These days, Zoe was glad she didn’t catch the bus with the rest of her class. It suited her perfectly to sit in the back of the car and stare out the window as they drove home.

That afternoon, Max told their mum a long story about what he did on the monkey bars at lunch. It lasted the whole trip, and Zoe didn’t have to say one word.

When they got home, Zoe dragged her backpack out of the car and shuffled her way up the steps of the house.

‘You OK, Zoe?’ said her mum. ‘You’re extra quiet this afternoon.’

Zoe shrugged.

‘She’s in a bad mood,’ said Max. ‘She wouldn’t talk to me while we were waiting for you. She’s always in a bad mood. A moo-oo-oo-ood! A moo-oo-oo – OW!’

‘Zoe!’ said her mum. ‘Don’t you dare hit your brother! What kind of behaviour is that? Say sorry immediately.’

Without warning, all of the bad feelings of the week suddenly washed over Zoe. She was sick and tired of being left out and feeling unloved and having people be mean to her.

‘I’m not sorry!’ she yelled. ‘He should be sorry, not me! I’m not in a bad mood!’

‘Zoe, you go to your room right now before I give you something to really be sorry for!’

‘Yeah, Zoe,’ said Max, rubbing his arm. ‘You’re a meanie.’

‘I hate you!’ Zoe screamed at him.

‘Zoe!’ shouted her mum. ‘Go now!’

Zoe burst into tears and ran to her room. She lay down on her bed and cried and cried. She had stopped herself from crying so many times at school, it was a relief to be able to cry out loud at last.

After a while, the tears slowed down, and she started to think about school.

How was she possibly going to survive another day? She couldn’t, it was as simple as that. She would just have to tell her mum she wasn’t going back.