It was a week later when Linzi self-importantly came up to us (us being me and Maya) to ask if we’d heard the rumour.

I said, “What rumour?” I tried not to show too much interest as it doesn’t do to encourage her. She is always hearing rumours. Most of them turn out to be totally unfounded, but she still can’t resist telling people. Any more, I suppose, than people can resist listening. It is only human nature.

“Are you sure you really want to know?” she said, darting a sideways glance at Maya.

Why wouldn’t we? Why ask?

“It’s just …” She put a hand up to the side of her face and swivelled her eyes fiercely in Maya’s direction, at the same time contorting her features as if in some kind of agony. What was she playing at? “It’s about Miss Hopwood,” she said.

“What about her?”

“You probably think she’s off sick.”

“That’s what Emily said.” And Emily, unlike Linzi, didn’t deal in rumours.

Linzi smiled, pityingly. “Emily just believes what she’s told.”

“You mean you’ve been told something different?”

“I know the truth,” said Linzi. “Some people –” the eyes swivelled again – “might already have guessed.”

“Guessed what?” said Maya, suddenly waking up.

“The truth!”

“About what?”

“Your boyfriend.”

“I thought it was about Miss Hopwood,” said Maya, looking puzzled.

“It’s about both of them.”

I said, “What d’you mean, both of them?”

“Only ran off together, didn’t they?”

There was a startled silence.

“Ran off where?” said Maya.

“Well, it wasn’t Brighton.”

You really cannot help wanting to strangle that girl. She is just so utterly annoying.

“So where was it?” I said.

“France.” She brought it out with an air of triumph.

Maya said, “France?”

“Spent the week there.”

“Jake and Miss Hopwood?”

“Yup.” Linzi nodded. Obviously very satisfied with herself.

I glanced anxiously at Maya. “It’s only a stupid rumour,” I said.

“I’m just telling you what I heard,” said Linzi.

“From who?”

Linzi shrugged. “It’s what people are saying. It’s why Miss Hopwood hasn’t come back.”

“So where is she?”

“Been suspended.”

“Oh, and she was going to audition me for the choir!” wailed Maya.

“No, she wasn’t,” I snapped. “You’d already decided not to bother.”

“Well, but I don’t understand … why have they suspended her?”

“Cos she broke the rules,” said Linzi. “Teachers aren’t allowed to do that sort of thing.”

“What about Jake?”

“He’s all right. He’s not a teacher.”

Maya fell silent, biting her lip. A week ago, if anyone had told her that Jake had run off with somebody she would have been plunged into the depths of abject misery. Now she just seemed concerned that he wasn’t in trouble.

“It’s still only a rumour,” I said.

“It’s true,” insisted Linzi. She nodded at Maya. “She knows.”

“She doesn’t know any more than you do! It’s just gossip.” I grabbed Maya by the arm. “Let’s go!” We didn’t have to stand there and listen to Linzi spreading malicious rumours. “I don’t believe a word of it,” I said as I hustled us off. “Jake and Miss Hopwood? It’s ridiculous!”

I expected Maya to agree with me. Of course it was ridiculous. Miss Hopwood was a teacher! Instead, to my surprise she said, “D’you remember that day we saw him in his car with someone and you thought it was Hope?”

“Not really,” I said.

“Well, you did,” said Maya. “She had blonde hair and you said it looked like Hope, and I was so-o-o jealous. I’m surprised you don’t remember.”

Taking a chance, I said, “Have you stopped being jealous?”

“Oh, yes,” said Maya. “I’m over all that. It was bliss while it lasted, but—”

“You said it hurt!” And she’d said he loved her back, which had quite obviously all been in her mind. “You said it hurt so much.”

“It did,” said Maya. “It really did! But that’s all part of it. You can’t have love without pain. Like poor Jake and Miss Hopwood … It’s so cruel!” She looked at me, with tears in her eyes. “Think how they must be suffering!”

“You reckon they were actually in love?”

