‘Come and join the circle,’ Michael said. I felt like running the hell out of the room, but knew it was pointless. So I sat down and gazed around the class. Everyone was smiling at me. It was weird.

‘Welcome to our new school year, and a special welcome to Phoebe,’ Michael continued. ‘We’re all looking forward to getting to know you. Today we’re spending the whole day together and the activities we’ll be working through are these.’ He pointed at the board.

1. Group acquaintance activity

2. Sharing stories about individual interests

3. Establishing the learning space

4. Major annual events

For the group acquaintance activity, Michael paired me up with a dark-haired girl called Ashley. ‘Okay, I’m going to give you all ten minutes,’ he explained. ‘Five minutes each to tell your partner some of the things you did over the holidays, and then I want you to share with the class the things your partner told you. Oh, and there’s one rule: you can’t take any written notes. You need to listen and recall.’

By the look of Ashley’s hair, I thought she might tell me about spending the entire holidays learning to braid it. It was really cool. Unfortunately, she had a whole list of things to tell me, like how she walked every morning with her grandma, and learned to make the best chocolate cupcakes. Her boring list went on and on. She had nothing to say about interesting things like playing basketball or going shopping.

Finally, our ten minutes were up. Michael asked, ‘Who would like to recount their partner’s story first?’ Although I was nervous, public speaking is my thing. Mum always says that you need to know how to pitch, and I didn’t want to get around to it being my turn and forgetting the hundred and one boring things Ashley did during the summer. So I said, ‘We’ll go first.’

Michael smiled at me. ‘All right.’

I spat out the list of Ashley’s boring things as quickly and clearly as I could. Thank god that’s over.

And then Ashley started to share with the class the things that I’d told her. She sat cross-legged on the ground and slouched over, sometimes staring up to the roof as she tried to recall all of the things that I’d said.

Everyone listened as Ashley told them about me moving in to the new house with my dad and Caitlin, going to the 36ers game, my mum taking me shopping and lying in bed with her on the weekend and watching movies.

When Ashley finished I realised that I didn’t even tell her how I played basketball with my friends.

‘Thank you,’ Michael said and then we moved on to two girls named Matilda and Hayley. I found out that Hayley was actually into sport; it seemed like she’d participated in almost every Olympic sport over the summer including skateboarding and surfing. Matilda partied with her brother’s friends and hung out with Caroline, another girl in our class who must have thought she was living in the seventies, judging by her outfit.