The children were too far away to have heard her, but as Michael watched he saw the two smaller children stagger as though someone had hit them. Both of them turned and ran. Siobhan, Patrick and Myra stood quite still for a moment.

"I told you to go away," Lucy said with a little more force in her voice.

Siobhan put her arm up in front of her face, and Patrick and Myra both took one step backwards.

"Go away NOW," Lucy shouted.

The remaining three Riley children turned and left, disappearing round the corner as quickly as the younger ones had left a few moments ago.

Lucy, still trembling, sat down on the path. She seemed exhausted.

"What's going on?" Michael demanded. "What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing's the matter now," Lucy told him. "I'm all right now they have gone."

"They weren't doing anything to you."

"No," said Lucy with satisfaction. "They didn't do anything to me. I'm stronger than they are. I know that now."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." Lucy looked straight into Michael's eyes. "Nothing at all. I've just realised it. There is nothing at all to worry about."

She jumped to her feet, and without another word she ran up the road towards Tara's house, leaving Michael completely confused. He turned and walked back towards his own front door, glancing up the road as he went to where the Riley children had been gathered.

He was not completely sure, but he thought he caught a brief glimpse of Myra. It might not have been her. It might not have been anyone. He might have imagined it, because by the time he had turned his head properly and focused his eyes on the corner of the road, there was no one there. If it had been someone rather than his imagination or a fleck of dirt in the corner of his eye, Michael was quite sure that someone had looked in his direction and waved at him.