My sister hates talking about Roar at school, but right now I’m too excited to follow her rules. “Rose, this evening we could be flying a dragon!”

She can’t help herself. She has to smile. “I know. I just wish we could be there right now!”

She says these words with such passion that I’m surprised. Like me, Rose loves Roar, but she also loves it here at Langton Academy. We’ve only just started, but she’s already got this massive gang of friends who she hangs out with all day, and then all night via her phone. By contrast, I’ve made one friend, Adam Zeng. He’s great, but right now he’s having his tonsils out, which is why I’m sitting on my own.

“When we get to Roar what do you want to do first?” I say.

Rose looks at me like I’m stupid. “Go and see Mitch, of course.”

If Win is my best friend in Roar, then Mitch is Rose’s. She’s a merwitch who lives on her very own island, but the last time we were there we discovered she’d gone missing. Just before we left we saw something swimming in the sea and Rose was convinced it was Mitch, but really it could have been anything. So I say, “Rose, you know Mitch might not be back yet?”

She hugs the cake tin to her. “She has to be! Mitch disappeared because I forgot about her, but I can remember her so clearly now: her webbed fingers, her tattoos, her hair. It was bright blue.”

“The color of bubble-gum ice cream,” I say.

She smiles. “Exactly!”

“But, Rose, if Mitch isn’t back, there are loads of other amazing things we can do.”

She shakes her head stubbornly. “No. I only want to see Mitch. I’ve got so much to tell her.” Then she glances across the room at her new friends. They’re gathered around Harriet Scott—the loudest of the group—who is saying something so shocking the other girls’ mouths are hanging open.

Rose’s gang look identical, and not just because of their gaping mouths. They’re all wearing their uniform ties short and chubby and their socks pulled up high, and every one of them, including Rose, has their hair in one long braid. Rose says they do all this matching stuff to show what good friends they are. Rose’s fingers drum on the cake tin. That’s another way they show what good friends they are: by baking.

“Can I have a cupcake?” I say.

Rose opens the tin, revealing rows of perfect cupcakes. Each one has a different emoji face iced on it. “Sorry, I’ve not got enough.”

Suddenly Harriet’s voice rings out across the classroom. “Rose, come here! We want to show you something!”