When she went back to the living room, Ryan picked up the bottle and watched the bubbles inside fight to get to the top. Nathan came into the kitchen to get more food. He told Ryan his suit looked stupid. Ryan said nothing. Nathan saw the bottle of pop and snatched it. Ryan went to say something then stopped himself, stepped back and watched Nathan twist the bottle lid and soak himself in cherryade.

Ryan pulled on his Chicago Bears sleeping T-shirt and stared at his boom box. The shiny silver panels caught the light. The clean black buttons underneath the little windows that let you see the tape inside. The super bass circular speakers. Perfect. It had been his gift the Christmas before Mum died. He remembered tearing open the paper and seeing the corner of the box, spending the rest of the day in his pyjamas tuning the radio dial to all the different stations he could find.

Ryan pulled open the narrow drawer of his bedside table and took out a cassette box. Its white sleeve was empty of any writing. He ran his thumb along the edge of the box, feeling the plastic edge, then eased the box open and took out the tape.

He looked at the thin white label as he slotted the tape into cassette deck two. In block capital dark blue felt tip, the word MUM.

Ryan pressed rewind and wiped the little window with his fingertip as the tape motor hummed, spooling the tape back to the beginning.

The rewind button clicked up. Ryan moved the boom box to the edge of his bedside table so he could speak into it while lying in bed and, with two fingers, pressed the play and record buttons at the same time. The little red indicator light blinked on as the tape spooled round showing it was recording. Ryan cleared his throat.

Ameliah stares at what's left of her cornflakes. Her spoon makes waves in her bowl as her slender fingers turn it and she imagines each soggy flake is a tiny wooden raft floating in a milky white sea.

She moves her spoon in between them and watches as some sink, while others fight to stay afloat. Morning light cuts across the kitchen floor through the big window.

- Penny for 'em, Nan says from across the small square table through a mouthful of crumpet.

Ameliah knows what that means, she's heard it plenty of times before (mostly from Nan), but only this time does it occur to her that one penny for what someone is thinking seems like a really cheap deal.

- I've never been in a boat.

Nan stops chewing for a second to listen then carries on. Ameliah looks at her.

- I mean in proper water, like the sea.

Nan starts to spread butter on to another crumpet from the pile on the plate between them.

- You're still young, love. There's plenty of time.

She smiles as she pushes the new crumpet into her mouth.

- How old were you? asks Ameliah. When you went on your first boat?

- Me? Oh, now you're asking. It was probably with your granddad, long before you were born. Before I had your mum.

Ameliah looks down. A strand of dark curls falls across her face. She sweeps it back behind her ear with her fingertips.

- Are you sure you don't want a crumpet, love, strength for your last day?

Ameliah shakes her head.

- No thanks, Nan.

Nan takes another crumpet from the pile.

- She wasn't a breakfast person either.

Ameliah looks at Nan and tries to imagine her younger, sitting across a table from Mum, a pile of crumpets between them, Mum daydreaming about school.

- I guess it's genes, continues Nan, although she certainly didn't get it from me.

Ameliah shrugs. Nan leans forward.

- Are you keeping up with your journal, like the lady said?

Ameliah pictures the empty journal pushed under her bed, the light brown recycled cover, the pages clean and new. She looks into her bowl. All but one of the tiny rafts have sunk. She stares at it, clinging on to the surface.

- Kind of. It feels weird.

- It will do, love, for a while, but trust me, it's- - Important to get stuff out.

Nan smiles and lets out an old-lady laugh through a mouthful of crumpet.

- That's my girl.

Ameliah stares at the last flake clinging on to the surface of her milk as it bobs alone, refusing to sink.

Ryan stared out of the classroom window across the school playing fields. The grey sky heavy with rain ready to fall. He saw a group of girls jogging in a loose pack, doing laps of the pitch, too far away to see faces. He focused on one girl, near the back, her dark hair bouncing against her shoulders as she moved.

- Ryan!

