Ella stayed after school on Friday for a tutor captain meeting, which meant I had someone to walk to Dad’s with after my extra soloists’ rehearsal. For an eleven-year-old, Ella is a surprisingly good person to chat with. Maybe it’s because she lets me do most of the talking.

‘How’s Lauren?’ Ella asked.

‘Pretty good. She went home at lunchtime again. She missed maths.’

‘That’s a shame,’ Ella said.

I hoped that she was talking about the fact that I only had half a day with Lauren rather than thinking it was a shame that she’d missed maths. But Ella is so maths-crazy that you never know. Although actually, Lauren probably will be sorry that she missed this lesson because Cute Josh asked me where she was. Which seemed to suggest that he liked Lauren enough to notice when she wasn’t there. Although a tiny part of me was hoping that maybe he asked so that he’d have something to say to me.

‘Did you have a good rehearsal?’ Ella asked.

‘Uh-huh. Mr Garcia said we’d made a few millimetres’ progress since yesterday.’

‘Mr Garcia covered our lesson when Mr O’Brien was away. He got really cross. Isn’t it scary being alone with him?’

I shrugged. ‘Not really. You shouldn’t be so afraid of teachers, Ella; they can’t eat you.’

‘No, but they can shout and tell you that you’ve done it all wrong and ask what on earth were you thinking and then twitch their upper lip with rage.’

I laughed. ‘That does pretty much sum up Mr Garcia.’

‘Aren’t you upset when he tells you you’re messing it up?’

‘No. I need to know when I’m making mistakes.’

‘He could be a bit nicer about it.’

Actually, I prefer Mr Garcia’s approach. I hate it when teachers don’t tell people they’re wrong and say things like ‘Good try’ when everyone knows it was a stupid answer. I like to know where I am. Mr Garcia doesn’t muck about.

‘His bark’s worse than his bite,’ I said.

Ella shuddered. ‘I think you’re very brave having rehearsals with him.’

‘They’re quite fun really and, whenever Mr Garcia says something mean, Bartek does an impression of him behind his back. You can’t be scared when you’re trying not to snort with laughter.’ I was planning on getting Bartek to do one of his impressions for Lauren; she was going to love it. ‘What was your meeting like?’ I asked.

‘It was very interesting. We’ve been thinking about how to make the school more energy efficient.’

‘Scintillating.’

‘Well, it is important. If the school sets a good example then we can encourage all the kids to be greener. I suggested that we organise a team t—’ She broke off mid-sentence with a jerk of the head. ‘Oh no!’

‘What’s the matter?’ I asked.

‘I’ve forgotten my swimming stuff.’

We were all supposed to be going swimming with Dad the next morning.

‘I had it all ready in a bag by my bed and then Lucy knocked over the shampoo in the bathroom and I went to help her and I forgot all about it.’

‘Never mind,’ I said. ‘Just give Mum a ring and she can drop it over.’

‘But she’s going to the cinema with her book group.’ Ella looked at her watch. ‘She’ll need to leave soon if she’s going to the early showing.’

‘We can always get it tomorrow morning.’

‘But it’ll wake her up. She needs a lie-in.’

I looked at Ella. It must be quite tiring being the worrying type. She was completely worked up about her silly swimming stuff. ‘Don’t panic,’ I said. ‘It’s not far out of our way and I’ve got my key.’

‘So we can get it now? You don’t mind?’

I shrugged.

‘Thanks, Amelia!’

Ella’s so funny. She looked genuinely relieved, as if not having her swimming things was a punishable offence. We backtracked a bit and cut across the park. When we got to our road, I could see a light on in the kitchen.

‘I don’t think she’s left yet,’ I said.

I let us in and called, ‘Mum!’

She came out of the kitchen and into the hallway looking a bit flustered. ‘Everything all right?’ she asked. ‘Why are you here and not at your dad’s?’

‘I forgot my swimming stuff an—’ Ella began.

In the kitchen, there was the scrape of a chair as someone stood up.

‘Who’s here?’ Ella asked.

I tried to look over Mum’s shoulder into the kitchen.