“They must have been, or they wouldn’t have gone off together! That day we bumped into them in the shopping centre … I could just tell,” said Maya. “I knew there was something between them. That’s why I got upset when you had a go at me … cos I knew.”

I said, “Really?” Obviously not sounding very convinced. Which wasn’t surprising since I didn’t believe a word of it. She hadn’t mentioned that when she’d been crying and claiming he loved her!

“Honestly,” said Maya. “It was obvious! You can always tell when people are in love. Well, I can,” she said. “I can recognise the signs.”

Meaning: she could but I couldn’t. I am too boring and down to earth. To be honest I was still in two minds whether to believe the rumour or not, but later in the day we passed Jake in the main corridor. He was with a bunch of other Year Twelves so he wouldn’t have said anything in any case, but normally he might perhaps have given us a smile or a nod. Today he didn’t do either. Even to me, boring and down to earth though I am, it was obvious he wasn’t happy.

“That’s because he’s heartbroken,” said Maya.

I asked Mum, when I got home, whether she knew anything.

“Oh, so you’ve heard,” she said. “I suppose it was bound to get out. Yes, Jake’s poor mum has been distraught. All she had was a text telling her not to worry, but how could she help it? No idea where he was, no idea who he was with, no idea when he was coming back.”

“Mum, he was in love,” I said.

Mum sighed. “Love can really cast a spell, especially at that age. Though I must say I was a bit surprised … Jake has always seemed so sensible.”

Like me. I always seem so sensible. But it seems that even sensible people can sometimes have spells cast over them.

A year has gone by since the day Maya fell off her bike and got swept into Jake’s arms, and so far she hasn’t developed any more crushes. Maybe this is because Uncle Kev has been at home and she is starting to feel a bit more secure. This is what Mum thinks. Uncle Kev has promised faithfully that he isn’t ever going to go away again, and this time it really does sound like he means it. Dad gives a hollow laugh, but that is just Dad.

Needless to say the doggy hotel for pampered pooches never came to anything, but Uncle Kev has had another brilliant idea that he is working on. He is digging up the whole of his back garden and is going to plant vegetables all over it and sell them to the local minimart (where Maya once sighed over Anil). Unfortunately his garden isn’t very big so he is talking, if things work out, of taking over our garden as well. Dad says, “Over my dead body,” but Mum just laughs and says she doesn’t think he needs to worry.

At school we have a new music teacher, Mr Flinders. He is quite nice, but rather odd looking and not very young, so I don’t think there is much danger of anyone running away with him. Miss Hopwood never did come back and nobody, not even Linzi, seems to know what has become of her. Jake, on the other hand, is away at uni and according to Mum, according to Mrs Harper, he has a lovely girlfriend of his own age.

Maya swears that she is not in the least bit jealous. She says all that is behind her, and that in any case when you have loved someone you should want them to be happy. She insists that what she felt for Jake wasn’t just a crush but real true love. She also insists that you can’t choose who to fall in love with.

“It’s not something you have any control over. It just happens.”

I can’t help thinking that is a bit inconvenient if it leads you to fall in love with totally unsuitable people, but I don’t say this to Maya. She would only accuse me again of being unsympathetic. Maybe, she tells me kindly, I will discover for myself one day. Maybe I will fall in love and then I won’t be so quick to condemn.

I don’t say anything, cos I’m not yet sure, but I suspect I might already be in the throes … We went up to Sheffield again a few weeks ago and Owen was there and I got the feeling he’s definitely interested in me. We’ve been texting like crazy ever since I got back and now I can’t stop thinking about him! It’s not in the least bit painful so perhaps it is not yet real and true and that is still to come, but I am beginning to understand a little better how Maya was for ever walking round looking all dreamy with her head in the clouds and this soppy smile on her lips.

Not that I intend to have any soppy smiles. I think it would look silly with my sort of face, all round and freckly. But Dad did have to snap his fingers at me the other day and cry, “Hey! Dolly Daydream! I’m talking to you.”

I hadn’t heard a word he said! So maybe I am not quite as sensible and down to earth as Maya accuses me of being. She is not the only one who can fall in love!