‘I get carsick in the back,’ Mel said, but in such a way that it was obviously a lie.

‘I don’t care if I ride in the back,’ Charlie said, popping the door open.

As Charlie settled into the back, pushing beer cans, a deflated football and greasy KFC packaging out of the way, Mel leaned across the front passenger seat and gave Brad a short, noisy kiss, followed by a hands-off-he’s-mine glance at Charlie.

Charlie felt a touch of jealousy, but also relief. She had a whole new life to sort and Brad the friend was a simpler proposition than Brad the potential boyfriend.

‘So who you fighting today, Tiger?’ Mel asked as they set off. And now she’d marked her territory, she looked back at Charlie and smiled. ‘This goof has been in so many fights they’re sending him to anger management.’

‘They made me do that at White Boulder,’ Charlie said.

‘Did it help?’ Brad asked, sounding like he wanted it to.

‘I guess,’ Charlie said. ‘They give you techniques to put the current situation in perspective. So, if you’re about to kick off, they tell you to stop for three seconds and imagine yourself in the future. Then ask yourself if the consequences of what you’re about to do are worth it.’

‘Hope the other dude doesn’t knock your ass out while you stand there gawping,’ Mel said sourly. ‘When I lose my shit, ain’t nothing gonna stop me.’

‘I don’t like backing down,’ Brad admitted. ‘But at least I don’t blow my enemies up.’

Charlie knew she was being teased, but Mel and Brad were facing the wrong way to catch her wounded expression. When Mel did look round, she’d cracked a big smile.

‘You’re that girl?’ Mel asked admiringly. ‘Bombed the quarterback, over at Rock Spring. That was some dark behaviour! How’d they let you out so fast?’

‘She’s a white girl with sweet blue eyes who blew up a big ugly black dude,’ Brad said. ‘Now, if that was the other way round …’

Charlie resented the implication that she’d got off light, when all she’d actually done wrong was not disposing of explosives she’d made when she was eleven. But that was a big can of worms to open, so she stared out of the window until Betsy came to a smoky halt in the parking lot of Clayton Street High.

They were parked between a Mercedes and a Lexus convertible, and Charlie noted plenty more expensive metal and kids dressed in designer everything, as Mel made another big show, hugging Brad.

‘I guess I’ll go find the office,’ Charlie said, backing away. ‘I have to register.’

‘I’ll roll with you,’ Brad said. ‘Gotta do my post-suspension interview with the vice principal. The office you need is right next door.’