It was mid-afternoon when Anna received a text on her mobile from Cash. She was in a science class and the gentle buzzing of her mobile was very welcome, since science was her least favourite subject.

“urgent must see u after school. come round.”

Cash was still pacing up and down but this time in the kitchen of his house. Anna dumped her bag on the floor.

‘Where’s Phil?’

‘Doing homework.’ He nodded in the direction of his bedroom. ‘I need your help.’

Quickly explaining how they had ditched the school outing in favour of a chess tournament, he went on to say that the organisers had invited the press and a picture of Philip would, most likely, appear in the Western Daily press next day. ‘You’ve got to make sure his mum doesn’t see it. She thinks we went on the school trip.’

‘Cool! And Phil won?’

Cash nodded. ‘First prize – a hundred pounds. They presented it and everything. One of those big cheques. Except they aren’t real. They gave us the real one later. We called at OC’s bank on the way home, so he could deposit it.’ Cash said, carefully omitting to mention that £50 of the hundred, his share, was now sitting in his pocket.

‘So what do I get out of it?’

‘Dinner, okay?’

Anna nodded. ‘As long as you include Kitty.’

‘OK! It’s Chinese this Saturday, at the Golden Dragon. It’s already booked and you’re both invited.’

Anna screwed up her face. ‘Where the hell do you get all your money from? I’m always skint.’

Cash smiled. ‘I’m really good at saving,’ he said.

‘So how was your trip, Phil?’ said Mum. Absentmindedly, she turned away from the stove, where she’d been about to start frying, adding: ‘It’s been a lovely day. Would you like fish fingers or beef burgers for tea? We’ve having chips.’

OC frowned. His mother never asked more than one question at a time. Deciding it must be really important, he tried to answer all four questions at once. His mind boggled …*

And stopped dead.

‘Mu-um,’ screamed Kitty, and thumped her brother heavily on the back. ‘Breathe, OC, for God’s sake, breathe!’

Mrs Longbotham rushed over to where her son was sitting, his face as red as the gobble on a turkey. Kneeling down, she began patting his hand, waiting for his cheeks to return to a more normal colour.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ she wailed. ‘But you’ve been so much better lately, and you don’t usually have a problem choosing what to eat.’

‘It was adding the day out bit,’ Anna explained patiently. ‘He’s tired after all that fresh air.’

Totally recovered, Philip smiled. ‘What fresh air?’

There was an explosion from the stove and flames roared from the chip pan.

‘Mum! You wally! The chip pan!’ screeched Anna. She dived for the tea towel, ran it under the tap and tossed it over the pan, instantly killing the flames.

Mrs Longbotham burst into tears. While OC comforted her, Anna ran to the fridge leaving Kitty to put the now gently smoking pan outside in the garden.

‘Well, Phil, you don’t need to worry about chips any longer,’ Anna said. ‘It’ll be pasta – okay.’

Mum sniffed and got to her feet. ‘Thanks, girls. Sometimes I really don’t know what I’d do without you. So how was your school trip, Phil?’

‘Great! I played chess and won.’

‘And he saw hundreds of trees, Mum,’ Anna interrupted. ‘You were just telling me about them, weren’t you, Philip?’

OC didn’t remember any trees. He quickly checked his note book. There in front of him was the instruction: when Cash calls me Philip always answer, yes.

He frowned, still rather confused. The note didn’t say anything about Anna calling him Philip. Still, it was probably better to be safe.

‘Yes,’ he said.