Caitlin was standing on her head in the living room when I walked into the house. She had a flash new speaker positioned in the centre of the room and was playing some weird music that seemed to mostly consist of whale songs and flute.

I saw her eyes open and I whispered, ‘Sorry,’ as I snuck past into my bedroom. I lay back on my bed and again, I found myself thinking about Trent. This is interesting, I thought.

I needed advice, so I messaged Jane and Katie:

Almost immediately, they both responded.

I knew there was a smile spread right across my face.

I’d asked one question about boys and I was already confused.

There was no way I was missing my next basketball training session. I was keen to check Trent out again, but I wasn’t going to flirt. I didn’t know where to start with that, even if I wanted to.

When I stepped back into the living room after my shower, Caitlin was standing at the kitchen bench preparing dinner.

‘Do you want to help?’ she asked.

‘Sure,’ I said without argument. ‘What are we having?’

‘Fish and salad.’

‘What can I do?’

‘How about you do some coleslaw to start with?’

That was easy enough. I only needed to roughly cut some cabbage and onion, and chuck it into the Thermomix food thingy with some mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and hit ‘go’.

While I was cutting up the ingredients, I realised that I was struggling to keep the smile off my face. I was thinking about how good Trent looked, again.

‘So basketball training went well?’ Caitlin asked, giving me a light tap on my shoulder.

I tried to think of something to tell Caitlin to explain the constant smiling. ‘Ashley and Caroline kept passing the ball to me, so they made me look good.’

‘Lovely. So you’re getting on okay with your new classmates?’

‘Yeah, pretty much.’

‘And what about Jane and Katie, are you still staying in touch?’

‘Of course,’ I said a little defensively. ‘I saw them on the weekend and talked with them a minute ago.’

Before Caitlin could ask me another question, I said, ‘Is that your new speaker or your work’s?’ I pointed at the flash new speaker in the centre of the room.

‘It’s mine, for my yoga practise,’ she said. I noticed how she emphasised the word mine, which was a little unusual for Caitlin.