‘I’m sure we can sort something out – don’t you worry about that,’ her mum asserted, going into solution mode. ‘Daddy or I will talk to Miss Carter.’

‘Bessie’s right, I’m afraid, Mum,’ Philip said slowly and calmly. ‘They don’t have enough spaces in the sixth form for everyone, and it’s how they weed out the numbers. Plus, the work at A level goes up such a gear that if you struggle at O level it might be too much to cope with, and that would just make Bessie’s life miserable.’

Bessie sniffed.

‘Well, see! All’s not lost,’ her dad chirped, as if he just wasn’t listening.

‘Michelle got in. Just.’ The thought of her friend turning up in September for the first day of term without her only made her tears fall harder.

‘You could go to college and repeat the year?’ Philip suggested. ‘The tech in town runs O level courses and you’d get to sit the exams again.’

Bessie shook her head. ‘No way! I’m not going to the tech. I don’t want to.’ She raised her voice. The tech had a rubbish reputation and she couldn’t stand the idea of joining their ranks, knowing the humour Melanie Hall and her gang would find in that. She would find a way, but not that way.

‘It’s okay, love,’ her dad intervened, reaching across the table to take her sweaty hand into his. ‘No one is going to make you do anything. You have a lot of options.’

‘I do?’ She so wanted to believe him.

‘Sure you do.’

The telephone rang in the hallway and Philip sprinted to answer it. Bessie might be a proper thicko, but even she knew he was desperate as ever to hear from Carmen the vegan.

‘Just a sec,’ she heard him say before he raced back into the kitchen. ‘Bessie! It’s Miss Carter.’

‘There now, what did I tell you?’ her mum said, as if she were a baby, and it drove her crazy. She resisted the urge to snap at her mum – it wasn’t her fault she’d messed up.

Miss Carter was her form tutor and head of year and had always been an ally. Bessie sniffed and went to take the call.

‘Hello?’ She gripped the receiver and closed her eyes, while her stomach flipped with nerves heaped with embarrassment.

‘Hi, Bessie, it’s Miss Carter here. I wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.’

‘Not great.’ Her voice was no more than a squeak.

‘I guessed as much. I spoke to Mr Watts, who told me you were upset in the hall, and Miss Bartram saw you leave and said you looked a little pale. I wanted to grab you before you left, but got caught up in an exam appeal for one of the other students.’