‘Sorry, I should have said, “You’re my funniest player of the match.” ’

‘Oh … Thanks.’

‘See you at Biscuit Club,’ he says, then he lifts up his hockey stick, has a quick fight with an invisible enemy (I’m guessing a ninja from the sounds he’s making), and runs into school.

I’m about to follow him when I hear someone call my name. I turn round to see Ed strolling towards me. Even though he’s been running around on a muddy pitch for forty minutes, he’s somehow managed to keep his kit pristine, although I do notice that his hair has gone a bit floppy.

I wrap my arms around my musty T-shirt; I really need to get changed.

He stops in front of me. ‘We’ve got to do our homework,’ he says, and somehow it sounds like an order. ‘I don’t really want to do it at lunchtime. Can you stay behind after school?’

I shake my head. ‘After school’s no good for me.’

‘What? Never or just today?’

‘Never.’

This throws him for a second. ‘OK. How about tomorrow?’

‘Tomorrow’s Saturday.’

‘Right,’ he says. ‘I forgot.’

Bella appears next to him. ‘What did you forget?’ she says.

‘Nothing. Just talking about our science homework.’

‘Me and Raj met up last night. Raj’s done this rap about all the different planets called “Space in Your Face”.’ She gives us a little demonstration, rapping ‘Uranus, Uranus, what colour is Uranus?’ She stops abruptly and points at me. ‘Well,’ she says, ‘what colour is Uranus, Meg?’

‘Blue,’ I say with a sigh.

She throws her head back and laughs while Ed watches her, one eyebrow raised. ‘What?’ she says. ‘It’s funny!’

‘Finished?’ says Ed.

After a final giggle, Bella nods, then a silence falls over us. Bella looks from me to Ed. ‘Well, this is awkward.’

‘We could email our presentations to each other,’ I say in a rush. ‘Read each others’ through and suggest changes.’

‘I think the point is,’ he says, ‘we’re supposed to practise saying them together, but if you’ve got more important things to do then that’s OK. I can always ask Miss for another partner … Maybe someone who actually wants to win the competition?’ Even though he says all this with a smile, it still makes a flutter of worry run through me. The school could only enter two students for the NASA competition and I know how lucky I am to have been chosen.

‘Ohhh … She doesn’t like that!’ says Bella, seeing my face.

Quickly, I try to work out when I can find the time to meet up with Ed, but my mind is as numb as my freezing fingers and I’m so tired I can’t think straight. But then I remember a tiny window in my schedule. ‘The science trip!’ I say. ‘We’ll do it then, at lunchtime.’

‘Or on the bus?’ says Bella. ‘You two could curl up on the back seat and talk nerdy to each other.’

‘Fine,’ says Ed. He looks annoyed, but I can’t work out if it’s me or Bella who’s bothered him. ‘We’ll do it then.