Do You Remember the First Time?

and buying an incredibly expensive top-up card for my mobile.
    ‘It was all a dream?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Oh God. I can’t believe it … I just can’t. Oh God, Flora. What the hell are we going to do?’
    ‘Look, look …’ I almost laughed as I watched two boys in the middle distance have a fight. Everyone else immediately swarmed over and started screaming their heads off.
    ‘Oh God,’ I said. ‘OK, I’m in hell.’
    ‘Really? Hell exists? Is this what this is?’
    ‘No, I mean. I’m back at school. On top of everything that’s happened I’m back at school. It’s like – after my terrible party.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Tashy in a small voice. ‘So it’s not any better this time round?’
    For some reason, the kids watching the fight had started chanting the ‘c’ word very loudly. Mr Rolf had come out of the main school building, but even he looked in two minds at approaching the roaring throng. I hoped nobody had a gun.
    ‘I wouldn’t say that,’ I said, and started to snivel.
    ‘No, no, don’t cry!’ said soft-hearted Tash, diving in. ‘I mean – you’re in hell? Ha! I have six meetings double-booked for this afternoon, I can’t get caterers to fold napkins into roses instead of swans – fucking swans – we have twenty-nine days to the wedding and you can still get into children’s clothes and not pay any VAT on them. How can that be hell?’
    ‘School’s SHIT!’ I said.
    ‘Oh, petal, it must be easier this time round. Think of all the clever stuff you know.’
    ‘I’m the most unpopular girl in the school!’
    ‘No! Don’t they still have those kids who have glasses stuck together with Elastoplast?’
    ‘Don’t think so,’ I sniffed. ‘And I have a suicidal mad best friend.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘My best friend. She’s a bit …’
    ‘I’m your best friend.’
    ‘I know that,’ I said slowly. ‘I mean, in this new world.’
    ‘Do you like her better than me?’
    I cried harder.
    ‘I mean, I know I’ve been very busy with the wedding and everything, but—’
    ‘No no no no. Stop. Shut up. You’re my best friend. This is just a weird creature who follows me about, OK?’
    ‘Is she pretty?’
    ‘She looks like a cat who has evil powers.’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘She has a voice like a fire in a pet shop.’
    Tashy sounded less suspicious. ‘OK. Look, sit tight, and I’ll come and get you tonight, OK? Can you hold on till then?’
    ‘I can’t come out tonight.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Tashy! I’m grounded. And I have detention.’
    ‘Well, duh. Don’t be stupid. Skip it.’
    ‘They’ll send me to borstal!’
    ‘You know, you sound just like yourself on the phone,’ said Tashy musingly.
    ‘I am myself, OK? We have to get control of the situation. I am myself. I just can’t do anything.’
    ‘Were we really not allowed out when we were sixteen?’
    ‘Yes, but only under laboratory conditions.’
    ‘Can’t you say you’re staying at your new best friend’s – whatever her name is?’
    ‘Constanzia.’
    ‘Con-what?’
    ‘And anyway, no, because I don’t know her phone number or where she lives. And I’m grounded.’
    Tashy heaved a sigh. ‘This is terrible.’
    ‘It’s hell,’ I said. ‘Are you sure I haven’t actually died ina terrible tragic accident and you’re being too nice to tell me about it?’
    ‘If this is what’s at the other side, I bloody hope not.’
    I’d never had detention first time around. Yes, I was one of those kids. And now, watching every other kid skip, laughing and screeching, down to the gates where the cars and buses clustered, I could see how it worked as a punishment.
    Of course, most of those kids wanted to go home. And so did I. But my home didn’t exist.
    Sighing slightly in the mild September afternoon, I stomped off to where I did remember the bad boys hanging out the window in detention and whistling at the girls like men in prison (where, indeed, many of them now are).
    Mr Rolf was patrolling up and down outside the room, which was filled with boyish shouts and retorts. He smiled, very unpleasantly, when he saw me coming and my teacher’s sarcasm radar started bleeping urgently.
    ‘Ah, Miss Scurrison. So glad you could make it on such a glamorous evening. I know you’re a newcomer to our esteemed great social occasions of the top wits and charmers of the cultural élite that is Christchurch Secondary. I imagine you’ll fit right in.’
    I walked in, my heart filling with trepidation. All the