Miss Zaidel was standing in front of his desk. Everyone else in the class was watching.

- Do you have any thoughts?

Her voice was angry. Ryan looked across the room and saw Nathan smiling his smug smile.

- Sorry, Miss, I was- - You were miles away, Ryan. Again. That's what.

- Yes, Miss.

- It's been like this all term, Ryan.

- Yes, Miss. Sorry, Miss.

Nathan pulled a face from across the room. Ryan scowled back at him.

- Right, well, if you've finished watching the girls outside, would you mind coming back and joining us for our last lesson together?

People giggled. Nathan's smug stepbrother smile widened. Ryan felt his cheeks getting hot.

- Yes, Miss.

Miss Zaidel returned to the front of the class.

- Right, so can anyone else answer my question? How long has John Major been Prime Minister?

Nathan's hand shot up into the air.

- I can, Miss. Three years, Miss.

Miss Zaidel nodded.

- Thank you, Nathan, and somebody else? Who did he take over from?

Nathan smiled straight at Ryan as the rest of the class stuck up their hands. Ryan ground his teeth as the sky rolled thunder outside and it started to rain.

Ameliah scans the lunchtime selection in front of her. The dinner lady stares at her. Ameliah doesn't recognise the lady, but she knows that stare. She's felt it enough times. It's the stare people give when they know about her parents and feel they should say something, but don't really have a clue what words to use.

She grabs a ham roll and a carton of juice and moves away before the dinner lady can speak. As she queues up to pay, she thinks about how six months have flown by. She thinks about Dad, how he changed in the months after Mum. How the illness made him shrink.

- Is that everything, sweetheart?

Ameliah snaps out of her daydream. Corine on the cafeteria till smiles her Cheshire cat smile like always. The gap between her top front teeth big enough to fit a five-pence piece.

- No crisps today?

Ameliah smiles back.

- Not today thanks, Corine.

Across the room she spots Heather, sitting with some of the others, flapping her arms like a bird, calling her over. Ameliah sighs.

- Chin up, love.

Corine's face is round and warm like the grandmas in fairy tales and, as she makes her way through the busy lunch hall towards the table of girls, Ameliah decides that Corine would get on really well with Nan.

In the noisy lunch hall Ryan sat staring into space with a mouthful of ham roll. The seat opposite him was empty. He shook his head as he thought about being embarrassed in class earlier.

Liam sat down like a horse crashing into a fence.

- Summertime!

Ryan jumped.

- Got you! Big L strikes again.

- I told you not to do that!

Liam smiled and dropped his Tupperware lunch box on to the table.

- I know, but it's too easy, man.

He rubs his shovel hands together.

- Half a day left, Ryan, then six sweet weeks of freedom.

- Sit down, will ya? People are staring.

- What you got?

- I dunno.

- You're eating it.

- Oh, ham.

- You got crisps?

- Monster Munch.

- What flavour?

- Beef.

- Beef? Forget it. I was gonna swap you, but not for cow.

Liam started to eat, his square face chewing his sandwich like a camel that was in a rush. Ryan smiled. Liam had been his best friend since the infants and he couldn't think of a single day since they'd known each other that Liam hadn't made him laugh at least twice.

- I heard you got caught watching the girls do PE.

As Liam spoke, little bits of sandwich flew out of his mouth on to the table.

- I wasn't watching the girls. Jeez, Liam, can you keep the food in your mouth?

Liam shrugged his thick shoulders.

- That's not what I heard. Tracey said Miss Zaidel properly got you and you went bright red and everything.

- Yeah, well, Tracey's full of it.

Liam peeled a banana and took half of it with one bite.

- You should just pick one.

- What?

- Pick one. Any girl there's loads of them. Look, there's some.

Liam stuck out his big arm. Ryan slapped it down.

- What are you doing?

Liam pushed the last bit of banana into his mouth.

- I would just walk up to one of them and lay it down.

- Lay it down? What does that even mean? Just eat your food, man.