Ian grabbed two cans of Coke and handed one to Heidi. They came and stood next to Peggy and Greta. Peggy said hi, and Ian and Heidi looked at her and said hi too. Heidi’s face was a mess but she was still the same old Heidi. As soon as they’d said hi to each other, they all turned to look out at the game where people on Dell’s side of the court were cheering and high-fiving each other. Greta moved slightly and said hi to Ian and Heidi, and they said hi back and then looked away. Greta stood beside Peggy who was still drinking the can of Coke. It was warm from her hand and the bubbles had gone out of it.

‘We made a quiche,’ Peggy said.

Heidi pursed her lips together and nodded once.

‘It’s more of a frittata than a quiche,’ Peggy said.

‘Is it?’ Greta asked.

‘I think so,’ Peggy said. They’d looked it up in another cookbook at the library. Quiches without crusts tended to be frittatas, not quiches. Quiches had a short pastry base. Greta had been reading over her shoulder but now she was trying to make conversation over the silence that Ian and Heidi were wiping all over everything.

‘Fancy that,’ she said. ‘A frittata.’

They didn’t need to talk. They’d had that explained a lot. It was okay to be quiet. No one could force Heidi or Ian to explain themselves. But it was uncomfortable. It wasn’t so much the silence or even Ian and Heidi, it was being at the picnic in the first place. Dell was playing the game – literally – but Peggy and Greta had stayed on the periphery. Watching. It probably looked weird but it felt worse. They didn’t fit in because they wouldn’t take the actions to fit in. The few people who had come to talk to them had only stayed a short while. They were trying hard, Greta and Peggy suspected. Everyone was trying hard. Heidi was using one of the serviettes on the picnic table to take off her lipstick and wipe some of the contour off. She’d surrendered to the fact that it had all been a waste of time.

At the café that first day, with Orla and the stolen credit card, an ice-cream truck drove past playing ‘Greensleeves’.

‘When I was tiny,’ Greta said.