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‘I had a word with Olly and he thinks we’d be able to afford it. Not this year, obviously, but maybe next.’
    At that, Phil frowns.
    ‘It’s two and a half grand, Phil. We don’t have that kind of cash lying around.’ In all honesty, we don’t even have two and a half quid lying around. ‘This year’s course starts in two weeks, which is way too soon. But now that I’ve got a plan, we can start saving towards it.’
    ‘Let me lend you the money.’
    ‘No.’ I dismiss the suggestion with a wave of my hand. ‘You can’t possibly do that.’
    ‘I can.’ Phil puts his hand over mine.
    ‘How would you get the money?’
    ‘Look at this place,’ he says. ‘The takings are going up every week. I can manage it.
    I chew anxiously on my fingernails.
    ‘Don’t waste another year, Nell. Do it now while you’re fired up. Wait a year and there’ll be all kinds of reasons why you can’t do it. Bite the bullet. Now.’
    ‘They only had two places left when I spoke to them. They might have already gone.’
    Constance and Jenny come and sit down with us. Constance sighs and kicks off her shoes with a grateful sigh. ‘I bet even Ronald bloody McDonald isn’t as busy as this.’
    Phil grins. ‘I’m just telling Nell that she should go to art college.’
    ‘Wow, Nell,’ Jenny says. ‘That’d be cool.’
    ‘It’s a scary amount of money,’ I point out.
    ‘But it would get you out of here. No offence, Phil,’ she adds hastily.
    Phil rolls his eyes. ‘None taken.’
    ‘You deserve to do well, girl,’ Constance offers. ‘Look at this place, at what you can do. You can hardly call it a dump, Jen. It’s like a palace.’ My friend pinches one of the boss’s chips. ‘He’s right, love. You’ve got a real talent. Don’t waste it here.’
    Now I’m racked with indecision. I’d agreed with Olly that I’d wait, but something inside of me has started to burn and I want to break out now while I have the chance. For the first time in my life, I feel passionate about doing something. It thrills me and it frightens me. Could this be how ambition feels? I suck in a wobbly breath. ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Phone the college,’ Phil insists. ‘See if they’ve got a place left. If they have, then it’s fate or whatever that stuff is that you women know all about.’
    A frisson of excitement sweeps over me. ‘Shall I?’
    ‘Go on,’ Phil urges. ‘What have you got to lose?’
    ‘Just do it. Just do it. Do it, do it, do it!’ Jen sings in the style of The Black Eyed Peas.
    Constance gives me a nudge. ‘Go on, Nell. I wish I’d had the chance when I was your age.’
    And do you know, that’s what does it. As much as I love Constance, would I want to be in her shoes? Do I still want to be working in a chip shop when I’m coming up to retirement? I’m thirty next year. That’s not getting any younger in anyone’s book and maybe I should be getting a move on.
    Mind made up, I take my mobile out of my pocket. Phil reads out the number from the brochure as I punch it in with trembling fingers. They answer within seconds, instead of it going to voicemail or something, and I should take that as a sign too. I speak to the woman on the other end realising that I’m babbling. Moments later I hang up. Phil, Jenny and Constance all stare at me, holding their breath with anticipation.
    ‘They had one place left,’ I say. ‘I’m in.’
    They go crazy and cheer and kiss me and hug me. Phil hugs me the hardest. Our eyes meet. ‘Thanks,’ I say to him. ‘Thanks so much. You don’t know what this means.’
    ‘I do,’ he assures me. ‘Just make me proud, Nell. That’s all I ask.’
    I’m in. My head’s spinning. In two weeks I start my new Art and Design foundation course. In two weeks I start my new life.

Chapter 10
     

     
    Olly stares at me open-mouthed. ‘I thought we agreed that we’d wait until next year?’
    ‘But Phil offered to lend me the money,’ I remind him. ‘I can do it