Lauren hobbled in to breakfast to a kind of medieval fanfare. Scarlett and Melody walked ahead of her like footmen, clearing everything in her path and throwing exaggerated you-can-do-this smiles behind them every so often. A group of girls left their table so she could sit down and Miss Mardle brought her a huge tray of food.

Keira rolled her eyes. ‘She hasn’t even broken it. And even if she had, you don’t become a nice person when a bone fractures. You are just the same person, but a bit crapper.’

‘Don’t look,’ Connie said. So I looked over. Jack, Max and Toddy were sitting with Lauren and the girls at the Royal Table.

‘He may as well start peeling her grapes.’ Keira shook her head.

‘I still don’t think he’s that bad,’ I said. The thought of how nervous he had been before he asked me out for hot chocolate, and the look on his face when I said no, was still imprinted on my brain. Along with the way Lauren had looked at me when she saw us together.

‘He’s a total player,’ Keira said, jabbing her fork into a melon chunk. ‘He is the worst kind cos he acts all shy and clueless. So, he flirts with you at the movie night—’

‘He barely even looked at me!’

‘Flirts with you, then literally breaks into your bedroom.’

‘He knocked.’

‘He did knock,’ Connie nodded. ‘A burglar with manners.’

Keira prodded her with a fork, and turned back to me. ‘So, he flirts with you, breaks into your room, tries to pull you, tries to kill Mr Jambon, then literally leaves and gets off with Lauren. And then, yesterday, he tries to ask you out when he already has a girlfriend! Who incidentally was in hospital at the time.’ She held the fork up and pointed it at us. ‘Really. Nice. Guy.’

‘Do you really think he wanted to kill Mr Jambon?’ Connie whispered. ‘Should we report him to the National Hamster Council? I am a member.’

I put my head on the table. It was damp and smelt like cleaning products. I didn’t know how to explain it. When Keira laid it out like that it did sound pretty conclusive.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I feel kind of … like it’s fair. I wished something bad to happen to Lauren …’

‘Yeah, don’t say that too loudly, or ever again,’ Keira hissed.

‘But you know what I mean? It’s like karma. I did hex her. And if she gets to be with Jack to teach me a lesson, then …’

Keira ate a piece of cheese and looked over again. ‘Look at her, she’s loving it. It’s like she’s at the Oscars. You’ve done her a massive favour. She’s the centre of attention now and will be for the rest of the trip.’

After breakfast, we headed for a different ski lift. This one took us further up the mountain, to a slightly steeper slope, and it wasn’t the normal, easy conveyor-belt style. It was like a garden swing seat, but dangling twenty metres in the air.

‘I’m not sure we’re ready for this,’ Keira said to Tania, in the queue. ‘I mean, we can barely ski along on the flat. How are we supposed to jump off a moving chair?’

Tania laughed. ‘It will be fine. I’ll be on the one in front of you. Just watch me and do what I do.’

We stood on the red line, and let the chair lift sweep us up off our feet. Then we were whooshed upwards, and it felt amazing to be sitting in mid-air, shunting slowly up the mountain.

‘I feel like we’re at Alton Towers,’ Connie said.

We talked about Roland and whether our igloo was still intact and whether other people would be carving the name of their true love in it for centuries to come.

Sitting in-between Keira and Connie, tightly packed inside layers of padded jacket, I felt kind of amazing. Lauren wasn’t dead and even if Jack’s behaviour was impossible to understand, it was there in my mind to obsess about.

‘We’re actually doing it now,’ Keira said. ‘No more boring green-slope snowploughing for us, we’re going down a proper, blue slope today.’

‘This is where The Sound of Music is set,’ Connie shouted in to the mountains. She started doing an impression of a goat and yodelling while Keira swayed the lift violently from side to side. We sang as loudly as we could all the way to the top.

Then we saw the sign that the unloading zone was approaching.

‘I’m scared,’ Connie said. ‘I’ve forgotten what to do.’

On the lift ahead of us, we saw Tania effortlessly lift the bar and glide down the little slope. She made it look easy.

‘Keep your ski tips up,’ Keira said.

‘Stand up and glide,’ I said.

‘Yes, but when?’ Connie was starting to sound a bit frantic. The unloading zone was getting closer and closer.

‘Hold my hand,’ Keira ordered, as the bar released.

