As soon as she heard Tina leave, her heels clipping down the corridor and up the stairs, Rita crept into the toilets.

‘You don’t look well, Amelia, are you alright?’ There was no reply, but Rita wasn’t leaving it at that. ‘I heard you being sick. That’s not right, is it? Do you need to go to the doctor’s?’

Amelia stood up and went back inside the cubicle and locked the door. She didn’t want to talk about it and this nosy cow didn’t seem to be moving for love nor money. She pressed her back against the toilet door. ‘It’s period pains, miss. I suffer with them every month. Just leave me alone will you?’

‘Do you need some tablets, a paracetamol or something?’

‘No thanks,’ Amelia replied. Tina rushed back in with her car keys in her hand. She shot a look at Rita and told her she was no longer needed.

‘It’s alright, I’m dealing with this, Rita, you can go back to work.’

The cook raised her eyebrows but slunk off. Tina had her black leather handbag on her shoulder and clutched her keys tighter. ‘Come on then, let’s get this sorted out. Dry your eyes first though. I can’t take you anywhere looking like that. You look like you have done ten rounds with Tyson Fury.’

Amelia walked to the mirror and dabbed the crumpled white tissue into the corners of her eyes. ‘Please miss, promise me you won’t tell anyone about this?’

Tina knew she couldn’t promise her anything, she’d have to report it. ‘Come on. We can talk about this more when we know what’s happening. You might not even be pregnant and then you’ll be worrying for nothing. Let’s just get a supermarket test first, then we can talk about next steps.’ Tina started to walk out of the door with Amelia behind her, her head down low. She looked like she had the worries of the world on her shoulders. A door slammed shut behind them. Tina looked round immediately, but nobody was there.

The deputy headteacher stood outside the cubicle once she had passed over the test and gone through what Amelia had to do with it. She stood now biting her nails, waiting for the old lady who was taking forever to wash her hands to leave the toilets, then banging her fist on the door. Her voice was low. ‘Have you done it? Pass it me, hurry up.’