They don’t want to let me go, but I make them let me. I tell them it’s not fair to make me miss the last day of school. That everyone will make fun of me if I have to stay home on the last day. That it'll make me feel more normal if they just let me go in like every other kid. That's what does it. That makes Donald give in, and Maisie does too soon after, and they take me into school. Donald walks me in to the office and stays to speak to them while I go up to class.

On the last day of school before the Christmas holidays we don't do any lessons. The teachers bring in snacks and things and so do some of the kids and we all eat them and play games. The clasroom is just like I remember it being, except now there's tinsel up around all of the notice boards and there are new clay pots drying on the bench at the back. The last time we made clay pots it took an entire week. I've missed the whole thing. I don't care.

Everyone is a little bit weird, at first. Except Bobby Gibbs, who comes right up and asks what happens when you get kidnapped and if my mother made me do dirty things. I make sure the teachers aren't looking and then I punch him in the stomach quite hard and he doubles over and says oooooffff. But after that me and Bobby Gibbs sit next to each other for the games, and he doesn't ask any more stupid questions and he is all right, really. He is just like his normal self.

Mum would hate this. How normal and nice it is. Normally I would hate it too, and I wouldn't play any of the games, and I'd break something so I didn't have to sit around in the classroom while everyone else did. But I think it's better than just sitting around at home being ill when I'm not even ill. And I don't think about Mum while I'm there, anyway. That only comes later.