I put two pieces of bread into the toaster and checked the peanut-butter jar. There was just enough, and I went to the list stuck on the fridge and wrote PB on it. I’d been doing most of the shopping and general admin while Sasha was busy with Raffy, and that had been fine. Now that I had college I was going to have to be a bit more organized about it all, but it was definitely easier than being the one in charge of the baby.

I heard footsteps on the stairs, and turned to see Sasha in the kitchen doorway looking sleepy. I rushed over and took Raffy from her arms.

‘Hello, Raff,’ I said, and he looked at me with his serious face. Raffy had been born perfectly himself. He had thick black hair and huge dark-brown eyes, and when he smiled (a recent development) it was a wide cartoony smile that took up his whole face. It was Mum’s smile. He carried her inside him.

He stared at me for a few seconds, then bestowed his huge grin upon me.

‘Thanks,’ said Sasha, stumbling towards the kettle, yawning.

‘How was he last night?’

‘Shit. One day he’ll be a teenager and he’ll be sleeping all morning and I won’t be able to get him out of bed. Imagine.’

‘You will,’ I said to Raffy. ‘You’ll sleep all morning and Mum will be saying, “You treat this place like a hotel,” and all those things.’

‘Oh Christ, Arry!’ said Sasha, looking at my bag. ‘It’s your first day! Good luck. Have you got everything you need?’

‘Everything. And lots of things I don’t. And loads of time before I have to go.’

‘You show them. I mean, I know you will. You showed the world what Ariel Brown can do with your exam results, so of course you’ll show them now.’ She paused. ‘I’m not sure who they are, but anyway. The whole of the world outside this house, I guess.’

‘I’ll do my best to show them,’ I said. Sasha was right: although I hadn’t quite got all nines as I’d hoped, my results were close enough, and I was extremely proud of them. It had all come together at the last minute solely thanks to Joe knowing what was good for me better than I knew myself.

Maybe I would go and visit him later.

Raffy went purple in the face and started huffing dramatically. I laughed at him.

‘Are you doing a poo?’ I said as an unmistakable smell filled the room. ‘Don’t worry, Sash. I’ll change him.’

‘You are an angel. Coffee?’

‘Got one, thanks.’

‘Can I have a piece of your toast?’

‘Have both. Just put another one on for me, yeah?’

‘Sure.’