I held out my hand and she passed me her phone. I entered my number into it and hit call so I had hers too.

‘What kind of music are you into?’ she asked.

I said, ‘A Tribe Called Quest are pretty cool.’ It was the only thing that came to mind. I wasn’t going to tell her about how much I loved Kanye. I didn’t think that would go down too well with Caroline.

‘Yeah, they’re kinda cool.’

‘What about you?’

‘Zepplin, the Doors and Hendrix.’

She must have seen my eyes glazing over because she explained, ‘You know, retro hard rock.’

I made a mental note to check them out later that night. I knew a bit about Hendrix. Dad was a fan. He’d told me how Hendrix was of African and American Indian descent.

‘The good thing about my brother Mitch is that he knows how to chuck a good party. You should come to one some time. By the way, are you coming to my place tomorrow night?’

‘Yeah, sounds fun,’ I said, wondering if kids from my new school actually knew how to chuck a good party. At Wattleside High, we’d mostly do something at someone’s place that had a pool. We’d all get together, put on some good music and have the best snacks. Then we’d watch a movie or something and stay up almost all night.

‘There’s the bell,’ Caroline said. ‘Till next time,’ she joked, pulling me up from the beanbag. ‘Oh, and you can sleepover if you like? Bring your sleeping bag and pillow.’

I walked through the heat with Caroline to our music class, feeling like I was entering the depths of hell. I was dreading singing in the soundproof room again, but especially having to sing in front of my classmates. I knew there’d come a day, a day before the big performance, when I had to. Even the thought of it made me want to be sick. It was like the feeling I had when I occasionally dreamed that I’d walked to school and then realised I wasn’t wearing anything.

Thankfully, this class was mostly based on theory, even though it was the most mind-bending thing ever. I only knew how to read a little bit of music. All the stuff about time signatures and things, that was all too much. Ingrid could see that I was struggling and said, ‘You will be tested in theory towards the end of the year, and you’re clever, Phoebe, you will catch up. You’ll also have the opportunity to complete a research project relating to music that you’re interested in, like a favourite artist, band or genre of music. Do you have a favourite artist?’

‘Do you know Baker Boy?’

She looked at me blankly. Obviously classical music was more her thing. And then she asked, ‘Have you thought about the song you want to perform on the music performance night?’

I stared back at Ingrid like she stared back at me when I asked her about Baker Boy. I knew she was trying to make music class enjoyable, but it really was a struggle. And then an idea came to me. ‘I’ll try singing an old song called “Time After Time”, by Cyndi Lauper.’ I knew the words to that song like the back of my hand. I used to sing it all the time with Mum; it’s her favourite. ‘You know it, right?’