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effortless ease. Carrie’s hair was a lighter brown, and cut expertly to her shoulders. She was taller than Alex, aboutmy height, and exuded calm at all times. Tam was pale and delicate, with tawny hair that waved from whatever clips and bands she tried to restrain it with. Carrie had her arm firmly gripped, looking left and right for an opening in the traffic. While we were all sure Tam could probably take care of herself, we’d never take the chance – her dreamlike state was too convincing, and we’d never forgive ourselves if she got mowed down by a twelve-wheeler truck while working out backing tracks in her head.
    ‘Guys!’ I shrieked with relief, and flung my arms wide. My schoolbag whacked Jessica in the solar plexus and she doubled up. ‘Oops! So sorry, Jess! You okay?’
    Jessica heaved for breath while Carrie, Tam and Alex dodged a school bus to make it to my side. They grabbed my hands and pulled me through the gates, calling, ‘Come on, Jess,’ in a polite offhand way as we headed quickly to the school hall for assembly.
    ‘Were you not listening to me this morning?’ hissed Alex.
    ‘Tatty, Jess tends to start rumours and –’ began Tam.
    ‘Let’s get her inside,’ said Carrie.
    ‘I know, I know!’ I muttered back. ‘But Mum dropped us off at the school gates and there was nowhere to run.’
    ‘Don’t overreact, guys,’ said Carrie. ‘Jessica is actually a good person.’
    ‘Yeah,’ agreed Alex. ‘Good hair, good boobs, good eye for a story. And not just her own story. Jess has ruined morethan just her own reputation. For the next few weeks we are all charged with micro-managing this here nincompoop’s reputation.’
    ‘Hey!’ I said.
    ‘Because she sure as hell can’t manage it herself,’ finished Alex.
    ‘It’s true, Lula,’ said Tam, and she gave me a comforting squeeze. ‘The jinx rumour caused us all a lot of stress. We don’t need any of that again.’
    ‘Well,’ said Carrie. ‘At least this is a girls-only school. Here, we can cope. Can you imagine if the Hambledon High boys were in with us?’
    My friends heaved a collective sigh of relief at this small mercy, and I have to say I shared their sentiments, but I shook my head at them anyway. ‘You’re a bunch of old women,’ I said, and found us four chairs together in the Year Ten section somewhere near the back. ‘Let’s hear what the head has for us this morning.’
    Helen Cluny was sitting right in front of us. Her mum’s Chinese, and Helen is tiny too, with black hair in a short pixie cut. Her dad owns Cluny’s Crematorium, so she’s a good person to know at Halloween, and a good person besides.
    Next to her was Matilda McCabe. Matilda I was never quite sure about. She was a little shorter than me, but she made me feel small and fragile next to her solid strength. Everything about her was blocky, even her mouse-brownhairstyle, and she had a no-nonsense personality to go with it. Her dad is Dr McCabe, who I’m always bumping into because he’s had to patch up a lot of boys that I nearly kissed.
    Let’s not go there.
    Helen turned round. ‘Mr Lang is looking peppy,’ she observed. We all nodded. She was right. Our headmaster was up on the stage rocking backwards and forwards on his feet as if he’d just downed a vat of Ribena.
    When the hall was full and the second bell rung, Mr Lang cleared his throat. Everyone quietened down.
    ‘Ladies,’ he started, ‘welcome to our first school assembly. I’m sorry it’s taken two weeks to get together. There’s been a lot of recent upheaval, which I’ll get to in a minute. Right now we’ve got a few housekeeping points, and some of the staff will help me out here . . .’
    He droned on for a while. Teachers trudged up and down the steps to the stage to tell us about clubs and sports for the term and where to sign up. Alex bumped my arm when Mrs Baldacci got up to urge us to try out Dance Club, but I shook my head.
    ‘
Please
, Tatty!’ she whispered