Perhaps Becca picks up on Katherine’s silent prayer because she turns back to face her. ‘Well at least they’re girls,’ she says, smiling warmly. ‘And younger. I bet they worship you.’

Katherine pictures her little sisters, the way their eyes dart to the door when she tries to make conversation. ‘Yes, they do,’ she lies. ‘They’re very sweet.’

Becca sighs. ‘I love little kids. I would offer to baby-sit for them, but I suppose your mum and stepdad have you for that.’

Becca hasn’t called them her parents, Katherine realises; she knows to make that distinction. ‘You could come over anyway, help me baby-sit?’ The words are out before Katherine can stop them. She blinks as the stupidity of the suggestion ricochets around her brain.

‘What? Um, okay, maybe.’ Becca looks confused, weirded out, and Katherine silently screams at herself. Why did she say that? Of course Becca wouldn’t want to visit her house on those terms. But then, miraculously, Becca’s face breaks into another smile. ‘You know what, that sounds fun.’ Then she points to her headphones. ‘Listen, do you mind if I plug back in? I’m obsessed with Nina Simone at the moment.’ She gives Katherine a sheepish look, then slips the noise-cancelling headphones back over her ears and tilts her head towards the window again.

Katherine slips her hand back into her bag and strokes the thin piece of paper inside. When the words tumbled out with her mum on Friday night, she even surprised herself. She’s never used the label girlfriend for Becca. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. This is why her heart races, and her belly twists, every time she gets a glimpse of Becca across the playground. And maybe, hopefully, why Becca always has a smile for her. And now the idea of it being just the two of them makes her feel happier than she’d ever have thought possible.

Even her mum seems to like her more. On Saturday morning she suggested they go shopping together, and as they browsed the album charts in Woolworths (and Katherine tried not to ogle the pic’n’mix), her mum had asked lots of questions about Katherine’s new girlfriend. The more she and her mum chatted, the better they got on. And the more excited Katherine became at the thought of being Becca’s girlfriend. After that, writing a letter had felt like the natural next step. And now here they are, sitting together like it was written in the stars.