I shut up.

That night I let Aiden hold my hand and later I dreamed of camp fires and toasting marshmallows and horseriding and kayak rides through white water. I was smiling as I slept. I know because when I woke up to a morning charged with thunderclouds my face was aching.

5

The tablet-free week dragged on, but it eventually ended.

The first thing I did was look up Xena on the internet. The only reference was to a very old television show about a warrior princess and I guessed the girl in the park had chosen the name for that reason. She was in charge of her group and, judging by the way she put that boy down – what was his name again? Ziggy? – then she was also a warrior and everyone was scared of her. But that’s where the resemblance ended. The pictures of the actor from the television show showed someone with long dark hair and a short leather skirt. It was a strange outfit for a warrior who, you’d think, would want to protect her flesh rather than exposing it. Still …

Charlotte was allowed to come for a sleepover on the following Friday night, which was brilliant. Mum and Dad said I couldn’t go to her place because I still couldn’t be trusted, but I didn’t really want to go to hers anyway. I wanted Charlotte to see our house. I showed her round and watched the way her eyes grew bigger as we went from room to room. We finished with a swim, just the two of us. Aiden kept right out of the way. Charlotte wasn’t a very good swimmer – it was difficult to get much practice if you didn’t own your own pool – so I was able to impress her with my skill.

After dinner, where Dad really showed off by doing a fruit pavlova for dessert, using eggs that Kentucky had laid only that morning and oranges from the tree in the garden, we picked some books from the library and went to bed early. Dad had changed Aiden’s sheets (he was going to be sleeping in one of the guest rooms) and Charlotte and I lay and talked. We were never going to do much reading. One of the best things was that I knew Charlotte would be talking about my house to all the other girls in the class on Monday. It wouldn’t surprise me if everyone wanted to be my friend … I mean, who wouldn’t want to go swimming in a temperature-controlled pool and not have to share it with anyone except me? I’d have to be very careful about who I chose to be a friend. I didn’t want girls who were shallow and just going to use me.

We talked about boys. I was shocked to find Charlotte had a crush on Daniel, the boy who’d asked Aiden a question during the oral presentation. He didn’t seem very smart to me.