One to one I can handle. One to two is bearable. But as soon as I have an audience, my words disappear. Poof! Even if I’m just asked to read in English my mouth goes dry, my heart speeds up and I feel like I’m going to puke. In fact, just thinking about entering the competition is making my egg sandwich creep back up my throat!

‘You’re worrying about it right now, aren’t you?’ says Ms Edgecombe.

I nod.

‘I can tell because your hands are shaking.’

‘They are?’ I look down at my wobbling hands and groan. ‘How am I going to do it, Miss?’

She laughs. ‘Meg, you could talk about space for three hours without even glancing at a piece of paper. Just pick a topic, and talk about it.’

I shake my head. ‘I’ll only be able to walk on to the stage if I know exactly what I’m going to say. I’ve written the whole speech on cards and now I’m going to practise until I’m word perfect.’

‘And how have you found writing the speech?’

‘Hard,’ I admit, thinking about all the versions I’ve written and how difficult it is to squeeze my favourite facts into three minutes. ‘Space is just too big. I couldn’t explain what neutrinos mean to me in three minutes, and they’re so small sixty-five billion have just passed through my fingernail.’ I hold my finger. ‘And that’s in the last second! I don’t know if what I’ve written is any good.’

She laughs. ‘Don’t panic, Meg. You’ve still got three weeks –’

‘Two weeks five days.’

‘Just try it out in front of some friends. See what they think.’

She says this like it’s the simplest thing to do in the world.

‘Maybe.’

‘Definitely!’ she says, then she drops a pile of books in my arms. ‘Now be a love and hand these out for me.’

FIVE

Just as I’ve put down the last book, the other students bundle in. Bella bounces straight up to Ms Edgecombe. ‘Guess what, Miss!’ She waves a pink card under our teacher’s nose. ‘We’ve just got our tickets to the spring ball. We’re having it with the Year Elevens at a hotel, which is obviously a massive improvement on Year Nines in the canteen!’

Miss examines the ticket. ‘Oh, God … I think I’ve got to go to that.’

Bella nudges her. ‘You’ll love it, Miss. You can show us your wicked moves.’

Miss shakes her head. ‘You’d be too intimidated. Now sit down and tie your hair back.’

Bella slips the ticket in her pocket and joins me at our table. ‘All right, Megara?’ she says with a grin.

‘Meg,’ I say automatically. Bella Lofthouse is the only person in the world who ever calls me by my full name. Maybe she’s being friendly, reminding me that we’ve known each other for years … Or maybe she’s just laughing at my stupid Disney Princess name. It’s really hard to tell.

‘Nah, you’ll always be Megara to me,’ she says, then she starts bundling her hair up on her head. She takes a band off her wrist and fixes it in place. A few strands fall loose and, just like that, she looks perfect, like some girl in a film. Suddenly, she sits up a little taller. ‘Hello, here come the boys!’