I elbow Rach as she smirks. I’ll never admit it. This kind of tired is worth it. It means something other than staying up with Kayleigh because she’s more teeth coming in, or figuring out which shop I haven’t swiped milk from recently enough that I can get away with doing it again. Never mind wondering whether kids can eat spam from a tin.

‘Take a seat,’ she says, nodding at the plastic bucket chairs lined up on the wall behind us as she scribbles on the pad in front of her. I scowl as I catch the eyes of two other women leaning on a filing cabinet. One of them keeps nodding over at me as they carry on talking. As if she could possibly know our story.

‘We’ll call you,’ the woman says, sharper, as she looks up to find me still standing there.

Rachel pulls me over to the chairs in the far corner. I pleat my skirt between my fingers as I sit. I don’t know why we have to wait. We’re the only ones in the room.

‘How good was last night?’ Rachel swings her legs, hands tucked under her thighs. ‘And I forgot to tell you, Drina actually asked if she could come with us yesterday.’39

I giggle, leaning back into my chair. Suddenly it’s OK that maths is rolling by, somewhere else. There’s no chance I’ll end up like Ma if I can pull this off. Detention will be worth that at least. Like our nights at the garrison, where we’re suddenly worth more than anything else could be, just for being ourselves. Pretty amazing, when you think about it. And all in two weeks.

‘It might not be so bad,’ I say. ‘Matty might like her. He’s always left out…’

‘Are you serious?’ Rachel’s chair squeaks as she turns to look at me.

‘Matty would leave you and Tommo alone if he had someone to go with.’

‘Yeah, but Drina? She’s literally never done one nice thing for us in her life. Like we’re going to bring her to the barracks like we’re just crashing a house party or something.’ The pop and crack of her chewing gum echoes around the room. ‘Besides. The squaddies won’t touch her. It’s too obvious she’d end up pushing a buggy round town in no time.’

‘She’s alright,’ I say, looking up at the clock again. ‘It would have already happened by now if it was going to. We might even do better out of it with her around.’

‘What, like get more poppers? She’s always got her own.’

‘Not since Timmy left. I heard her slanging him in the bogs last week.’

Rachel laughs. ‘We’re not taking her for nothing,’ she says. ‘Ask Jase about Matty. Tommo thinks he likes boys…’