I hurried across the yard with my classmates, then down a narrow tunnel and into the underground cave where we would spend at least the rest of the lesson. The longest we’d had to spend in there was two hours. That was the one time it was real.

‘What are you doing at the weekend?’ Daniel asked as we squashed together on the concrete bench.

I shrugged. ‘Helping Mum, I guess.’

We’d moved out of the Stewarts’ house last year. Mama – or ‘Mum’ as I called her in front of my friends – had said we couldn’t abuse their kindness any longer, especially now that the war and rationing meant things were tough for all of us. We’d been living with them for over a year so it was quite a change – but she was right. It was time we started to be independent.

She’d found a tiny flat for us. She had the bedroom, I slept on a sofa in the lounge. It wasn’t perfect, but at least it was our own place.

The wallpaper was about fifty years old and peeling off, and when we moved in Mr Stewart had said that we had to replace it.

Mama had laughed. ‘Where do you expect me to get wallpaper?’ she asked. ‘It’s hard enough to find butter for my bread and sugar for my tea nowadays. Wallpaper is a luxury I don’t expect to find until the war is over!’

Mr Stewart had frowned. ‘I’ll find you some,’ he’d said. ‘I’m not letting you live like this. My wife would not forgive me.’

It took a while but he’d been true to his word and just last week he’d brought round three rolls of wallpaper with big green and blue flowers on it. I’d promised Mama I would help put it up this weekend.

‘Too bad,’ Daniel said to me now. ‘Rory says he’s going to take us to the cinema.’

Rory was the American soldier Daniel’s older sister Maddy had started going out with. It had pretty much made Daniel the most popular boy in the class. Rory was always bringing Daniel’s family things that were nearly impossible to find now. Coffee, evaporated milk; last week he’d even brought them sugar and Daniel’s mum had made a cake with it. Daniel brought a piece into school for me. It wasn’t a patch on the Sachertorte Mama used to make but compared to the basic food we had to eat now it was heavenly!

But the cinema! That was a special treat. ‘What film are you going to see?’

‘Bambi.’

‘What’s that?’

Daniel pulled a face. ‘It’s about a baby deer and his friends. Sounds like a kids’ film really. It’s on in the morning.’

‘Really? Okay, I’ll see if Mum will agree to start wallpapering in the afternoon. Count me in!’