clem. you are sixteen and i am, technically, four months older than you and i have therefore (as established in year 8) been in charge of the friendship since 2021. i would like to officially hand over the running of the friendship on your birthday. you have, in the last year, done all of the actual work of it anyway — you texted me first when my dad was in hospital, you walked the long way home from school for three weeks in november when i didn't want to be alone, and you made me a small lemon drizzle on the saturday after the worst week. that is, by some margin, the most that anyone has ever done for me. happy birthday, my friend. the cake is yours. the kitchen is yours. and the friendship is, as of today, also yours. — pip xx
