Dinner was an ordeal – her mother had made bolognese, and the sound of John’s slurping made Ellen clench her fists under the table – but her mother clearly blamed her taciturn presence on the stress of exams, and kindly told her she could get down from the table without helping to clear up.

Ellen grunted her thanks and galloped up the stairs to rouse her laptop.

Mercifully, he signed in only a few minutes after she did. She sent her reply straight away, breathing fast as she read her letter again on the screen, imagining him reading it at home in his own room.

rainham_romeo1991: wow

rainham_romeo1991: thank you so much for writing this and sending it to me

miss_BehaviourX91: thank you for yours

She could feel her pulse in her ears. Her face was flushed.

miss_BehaviourX91: i feel like i can remember every word

rainham_romeo1991: i just can’t believe how much we agree on everything

rainham_romeo1991: it’s so rare and unique

rainham_romeo1991: i’ve never had this with anyone before

miss_BehaviourX91: definitely

He typed and then stopped. She watched her cursor, gnawing on her thumbnail, and considered what to say next. She started typing.

miss_BehaviourX91: so i was thinking

miss_BehaviourX91: maybe we should meet up

She leaned back and watched the message box, chewing the nail of her thumb. He was typing.

rainham_romeo1991: definitely

rainham_romeo1991: i’ve also been thinking that

miss_BehaviourX91: great

rainham_romeo1991: maybe we could do it this weekend?

rainham_romeo1991: if that works for you

miss_BehaviourX91: definitely

rainham_romeo1991: we could go for a walk maybe

rainham_romeo1991: it would be nice to be somewhere where we wouldn’t be distracted by other people

rainham_romeo1991: from school or something

She wondered if this was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her.

miss_BehaviourX91: i’d love that

rainham_romeo1991: ok great

rainham_romeo1991: let’s work out the time and place this week

miss_BehaviourX91: perfect

On Thursday evening, she dispatched her dinner at lightning speed, as usual, and scaled the stairs two at a time. It was almost 7 p.m., and tonight they had agreed they would set the time and place for their first meeting that weekend. Ellen threw her blazer on to her bed and slammed her bedroom door shut in a fluent, practised movement, ignoring her mother’s reproachful cry from downstairs, then prodded the button that brought her laptop to life. She logged in on the stroke of seven exactly and waited expectantly, her eyes trained on her MSN contacts list, so she’d see him as soon as he logged in.