‘I was looking for an extra drop sheet! And then I had…a look around.’

‘What were you looking for?’

‘I don’t know. Like, rope or girl’s clothing or something?’

An embarrassed laugh escapes. I felt completely justified while I was poking through Dad’s boxes and tools, but switched to guilt immediately afterwards.

‘It’s just that people at school won’t stop talking about everyone’s dads getting interviewed by the police!’

‘Hon, it’s fine. It makes perfect sense.’ Mum pats my leg. ‘All those rumours are enough to make you do something you wouldn’t normally do.’

‘Well, it wasn’t worth it, because all I found was a major stash of eighties Playboy magazines. And a whole box of Psychedelic Noodle CDs.’

Mum erupts. She actually cries, she’s laughing so hard. Psychedelic Noodle consisted of Dad and Jarrod and a few other friends in bucket hats and furry rave pants twiddling knobs and playing out-of-tune guitars. The whole thing was over by the time I was born, thankfully.

‘Oh my god. How could I forget Psychedelic Noodle? I shouldn’t laugh.’ She leans over and kisses my forehead. ‘I’m sorry, baby. This whole thing is so bleak.’

I put a cushion on my head, hoping it will soak up my shame. I wonder what this term is going to be like, if people will still be gossiping about teachers and parents and conspiracy theories. Or will they have moved on to obsessing about exams and the Year Ten formal and subject choices for next year?

‘You know,’ Mum ruminates, ‘your dad’s a pretty decent guy, even if he has been a dick in the past.’

‘Mum.’

There is nothing more horrific than hearing that word come out of your mother’s mouth, especially while she’s wearing the ridiculous cat-ear headband from last Christmas. For a second she looks like a friend, not a parent, a giddy teenager. Someone who was once so in love with Dad she defied her entire family to move to Australia to be with him.

‘You remember I’m having dinner with the girls tomorrow night?’ she says.

I try not to smirk at the fact that Mum calls her forty-something friends ‘the girls’.

‘You got anything on?’

‘No.’ I let out a giant sigh. ‘Natalia invited me to this exhibition opening, you know, friends of hers, but I don’t think I’ll go…’

‘You should go!’ Mum sits up straighter. ‘You’ve barely been out all holidays.’

‘I saw Liana the other day.’

‘One time. You need to balance relaxation and work.’

‘Can’t you just be normal and tell me to stay home and study?’

‘Ha! Normal, as if.’ Mum pours the tea. ‘I used to be married to the lead singer of Psychedelic Noodle. How could I be normal?’

DAY 54