‘Why? What’s the meeting about?’

She looked at me like I’d turned into a fish finger, which would not have surprised me given how many of the things I’d eaten recently. ‘The council trying to close the library of course.’

Christine scurried over. ‘I went to a meeting. We’re on the list of the next round of closures. We have twelve weeks before they shut us down. That’s not long to gather support. It’s all down to us. We have to come up with something or that’s it.’ She ran a finger across her throat. I tried not to smile. I was pretty sure they didn’t cull the librarians when they closed down the facilities.

‘We need to act and act fast!’ said Maggie, doing something of an old person version of a fist pump.

‘Yeah but this afternoon. It’s a bit short notice,’ I said.

Maggie and Christine looked at each other. I felt like I’d said something useful. ‘Maybe next week would be better,’ said Christine.

Maggie seemed to consider this. ‘It would give us a chance to rally people.’

‘I could make some posters,’ said Christine, visibly brightening up.

‘That’s good,’ said Maggie. ‘We could lobby the Women’s Institute and the church.’ She looked quite excited.

‘I belong to Slimming World. I could lobby them,’ added Christine.

‘Excellent. You can put a poster up at school, Tom,’ said Maggie.

‘I guess.’ I was definitely not doing that. I’d be labelled one of the Nerd Herd before the last drawing pin was in.

‘You do realise how important the library is, don’t you?’ said Maggie giving me a stare to rival Medusa.

‘Sure. I just don’t know if the council will listen. That’s all.’ I scratched my head. Both women were looking displeased.

The door opened and in came Farah. I wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse. I straightened my T-shirt and wished I’d worn my better one.

‘You’ll miss the library if it closes, won’t you?’ Christine asked Farah and I tried to hide under my fringe.

‘It isn’t going to close, is it?’ she asked and on the last word she turned to look at me for a response.

‘It’s looking that way but we’re going to complain…’ I said. Farah was nodding. This was good. ‘Well, protest, actually.’ I was buoyed by her nods of encouragement. ‘Fight.’ My hands clenched into fists. ‘We’re going to fight them every step of the way!’ Now Farah looked slightly alarmed. I unclenched my fists. ‘You know. As much as we can.’ I studied my trainers and concentrated on the warm sensation that had reached my ears.

‘Exactly!’ said Maggie. ‘And we need all the help we can get. Are you in?’ she asked Farah.

‘Definitely,’ Farah replied and a happy feeling rippled through me.