I feel like I could stay tucked up in bed for a hundred years. Instead, I delay the inevitable by staring at the glow-in-the-dark stickers on my ceiling. I stuck them up after I’d been to a party at my classmate Ella’s house – one of the few Talented parties I’ve ever attended. Her house was one of the massive mansions almost at the base of Kingstown Hill, and I had pulled up on my bike, cycling past limo after limo queuing to swing around the semi-circular driveway and drop off their dressed up inhabitants. When I had heard house party, I’d automatically thrown on my favourite T-shirt, dark jeans and scuffed up ankle boots – turned out, this was the wrong look. As Wilhelmina stepped out in a sparkly strapless ballgown, I almost made a U-turn right then and there. But Anita had spotted me, and she was as dressed down as I was. ‘You’re not leaving me to face them all alone,’ she’d said, and I’d grudgingly gone with her through the vast double doors, feeling stronger with her by my side.
