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time just to keep us here. They’re afraid of us growing up and leaving home and eating ice cream for tea. It’s all a lie.’
    ‘Thursdays are probably the worst.’
    ‘Anyway, it would be pretty miserable to think that Mr Hampton’s lecture on the best way to clean a test tube was the peak of your life’s happiness. I think the best days of my life will be when I make some kind of scientific breakthrough. . . . On a tropical island . . . While wearing diamonds.’
    Lily nodded. ‘Yeah, and that will probably be a Saturday, won’t it? Most good stuff happens on a Saturday, so that’s the best days of your life isn’t it? Definitely Saturdays.’
    ‘Exactly, because there’s no school,’ I said.
    Megs looked from me to Lily and back again. ‘If Lily changes her mind and decides to go to France, promise me the two of you won’t go anywhere alone together.’
    ‘Are you getting jealous again?’ I asked.
    ‘No, I’m worrying that one of you will say, “Look out for that French lorry!” And the other one will say “Yes, I like baguette sandwiches too” and then get run over.’
    I raised my eyebrows at Lily. Megs talks a lot of nonsense sometimes.
    LATER
    Anyway, what is Megs blithering on about? If I need protecting from an out of control French lorry, she’ll be there to throw herself in front of it like a good friend.
    WEDNESDAY 2ND MAY
    After debating club we went to Juicy Lucy’s. I wanted to prove to myself that I can get along with Ethan without getting all droopy about it, so I sat next to him. Obviously, that’s the only reason I sat next to him and nothing to do with his shiny dark curls looking particularly lovely, or anything.
    ‘Pretty good debate today,’ I said. ‘Something about Michael’s speech reminded me of you. I think it was the part where he said, “It’s obvious I’m right”.’
    He grinned. ‘But when I say it, it’s cute, yeah?’
    ‘Oh, totally. Arrogant and conceited and cute.’
    ‘Stop, you’re overwhelming me with compliments.’
    We chatted away about what Miss Ramsbottom’s powers would be if she was a super villain. I said I’m pretty sure that Miss R has already got spidey sense because the minute I started thinking about painting Lily’s shoes purple today, she appeared in the doorway of the art room and gave me a very stern look. Ethan pointed out that the chances of catching me planning mischief at any given time are quite high. It was a pretty good chat until Westy came over and gave Ethan a dig in the ribs.
    Ethan stood up. ‘Er, excuse me Faith. I can see Vicky looking happy and well-adjusted over there, so I’d better go and do something about that.’ And he wandered off to where Icky was sitting. I wanted to go and listen to him take the micky out of her but Westy was hovering expectantly, so I said, ‘All right, Westy?’
    He cleared his throat.
    ‘I got you a coke,’ he said, putting it down and sloshing most of it over the table.
    I mopped it up with a napkin. ‘Thanks, that’s really nice of you. I’ll buy you one next time.’
    He nodded.
    ‘Are you going to sit down?’
    ‘Oh. Yes. Yep, I’m going to sit down now.’
    So he did.
    I couldn’t help noticing that he was being a bit funny.
    ‘Are you okay, Westy?’
    ‘Fine. I mean, I probably shouldn’t have had that third helping of chilli at lunch, but I thought, you know, that it was best to keep my strength up. But I’m really sweating now.’ He loosened his already loose tie. ‘Phew, are you hot? I don’t mean
hot
hot. I mean, obviously you are
hot
hot, but honestly that’s not all I notice about you because you’re really smart too.’
    I looked round for Megs, but everyone had mysteriously melted away from our table.
    Westy took a gulp of air. ‘Faith, can I tell you something?’
    I looked up at his nervous face and suddenly I had a really bad idea about what the something might be.
    ‘Please don’t, Westy,’ I said.
    ‘I’ve sort of psyched myself up now.