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Just then, the art teacher, Mrs Simmons, popped her head out. ‘Excuse me, but we don’t have drop-in hours, Poppy Jennings. Get along to where youshouldbe and stop distracting my students.’

Poppy rolled her eyes at Mrs Simmons. ‘Jesus,chill. I’m going.’

Mrs Simmons looked at Norah—who was far less inclined to be sassy—and raised an eyebrow.

Norah felt the pressure of that eyebrow intensely. She said, ‘Bye’ to Poppy very quickly and went back in, Mrs Simmons shutting the door behind her with finality.

Norah returned to her table and happened to glance back at the window. To her delight, Poppy’s face reappeared to give her one last wave goodbye. Norah waved back, and Poppy ducked away.

The rest of the session passed without incident. Except that Joy kept asking why she was smiling like that.

Twelve

Now

Poppy was sitting on a child’s size seat looking at a poster about believing in yourself. There was a giant owl on the poster. Poppy didn’t know what owls had to do with self-belief. Owls were bookish animals. They weren’t go-getters. A salmon would have made more sense. All that struggling upstream business was a much better visual metaphor.

But Poppy wasn’t just in the school corridor to critique the posters, she was here for parent's evening. She was due in to speak to the teacher now-ish. The teaching assistant, Mrs Bauer, popped her weary head out. ‘Mrs Jennings?’

‘It’s Miss, actually,’ Poppy corrected, standing.

‘No, sorry,’ Mrs Bauer said apologetically. ‘I just came to say there’s going to be a delay. We’re talking to Julip’s dad and it’s... running long.’

Julip. Poppy knew the name. Mainly because Luna often came home with gleeful tails of how Julip liked to piss all over the bathroom floor for the sheer sport of it. His dad was clearly in for a long one about his behaviour.

‘Are you OK to wait?’ Mrs Baur asked.

Poppy had left Luna with a neighbour from two doors down, Cherry. She’d babysat Poppy as a kid, so she knew the woman was capable, if getting up there in years now. She wasalready helping out with Saturdays, but Poppy didn’t want to take the piss.

‘I can hang on a bit, sure,’ she assured Mrs Bauer, though. What else could she say?

‘Great. Sure it won’t be long.’

A set of parents rounded the corner, but she didn’t know them. She’d been back a few months now but was still treading water, socially. ‘Oh, hello, are you waiting?’ the woman asked. ‘We thought we were late.’

‘It’s running a bit long,’ Poppy explained.

‘Oh, umm... We couldn’t jump the queue, could we?’ the woman asked. ‘It’s just,hisdad’s got the kids, and he’s a bit... We need to get back as quick as we can.’

‘He’s fine,’ the woman’s husband assured her, placing a hand on her arm.

‘He let them watchThe Exorcist!’ she muttered to him angrily.

‘He thought it would be OK because it’s about a kid. I think he forgot all the possession stuff,’ he said defensively.

‘Josh isstillhaving nightmares about pea soup. He’s completely scarred,’ the woman hissed at him.

‘You can go in front of me,’ Poppy said. She didn’t want the woman to come home to a viewing ofThe Shining.

The woman was relief itself. ‘Bless you. Are you Luna’s mum?’

‘Yeah,’ Poppy smiled. ‘And yours is...’

‘Drew.’

Poppy didn’t know Drew from a hole in the wall. ‘Ah. Yes. Of course,’ she said.

‘Hey, maybe Luna would like to come to Drew’s birthday on Sunday?’ the woman asked.