‘Nothing. They’re still waiting for Dreary to wake up and tell them his version of events.’ Seraphine clocked the question in Dr Bloom’s raised eyebrows. ‘We call the caretaker Dreary Darren … because he is.’

‘Dreary Darren. Who came up with that?’

‘We did.’

‘You and your friends?’

Seraphine nodded.

‘Tell me about them.’

‘They’re … normal.’

‘Good normal or bad normal?’

Is there any such thing as good normal? ‘Just normal.’

‘Nice?’

‘Yeah.’ Why not?

‘Is Claudia part of the group?’

Bitch face. ‘Yes.’

‘And are you close to Claudia?’

‘We hang out in school.’

‘And out of school?’

‘A bit, but I like to do my own thing. Claudia and Ruby always want to do pyjama parties and each other’s make-up. It’s boring.’

‘So what do you like to do?’

‘Have fun.’

‘How?’

Seraphine shrugged. ‘Do stuff. Try stuff. Learn stuff.’

‘How do you compare to your friends? Let’s say on a scale of one to ten, with ten being high, how would you rate yourself?’

Ten. ‘Probably seven or eight.’

‘And your friends?’

‘Three.’ Apart from bitch face, who’d be minus three.

‘What makes you an eight?’

‘Well, I’m definitely smarter … I get much higher grades … and I think I’m prettier. I don’t need make-up, for instance. Plus they moan and cry and giggle over stupid stuff. Most of the time they talk nonsense.’

‘But you don’t?’

Seraphine shook her head. ‘I don’t see the point.’

‘Do you feel different, Seraphine?’

‘Different?’

‘To your friends and your family. Do you ever feel you have a better grasp of the world and how it works than those around you?’

Seraphine felt uncomfortable for the first time since she’d walked in. Had she made a mistake? Did other people not think themselves superior to their friends? Maybe she should have given them a seven or eight too. She said nothing.

‘My PhD focused on young people, teenagers much like yourself, who are in many respects outstanding. And I mean outstanding in both senses of the word: they have some superior abilities and attributes, but also they stand apart, like an evolutionary branch that has veered off in its own direction.’

Seraphine had suspected she was superior to her friends for quite a while. For example, she knew it was easy to get someone to do what you wanted if you went about it the right way. But her schoolmates didn’t seem to see that. But maybe, as the doctor said, that was because they weren’t as bright as her.

Dr Bloom’s light-brown eyes stared, as if peering directly at the thoughts in Seraphine’s head. ‘Do you often find you remain unemotional about things, Seraphine?’

Seraphine couldn’t work out if this was a trick question, so she stayed quiet.