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I knocked on the classroom door. Mrs Clarke was sitting at her desk.

‘Excuse me, Mrs Clarke,’ I said. ‘I have to look after the crabs.’

‘Go ahead,’ she said, without looking up.

She sounded grumpy, as usual.

I tried to imagine Mrs Clarke laughing. Or even smiling!

There was an ice-cream container next to the tank to put the crabs in while their water was changed. I decided to pick up Snippy first. He disappeared into his shell straight away. Then it was Snappy’s turn. As my hand came closer she started waving her claws around like she couldn’t wait to nip me again.

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‘She’s only doing that because she’s scared of you,’ said Mrs Clarke. She was watching me from her desk.

Well, I thought, I’m scared of her, too. And I don’t have great big claws.

Mrs Clarke came over and picked Snappy up.

‘Look at her shell,’ she said.

I looked closely at Snappy for the first time. Her shell was really beautiful – smooth and white and curled up like a spiral. I hadn’t noticed it before.

‘Hermit crabs don’t have shells of their own,’ explained Mrs Clarke. ‘They just walk around until they find one that they like the look of.’

‘Like going shopping!’ I said.

It was funny to think of crabs shopping. It made them seem like people.

Mrs Clarke nodded.

‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘When she’s too big for this shell we’ll put some new ones in her tank and see which one she chooses.’

I started thinking about the shell I’d choose if I were a crab. Something really pointy, with yellow stripes, maybe.

Mrs Clarke put Snappy back in the ice-cream container.

‘If I were a hermit crab,’ she said, ‘I’d choose a pointy shell with yellow stripes.’

I stared at her in surprise. ‘Me, too!’ I said.

‘We must have the same taste in shells,’ said Mrs Clarke.

And then something really weird happened. Mrs Clarke actually smiled at me.

The bell rang. I finished cleaning the tank as quickly as I could.

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Dani arrived and sat down without looking at me. I had forgotten about our fight. Now I felt awful all over again.

The first class was maths and Mrs Clarke put some problems up on the board. They were the same sort as the ones she’d given us for homework, but even harder.

Mrs Clarke showed us how to do the first one and I listened carefully. I thought that maybe this time I understood.

‘Work through the rest of these,’ said Mrs Clarke, ‘and put up your hand if you have trouble.’

Everyone started working quietly.

I looked at the first question. But even though I had listened carefully, I couldn’t do it. I looked around the room to see if anyone else was asking for help. No-one was so I didn’t want to put my hand up either.

I started feeling really worried. So I did the same thing I’d done the day before – I just wrote down any old numbers.

All that was bad enough, but things got worse. At the end of class Mrs Clarke came around and collected our homework. When she got to me she stopped.

‘Where’s yours, Chloe?’ she asked.

‘I didn’t do it,’ I said.

Mrs Clarke raised an eyebrow. ‘Why not?’ she asked.

I thought about saying, I didn’t feel like it, like I said to Dani. But I knew that wouldn’t be such a good idea.

‘I don’t know,’ I mumbled, staring at my desk. Everyone was staring at me. ‘I just didn’t.’

‘Please stay back at lunchtime, Chloe,’ said Mrs Clarke, quietly.

And then she walked away.

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