Seven

When things are going weird, suddenly everything else seems weird too. Have you ever noticed that?

First, Mum and Dad. And now school.
Maya.

Today, in Art Maya wouldn’t draw anything. She just sat. Her face was red and her lips were pinched together as though they were stuck in a clothes peg. Usually, she’s good at art – almost as good as me. But today, nothing. And Miss Price just let her sit there.
In my school, there are 27 people in my class. Miss Price is our teacher (though there are some assistants some days, not every day) and she’s really strict! She puts stickers on a chart if you do something good, but she’ll take them off again for the smallest thing.

But she didn’t take a sticker off Maya.

And then, in break, for no reason at all, Maya pinched me, really hard. It hurt so much I thought I was going to cry. But I didn’t.
I shouted at her. But she just pulled a face.

She didn’t used to be like this. Last year she was my best friend for a bit. I don’t know what’s happened to her. It wasn’t just me, either. Danny told me that she was rude to him for no reason at lunchtime.
Perhaps she’s jealous because me and Danny are in a book.
Anyway, she should have had two stickers taken away, at least, but she didn’t. And that’s what’s weird.