The dog kept whining, so eventually I got up and opened my door. He immediately trotted down the corridor and squeezed into Aiden’s bedroom. A few moments later, the door closed.

I felt like crying. And I also felt that somehow it was my own fault. The dog was learning things very quickly, and obviously Aiden had been teaching him loyalty. Not loyalty to us, but loyalty to Aiden. I found it hard to believe that he had left his bedroom door open out of carelessness. I’d been nice, letting Aiden have Z in his room all the time. Now I felt my generosity had been used against me. The trouble was, I didn’t know what to do about it. I couldn’t get resentful at the person who’d saved my life. That would make me a total bitch. So I went back to my bedroom, picked up my book and tried to pretend I wasn’t hurting.

I’d only been thirteen a few days, but in that time, my brother was getting weird, probably because of hormones that were almost certainly heading my way, my mum was halfway round the planet, my dad was unhappy looking after us, maybe resenting us, and my dog didn’t like me. Okay, maybe he did like me, but not nearly as much as he liked Aiden. And my best friend was a know-it-all who tried to make me feel stupid. Who did make me feel stupid.

It was self-pity. I knew that. But sometimes a bit of self-pity can be just what you need. So I sobbed myself to sleep at the injustice of how the world treated Ashleigh Delatour and in the morning I felt loads better.

10

10

‘I’m going over the fence at lunchtime,’ said Aiden.

‘You’re doing what?’

‘I want to talk to Xena. Are you coming with me?’

‘You’re nuts, Aiden. Of course I’m not coming with you. Have you forgotten the trouble we got into last time? Get caught again and Mum and Dad’ll kill us.’

‘They won’t kill us.’

‘No, they won’t kill us. They’ll just make us wish they had. It’s crazy, Aiden. Don’t do it.’

‘Hey, that’s fine if you want to stay, Ash. Probably better, really. If I get caught, then it’ll only be me in trouble.’

‘You’re not going.’

‘I am.’

‘What makes you think she’d even be there? Just because she was at that park once at lunchtime, doesn’t mean she’s there every lunchtime. You need to grow up.’

‘Yeah, well. Only one way to find out.’

‘I forbid it.’ I thought about crossing my arms, like Mum does when she’s being particularly fierce, but I wouldn’t have been able to take myself seriously.

‘Good luck with that,’ said Aiden.

‘I’ll tell Mr Meredith.’

‘No, you won’t.’