There was silence on the end of the phone. And then Caroline said, ‘What he did to us.’

‘It was you?’

‘Yeah, he did a similar thing to me.’

‘When?’

‘Last year. He was forcing himself on me and luckily I was able to push him away. I screamed at him that if he ever did it again, I’d post a scrawny dick pic on IG and say that he’d sent it to me.’

‘Ha! That’s kind of hilarious,’ I said.

‘I know, but obviously he hasn’t learned his lesson. And he’s still always at my place.’

‘How are we going to do this?’

‘His mum is always working at the cafe. Let’s go there tomorrow after school.’

‘You won’t change your mind, will you?’ I said, suddenly nervous.

‘Not if you don’t change yours,’ Caroline said.

‘Deal,’ I said.

‘Thanks,’ Caroline said. ‘I’ll see you at school tomorrow.’

Later that night, Katie and Jane both called to check-in, to see if I was all right and whether I’d heard how Mum was. Apart from the voicemail from Nana, I hadn’t heard a thing, but I told them I was fine, even if I was shaking in my boots about speaking to Trent’s mum.

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 16

When I woke the next morning and walked into the kitchen to get some water, Caitlin said, ‘Why don’t you take the day off of school?’

‘My Patty Mills presentation is today and I’ve done stacks of prep,’ I told her. There was no way I was missing out on delivering some good work for once.

Caitlin held me by the shoulders, looked me in the eye and asked, ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ I assured her, feeling guilty again about faking my headache.

My main problem was that Dad and Caitlin had let me sleep-in so I had to rush to get to school. It wasn’t until I was halfway there that I realised how cold it was today, unusually for April. For some reason I had thrown on shorts when I got ready and now I was freezing. I thought about turning back and changing into something warmer, but there was no way I was going to be late for my presentation.

Everyone was singing ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley when I walked into morning circle. It was a little warmer in the hall, but I still had to cross my arms in an effort to keep warm as I tried singing along through my clenched jaw.

The lyrics of ‘Three Little Birds’ helped me to calm down a little. But realising I was relaxing, I told myself, Don’t relax, you know what happens when you relax. I thought about the good time I was having at Katie’s before Mum brought her chaos. I remembered her make-up streaming down her face, the blood from her lip dripping onto the pavers.