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wondering where you are.’
    â€˜I go to school here now, Mum. Up Latimer.’
    â€˜You what? You can’t swap schools just like that! The nerve of it. You’re coming home this weekend, do you hear me?’
    I heard. I put the phone down and wept. Nan had left me alone in the living room so I could talk to Mum privately. She came back to find me curled up crying into a cushion on her sofa.
    â€˜Hey, don’t get that gold velveteen all snotty, sweetheart,’ she said, lifting me up and putting her arms tight round me. ‘Now, tell Nan. What’s your mum said?’
    â€˜Oh Nan, I’ve got to go home!’
    â€˜Do you want to?’
    â€˜No!’
    â€˜Well then, it’s simple. You’re not going.’
    â€˜But Mum says—’
    â€˜I’m
her
mum and
I
say you’re staying,’ Nan said firmly. ‘I’ll phone her right back and tell her straight.’
    She did too. There was one BIG row over the phone. My mum said she was still coming. With Terry.
    â€˜Like that’s going to frighten me, Tammy,’ said Nan. ‘That bloke of yours might get off on cutting up little girls like Treasure but I don’t think he’s got the bottle to take
me
on.’
    She’s right too. Nan can get the better of anyone.
    I know I can trust Nan. But I still feel a bit jumpy.
    I couldn’t sleep last night so Nan let me cuddle up in her bed. Then Patsy came in too so it got a bit crowded but Nan didn’t mind a bit.
    â€˜I’ve got two arms for my two girls,’ she said, and she cuddled us both.
    Then when I got back from school today Willie said I could have a go on his bike as he was off round a mate’s house to play computer games. I was dead chuffed because Willie’s bike is seriously wicked and he won’t let Patsy so much as
touch
it.
    I used to beg to go on Kyle’s bike back home – no, back
then, this
is home – so I know what I’m doing. I raced it round and round the grounds. The boys wouldn’t let me on their ramp so I couldn’t try out any really daredevil stuff but I stuck my head in the air like I didn’t care and did neat bunny-hops and perfect 360s just to show them I was no toddler on its first trike.
    They pretended they weren’t watching, but they
were
. There was this other girl too, dead posh, in one of those weird old-fashioned uniforms like she’d stepped straight out of some 1950s time-warp. She even had long socks and button-over shoes like babies wear. She looked like she’d talk all toffee-nosed but she didn’t seem snooty. She was staring at me, but it was like she thought I was special.
    I rode round and her head swivelled, her beady brown eyes fixed on me. I stuck my tongue out at her. I wondered if she’d look shocked but she stuck her tongue out back at me, as if it was our own secret signal.
    I
liked
her.
    I wondered what on earth she was doing on our estate. I watched her walk off. Then I started pedalling like crazy after her. She dodged when she heard me coming, like she thought I was trying to slam straight into her. I braked and leapt off, landing on my toes, dead cool.
    â€˜Hiya!’
    â€˜Hi,’ she said.
    Her voice was horribly high and plummy. She licked her lips nervously. I could tell it worried her too.
    â€˜What’s your name then?’
    This
really
got her. Lick, lick, lick with her little pointy tongue.
    â€˜India.’
    â€˜What? Like the place?’
    â€˜Yes. It’s a stupid name.’ She went very pink.
    â€˜I like place names. Like Brooklyn for a boy. Is that where your mum and dad started you?’
    â€˜I don’t know. Maybe.’ She pulled a face.
    I giggled. ‘Yeah, isn’t it weird, thinking of them doing it? I’m glad my mum didn’t call me after a place. I’d be Staines!’
    I leant Willie’s bike against the wall and swung myself up on it. India joined me, though she