People shouldn’t be able to get away with this!

After all, this affects Cameron too. I look across to see him staring at his phone with yesterday’s worried look spread across his face. I should probably go and talk to him, but then the front doors open and the teachers step out, ready for Harrington’s eighteen-hour speech.

Great, I think. As if listening to this once wasn’t enough …

After it’s over, we file into the hall through the candlelit corridor, and I peer up into the rafters to see if I can spot the bucket. If you look really carefully, you can just about see it hanging up there in the darkness. I point it out to my friends as we walk in. Chase is safe for now. Even Tiffany wouldn’t be so stupid as to pig’s-blood everyone.

‘Are you OK?’ I say when I finally get a moment with Cameron.

‘It’s just these comments …’ he says, scrolling through Instagram to show me.

‘I know it’s easier said than done,’ I say, ‘but you really should try to ignore them.’

‘I know,’ he says. ‘I just hate that everyone thinks they have the right to compare us. I don’t know why I ever agreed to do the whole yin and yang thing.’ He pulls on his jacket as if it makes him itch. ‘I honestly wish I could go upstairs and change.’

‘You mean you have a spare outfit?’ I ask.

‘Course,’ he says. ‘But Ethan didn’t wanna do silver and gold. He said the colours weren’t right for Instagram. Said we needed something more muted …’

‘Silver and gold?’ I say, my heart beating faster. ‘Which one was yours?’

‘I don’t know. Ethan ordered them. Does it matter?’

‘I suppose not,’ I say, even though it really does. Maybe it was Cameron who kissed me after all? Maybe he got sick of matching with Ethan and did go upstairs to change?

‘Sorry,’ he finally says. ‘I feel like I’m being a bit of a downer.’

‘You’re not,’ I say, meeting his eyes for a moment.

‘It’s just annoying,’ he says. ‘I had other plans for this evening. A little prom-night romance, maybe. I was kinda hoping I could talk to you about that actually …’

‘You were?’

‘Yeah.’ He swallows hard and looks away. ‘Though maybe I need a little bit of liquid encouragement first.’ He glances over at the punchbowl. ‘A few drinks and I’ll be back.’

I want to stop him and tell him that he can talk to me right now, but we’ve got the whole night ahead of us. There really is no rush. I’m sure he just needs a little bit longer to open up. To change out of what he’s wearing and put on that gold suit …