Today, there was nothing moving in the town apart from the sheep and gently bobbing boats. All was quiet. Kate gave a loud sigh. ‘Which is your favourite house, Martha?’ she asked. ‘Mine is that white one.’ She pointed to a house just below the cliffs. ‘Can’t you just imagine how lovely it would be to live in it? You could grow flowers in the front garden and you could hang your washing out on the line and sit on the sofa in the evenings.’

‘Yes. And also you could shut the doors and windows if it was cold or started to rain.’ I felt these were more important points, and definitely something I’d be interested in when looking for somewhere to live.

‘Have you two losers finished your maths yet?’ asked Lana. ‘Because you’re really distracting me if you haven’t.’

‘Yes,’ I said, but quietly again so that Dr Jones didn’t hear me and set me some more.

‘What’s that last number?’

‘It’s an 8, I think,’ I said. But it wasn’t very easy to see. One of the problems with using fish blood for ink, and plastic bags for paper, is that the ink fades quickly when it dries. That means in really stormy weather we don’t have to do anything that involves reading or writing, because fish blood also gets washed away pretty easily.

‘I’m going to say it’s a 10,’ said Lana. ‘That makes the sum much easier.’

‘I’m with you,’ said James. ‘It’s definitely a 10, or it will be if at least two of us argue that it is. And I think I’d like crisps when we get off the Jellyfish. Cheese and onion! They were great.’

‘I don’t think things that come in packets are OK to eat any more,’ said Kate. ‘I think it’s only things you can grow.’

‘Crisps will be a priority for my new civilisation.’ James sat back, arms folded across his stomach. ‘When I’m king of the new world, I will find all the crisp factories and I will open them again.’

‘James,’ I whispered. ‘Sit back and pretend to work. You’ll never be king if you’re that stupid.’

‘What?’ he said.

‘Ah, James,’ called Dr Jones. ‘You’ve finished. Lovely. Let me just check your answers so that we can move on to your extension work. After that, we’ve got English.’

‘What scintillating tasks have you got for us this morning, Dr Jones?’ said James.

‘Well that’s a lovely adventurous adjective you’ve just used there.’

‘Wasn’t it?’ James gave a smug smile at the rest of us, sitting back again with his arms folded. Lana rolled her eyes and picked up her fishbone quill again, writing deliberately. Both me and Kate also bowed our heads as though deep in thought. I kept my pen poised over the plastic in case Dr Jones looked at me.