Mr and Mrs Franklin said yes when Victoria asked if she could hang out with her new friends after school. Victoria happily went over to the McMillan twins' house.

The McMillan twins' house was in a nice little neighborhood. It had a garden full of colourful flowers. 'This is a nice place to live,' said Victoria.

'Thanks,' said Kelly. 'Our Dad is often away for work, so it's always been just us and our Mom. Look, there she is.'

Mrs McMillan was a pretty woman who looked like her daughters. It was clear that both Holly and Kelly adored her.

Victoria was amazed by the twins' house. She was even impressed by their shared bedroom.

'Do you two like sharing a room?' asked Victoria. 'Annie resented sharing her room with me.'

'Well, we often find that we don't have enough privacy,' said Kelly. 'But one of us can easily go to the living room whenever we need some space from each other.'

'You have a bunk bed!' said Victoria. 'Lucky.'

'Well, Holly sleeps in the top bunk,' said Kelly. 'That's fine with me. I'm scared of heights.'

Victoria did her homework with her new friends. Kelly gave helpful tips on subjects Victoria was having trouble in, like Maths. Victoria was thankful, as she didn't understand the first thing about algebra.

However, she felt a little stumped as she looked at her essay. Her grammar was good, but she had no ideas for her essay. Unfortunately, Kelly didn't know what to tell her either.

Only Holly seemed to find the essay easy, and had finished it in no time at all. She was surprised to find that the others hadn't started yet.

'Holly, a little help?' asked Kelly. 'We don't know what to do.'

Holly looked a little surprised that she was being asked for help, but she obliged anyway. She looked over Kelly and Victoria's essays.

'There was no imagination involved,' she said. 'Besides, it seems like you are not enjoying what you're writing at all.'

'How did you know?' asked Victoria.

'I can sense that there is no passion in this,' she said. 'If you want to write about something, you have to enjoy it. No one is going to like a story that the author didn't enjoy writing.'

'But I hardly know anything about nature,' said Victoria.

'Well, when you think about nature, what's the first thing that comes into your mind?' asked Holly.

'Mom's flowers,' said Holly.

'Waterfalls,' said Victoria.

'Exactly,' said Holly. 'Write something that you enjoy. Then it will turn out fine.'

'I think that I understand now,' said Victoria. 'Thanks, Holly.'

'You're welcome,' said Holly.

'Why aren't you in the tutoring club?' asked Victoria. Holly went a little red.

'I'm not so good at speaking my mind,' she said. 'I used to be more confident when I was younger, but I got bullied.'

'Bullied? By who?' asked Victoria.

'A boy called Leo Jenson,' said Holly. 'He's much smaller than normal kids, but he is really sly. He is incredibly strong for his size and can hit you if you displease him. Once I beat him in a tennis match and he got angry and slapped me.'

'Why didn't you tell a teacher?' asked Victoria.

'Well, Leo pretended to cry and said that I was bullying him. He keeps spreading lies about others, and the teachers believe him because he is small,' said Holly.

'That's awful,' said Victoria.

'Yeah,' said Kelly. 'Well, try to keep out of Leo's way. He still attends our school. Well, we should get on with our essays.'

For the next half hour, the only sounds from the room was the sounds of pencils on paper.