If they apologised I just might forgive them. They were sitting on the grass eating their lunch. I pushed my glasses up because I was nervous and the sweat was making them slide down my nose. Stacey and Danielle sat hunched over their lunch, talking and laughing. They knew I was there, but they didn’t look up. Not even when I hiccupped. I walked away, shrugging. I ate my lunch and then walked around the playground, trying to smile so no one would think I was a loser. I didn’t want the argument with Danielle and Stacey to matter, but it did. No more girly talks, going to the movies at the weekend, talking about boys we’d like to meet later on, looking at make-up in shops and planning our futures. All that togetherness, the good stuff about being part of the in crowd, was finished. I felt weird, God, a bit like a sardine that’s been packed tightly in a can and then suddenly set free, thrown back into the water. But of course, as the sardine has been in a can, he’s dead. So there’s nothing he can do with his freedom.
