September came and with it the start of a new school year. As usual, Vendula hung out with her honorary  cousin Alice. The kinship, like their relationship, was defined by its very tenuity. The girls’ family ties  dated back to the golden days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire when Alice’s gr-gr-greatgrandad and  Vendula’s gr-gr-greatgrandad had been village idiots together, their combined intellect employed to keep  the geese off the village green. The girls’ relationship worked along similar lines.      In the mornings the girls walked to school together and in the afternoons they walked back home.  On the way Alice talked and Vendula listened. Frankly, it wasn’t much fun. Alice, a short fat lump  of a girl with a horsey face, was conceited and a bit of a bully. She constantly talked about herself; her  hair, her face, her make-up, the boys who liked her and the ones she liked, and she also talked about  her clothes. Vend...