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‘The poor little mite. I never even knew a situation like this could exist. I feel like I’m in a madhouse.’

Mia sighed. ‘I’m hanging on by my fingernails. I just don’t want this to break the family apart. That would really upset Sarah, if she was the cause of a falling-out. That’s why I feel we have to back up Adam, even though it’s incredibly difficult.’

Charlie didn’t look convinced. Who was right? Charlie or Adam? What was the right thing to do? After reading Sarah’s diary, Mia felt that Sarah would have wanted the baby to have the best chance possible. For now, while her heart went out to Charlie, she agreed with Adam.

26

Riley was in her room with Shocko, riffling through her bookshelf. Shocko was looking in her full-length mirror, admiring his new eyebrow piercing. ‘It looks so good.’

‘Are you allowed to wear it in school?’

‘No. I’ll have to take it out tomorrow morning and put it back in when I get home.’

‘What did your parents say?’

‘Dad told me I looked like a gobshite and Mum said she hoped it got infected because that would serve me right.’

Riley grinned. ‘Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think it looks kind of cool.’

‘Thanks. Me too.’

Riley threw another book onto the floor. The pile was getting higher. ‘Damn it, I just can’t decide which one to choose for the drama project.’

‘Why don’t you do that one you were telling me about? The one with the woman who wanted to be president of Brazil, then got kidnapped and tied up in the jungle for, like, a decade.’

‘Ingrid Betancourt, it was Colombia and, no, Zach will just moan about howintenseit is. I need something else.’

‘I thought that book sounded good. If I was in your school and we got paired up, I’d be happy with it.’

‘It is an incredible story, but I want to choose something Zach can’t complain about.’

‘The dude seems to complain about everything you do.’ Shocko walked over to Riley’s desk chair and picked up herguitar. He strummed it tunelessly. Riley wished he’d learn to play properly. She had offered to teach him but he wanted to learn organically, he said. In Shocko’s case, that meant never at all.

Riley threw an armful of books onto the bed. ‘I need help, Shocko. Which one would you choose?’

Shocko picked up the books and read out the titles. ‘The Grapes of Wrath,Lean In,I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,Man’s Search for Meaning,I am Malala,Anne Frank’s Diary,To Kill a Mockingbird,The Color Purple, a biography of Gandhi,A Long Walk to Freedom,We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families.’ He waved the last one in the air. ‘Zach may have a point. These are all serious downers. I know you like to read about important stuff and real people who inspire and all, butWe Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families? That’s a whole other level of depressing.’

Riley lay down beside him on the bed and groaned. ‘When you put them all side by side they are a bit heavy jelly, but individually they’re brilliant. None of them will work, though. I need something middle-ground. Something that’s a good story but not too much.’

Shocko plucked the guitar strings while Riley tried to think.

‘I was watching this show about these, like, midget people,’ he said, as he strummed – badly.

‘They don’t like being called midgets.’

‘Why?’

‘They think it’s offensive and derogatory.’

‘But they are midgets.’

‘No. They’re Little People or people of small stature.’

‘Seriously? They want to be called Little People? I would have thoughtthatwould be offensive.’

‘No, that’s fine.’

‘How do you know this?’