‘Though she be but little, she is fierce!’ I whisper under my breath as I approach the Year Elevens who hang out on the wall outside the Co-op. I sit in my usual spot away from the others and get out my phone. One of the boys throws an M&M at me. It bounces off my head and lands on my lap. He laughs and watches to see what I will do. I stare at it. It’s blue.

Though she be but little, she is fierce, I think.

Eat the M&M, Bea! Go on, EAT IT!

I brush it to the floor. Not my fiercest moment.

I’ve pretty much made myself invisible by the time the bus arrives, and when I drop down into the seat next to Kat she doesn’t even look up. She’s staring into the tiny mirror she always carries somewhere about her person. At first, I think she’s just checking out the perfectness of her blonde, blonde hair, but then she grabs my arm and pulls me closer, hissing, ‘Look behind us!’

I peer back through the bus, ‘What?’

‘It’s him: Ollie “The Hug” Matthews. Oh, God. Don’t look! Look! No. Don’t look. OK. Look now. Soooo hot!’ I sneak a sideways glance at her. Just as I suspected, her mouth is half open and her eyes are all big and puppy-like. She’s doing her ‘Sexy Lady Face’. She looks like Emma when she’s doing ‘a big one’ on the potty.

‘Don’t look at me,’ she says. ‘Look at him.’

And so I look. For once, I can see what she’s getting at. Ollie Matthews has got these kind, brown eyes, sort of tousled hair and shoulders that look a bit like man shoulders and his hands are …

‘Bean, are you listening?’ Kat snaps her mirror shut. ‘I think I need to be more realistic and forget about Year Elevens and focus on Year Tens. Also, well, maybe he’s the one? There was “The Hug”, after all.’

‘What? He said that was an accident.’

Kat snorts, ‘It didn’t feel like an “accident”!’

‘He thought you were his sister. You’ve got the same coat … that one with the birds on it.’

‘He. Is. So. So. Hot. Don’t you think?’ says Kat, ignoring my little slice of REALITY.

The Hug is listening to his iPod and looking out of the window in a, you know, hot type of way, with his eyes, which are open (sexily), looking at trees … hot trees covered in sexy green leaves. ‘Yeah, Kat,’ I say. ‘Ollie seems –’

‘Say it!’ Kat is gleeful. ‘Go on, say it. Say Ollie Matthews is HOT.’ I shut my mouth. ‘Say it say it say it!’

‘OK. I can see, from your point of view, that he could be described as … hot.’

‘Yes! He totally is.’ She grabs my arm. ‘Now tell me everything you know!’

I have a great memory. ‘Year Ten.’

‘I know that.’

‘Was in Bugsy Malone last year.’

‘Who was he?’