Mum smiled. ‘Just one of my friends from book group. Come and meet him.’

I followed Mum, but Ella didn’t move. She never likes meeting people. I grabbed her hand. ‘It’s fine,’ I whispered. ‘We don’t have to stay.’ She let me pull her into the kitchen.

‘Girls,’ Mum said. ‘This is Greg.’

I just knew this must be the man she went to the pub with. He was on his feet, putting his coffee cup in the sink. I guessed he was a little older than Mum; his hair was going grey at the sides and he had those creasy lines around his eyes. He was wearing a checked shirt and chinos. He looked OK. Like a teacher when you go on a school trip and they look a bit weird in their casual clothes.

‘Hi,’ I said.

‘This is my eldest, Amelia,’ Mum said.

‘I’m the difficult one,’ I said.

Mum tutted, but Greg laughed, which made me like him a bit more.

I nudged Ella, but she didn’t say anything.

‘And this is Ella,’ I said. ‘She’s the quiet one.’

Greg laughed again.

‘We just came back to get Ella’s swimming things,’ I explained. ‘We’re going swimming tomorrow.’ Then I couldn’t resist adding: ‘With our dad.’ I don’t mind Mum making new friends but for some reason I wanted him to know that we have got a dad. And that he takes us swimming.

The wind whipped round the garden, sending a plastic flowerpot bowling across the patio. ‘I hope it’s an indoor pool!’ Greg said.

I waited to see if Ella would say anything, but she didn’t so I said, ‘Yep. Nice and warm. And it’s got slides. We’ll probably have a hot chocolate afterwards, won’t we, Ella?’

Ella just looked at me.

‘Good idea,’ Greg struggled on, but I could tell that he thought Ella was being weird. I thought she was being weird and she’s my sister.

‘Well,’ said Mum, putting an arm round Ella, ‘you’d better fetch your costume otherwise your dad and Suvi will be wondering where you’ve got to.’

Ella shuffled out of the room with her eyes on the floor.

‘Do you want me to drop you over there?’ Mum asked.

I shook my head. ‘You don’t need to. I’ll ring Suvi and tell her we’re on our way.’ I looked up at the clock. ‘Anyway, aren’t you going to be late for your film?’

Mum reached for her bag. ‘We should really be making a move. We’re supposed to be meeting the others outside . . .’

‘We’ll be fine,’ I insisted. ‘We always walk to Dad’s, remember?’

‘Well, if you’re sure.’

I took another sneaky look at Greg. He was studying our noticeboard and pretending not to listen. I wondered if he was cross with us for interrupting. He didn’t seem the cross type. That was good. If Mum had to date then I really wanted it to be someone nice and kind who wouldn’t scowl at us or frighten Ella. Mind you, despite the fact Greg looked like a geography teacher, Ella already did seem frightened. I heard her come back downstairs but she stopped in the middle of the hallway, clearly not planning on coming any closer.

‘Nice to meet you, Greg,’ I said. ‘Enjoy the film. See you Monday, Mum.’

I had to take hold of Ella again to get her moving towards the door. Her face was pink.

‘Bye, girls,’ Mum said.

‘Bye,’ I said.

Ella made a faint noise that might have been a goodbye and I pulled her out of the door.

‘What’s the matter?’ I asked as soon as we got to the end of the driveway.

‘Nothing,’ she said.

‘Ella, as soon as you saw that man, you froze like an icicle. Did you really feel that shy?’

She looked down at the ground and then at the sky. ‘Maybe. I do get shy.’

‘I know, but you usually manage a hello. I hope Greg doesn’t think you were rude.’ Then she looked so upset that Mum’s check-shirted boyfriend might think she had no manners that I said, ‘It doesn’t matter; I don’t think he even noticed. He was too busy making kissy faces at Mum.’

Ella looked like she might faint. ‘He wasn’t, was he?’

Suddenly I missed Lauren. When I say outrageous things to her, she says something outrageous right back. Ella is way too sensitive for my sense of humour. ‘No,’ I admitted. ‘He didn’t. Don’t worry about it.’

But, even though she didn’t say anything more about it, I’m not sure she took my advice.