‘Tania said not to hold hands!’ Connie shrieked.

‘Connie, come on!’ Keira lifted the bar over our heads and started to stand up. ‘Now!’

I launched myself down the slope and somehow stayed upright. I came to a wobbly stop just a few metres down. Keira was next to me, but when we looked back, Connie was still on the lift, swinging her way back down the mountain. She looked over her shoulder and yelled, ‘I’ll get it right next time round!’

Scarlett sighed loudly. ‘So, what, now we all have to wait for her?’ she said, to no one in particular.

Keira and I sat down on the snow. ‘Ugh, I hate them. You know, Connie never got it about Lauren. Why you were friends with her.’

‘I dunno, it’s hard to believe now, but she used to be really nice.’ I shrugged. ‘She was my best friend.’

‘Well, you’ve got us now,’ Keira said. It felt so good to hear. ‘I think you’re thinking too much about the wrong things.’

‘You’re right,’ I said firmly. ‘I’m putting a lid on it. Let’s never ever talk about Jack or Lauren again.’

‘Agreed,’ nodded Keira. Jack popped in to my head a second later. I had said ‘talk’ not ‘think’.

‘There she is!’ Keira shouted. In the distance, the bright orange outline of Connie appeared. She was still alone on the lift.

‘If she couldn’t do it when we were next to her, she definitely won’t be able to do it now,’ I said. We stood up and edged towards the little lump of snow you were supposed to jump on to from the lift.

Everyone else in our group had now made it to the top and people were milling around, waiting for things to begin. Connie definitely had an audience this time.

As the orange blob became more and more Connie, I could see how scared she was.

I held my arms out like a mum waiting to catch a toddler. ‘Close your eyes and jump!’ I shouted.

‘Don’t listen to Mouse!’ Tania yelled. ‘Keep your eyes open! It’s very important you keep your eyes open!’

Connie started screaming, ‘I can’t do it! I can’t!’

‘When I shout “jump”, JUMP!’ Tania yelled.

Connie started to lift the bar. She was just a few metres away from us. Tania shouted, ‘JUMP!’

Connie reacted by shrieking and lowering the bar back down on to her lap. We all stood and watched as she circled right round and headed back down the mountain.

She turned and yelled over her shoulder again. ‘I can’t do it when you’re all watching!’

Tania put her head in her hands. ‘Oh my god. This girl is ridiculous.’

Me and Keira laughed, but I could see Melody and Scarlett rolling their eyes.

By the time Connie was in sight again, the crowd had doubled in size. There were whole families and other random ski groups all waiting eagerly to see whether she would make it off the lift.

‘There she is!’ shouted Tania, pointing at a little orange speck swinging towards us again. All at once, everyone was yelling instructions at Connie.

The dad of a random Scottish family was screaming, ‘Take a deep breath and jump, sweetheart!’ while another ski instructor was shouting, ‘Eyes on the horizon! Don’t look down!’

When Connie was close enough, we heard her shouting, ‘I told you, I can’t do it when you’re all looking at me!’

Tania turned to the crowd. ‘Everybody turn round. Now!’ she yelled. Everyone laughed and then did as she said. Connie now had about twenty-five backs facing her as she trundled towards us. I heard Tania shout, ‘OK, Connie – nobody’s watching you now. Just lift the bar and jump off!’

‘Maybe we should try a spell to get her off?’ I whispered to Keira. ‘They do seem to be working quite well for us on this trip.’

Keira laughed. ‘Sorry, I left my copy of Spells for Teen Witches Who Can’t Get Off Ski Lifts at home.’

We all stood there with our backs to the lift, waiting and listening. I heard the metal creak of the bar being lifted, and then Connie’s screaming war cry. Then nothing. ‘What happened?’ said Tania.

We all turned round to see the lift swinging back down the mountain, empty this time. Connie was lying, face first, on the ground in front of us.

She looked up, her face a white mask of snow. ‘Third time lucky,’ she grinned.

The whole crowd cheered, and me and Keira helped her to her feet.

Tania led our group across to the point we’d be skiing down from. Even though the slope wasn’t that steep, or even that long, it still looked really scary. I took my goggles off and the sun dazzled me. I rubbed sunblock in to my cheeks and looked out across the endless mountains. I had moved away from Connie and Keira to psych myself up for what we were about to do.

