I have to be honest. If there’s one thing that Aiden is better at than me, it’s swimming. He can go the whole length of the pool underwater and when he’s really trying he can crush me at freestyle. I know this because I watched him once when he didn’t know I was around and he was part-dolphin. There’s no way I could come close to him. But when we have races, he always lets me win. By a little bit, as if he was really trying but just came up short. Sometimes I like that and sometimes it annoys me. Today we only did a few laps of lazy breaststroke.

‘What did you think of school, Aiden?’ I asked.

He shrugged and brushed wet hair from his face.

‘It’s okay,’ he replied. ‘I think Mr Meredith might be nice. You know, Ashleigh? Really nice.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Silly in a way grown-ups normally aren’t.’

‘He likes his students.’

‘That’s what Charlotte said.’

‘Is Charlotte going to be your friend?’

This time I shrugged.

‘Maybe. It’s early days.’

Suddenly, I didn’t feel like talking, so I bobbed about on the edge of the pool and watched, through tinted windows, the hills in the distance. They were purple, patched with green and cottoned by heat haze. The early evening air swam. Aiden did laps, left me to my thoughts.

Dad quizzed us about school over dinner. The frittata was delicious and the chips were crisp and crunchy, so I ate them one nibble at a time, savouring their earthiness. I’d pulled those potatoes from the ground myself. Aiden left most of the talking to me, as always.

‘Well,’ said Dad. ‘I’m glad the first day went well. The school has a great reputation and it wasn’t easy to get you enrolled.’

I knew that. The fees were huge, though Mum and Dad could afford them. But they didn’t take just anyone. I have no idea how difficult it was to get the school to accept us, but Mum and Dad had interview after interview, as well as dishing out plenty of money. When we lived in Queensland, we’d started with School of the Air tuition because the place we lived in was pretty much cut off from civilisation. Since moving to Sydney, though, we’d had tutors come to the house and that was okay in a way, but not okay in another way. I wanted to make friends with other girls and although Mum and Dad told me I was lucky I had a friend in my twin brother – and that plenty of people would be very envious of us for that – I made it clear that it wasn’t enough. I love my brother, yeah. But he’s not a friend. He’s not someone I can share … well, girl things with. Obviously. This school will change all that. I think Charlotte will become a friend, but maybe others as well. It was my first day after all and I’d made a terrific start in the friends department.