Y has never registered her Oyster card – even though it makes claiming back her work receipts a PITA – because she doesn’t trust the government. It’s a total waste of time, because the government can already track her via her smartphone, but she doesn’t realize that. (The other reason it’s a waste of time is that she’s not as interesting as she thinks she is.)

J, who trusts the government even less, doesn’t have an Oyster card. He pays through the nose for his privacy, and he can’t use the buses. Mostly he cycles. In the new year the cash option is being taken away from the Underground, so he won’t be able to use that either. Ah well – it’s not like he has to be anywhere.

Z leaves his main phone at home and takes the second handset, with the battery and SIM card removed and taped to the housing. He pulls up his hood.

On her way to the tills M passes a young man still wearing his green lanyard over his sweater. She nods at it and he takes it off, stuffing it into his bag.

L goes through her bank statement while she’s waiting, and thinks about cancelling her union subs – there is less pressure to belong these days, and she has never made use of them, can’t see any reason why she would. She just has to get around to telling payroll, because she pays by automatic check-off.

Z also pays by automatic check-off. He has no problem with his employers knowing he is a member of the union. Indeed, it would be rather dim-witted of them not to notice.

At M’s workplace it’s mandatory to disclose union membership. And after all, it’s not like they couldn’t find out, ha ha.

The first parents arrive and L welcomes them.

At the meeting Z runs into H, whom he hasn’t seen all summer. Busy, she says. But less busy now. They sit together.

M’s tennis coach asks what she does for a living. Oh god, boring desk-monkey stuff, she says. I wish I had a talent, like you.

At L’s information evening one of the mothers asks for more books featuring non-whites. Well, what she actually says is, Hey – 1978 called. It wants its reading scheme back. And: These are so white they make my eyes hurt.

Her words, and the views they express, tick a couple of the boxes on L’s PREVENT checklist. This is a relief, because it means that at last L can fill out a profile form and lodge it with SLT, who will pass it to CHANNEL and perhaps to AVERT.

Which means that she’s being vigilant, that she’s on-task, that she’s keen, she’s aligned (being aligned is one of the conditions for performance-related pay).