‘As usual,’ mutters Bella.

Ed and I are always paired up. It’s because we’re both clever or, in Raj’s words, ‘total freaks’. Somehow, Ed manages to be a part-time freak, slipping in and out of the role depending on whether he’s in lessons or hanging out with his friends. For me, it’s a full-time position. I’ve often wondered what the difference is between me and Ed, and how he manages to pull off being clever and popular at the same time. Maybe it’s because he’s a boy, or maybe it’s because he’s captain of the football team and that sort of counterbalances how clever he is. Who knows. All I do know is that although Ed King and I are both clever, in every other respect, we are a million miles apart.

He shakes out our dominos. ‘Meg, you fill in the sheet and I’ll set these up.’

Immediately, I say, ‘What if I want to do the dominos?’ When the other two aren’t listening, I manage to talk to Ed. Just about.

‘Not sure about the answers?’ He looks at me, one eyebrow raised. ‘Need me to give you a bit of help?’

‘I know all the answers,’ I say, pulling the sheet towards me. Ed and I are in competition. Constantly. Our teachers started it but now we do it all on our own. I suppose I should find it annoying, but these ‘arguments’ with Ed are often the only conversations I manage to have at school.

Ed’s shiny gold watch flashes as he places the dominos in the correct pattern. A few seconds later, he mutters, ‘U-235 atoms.’

‘Sorry?’

‘It’s the answer to question three. You look stuck.’

‘Look,’ I say, ‘are you doing the dominos or the work sheet?’

‘I was only helping,’ he says with a sideways smile.

‘I’m fine, thanks.’

Just as I’m writing down the final answer, something on Ed’s science book catches my eye. In one corner, he’s drawn an asteroid complete with lines to show it’s shooting through space. I glance back across the table. Raj’s putting the ping-pong balls in his mouth and Bella’s drawing a face on his bulging cheek. They’re pretty distracted so, quickly, I say to Ed, ‘Have you heard about it?’

His hands pause over dominos. ‘Heard about what?’

I point at his picture. ‘Asteroid TR7768. It’s two miles wide and it’s passing close to Earth.’

He studies me curiously and I feel myself blush. I never usually talk to Ed about things like this – we bicker, that’s what we do – but seeing the asteroid in his book made me sure he’d have heard of it. ‘Asteroid TR7768,’ he repeats, a smile playing on his lips. ‘Well, my picture is supposed to be of a football.’

I look back at the picture. A football? Of course it’s a football! My blush hits Mars proportions.

‘So tell me about this asteroid,’ Ed says.

Across the table, Bella looks up. I turn back to my book. ‘It’s nothing,’ I say.