2048! It must be a mistake. I didn’t recognise the number and I had lots of thoughts in my head at the same time. I closed my eyes and opened them again because the thoughts were coming too fast, one on top of the other, and maybe if I closed my eyes and opened them everything would be normal and I could carry on doing my speech. But when I opened my eyes, the thoughts kept coming like this:

SOS L

Who sent it? Why did they text ME?

SOS means someone’s in trouble.

Howdidtheygetmynumber?

This isn’t supposed to happen.

What does L mean? Is it a person who ends their texts with the initial L?

L means 50 in Roman numerals.

Is it someone pretending to be L to humiliate me? Like Pete LMS. Does he sign texts as L? But he’s not a Leapling, how could he send a text from the future?

SOS means someone’s in trouble!

It was sent in 2048 so it hasn’t happened yet.

If you get a text about something that’s GOING to happen, it’s a Predictive.

SOS L is a Predictive!

Sent Tuesday the 3rd of March 2048, 11 o’clock at night.

2048 is the year of the school trip.

Maybe I can stop the bad thing that’s going to happen.

I thought all this in ten seconds till I realised someone was nudging my hand. Suddenly, Pete LMS had my phone! He smiled like it was his birthday and this was the present he’d wanted for ages.

‘SOS L,’ he said, in my voice, to the whole class. Then, in his voice, ‘A message from your Leaper boyfriend.’

I had a shooting pain in my head but I rushed across the room to get it back. I lunged towards Pete LMS and he laughed in my face. He was holding the phone too tight for me to grab it. Of course Mr Carter was a minute behind. Before he could say anything, Pete LMS said: ‘Is The Palindrome about to cry? Boohoo!’

‘That will be quite enough, Peter,’ said Mr Carter in his slow, croaky voice.

Pete LMS stood up at his desk.

‘Enough? I’ve had enough! Expect us to believe all this rubbish about man-made climate change?’ We all gasped. ‘My dad says Nature does what she likes. Nothing to do with man.’

He turned and threw my phone across the room. It crashed to the floor and the back came off.

And what did Mr Carter do? Continued the lesson, in his own time, like nothing had happened. His droning voice went on and on but it sounded like it was in the distance.

‘Where are you going, Elle?’