‘Hey,’ says Bella, banging her hands down on the desk. ‘Did any of you see that shark they found near Hastings? It’s massive!’

‘I saw it,’ says Raj. ‘Rows of teeth like Jaws.’

‘Woody, remember last summer,’ says Bella, ‘when you swam out to that dinghy?’

He nods, keeping his eyes on the dominos.

‘It was probably circling under water, waiting to get you.’ She shivers dramatically. ‘I’m never swimming in the sea again.’

‘I heard it could have been a tiger shark,’ says Ed. ‘They’ve killed people.’

‘It wasn’t a tiger shark.’ I say, unable to resist correcting Ed.

They all turn to look at me and I realise my mistake. ‘It was a porbeagle,’ I say quickly. ‘They’re harmless.’

Bella sighs. ‘Please don’t make my shark story boring, Megara.’ She leans forward. ‘Talking of man-eating predators … Woody, do you want to know who’s asking you to the dance?’

He laughs. ‘Not really, but I’ve got a feeling you’re going to tell me.’

‘Chiara Swift! She told me at break.’

Ed shakes his head and smiles.

Raj says, ‘Chiara’s all right!’

‘I told her no way,’ says Bella. ‘You’re my reserve in case I don’t get a better offer.’ She turns to me. ‘Who’re you asking to the dance, Meg?’

I straighten up the worksheet. Here we go. I’ve been expecting this from the moment I saw her pink ticket. For Bella, the spring dance is the perfect opportunity to laugh at me because there is just so much I can get wrong: music, dancing, clothes, boys …

Quickly, I say, ‘I’m not going.’ Best to nip this one in the bud.

‘Why not?’ Ed says.

‘I’m busy.’

‘Yeah?’ He says this innocently enough, but I’m sure a look flies between him and Bella and I can’t shake the feeling that they’re laughing at me.

Which might be why I blurt out, ‘It’s what I was just talking about – the asteroid. It’s passing by Earth on the night of the dance.’

Bella says, ‘And this rock is more important than the dance, because …?’

My mouth goes dry. How have I been drawn into this conversation? ‘Well, it’s two miles wide … If it hit Earth, it could wipe out a country.’

‘But presumably it’s not going to hit Earth?’ says Ed.

His ‘presumably’ makes my next sentence fly out of my mouth. ‘No, but we might see a dot of light pass by, and if it does I will see it with my friends at the science centre.’

‘And your friends are …?’ Bella asks.

How do I make this sound good? Basically they’re my grandad’s mates, a group of middle-aged men who meet up to boast about the size of their telescopes. ‘My friends,’ I say, choosing my words carefully, ‘are in the Sussex Stargazers club.’

Bella’s eyes go wide. ‘Let me get this straight. Instead of going to the dance you’re going to watch a dot of light, at the science centre with a bunch of old people?’