The Imaginary Friend Bloghop

Happy Friday! Today I'm excited to take part in the Imaginary Friend bloghop, organised by Annalisa Crawford as part of the one year anniversary celebrations for her debut novel Cat and the Dreamer, and co-hosted by Kyra Lennon. Here's the details courtesy of Annalisa:

If you've read Cat and The Dreamer you'll know that Julia, the main character, has a big imagination, and she has an imaginary enemy.

We want to know about your imaginary friend. What were they called? How old were you? Were they naughty or nice? If you didn't have one, were there ever times when you could really have used one? Did you ever set fire to your mum's favourite rug and have to take the blame yourself?

I think there will be some great entries for this! I can't wait to read them. I don't have any imaginary friends that I can recall, but my little girl has a very well-established one who unfortunately has a brother with a bit of a dark side. So I used them for a bit of inspiration. The story is told from my daughter's POV.

Chloe’s Brother

It was my favourite book, with clever bits that you pulled to make animals’ mouths open and stuff. Now those animals’ heads lay scattered around the floor.

I loved Chloe, my best friend. We’d play in my fairy castle for hours and pretend to be princesses and dragons. Actually, Chloe’s brother was usually the dragon, burning the castle down, but he always ended up getting too rough and hurting us.

But it was when he wrecked my stuff that I hated him most. Because Daddy always blamed me. I know he did even if he didn’t say so.

I was trying to fix the book but it was no good. The bits wouldn’t stay on. And then the door opened and Daddy came in while I was sitting with all the bits round me.

“Darling, it’s lunchtime – what have you done?” He took the book out of my hands and looked at the poor headless animals. “This was a Christmas present! It’s ruined now.”

I cowered as he stared down at me. “Chloe’s brother did it,” I said in a tiny voice.

“Really? I thought I said he couldn’t come round any more.”

“But Chloe’s mummy goes to work,” I squeaked. “She has to leave both of them here.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” said Daddy, crouching down. His voice was sweeter now. “I’ll tell Chloe’s mummy that if Chloe’s brother doesn’t buck his ideas up, she’ll have to find another house.”

“Nooo!” My eyes filled up with tears. “Then I won’t get to see Chloe.”

“Let’s give that brother of hers one more chance.” Daddy gave me a big hug and wiped my eyes with his thumb. “Do you think he’ll be good now?”

“Dunno.”

But Chloe’s brother was good after that. If any accidents happened then they were my fault. He was still a bit rough, but he wasn’t mean like before. I was so glad their mummy had had a word with him, because I couldn’t be without my best friend in the world.

*

Don't forget to check out the linky list for all the other entries! And there are still a couple of days left to sign up for my Overcoming Adversity bloghop, to help raise funds to send my stepson to a specialist college. Have a brilliant weekend!