‘Sagitta,’ I whisper, holding her close again, ‘Aquila, Lyra, Cygnus …’ I put Elsa on Mum’s bed and lie next to her. ‘Vulpecula, Hydra, Corona …’ Even though I’m still wearing my school uniform, I reach down and pull the duvet over us. ‘Corvus, Ara, Serpens …’ The mattress dips as Pongo jumps on the bed, turns twice then flops against my back. I manage to mutter, ‘Lupus,’ before my eyes close and the three of us fall into a deep, deep sleep.

EIGHTEEN

‘What did you do?’ whispers Annie. It’s break time and we’re both sitting at the back of the detention room again.

‘I was late to school,’ I say. It was having a shower that did it. To keep Elsa safe, I strapped her in her pushchair and put her in front of CBeebies. At some point, Pongo must have stepped on the controls because when I came out of the bathroom they were both watching Jeremy Kyle. Now I’m in my second ever detention, but that shower was so worth it: I smell lovely.

Annie shakes her head. ‘No, I mean what did you do at Mr Curtis’s Biscuit Club after I left?’

‘We ate the famous biscuits and looked at pictures of Jackson’s cat.’

She narrows her eyes. Overnight she’s cut her fringe so that it comes to a point between her eyebrows. With her pale eyes and black eyeliner she looks a bit like an alien. ‘So, basically a massive waste of time.’

‘Jackson had photoshopped teachers’ faces on to every cat picture.’

‘Yeah?’

‘And put hats on them.’

‘Oi, you two!’ Mr Curtis is glaring at us. ‘This is a detention, not a coffee morning.’

‘We’re working on our supportive brainiac network, Sir,’ Annie calls back.

‘I don’t want any networking in detentions, Annie,’ he says, ‘just an uncomfortable silence.’

She smiles sweetly at him and mimes zipping her mouth shut. Mr Curtis gives her a thumbs up, but the second he turns back to his computer, she whispers to me. ‘Annoyingly, I really want to see those cats with hats.’ Then she rests her chin in her hand and goes back to her book.

Which is why I’m not surprised to find her sitting in H4 when I arrive before lunch. Once again, Jackson gets a beanbag while we sit round him on chairs. ‘It’s like I’m a king,’ he says, stretching out, ‘and you’re my peasants!’

‘Or you’re our dog,’ says Annie, ‘lying at our feet in the dirt.’

Mr Curtis interrupts them. ‘I thought we’d start with an energiser called Grab the Finger. Basically, you stretch your hand out to the side and –’

‘No way,’ says Annie, shaking her head. ‘I’m not grabbing anyone’s anything.’

‘OK, how about Fear in the Hat?’ says Mr Curtis. ‘You write down one of your personal fears and put it in a hat. It’s great at creating group cohesion.’

‘Sounds good!’ says Rose.

‘Nope, sounds terrible,’ says Annie.

I’m with Annie on this one – I’ve just got too many personal fears right now.