I thought about it and decided: Yes. I knew that there were heaps of anti-vaccination people in The Village, that kind of believed germs are good for you so I was expecting backlash. I was surprised that Caitlin wasn’t one of them. It seemed a pretty controversial question for Michael to ask so early in the morning. On the question of vaccination, Dad always said to me, ‘Could you imagine how many blackfellas there’d be today if we’d had immunisation for smallpox?’

I couldn’t argue with Dad on that one so I took the side of the room for ‘Yes’, thinking about how washing your hands and drying them stops the spread of germs. Caroline and Matilda stood on the opposite side of the room, making me feel uncomfortable.

Caroline started up with the argument, ‘Some germs are good for you. They help build resistance.’

What Dad taught me was that all germs and diseases come from animals. And because whitefellas lived close to their cattle, their sheep, donkeys, cows and shit – literally – they built immunity to their germs. When they colonised Aboriginal people, they brought their germs to us, wiping heaps of us out.

But I couldn’t say that, could I?

Ashley responded: ‘Hand dryers save trees, especially now that most businesses are powered by renewable energy.’ I thought it was an okay argument. However, it didn’t sway Caroline.

‘More resources are probably used to make the solar panels than it takes to dry hands with paper,’ she bit back, looking smug.

What is Michael trying to do, make us fight each other? I wondered.

I said, ‘In airports, there are heaps of people. And if people don’t wash and dry their hands, lots of people will catch germs. If people hadn’t washed and dried their hands properly in airports when Mum took me to New York to watch the Spurs play, I would have been spewing if I had got sick and missed the game. And how often do people get sick on flights?’ I asked. ‘That’s why hand dryers are necessary.’

Caroline and half of the people on the ‘No’ side of the classroom crossed over to my side. I smiled in satisfaction and Caroline gave me a fist bump before she stood next to me. Matilda however shot me a death stare from the other side of the room. She refused to budge.

Luckily, the bell rang for recess. As we walked out, I said to Caroline, ‘Do you want to go somewhere and chill?’ even though I knew it was probably a good idea to back-up last night’s basketball training form with some time on the court.

‘Sure,’ she said. We walked over to the far side of the oval.

When we sat down, Caroline said, ‘That was cool, what you did then in class.’

‘Yeah, right,’ I said, blushing. feeling really proud of myself.