I haul my bag out and onto the footpath. Dad gives a toot as he drives away. All around us kids stream past, on bikes and on foot. I’m strangely glad that I’m with Matt rather than walking up to the gate alone.

I manage to get my backpack onto my shoulders and only stagger for a second.

‘Nervous?’ Matt asks me.

‘Nah,’ I lie.

‘Me neither,’ he says, and I wonder if he’s also lying.

Then I see Bridge standing with Ellie near the bike racks out the front of a big grey building. Bridge spots me struggling along. She squeals and runs down the slight hill towards us. I see her notice Matt, look confused for a second, then she crashes into me, her arms wrapping around my middle.

Matt throws me a look over his shoulder and it shows everything: fear, worry and a wish for ‘good luck’. I wonder if I’ll see him again today and if we’ll pretend we don’t know each other.

Ellie appears just behind Bridge and she hugs both of us, making me feel even smaller. All around us, kids are heading inside and we get caught up in the tide. Bridge and Ellie chatter near me, but I don’t have much to say.

When Dad and I first went on the school tour last year, Dad couldn’t stop raving about the architecture. He said he loved the Brutalist design and the fact the school looked like a 70s concrete square; it reminded him of his own high school. I was just happy to see the library right in the middle of the bottom floor, full of books and chairs and life. We pass the library now, on our way to the theatre, and I see a couple of kids reading inside on red couches.

Filing into the theatre, we’re pushed across to the far aisle. Somewhere in this room is the rest of my class. I see a girl about my height making her way to the front and I hope she’s in 7F. She looks sporty like me. She’s in running shorts and neon-pink sneakers. Maybe she’ll get me through the year without my best friends.

I realise Ellie’s waiting to see if I want to head down the row of seats first. Bridge is behind us so I’m surprised that Ellie would want to sit in the middle. For a second I feel thrown and don’t know whether to go in and take a seat or make Ellie go first so I can be in the middle. Before I can work out what to do, it’s decided for me as a kid bumps into us, pushing me into the row. I scurry down and take the first seat near the wall. Ellie files in after me, and then Bridge shuffles in and sits down.