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“You can’t just go peering over fences. It’s not right. It’s not polite.” The woman looked her up and down. “You’re obviously not from around here, but you can’t go around looking over fences.”

“And you can’t go around letting your pet defecate wherever they please,” Ava said, not to be outdone.

The woman sighed, then shrugged. “Fine, I’ll have a word with her about it.”

“A word with who?” asked Ava.

“The cat, of course,” said the woman, before closing the door firmly in Ava’s face.

Well, really. Ava looked at the plastic bag in her hand and seriously considered pushing it through the letterbox, but thought better of it. Thought better of herself.

Honestly, if this was what neighbors were like in this country, she could count herself lucky that she wasn’t staying long.

She marched back to her own house, determined to keep an eye open for the damn cat.

???

“You’re not worried, are you?” Hope said, putting the bedtime book down and looking at Alice’s face serious on her pillow.

“No,” said Alice. “Not exactly.”

“Because you went to school last year and everything was fine,” said Hope. “And you know that I’m always right there. I’m just in the office if you need me. All the other boys and girls don’t have their mum there.” She paused as a thought struck her. “Um, that isn’t what’s bothering you, is it? That your mum’s there?”

“No!” Alice giggled.

“Then what’s the problem?” Alice had been uncharacteristically quiet all evening, and Hope knew something was wrong.

“Well, you know how it was supposed to be Mrs. Bowen that was my teacher for upper infants?” Alice said.

“Yes,” said Hope, stroking hair off her daughter’s forehead. “And you know how Mrs. Bowen is having a baby so she won’t be the upper infants teacher this year?”

“That’s the problem,” sighed Alice. “I already knew my teacher before I had school last year because she came to visit when I was in reception class. But now I don’t know.”

“And you’re worried it’ll be someone you don’t like?” asked Hope.

Alice nodded, wrinkling the pillowcase under her head.

Hope smiled. “You’ve got nothing to worry about,” she said.

“You don’t know that. You don’t know who my teacher’s going to be either.”

Alice really was too smart for her own good sometimes. She had a fair point though. The vacancy hadn’t been filled when school ended, and all Hope knew now is that Jake Lowell, the headteacher, had found a candidate through a school exchange program that Hope couldn’t pretend she understood.

“I do know that,” she said to Alice now. “Because I know a secret.”

“What’s that?” asked Alice, suspicious.

“That all upper infant teachers have to be nice,” Hope said airily. “It’s a requirement. A qualification for the position. It’s the first thing Mr. Lowell looks for. And you trust Mr. Lowell, don’t you?”

Alice squinted in thought, then nodded.

“There, see, it’ll all be fine,” said Hope. “And you need to go to sleep, or else you’ll be in no fit state to meet that new teacher tomorrow.”

Alice screwed her eyes tight shut and Hope laughed before dropping a kiss on her head. “Night, kiddo.”

“Night, mum.”

Hope switched off the big light and closed the door until only a crack of nightlight shone out onto the landing. As she walked down the stairs she had a sudden memory of opening the front door that afternoon and she shook her head.