‘Do you mean that?’ I shout after him.

He turns and holds his hands out by his sides. ‘I don’t know, Felix,’ he says. ‘You’ve changed.’

I watch as he turns and walks across the square to his house. I feel bad that I haven’t seen much of him this week, but he did the same to me when his cousin Kyle came and stayed at his house last summer. I had no one to hang out with all week. I got so bored that I ended up asking Dad to take me to work with him, but I soon found out that watching someone fiddle with a boiler for hours is even more boring than staying at home.

Jake walks past his dad’s car. I wait for him to give me a thumbs up or pull a funny face like he sometimes does. But he just walks round the side of his house towards the back door.

I feel bad I didn’t go in the tree, but chess is more important to me now. I never thought I’d ever think that, but it is, and I like being good at something for once. It’s nice having people supporting me and believing in me and I don’t want to let any of them down.

I open my front door, then close it behind me. The theme music from Dragon’s Den plays in the sitting room. I slowly climb the stairs.

I hope Jake didn’t mean it when he said he hoped I’d lose. I might be seeing Rebecca loads, but he’s still my best friend.

Why Did Dad Do That?

It’s the night before the championship and I’m in bed with the rumble of the TV coming up through the floorboards. But that’s not what’s keeping me awake. I can’t sleep because my heart is racing like it’s Christmas Eve. It’s been like it for the last two days and it got worse today at school. Rebecca said it was okay, she was feeling like that too, which made me feel better for a while.

Mr Keytes called a meeting of chess club at lunchtime to give us a team talk. He told us we were exactly that, a team, and we should all support each other and work together. When one of us wins, we should all feel like we are winners. Rich puffed his chest out like Mr Keytes was talking about him specifically. Then Mr Keytes said the same applies when we lose, that we support each other. We are a team.