Page 44 of Role Model

“I saw what you did to those photographers at the dance,” she says steadily.

I wait to be scolded. But I won’t apologise. Instead, to my surprise, her lips twitch.

“Well done,” she whispers.

I smile wetly. She doesn’t know how much I needed her to say that. How much I needed her to be on my side.

We all go to Winter Wonderland. Mum and Dad go on a swinging pirate ship, and we laugh as Mum shrieks girlishly at the rather easy-going ride. Fizz and Mum take a walk, just the two of them, and talk. For an hour. When they come back, we go on an easy rollercoaster.

I like the adrenaline of it. I like knowing that, even when the drops are scary and the speed is intense, it will all be okay. The hard bits are only temporary. We’ll only remember how much we enjoyed the ride when it’s over.169

*

A year goes by. I laugh all of the time now. I refuse every request from Mum’s staff, and she gets irate when she realises that they’ve approached me. She’s campaigning to end monetising children on the internet. She’s working on privacy laws for minors. She asks my opinion all of the time.

It’s school picture day again and I want to get it over with so that I can join Txai and Niamh for lunch. I’m wearing ear defenders. I wear them a lot now, they help me manage school better.

When it’s my turn to sit for my individual portrait, the photographer frowns at the sight of them.

“Maybe take those off, darling?”

I smile at him. “No, thank you. They’re staying on.”

They will always try to get me back in the circus. But I know who I am now. I have friends who love me. I’m wilder, like an elephant. And I have never seen an elephant that felt sorry for itself.

And so, without even being asked…

I smile.

The End.