When I woke up the next morning I felt sick. Not properly sick though, just worried sick. It was because of the maths homework.

Last night it’d seemed like a good idea to not do it. Now I wasn’t so sure. I got up and found the questions in my bag. Maybe they would be easy, and I could get them done before school.

I tried. I tried really, really hard. But I just couldn’t do the problems.

None of my answers looked right and every time I tried again I got a different answer. It was hopeless. I would never be able to work them out, even if I kept trying for a hundred years.

Dani knows me pretty well. When we got on the bus together she could tell that something was wrong.

‘Did you do your maths homework?’ she asked.

‘No,’ I said, pretending I didn’t care. ‘I didn’t feel like it.’

Dani stared at me. ‘You’ll get in trouble when Mrs Clarke finds out,’ she said.

That made me cross. She was right but I didn’t want to think about it. When I get cross sometimes I say nasty things. I don’t mean to – they just pop out.

‘So what?’ I said, shrugging my shoulders. ‘Only goody-goodies do homework.’

‘I did my homework,’ Dani said.

‘Well, then, you’re a goody-goody,’ I replied.

‘No, I’m not,’ she said.

‘Yes, you are,’ I said. ‘You’re the favourite. You’re the teacher’s pet.’

Dani went red.

‘I am not!’ she said. She was almost yelling.

‘Teacher’s pet. Teacher’s pet,’ I chanted.

I knew I was being mean, but I didn’t care.

Callum turned around. He’d heard what I was chanting, and even though he didn’t know why I was saying it, he started saying it too.

‘Teacher’s pet. Teacher’s pet.’

Before long it seemed like everyone on the bus was chanting. Dani put her hands over her ears and screwed up her eyes. It got so loud that finally the bus driver yelled at everyone to be quiet.

Dani took her hands off her ears but she wouldn’t look at me.

I started to feel terrible. I knew I’d really hurt her feelings.

We went the rest of the way without speaking. I sat there trying to think of what I could say to make it up to Dani. But everything I thought of sounded stupid.

I thought about pretending it had all been a joke. That wouldn’t work though – you don’t play mean jokes on your friends.

I knew that I should tell her how sorry I was and hope she’d forgive me.

I decided I would apologise to her as soon as we got off the bus. But I didn’t get a chance. The moment the bus doors opened, Dani jumped up and ran off.

‘Dani! Wait!’ I called.

But she didn’t hear me. Or maybe she just didn’t want to hear me.

I knew what Dani would do. She’d go and find the others and tell them what I had done. Then they would all be mad at me. I knew I should find her as soon as possible to try and make things right, but I was supposed to go and look after the hermit crabs before class.

Great! Things were just getting better and better. I couldn’t believe that a couple of days ago I had been actually looking forward to going back to school.