‘You OK, Hat Girl?’ Tania swished to a perfect stop next to me.

‘Er, not really. From up here it looks really terrifying. It’s insane.’

‘I know. But that’s what makes it awesome.’ She looked so relaxed about it all.

‘I hate being scared,’ I admitted. ‘I don’t even watch scary movies. I don’t think I’m like … a thrill-seeker. Mouse didn’t stick as a nickname for nothing.’

‘Well, there’s nothing you can do now. There’s only one way down. You can’t stay up here for ever.’

I looked down the mountain and it was like every single part of me recoiled. Like my whole body was screaming ‘DON’T DO IT’. ‘You don’t understand. It just doesn’t feel natural. It’s totally against my instincts.’

I thought about the barre at White Lodge and the mirror I had stared in to every day for years. I looked down at my feet. Even in ski boots they wanted to turn out. My spine wanted to be straight, not crouched. My whole body rejected what it was being told to do. Tania didn’t say anything and her silence pushed me on.

‘Everyone thought I would be great at skiing because I’m …’ I stopped myself before I said ‘good’. ‘Because I dance a lot. But skiing is the opposite of dancing. It’s like my instincts are telling me not to do it.’

‘Yeah, but is it your instincts or is it your fear?’ Tania said.

I pulled my helmet down over the bump that my bun made underneath it. ‘How do you know which is which? Like, surely your instincts are there to protect you from things that can hurt you? That’s why you have them.’

Tania lifted her goggles and looked at me. ‘Maybe, but it sounds kind of boring. Maybe you should go against your instincts just once and see how it feels?’ She smiled. ‘Are you gonna wear the Roland Hat for your first proper run?’

I put the black beanie on underneath my helmet. ‘May the force of Roland be with me …’

We stood in a line looking down at the mountain and one by one, like jumping off a diving board, people suddenly felt brave enough to do it. Keira pushed off with no warning and Connie followed with a scream. I stared down at the little figures slowly zigzagging back and forth. Then I realized that I was the only one left.

I edged forward until it just sort of happened. And then I was doing it. It was like the speed made me feel everything without really thinking about it. I went faster and the wind hit my face hard and it was like I was pushing myself to make it even scarier than it already was.

I saw the bottom coming and remembered to snowplough just in time. Tania was sitting, smiling up at me, and as I waved at her, I realized I was laughing.

‘Hat Girl comes in first!’ Tania whooped. ‘You looked great up there. It may feel wrong but it looks really right.’

‘I did it!’

‘Yeah, you did.’

‘Am I really first?’ I looked back up at the slope. Connie was flat on her back and Keira was wobbling along centimetres at a time.

‘Yeah. Gold medal. And do you know what your prize is?’

‘What?’

‘You get to see your boyfriend again …’

Jack

All I could think as we traipsed across the tough, crunchy snow was: what am I going to say to Roland?

We’d told Basti that we wanted to spend our free afternoon time watching Roland’s press conference. Despite seeming a bit confused that we were more interested in French pop singers than snowboarding, he’d said that was fine. So now we were making the long trek back up the mountain to the music video set.

I hadn’t exactly been honest with Max or Toddy about what had happened with Mouse. I couldn’t bring myself to tell them the humiliating truth, so I’d just lied and said that she wasn’t interested in Roland. Max had just laughed. ‘Not surprising, really, is it? After all, he does look like you.’

Lying to those two was one thing, but lying to Roland was going to be a whole different matter. What was I supposed to say? I could hardly tell him the truth. ‘Sorry, Roland – I know I was supposed to ask Mouse out for you, but in the end, I just asked her out for me instead. And, in case you’re wondering, she said no. So, we’re both screwed, really. Anyway, can you get our band a record deal now, please?’

Max didn’t even seem particularly bothered about the Roland stuff. He was just banging on about Scarlett and Lauren.

‘I honestly think Lauren busting her ankle is the best thing that’s happened on this trip,’ he said, as we joined the queue for the lift. ‘I mean, breakfast this morning was amazing. Did you see the look on Jamie’s face when we sat down with them?! Lauren was all over you, Jack, and Scarlett was absolutely loving my banter. And, Toddy, you even spoke to Melody!’

‘I asked her to pass me the butter,’ Toddy said.

