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dark wet afternoon. I hate Joe. And I’m going to be a nun.

‘No way,’ said Leela when I told her my plan on Monday as we gathered around the radiators outside the sports hall in break.
    ‘I’m serious. I’m off boys for good. They do my head in,’ I said.
    ‘Not all boys,’ said Brook. ‘Just Joe Donahue. There will be someone else much nicer than him out there.’
    ‘Yeah, he was the wrong boy for you,’ said Leela.
    ‘I think you’re being very sensible,’ said Zahrah. ‘Just forget about him and boys in general.’
    ‘No,’ Leela objected. ‘Come on, guys. It’s the beginning of November. The skies are grey. It’s ages before Christmas comes along to cheer us up. You have to drop the defeatist attitude.’
    ‘Christmas might be a way away but we still have bonfire parties we could go to this week,’ said Brook.
    I shook my head. ‘I am going to be a recluse,’ I said.
    ‘No!’ said Leela. ‘I forbid it! What you need, in fact, what we all need is a challenge. And . . . I have just the one.’
    Zahrah rolled her eyes. ‘Oh no, here we go,’ she said.
    ‘Cool,’ said Brook and did a low bow. ‘Speak forth, O my captain, for I will do thy bidding.’
    ‘OK, so get ready. It’s about seven weeks until the end of term so . . . the challenge is that we all have to get a boyfriend – and I mean a proper boyfriend – before then.’
    ‘Not me,’ said Zahrah. ‘Not interested.’
    ‘Nor me,’ I said and joined my hands as if in prayer. ‘I am now Sister Mary Consuela Bernadette India. No boys allowed.’
    ‘Chickens,’ said Leela and she put her hands under her armpits, stuck her elbows out at an angle and started making clucking noises. Brook did the same. If you can’t beat them, join them, I thought and did the same and added a bit of pecking motion and clucking for further effect.
    Of course that had to be the moment that Joe went past and he was with Callum Hesketh, the school babe who I’d dated briefly in the first part of term.
    Joe cracked up. ‘Nice one, India.’
    Callum stood for a moment with a hand on his hip and surveyed us. ‘Er yeah, do the funky chicken, girls,’ he said.
    I immediately straightened up and tried to look cool. Too late. They’d moved on and disappeared around a corner.
    ‘Ah well, at least he’ll remember me as being different,’ I said.
    Leela linked her arm through mine. ‘Forget him. He’s so not worth it. So ze challenge. It will be so good for us. Boost our confidence. Who’s in?’
    ‘Maybe,’ said Brook.
    ‘Not me,’ said Zahrah.
    I laughed. ‘Doesn’t that just sum up our attitudes to life? Leela’s a yes yes yes. Brook’s a maybe, let me think about it and Zahrah’s a no.’
    Zahrah stuck out her bottom lip. ‘That makes me sound negative and I’m not,’ she said. ‘Just Leela’s always got a plan and most of them are mad. You don’t know her as well as Brook and I do. Stick around a few more months and you’ll be plugging your ears when she announces that she’s got a plan!’
    I squeezed her arm. ‘Sorry Zahrah, I didn’t mean to insinuate that you’re negative. I know you’re not.’
    ‘Sensible is the word you were looking for,’ said Zahrah. ‘One of us has to be. Like Brook and Leela have got their heads in the clouds about a lot of things, whereas I have my feet firmly on the ground. But what about you? Are you in with Leela’s latest?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I don’t think that you can force love or put a deadline on it. It’s either going to happen or not.’
    ‘It doesn’t have to be love,’ said Leela. ‘Just a boyfriend.’
    ‘You said a proper boyfriend,’ I said.
    ‘Yeah. And what’s a proper boyfriend anyway?’ asked Zahrah. ‘Define.’
    Yeah,’ said Brook. ‘Do you mean someone you’re actually dating or do you mean kissing with tongues?’
    ‘Both,’ said Leela. ‘Er . . . basically someone who phones you back if you call them and someone you don’t feel