I got quite a bit of work done. I’ve been a bit of an idiot. Dad doesn’t seem to care much about what I do at school as long as I don’t get into any sort of trouble that means he has to go down there and talk to teachers. I’ve sort of been coasting for a bit. And I know I shouldn’t have done but if nobody else was bothered then why should I be?

In my defence I did go along to an after-school revision group. It sounded like it would help me catch up, which was what I knew I needed to do. And as no one was forcing me to go I was all right about it. That was until I walked into the classroom. There was one boy leaving as I went in. He was making some excuse to the teacher that he’d remembered he’d got football practice and when I checked out the room I got why he was making a run for it. It was full of girls. I’m not even exaggerating. There must have been about forty of them because they’d run out of desks and there wasn’t another boy in sight.

There was no way I was staying there on my own, even if Farah Shah was one of the girls. I piggybacked on the other boy’s lie and said I had to go to football too and got out of there as quick as I could. I didn’t bother going to revision classes anymore; they defo aren’t for me.

Mum used to spend a lot of time with me and my schoolwork. It was only primary school stuff but she took time to sit down with me and practise my spellings and reading. I made out I hated doing it but really I liked having time with my mum. Sometimes I pretended to keep getting the word wrong so I could have a few more minutes with her all to myself.

‘Here you are,’ said Christine brightly plonking down a tower of romance novels.

I quickly chucked them in my backpack. ‘Thanks. Oh and Mum says thanks too.’

That seemed to make her happy. She flicked her hair off her shoulder and showed me her lipstick teeth again. ‘Tell her it’s my absolute pleasure to help a reader.’

‘Okay.’ I looked back at my schoolwork and hoped she’d go away. After a moment she did and I could relax again.