Bella and Raj look at me curiously.

‘What’s up with you?’ says Raj. ‘You look –’

‘Super-hot?’ suggests Bella. ‘Bootylicious?’

Weirdly, I’m too tired to be bothered by these comments.

‘Rough.’ Ed says this without looking up from the worksheet.

OK. So I’m not too tired to be bothered by that. I feel my cheeks start to burn and Bella shrieks, ‘Woody! You can’t say that.’

‘What? She does.’ He turns to me. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘I’ve got a headache,’ I say. It’s actually starting to hurt to talk.

‘It was going to happen one day,’ says Raj, shaking his head.

‘What?’ Bella says.

‘Meg’s brain has got too big for her head. It’ll be coming out of her nose soon.’

‘I can see it!’ shrieks Bella.

‘Please be quiet,’ I say. The pain in my head is so bad that I haven’t got the energy to tiptoe around Bella. ‘Your voice is really loud.’

Raj throws his head back and laughs. ‘You have got a big voice, mate.’

Before Bella can reply, Ms Edgecombe slams her hand down on the buzzer she keeps on her desk. She keeps on pressing it until everyone stops talking … It takes a very long time.

‘I just wanted to remind you that your homework for the next two weeks is to work with your partner on your “What Space Means to Me” speeches. I know only Ed and Meg are representing the school in the actual competition, but I still want the rest of you to do it.’

‘Seriously, Miss?’ says Raj. ‘What’s the point?’

‘The point is that you’ll be sharing your knowledge about space with your peers and developing vital speaking and listening skills … not to mention learning how to work with others. Basically, this homework is going to make you a better person, Raj.’ She presses her buzzer a couple of times to emphasise her point. ‘Now, you all know who you’re working with so spend the last five minutes of the lesson explaining to your partner what space means to you and arrange a time to meet up and practise.’

Talking breaks out across the room.

‘Urgh,’ says Bella, looking at Raj and wrinkling her nose. ‘I can’t believe I’m stuck with you again.’

Raj stretches his arms behind his head. ‘Stop moaning. You love it, babe.’

‘Er … no, I don’t.’

Ed turns to me. ‘So what does space mean to you, Meg?’ He says this casually, but I know he must be curious about my speech.

For a moment, I consider coming up with some vague answer like ‘improved technology’ or ‘solar energy research’, but I’m feeling so tired it just seems easier to tell him the truth. ‘To me, space means escape,’ I say. He frowns, so I carry on. ‘Somewhere in space there might be a new Earth, a habitable planet that hasn’t been mucked up by human beings.’

‘You mean a Goldilocks planet?’ Ed asks.

They’re called ‘Goldilocks planets’ because for humans to live on them everything about them needs to be just right: the right amount of water on the surface, the right climate, the right distance from the sun – not too hot and not too cold.