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HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks 2004
Copyright © Sherry Ashworth 2004
Sherry Ashworth asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work
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Source ISBN: 9780007123353
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008208127
Version: 2016-10-20
Thanks to Andy, Dave, Dominic, Jenny, Michael and
all at Relaunch. And Robyn and Rachel, of course.
For Chris and Libby.
CONTENTS
Everything keeps going round and round in my head, so it’ll be a relief to tell you everything, just as it happened. Not because I want to claim I’m innocent – the opposite, in fact. I think I’m as much to blame as anyone – maybe even more than anyone.
But I trust you. You can decide.
So here’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
* * *
It all probably began before the day Craig Ritchie walked into our classroom, but I don’t want to bore you with all the facts about me, and what was wrong in my life. Because that falls into the category of feeling sorry for yourself, and I hate girls who do that. The drama queens. They come into school all red-eyed and you have to ask them once, twice, three times what’s wrong, and they won’t tell – they enjoy all that attention. Then finally they do and you pass the Kleenex and wait to hear all about how this boy never phoned or some similar crap.
So all you need to know is that my name is Anna Hanson and I was sixteen when it started. Just like most people, I was happy some of the time, pissed off some of the time, but bored most of the time.
I was bored that morning in English. Well, it would have been English if the English teacher was there, but she was absent. On some course. She’d set work. Making notes on the first few scenes of Macbeth. Like, who the characters are and the plot and that, who was Thane of what. As if anyone was going to bother. The teacher who was sitting with us brought in piles of marking, and as long as we were quiet, he didn’t give a toss what we did. So when I felt my phone vibrate in my blazer pocket, I took it out and read the text under the desk. It was from Karen, who was sitting at the back of the class – there was going to be this big night out on Saturday at the Ritz, I was invited. I replied by saying cheers, I’d think about it.
I didn’t want to seem too pleased, too much of a loser. I wasn’t one of the girls in the class who was always up for it, but I wasn’t a swot either. I was just me, to tell you the truth. I didn’t fit into any category. Which was why I wasn’t normally included on clubbing nights. So I began to think about whether I wanted to go or not and it was at that point the door opened and one of the deputies came in with this new boy.