‘I asked if Xena was around. He told me to go away, though those weren’t his exact words. I politely declined. He tried to make me. I stopped him.’ Aiden examined the scrapes on his knuckles. ‘When all of that was done, I asked him to pass on a message to Xena. That message being that I wanted to talk to her and would appreciate it if she turned up tomorrow at approximately four in the afternoon.’

‘And what did Ziggy say?’

‘He didn’t say anything. He spat out a tooth and left.’

The sound of the afternoon song called us to class and we both turned towards the building.

‘She won’t turn up, you know,’ I said.

‘Oh, I think she will,’ said Aiden.

‘Why should she? Because you reckon she’s got the hots for you?’

Aiden laughed.

‘Well, probably. She’s only human. But no, Ash. She’ll turn up because I said I’d pay her to. In solid gold, actually.’

That stopped me in my tracks.

‘You don’t have any gold, Aiden,’ I pointed out.

He turned to face me. ‘True,’ he said. ‘But Mum and Dad do. Loads of it, in jewellery boxes all over the house.’

‘And what? You think they’ll just give some to you?’

‘Nah,’ he said. ‘Unlikely. So I’m going to have to steal it.’

I spent the rest of the school day in a mental fog, so much so that Mr Meredith got quite stern with me, which was a first. But I couldn’t get my brother’s words out of my head. He was going to steal from Mum and Dad? That had to be a joke, right? This wasn’t like Aiden at all. A thief? Someone who gets into fights (and for the first time not to protect me)? Mr Meredith asked him how he got the cut over his eye and Aiden said he’d slipped in the playground. He said it without hesitation and with complete sincerity. I was tempted to believe him and I knew it wasn’t true. Could all of this be put down to puberty? I wasn’t going to ask Charlotte and risk another lecture, but I supposed it was possible.

Nonetheless, it made me scared. Not just because I wasn’t sure I liked what Aiden was turning into; I was worried I’d be undergoing that change myself. Maybe it had already started.

I didn’t want to become a liar and a thief. I was pretty sure I’d be rubbish at fighting.

Dad sent the car for us, so I was able to grill Aiden some more on the way home. I decided not to talk about stealing – I’d convinced myself that he was joking about that, trying to wind me up. But one thing he’d said had stuck with me.

‘Why four o’clock, Aiden?’

‘Huh?’