“Don’t give me that… Everyone’s ganging up on me today… I know perfectly well that it was you who gave me the answer and that you made a mistake on purpose to cover it up…”

I crossed my arms to show I was serious, and then I crossed my legs too because I was in a panic.

“Why would I have done that? But let’s say I did. What’s the problem, since you got the highest mark in the class?”

I searched for words that would match the strength of my feeling. My eyes were drawn to the church’s weathervane, which kept changing direction. I was just thinking that meant a storm was on the way when all of a sudden Marie stood up. I followed close on her heels and trotted along behind her.

“Everyone knows I’ve turned over a new leaf. I’m the only one, except for you, who knows I didn’t do it on my own and that it’s been a complete con from beginning to end. Even Lucky Luke congratulated me, and I’m sure my father’s been told.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that I’m now going to disappoint everyone and I’m really stressed about it. It’s hopeless. I’ll never be able to do it again. As soon as we get the next test I’ll be back to the bottom of the class and I’ll be found out…”

“Unless…”

“Unless nothing. I’m going to stop you right there. Whatever you do, don’t suggest I cheat again… And by the way, that shows it was you who—”

“Let’s say. But I wasn’t going to suggest…”

She slowed down and I realized we’d got to her place. But there was no way I was going to let her slip through my fingers like that. I stood in front of the door to her house and crossed my arms again.

“So let’s be clear about this: was it or wasn’t it you?”

Her curly hair hid her face while she calmly looked for the keys in her bag.

“OK. It was me.”

Oddly, I couldn’t think of anything else to say. She was smiling at me, with her lips pressed together.

“And why did you do that? You see what you’ve got me into? It’s like starving people in Africa: if you give them a feast straight away, well, they croak pretty much pronto. It would have been better to take it more slowly with me as well.”

“I didn’t think of that. It’s not really my thing – cheating, I mean… Not thinking isn’t really my thing either.”

For a few seconds I thought about whether I ought to find this a good enough excuse or not. My head was pounding, as though an army was marching through it in formation.