The thing is, I almost said sorry to the make-up girl. It was an accident, but the bottle slipped from my hand and smashed. Maybe the shop was gonna take it out of her wages. But I kept my mouth shut because the security guard came up so close to me I was sure I could smell what he had for lunch. I knew he wanted me to know for sure that he was taller than me.

The security guard said, “Did you hear me? You need to pay for that.”

I laughed. Not because of his comic vibes. He didn’t have any. It was because I’ve met loads of bullies like this before. They don’t know what to do if you don’t act scared. I had money to pay. I might even have got a couple of pennies in change. Still, I sure as hell wasn’t giving nothing to him.

I stayed exactly where I was. I knew the guard wanted me to step back and act all timid. I took a quick glance round the shop. Yeah, I was checking for escape routes but also looking for my friends.

I saw Skye. She was pressing her nose against the shop window outside. She grinned and waved like all this was still jokes. Bash wasn’t nowhere. Her parents don’t like her hanging out with us. They think me and Skye are trouble. When crap like this happens, it’s like it proves her parents right.

An older white lady had appeared by my side. “I saw everything!” she said. She was wearing a hot-pink tracksuit and had an owl tattooed on her wrist. I sort of wished she was my social worker. “It was an accident, wasn’t it, love?”

I nodded. I didn’t dash their posh make-up to the ground on purpose. Anyone could see that.

The security guard hit the white lady with a stink-eye. “So will you pay for it, madam?” he asked.

My new friend seemed to make herself taller. Seriously, I’m sure I heard her calf muscles stretch when she was doing it. She and the security guard were eye to eye. I hoped both of them had good spit control or they’d be splattering each other’s faces when they talked.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the lady said. “You have insurance for that. I’m sure that if I’d dropped it, you wouldn’t be so harsh.”

A crowd gathered round us. I could see folks looking all confused. The security guard was as Black as me. They couldn’t understand why he should be treating me different. But the world doesn’t always unroll all smooth. When you’re a Black girl in care, there’s bumps and twists.

“An accident?” the security guard said, laughing. “She isn’t even sorry.”

The lady smiled down at me and said, “Of course you are, love, aren’t you?”