I smile at the caretaker as he unplugs the floor cleaner. I smile at Miss Lewes standing at the photocopier and I smile at Mrs Ewens as I walk past the Student Support Office.

‘Good to see someone’s happy.’

‘I am.’

‘Let’s hope it lasts,’ she says as she closes the Isolation Room door. I smile at James King, sitting inside.

I am the school champion. I’m the school chess champion. Nothing else matters. I’m the school chess champion and I love it – fist-bump me, high-five me, pat me on the back – I’m Felix Schopp, school chess champion.

I’m three metres tall.

My shoulders are a metre wide.

And I’m walking on air.

I’m—

‘Felix, can you stop bouncing up and down like that? You look dopey.’

‘Like what?’

‘This!’ Jake hitches his trousers up and takes giant loopy strides like he’s walking on the moon. ‘Going up on tiptoe makes you look like you’re wearing ankle bashers!’

‘I do not!’

‘You do! You look like that skinny kid in Year Eight. But it’s okay. You’re the school chess champion!’

Yes, I’m the school chess champion. Jake wraps his arm around my shoulder as we walk into our form class. Mrs Drew looks up from her computer.

‘As usual, the last ones in,’ she sighs.

Jake bounces over to her like it’s him who won.

‘Jake, sit down. We’ve got a lot to get through.’

‘But Felix is the school chess champion, miss.’

‘Is this true, Felix?’

‘Yes, miss,’ I say. ‘I won after school last night.’

‘Well, well done if that’s the case.’

‘There were only six in it,’ says Jake. ‘But, still, he did win.’

I sit down at my desk and look across the room to Rebecca. We exchange smiles. I don’t care that there were only six of us in it. I’m the school chess champion. This is one of the best days of my life and nothing is going to spoil it.

Tug of War

‘You were brilliant.’

‘What?’

‘You heard. You were brilliant. I’ll never forget Rich’s face when you got him checkmate. It was like, Oh!’ She opens her mouth and makes her eyes wide.

‘Wish I’d seen it,’ says Jake.

‘It was amazing,’ I say.

‘Yeah, like he’d fallen down a drain,’ says Rebecca.

We all burst out laughing. Miss Elliott tells us to be quiet, but we don’t take any notice because we’re in PSHE and no one listens in PSHE, not even Rebecca.

‘So are you going to play in the Inter-Schools Championship?’ she asks.

‘I don’t know.’

‘But you’ve got to. It’s great; me, Chris and Rich have been selected too, and we get to play schools from all over the county.’