‘Everyone went home on their own. Though I imagine some might be back again later today.’

When Kokoro heard she hadn’t been left out, she breathed a sigh of relief. These were kids who did things on their own.

She should follow suit, she thought, and go back to her house, too. But there was nothing to do there. She considered starting a search for the key immediately, but didn’t like how greedy that might look. She really had no idea how serious the others were about it.

After a while, Kokoro reached her hands into her shining mirror. Slipping through the membrane of light, she glanced back briefly. The staircases were still there, but the Wolf Queen had vanished.

KOKORO DIDN’T VENTURE BACK THROUGH the mirror for a while.

She’d stand in front of it and bite her lip.

‘Should I?’ she whispered, rooted to the spot, an arm’s length away. Maybe she was being a coward, but after five o’clock, when the mirror stopped shining, a wave of relief swept through her. But she also realized she had a secret hope that someone – anyone – would invite her through.

Had the group got together again yet? If they had, then Kokoro would be an outsider. After the introductions, she thought she might make friends with a couple of them, but with each passing day, she felt less inclined to visit. This is exactly like not being able to go to school, she thought. And kind of like not feeling able to attend the alternative School her mother was so keen on.

But she couldn’t get that beautiful, comfortable room out of her mind.

She also liked the fact that no one in the group had mentioned that they were all refusing to go to school. She’d never joined one of those internet off-line get-togethers, but she got the sense this was similar, how none of them had gone into detail about themselves. They’d shared names, but that was it. No one had really said anything about who they were, or where they were from.

That made things easier, but the fact remained that she was feeling a slight hurt somewhere deep inside.

Only with kids who had gone through similar experiences could she really open up about what had happened, and how it made her feel. And now she’d gone and closed the door on that opportunity, and it was painful.

Even though they’d only met once, Kokoro felt an odd closeness to them all.

She stowed the bento and water bottle her mum had prepared for her into a tote bag, and took it upstairs. Then she changed into a clean set of clothes, gave her face a thorough wash, and stood before the shining mirror.

She began to feel a touch anxious. What if one of them had already found the key? She breathed a wish that no one had found it yet.