“It’s fine. I had a headache, that’s all. I wanted to go home.”

“I understand that. But maybe you could let her know next time, yes? Or let me know so that I can get a message to her.”

“Okay.” I sniff. “Sorry.”

Mrs. Peacock nods and lays three fingers on my forearm. “I’ll have a word with Melissa if you’d like.”

“No!” My head shoots up. “It’ll only make things worse. I’d rather you didn’t.”

Mrs. Peacock presses her lips together and exhales through her nostrils. I get the feeling she’d like to say more, but is having to hold it back.

Sally Peters is waiting for me outside the classroom when I come out. She’s been nice to me since we started back at school, although not quite nice enough to sit next to me in class. She’s told me she can’t stop sitting next to Heather Langton or it wouldn’t be fair on Heather. Although, apparently, it’s fine if it’s unfair on me.

“Don’t take any notice of Melissa,” Sally says as we walk across the playground. “She’s a right cow.”

“Where’s Heather?”

“Chess club.”

Ah, so that’s why she’s walking home with me. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers. At least I won’t have to face the school gates alone, where Melissa and Co. are bound to be hanging around with the boys. Maybe Sally will ask me back to hers. She lives in the next street along from Riley Road, where Alice lives. Where Alice lived.

A horrible empty feeling comes over me and, for a minute or so, I think I’m going to be sick. Alice and I went to Sally’s house last year, sat in her bedroom with her and Heather and painted each other’s nails. Another time we played catch outside Sally’s house on a summer evening, a whole group of us standing on both sides of the street, chucking a big inflatable ball back and forth and shrieking with laughter. That kind of thing would never happen where I live. For a start, Birchwood Avenue is a much busier road and, even if it wasn’t, people there don’t let their children play outside.

I know we’re lucky to have a big house and garden, but sometimes I wonder if I’d have been happier living on the estate instead of being stuck out at the edge of town, a long bus ride from school. Maybe then I’d have fitted in and made more friends, wouldn’t have been so reliant on Alice.