‘You know, I don’t even like LeBron,’ I said, kicking my shoes off and letting them fall to the floor with a thud.

Caitlin threw what she was cutting into the blender and switched it on. I turned up the volume on the television and checked my phone again to see if Mum had replied.

When Caitlin sat on the floor and pulled the soles of her feet together, leaning forwards into some yoga stretch, her brown shoulder-length hair with strands of grey fell and covered her face. I couldn’t stand the sound of her exhaling like some weirdo and wished that she’d just dye her hair already.

Dad walked in from his study carrying his laptop. ‘Hey Phoebe, how was it?’

‘Fantastic,’ I replied, returning my focus to the TV.

He put his laptop and some papers on the bench. ‘How were Katie and Jane? They find this place okay?’

‘All good.’

‘See, we’re not so far away.’

‘Yeah, but it’s not home,’ I told him, turning off the television and going to my room.

‘Sweet dreams, Phoebe,’ Caitlin called out.

I wondered how I’d get any sleep if I didn’t hear from Mum. All I could think about was Mum being in jail, or at the hospital, and how my friends thought I was a loser.

I lay in bed and called Mum. She didn’t answer. Caitlin always turned off the wi-fi when Dad finished working but I had my own phone credit, so I went online anyway. There weren’t any messages from Mum on any of the apps we shared, only one from Katie.

What did she mean, ‘Thank you’?

A wave of hot pins and needles spread over my face and ran down my arms to my hands.

And then I heard Dad’s phone ring. I thought it might have been Mum, but he said, ‘Hello! Everything okay with Katie? Did she have a good time?’ It was one of Katie’s parents.

The hot pins and needles spread down my neck and into my stomach. My mouth was dry and my body felt weak.

‘Bronwyn had an accident? When?’ I heard Dad say. ‘Phoebe didn’t mention anything … Bronwyn drove off ?’ There was a pause and then, ‘What? A hit and run?’ Dad was struggling to keep his voice down and stay calm at this point. ‘Look, Phoebe really needs her friends right now, with all the changes she’s been going through. I’ll work something out so nothing like this happens again.’

I couldn’t believe Katie had told her parents. Katie, Jane and I had been best friends since starting primary school, and we’d always been the best players in our basketball team. Dad had told me our friendship would last forever, despite moving. I’d begged them not to move, but they said that moving down south and going to the new Steiner school would prepare me best for Year Twelve. I knew that really they wanted to get me as far away as possible from Mum. I’d only been living in this boring village for a month and Katie was already turning her back on me?