‘Yeah, and did she pass it?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well, there you go! There’s a connection! You’ve got this whole butter thing going on between you now.’ Me and Toddy glanced at each other. ‘I honestly reckon we’ll all definitely be off zero by the end of this week,’ Max carried on. ‘Now it’s just about who gets there first.’

It did feel like something could happen with Lauren. I had no idea why she liked me, but she definitely did seem to. I kept telling myself to forget Mouse and just focus on trying to get off with Lauren, but it was impossible. Even though she’d rejected me, I wanted her more than ever. How was that fair?

After a few minutes’ wait, we finally got on to the belt and whirred our way up the mountain. The video set looked pretty much the same as it had two days ago, except for a wobbly-looking stage that had been set up in the space where Roland and Mouse had been dancing. The area around the two massive white trailers was still cordoned off, and all around the cordons were huddles of serious-looking French blokes, with cameras and voice recorders, jostling for position next to the mad, glitter-faced Roland fans.

We followed Max as he shoulder-barged his way to the front of the crowd, where a terrifying-looking bald bloke in a black suit and sunglasses was standing.

‘Er … Bonjour,’ Max said to him. ‘Do you speak anglais?’

The bald bloke nodded. ‘Cool,’ said Max. ‘Well, basically, we’re big mates of Roland’s. So if you don’t mind letting us through, that’d be great.’

The bald bloke pushed his sunglasses up on to his dome-like head, so he could examine Max more closely.

‘You are Roland’s friends?’ he said, in his thick French accent. We nodded. ‘Everyone here is Roland’s friends,’ he laughed.

‘No, but we really are,’ Max insisted. ‘Honestly, he told us to come. Ask him.’

A few girls around us piped up, pleadingly, in broken English. ‘Yes, he told us to come, too! We’re his friends, too!’

The bald bloke laughed another big, booming laugh. ‘You see? Everyone here is Roland’s friend. And everyone here is staying behind this barrier.’ Then he flicked his sunglasses back down, as if to indicate the conversation was over.

Max whipped out his phone and shot a selfie of the three of us. Then he handed it to the bald bloke. ‘Please, mate … just show Roland this picture and say we’re outside. Just see what he says, honestly.’

The bald bloke sighed. ‘Do you promise to go away and not come back if I do this?’

‘Yeah, cross our hearts,’ grinned Max.

The bloke took the phone and slouched off into the trailer. A couple of seconds later, he came shuffling back. He looked at us for a second, then shrugged, handed Max his phone back, and lifted the plastic barrier so we could duck underneath it, triumphantly.

We opened the door of the trailer to find Roland slumped grumpily on a red sofa, in his tatty leather jacket, a pair of huge sunglasses pushed up in to his floppy hair. He was getting yelled at by a tiny, but very loud, American woman with long blonde pigtails.

‘I don’t care if you don’t want to do it, mister! You’re doing it!’ she shouted. ‘If you think I’m cancelling a press conference at the last minute, you can think again! And as for you and Hayley Kwarseany, as far as the press goes, you’re an item! And that’s final!’

She spun round violently, and clocked us three, her already angry face getting instantly angrier. ‘And who the hell are these guys?’ She squinted at me, and then looked at Roland. ‘Are you related, or something?’

‘It’s fine,’ muttered Roland. ‘They are my English friends.’

The woman eyed us cautiously. ‘Right, well, whatever. They need to be outta here asap, Roland. Press conference starts in thirty minutes.’ She stormed past us and flung the door open. Just as she was about to step through, she turned back and glared at Roland. ‘And don’t even think about moving from this trailer, buddy. Remember I can see you through the window.’ And with that, she slammed the door so hard the whole trailer shook.

‘She seems nice,’ said Toddy.

Roland laughed. ‘It’s good to see you guys again.’ He stood up and sighed. ‘Cooper is just angry because I don’t want to do the press conference. I am getting sick of being this puppet who has always to do what he’s told, you know? They are now even trying to put me in a “showmance” with some American singer I’ve never even met.’ He paused. ‘“Showmance” – is this the right word?’

‘Well, it’s not actually a word,’ frowned Toddy. ‘But, yeah, I think it is the right word.’

‘Anyway, we don’t have much time,’ Roland said. ‘Did you speak to Mouse for me?’

Max cleared his throat, nervously, and glanced at me.

‘Erm … yeah,’ I started. ‘I did speak to her, Roland.’

