‘Go through to the kitchen. I’ll join you there. Zoe, will you make the tea? There are biscuits.’

In the kitchen, Zoe moved around the room she knew so well as slowly as if she was underwater. She lifted the kettle, filled it under the tap, washed the teapot, measured out the tea leaves, each movement self-conscious. She felt a bubble of excitement; Stella and Tara, at ease, were chatting to Eva about how great the camping was, and how kind it had been of Eva, and soon they were making her laugh with a tale of the horrendous food at Ayrness High.

‘Of course, under the new regime Food Avoidance is totally taboo,’ Tara said. ‘So however bad the food is we’re stuck with it? In case it looks like we’re going anorexic which is what happens to schoolgirls where masculine culture is allowed to dominate? Over there, over the water, girls make themselves sick just because the porn-advertising-capitalist nexus has made them want to look different from how—’

‘How’s it all going at the school?’ asked Eva.

‘Mx Thompson has brought in some great new classes,’ said Tara.

‘What are your favourites?’

Stella and Tara listed them.

‘That’s marvellous,’ said Eva. ‘And the counselling?’

‘I love it,’ said Stella.

‘Is an hour’s session every term enough, though?’ Eva asked.

‘Just about,’ said Tara. ‘To establish the major themes of our personal epic.’

‘I’m glad,’ Eva said. ‘And are they helping you decide what to study at university? That’s important too, you know.’

Stella scowled. ‘I looked up English literature courses at all these mainland universities and it’s like, they’re totally obsessed with Shakespeare? Er, haven’t you noticed that unfortunately for the subsequent course of civilisation, he forgot to write good female parts? Mx Thompson says over there he’s seen as the pinnacle of Western art! I actually wept upon making this discovery.’ She flung her arms out. ‘O, womankind! O, twenty-first century!’

Eva laughed. ‘What’s Rowan Thompson like, as a teacher?’

‘I have counselling with them,’ Tara said. ‘We need to examine each day as it goes by, you know? And make sure we aren’t letting things happen that shouldn’t. The counselling is there to help us mediate that process.’

‘Eva,’ said Stella, ‘we know that you want to keep it all quiet. But just to let you know that we want to make some things really clear, in our own way. We feel like, we just can’t wait any longer.’

‘I know,’ Eva said. ‘But just be patient. Nobody’s going to want to hear that they’re in the wrong, are they? Hearing you talk like that makes me scared.’

‘So far it’s just the parents at school,’ said Stella. ‘Some of the dads don’t like it. Mx Thompson gets complaints.’

‘Collateral damage,’ said Tara, nonchalantly.