Maisie got a new bike.
It was bright purple with a silver bell and streamers on the handles, and Scarlett saw it leaning against the fence at school and felt something twist in her stomach.
It wasn’t a nice feeling.
It sat there all through lunch. All through the walk home.
By the time she got to her front door, the feeling had grown a voice.
Why does Maisie get everything. It’s not fair. I want a bike like that.
Scarlett didn’t say any of this out loud. She just felt grumpy and snappy, and when her mum asked what was wrong, she said “nothing” in a voice that very clearly meant something.
That evening, Lenny found her sitting on her bed, arms crossed.
“You seem prickly,” he said, sitting down beside her.
“I’m fine,” said Scarlett, in the same not-fine voice.
Lenny waited. He was good at waiting.
Eventually Scarlett sighed. “Maisie got a new bike. Purple. With streamers. It’s not fair.”
“Ah,” said Lenny. “That feeling has a name, you know.”
“What feeling?”
“The twisty one. The one that makes you want what someone else has, and feel a bit funny about them having it.”
Scarlett thought about the twist in her stomach. “Is it a bad feeling? Like I’m a bad friend for having it?”
“No,” said Lenny. “It’s called jealousy. And almost everyone feels it sometimes. Even grown-ups. Even me.”
“You?”
“I once felt very jealous of a lion who had a much shinier mane than mine,” said Lenny solemnly.
Scarlett almost laughed.
“The feeling itself isn’t the problem,” Lenny continued. “It’s just your brain noticing something you’d like too. The question is what you do with it.”
“What do I do with it?”
“You could let it make you snappy with Maisie, who didn’t do anything wrong by getting a bike. Or,” Lenny tilted his head, “you could notice it, let it be there for a moment, and then ask yourself what you actually want.”
Scarlett thought hard. “I want a bike. Not Maisie’s bike. Just... a bike.”
“That’s a very honest thing to know,” said Lenny.
The next day at school, Scarlett saw Maisie ringing her new bell, streamers flying.
The twist was still there, just a little.
But this time, Scarlett took a breath and said, “Your bike is really cool, Maisie.”
And she meant it.
🫶 Dream big dreams.