‘And?’

‘Well, she … erm … well, it’s sort of difficult.’ I frowned, to show just how difficult it was.

He stared at me, unblinking, his expression unreadable. ‘What?’ He sounded impatient.

‘She … erm … I just don’t think she was interested, that’s all.’

He looked at me in silence for a few seconds. ‘Did she misunderstand you? You told her I liked her?’

Not exactly, I thought. But I said, ‘Yeah.’

‘And you’re telling me she wasn’t interested?’

I shook my head. ‘In me?’

I nodded.

He blinked quickly a few times, like he was trying hard to understand this, but he just couldn’t. Then he shook his head. He didn’t look sad, or even annoyed. Just totally, totally confused.

‘But I’m … Roland,’ he said blankly.

‘Yeah, we know,’ said Max.

‘It’s just … this doesn’t normally happen to me with girls,’ said Roland, examining his hands, as if to check he wasn’t disappearing. ‘Maybe I have lost my touch. Or even worse … my looks.’

He stepped sideways, in front of a full-length mirror, and stared at his reflection.

‘No,’ he said, after a second. ‘My looks are still good.’ He turned to me. ‘You must have done something wrong, Jack. She must have misheard you.’ He exhaled loudly, frustrated. ‘I should have tried to do it myself!’

‘Well, why don’t you?’ said Max, peering out the window.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, she’s outside now.’

We all clamoured to join him at the window. There, at the side of the still-growing crowd, were Mouse, Connie and Keira.

Roland suddenly started pacing the whole length of the trailer, excitedly. ‘This is it! I’m going to speak to her!’

‘But didn’t your crazy lady say that you couldn’t leave the trailer?’ said Toddy. ‘And won’t you also get, like, swamped by mental girls the minute you go out there?’

Roland sighed and slumped back down on to the sofa, defeated. ‘It’s true.’

Toddy nodded at me, and grinned. ‘You could always get your stunt double here to stand in for you.’

Max laughed, but Roland was suddenly staring at me with a scary intensity. He stood up and walked over to me. ‘Jack … Yes … Would you do this for me?’

I blinked. ‘What? You’re not serious?’

He was pacing the trailer again, more excited than ever. ‘Yes! You would just have to sit here, just so Cooper thinks I haven’t disappeared. Then I can go out and speak to Mouse, and I will be back in ten minutes, maximum.’

‘But I don’t even look that much like you!’ I laughed. ‘I mean, what about our eyes? They’re completely different.’

He pulled the massive sunglasses out of his hair and slipped them on to my face. The whole world went coffee-coloured, and Toddy whistled. ‘It’s true – without the eye thing, you really are dead ringers.’

‘It’s perfect!’ beamed Roland. He reached up and started sweeping my hair sideways.

‘Oi!’ I whacked his hand away, but he kept doing it. ‘Just to make it a little more convincing. Please, Jack.’

I looked at Max and Toddy, as Roland continued to side-sweep my hair. ‘It would be quite jokes,’ Max grinned. ‘And it’s only for ten minutes.’

I looked at Roland, and the guilty twisting in my stomach reminded me that I really did owe him one.

‘Fine,’ I said. ‘But you’d better be quick.’

‘Great!’ He peeked out of the window to see Cooper barking orders at some frightened-looking women. ‘Let’s do this, quickly.’

I gave him my hoodie, and he gave me his black leather jacket. He pulled the blue hood right up, and grabbed another pair of sunglasses off one of the racks. ‘You two better come with me,’ he said to Max and Toddy. ‘Just so Cooper thinks all three of you are leaving.’

‘This is mental,’ said Max, shaking his head. ‘Brilliant, but mental.’

‘Back soon,’ said Roland.

Toddy gave me a thumbs-up, and then the three of them were gone.

I stood there in the empty trailer, my heart tap-tap-tapping under Roland’s black leather jacket, wondering what I’d got myself into. I tried to imagine what Roland might be saying to Mouse. Whether anyone would figure out it was really him. But mainly I just prayed that he’d come back as soon as possible.

Then, after what seemed like twenty years, the door finally opened.

But it wasn’t Roland. It wasn’t even Max or Toddy.

‘Right, change of plan, buddy,’ said Cooper, beckoning me frantically towards the door. ‘Press conference starts now.’