Project Best Friend by Chrissie Perry

Penelope Kingston wanted to be perfect. And most of the time she was good, sensible and calm. But nobody is perfect. Sometimes Penelope was bossy, angry and frustrated. It was like (and this is very weird) there were two Penelopes inside her. She was never sure which one was going to be stronger on any given day.
    So even though she knew she wasn’t perfect, Penelope tried hard to be excellent at most things. After all, excellence was very nearly perfection.
    Penelope sat on her carefully made bed in her very neat bedroom. She liked everything to be just so. It made her feel a bit panicky when her room was messy.
    She liked all her old teddies to be facing the same direction – towards the window, where she secretly thought they enjoyed the view. She liked her pens and pencils (sharpened, of course) to be nice and straight, nibs up, in her favourite mug.
    Her books were currently organised by size, but last month she had arranged them by colour. It all depended on her mood.
    Once, Penelope had even arranged them from her most favourite to her least favourite. This had been quite difficult, though When We Were Very Young was absolutely and obviously number one and Robot Spies was absolutely and obviously last.
    The rest of the house was usually too chaotic for Penelope’s liking. Her bedroom was where she could feel calm and happy.
    Penelope picked up her iPhone and cradled it in her hand. She loved her phone so much – more than she thought she probably should. She scrolled across to the camera function, chose video and hit ‘record’, filming herself at arm’s length.
    ‘Hi!’ she began, rather breathlessly. ‘I’m Penelope Kingston and this is my bedroom!’
    She reversed the focus of the camera and started to scan her room. She filmed the award certificates that were pinned up on her wall in perfect rows and then chose two to zoom in on. The first was a very special award called ‘The Watchful Eye’. Penelope had received it for taking good care of a year one girl who had fallen over in the playground. Mr Joseph had been on yard duty that day, but Penelope was the one who had spotted the emergency. She had taken the girl to the sick bay and even stayed to keep checking her bandages way after the nurse had said she could leave (though unfortunately all that information was not written on Penelope’s actual award). The second was an award for punctuality – Penelope had a perfect record for being on time to class.
    Every Friday at assembly, Penelope’s school held an awards ceremony. Over the years, Penelope had earned thirty-six awards. (The next biggest award winner was Alison Cromwell, who only had twenty-one.) Of course, only some of the awards were on the wall. The rest were filed away in a special box with a lock and key, along with other important documents like Penelope’s birth certificate.
    Penelope had decided that a video of her room would be the perfect introduction for the new girl. From the moment Ms Pike had announced that a new girl would be joining their class that week – and that her name was Brittany O’Brien – Penelope just knew that her life was about to change. Soon, everything would be perfect.
    For starters, Brittany O’Brien was an elegant name, just like Penelope Kingston. Anyone with a name like Brittany O’Brien would most likely be aiming for excellence.
    Secondly, it was absolutely time Penelope had a best friend. Everyone else in her class had one.
    Whenever they had to get into pairs for activities or excursions, Penelope never knew who she would be paired with. And although she loved Ms Pike, she knew that being partners with the teacher meant that she was the odd one out.

    She filmed her bookshelf, careful to show how neatly her books were ordered.
    Next was the stand of jewellery she’d made, which Penelope sold at a street stall she held in front of her house each month.
    Then she passed over a photo of her little half-sister Sienna wearing a tiara, absolutely the