No turning back now. Bunny hoped her bright smile of reply was enough to cover up the inner clenching of her heart, the dismay she felt at being there. ‘Great,’ she said. ‘I’ll be five minutes. I just need to make a quick call,’ she added, which wasn’t actually true, but would at least mean that this woman wouldn’t stand there and wait for her.

‘Absolutely,’ said Sally. ‘Well, we’re very easy to find – straight through the double doors and into the main hall. I’ll be setting up for the next twenty minutes, so you just come on in when you’re ready.’ She beamed, showing neat white teeth. ‘You’re really going to motivate our group. Thank you so much for coming.’

‘Thank you for having me!’ said Bunny in the most enthusiastic voice she could manage. You’re an inspiration, she repeated sternly to herself as Sally trotted away and unlocked the school doors. She had lost over half her own body weight since she lived in this area, she was happier and more confident than she’d ever been. Nobody pushed Bunny around or made her feel worthless any more. ‘You’ve got this,’ she told her reflection as she dusted powder onto her nose and sprayed on an encouraging blast of perfume. ‘Don’t look so scared. It’ll be over in an hour. Think of everything you’ve been through to get here. You’re a survivor.’

She glanced over her shoulder at her broad cardboard doppelgänger, propped faithfully in the back seat as ever, and cringed a little at that wide, fake printed smile, the smile that had never quite reached her eyes back then. In hindsight, it was a smile that said: I’m lost in this big old body, I’m hiding here and hoping things will get better for me. But in the meantime, I’m going to self-medicate with chips and wine until I feel I can cope.

Oh, Rach. Poor old big, fat Rachel.

‘You’re not her any more,’ she reminded herself under her breath as she got out of the car, then opened the passenger door and reached in for her old unhappy self, her arms circling the wide cardboard waist like an embrace. ‘You’re Bunny, and you can do this.’