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other and we nearly kissed.
    It was so quick, so fleeting, that I almost didn’t believe it had actually happened. Immediately, I gasped and we pulled apart really quickly. By this time everyone else had focussed on Faith and Eddie’s hunt for our prize, so no one was looking our way. This didn’t make any sense: why would Nick and I want to kiss each other? Me and Nick? This was totally illogical!

Chapter 6
About Doing the
Right Thing …

    I had spent the days following Aunt Grace’s party in a state of shock. I kept thinking about Nick and how we had nearly kissed. At first, I couldn’t concentrate enough to get any revision done, but then the exams began and I went into hyper revision mode, where I ate, slept, and breathed my GCSEs. It was weird being at school and not feeling confident enough about how that day’s exam had gone to hang out with everyone and discuss it afterwards. Even Bharti seemed to be in an exam haze – we barely spoke to each other. She was always in a rush to be somewhere else.
    It was only when there were just five days to go until my final exam that I felt I could relax slightly and think about Nick again. Since Aunt Grace’s party I’d only seen him once and that was to go over any last-minute maths problems I had before my exam. He seemed happy to see me, but it was like nothing had happened. He seemed to only want to talk about maths. So I tried to forget about it, but I couldn’t.
    Did Nick fancy me? The question of whether I fancied him was now redundant. I knew my feelings for him had altered. Before he came round for the maths lesson, I changed outfits six times. Delphina thought I must have been meeting Nelson, so she was stunned to see Nick walk through our front door.
    People didn’t accidentally almost kiss. I also knew that I wasn’t one of those girls who could claim to fancy two guys at the same time, because I definitely hadn’t fancied Nelson in ages and now couldn’t stop thinking about Nick.
    That’s when I began to feel terrible about Nelson. What was I doing? He had sent sweet texts wishing me luck in my exams, but all I could feel was guilt. I had a secret. I knew something he didn’t and I knew I couldn’t keep it from him much longer. I hadn’t wanted to split up with Nelson before or during our exams, that would be too mean and besides, I didn’t want to be known as the girl who messed up Nelson’s GCSEs.
    It would have helped if I’d had someone to talk to, but Bharti barely responded to my request for a chat, saying she was busy that afternoon, and that left Tanisha.
    I really didn’t want to chat to Tanisha, but Mum had been bugging me to call her, as she’d left loads of messages. I knewit would mean listening to her go on and on about the puberty ceremony. I wasn’t wrong. It was even worse using Skype. At least, if I was on the phone, I could cut the call short by telling her that I needed to do something that required both hands, but with Skype it was like having a hands-free phone. I was just grateful our webcam was broken.
    â€˜Makeeda, I don’t get it. Why?’ Tanisha said in her American/British accent.
    No one quite knew or understood how Tanisha had managed to maintain parts of her British accent, despite living in the States since she was twelve. Her dad moved out there after her mum, Auntie Jennifer, had died. Auntie Jennifer was Mum’s sister.
    â€˜It doesn’t matter, because I haven’t made up my mind yet, anyway,’ I responded.
    â€˜Yeah, but why exactly would you even consider doing this ceremony?’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜It’s archaic, Makeeda. It’s got nothing to do with your life.’
    It was strange – even though I had walked blindly into this situation, part of me was warming to the idea. I mean, it was part of a tradition that all my female ancestors had undergone, so what was so wrong with me