‘So what’re we doing today?’ Callum’s voice was tinged with impatience.
‘OK! OK!’ I said, exasperated. Honestly! The sun was too warm and the sea was too blue to do any schoolwork. ‘Callum you’ve already passed the entrance exam. Why do we still have to do this?’
‘I don’t want to give any of the teachers an excuse to kick me out.’
‘You haven’t even started school yet and already you’re talking about being kicked out?’ I was puzzled. Why was he so cynical about my school? ‘You’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re in now. The school accepted you.’
‘Being in and being accepted are two different things.’ Callum shrugged. ‘Besides, I want to learn as much as I can so I don’t look like a complete dunce.’
I sat up suddenly. ‘I’ve just had a thought. Maybe you’ll be in my class. Oh, I do hope so,’ I said eagerly. ‘Wouldn’t that be great?’
‘You think so?’
I tried – and failed, I think – to keep the hurt out of my voice. ‘Don’t you?’
Callum looked at me and smiled. ‘You shouldn’t answer a question with a question,’ he teased.
‘Why not?’ I forced myself to smile back.
Taking me by surprise, Callum pushed me over onto the sand. Indignant, I scrambled up to kneel in front of him.
‘D’you mind?’ I huffed.
‘No. Not at all.’ Callum smirked.
We looked at each other and burst out laughing. I stopped laughing first.
‘Callum, wouldn’t . . . wouldn’t you like to be in my class . .?’
Callum couldn’t meet my eyes. ‘It’s a bit . . . humiliating for us noughts to be stuck in the baby class.’
‘What d’you mean? I’m not a baby.’ I jumped to my feet, scowling down at him.
‘Jeez, Sephy, I’m fifteen, for heaven’s sake! In six months’ time I’ll be sixteen and they’re still sticking me in with twelve- and thirteen-year-olds. How would you like to be in a class with kids at least a year younger than you?’ Callum asked.
‘I . . . well . . .’ I sat back down.
‘Exactly!’
‘I’m fourteen in three weeks,’ I said, unwilling to let it drop.
‘That’s not the point, and you know it.’
‘But the school explained why. You’re all at least a year behind and . . .’
‘And whose fault is that?’ Callum said with erupting bitterness. ‘Until a few years ago we were only allowed to be educated up to the age of fourteen – and in noughtsonly schools at that, which don’t have a quarter of the money or resources that your schools have.’
I had no answer.
‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to bite your head off.’
‘You didn’t.’ I said. ‘Are any of your friends from your old school going to join you at Heathcrofts?’
‘No. None of them got in,’ Callum replied. ‘I wouldn’t’ve got in either if you hadn’t helped me.’
He made it sound like an accusation. I wanted to say sorry and I had no idea why.
Callum sighed. ‘Come on, we’d better get to work . . .’
‘OK.’ I turned and dug into my bag for my school books. ‘What d’you want to do first? Maths or History?’
‘Maths. I like Maths.’
‘Yeuk!’ I shook my head. How could anyone in their right mind like Maths?! Languages were my favourite subjects, followed by Human Biology and Sociology and Chemistry. Maths fought with Physics for the subject I liked the least. ‘Right then. Maths it is.’ I wrinkled my nose. ‘I’ll tell you what I’ve been revising over the last week and then you can explain it to me!’
Callum laughed. ‘You should get into Maths. It’s the universal language.’
‘Says who?’
‘Says anyone with any sense. Look at how many different languages are spoken on our planet. The only thing that doesn’t change, no matter what the language, is Maths. And it’s probably the same on other planets too.’
‘Pardon?’
‘That’s probably how we’ll talk to aliens from other planets when they get here or when we get to them. We’ll use Maths.’
I stared at Callum. Sometimes when I talked to him, the seventeen months between us seemed to stretch to seventy years. ‘Are . . . are you winding me up?’
Callum’s smile was no answer.
‘Stop it! You’re giving me a headache.’ I frowned. ‘Can we just get on with the Maths in my book and forget about chatting with aliens for a while?’
‘OK,’ Callum said at last. ‘But Sephy, you should think above and beyond just us. You should free your mind and think about other cultures and other planets and oh, I don’t know, just think about the future.’
‘I’ve got plenty of time to think about the future when I’m tons older and don’t have much future left, thank you very much. And my mind is quite free enough.’
‘Is it?’ Callum asked slowly. ‘There’s more to life than just us noughts and you Crosses.’
My stomach jerked. Callum’s words hurt. Why did they hurt? ‘Don’t say that . . .’
‘Don’t say what?’
‘Us noughts and you Crosses.’ I shook my head. ‘It makes it sound like . . . like you’re in one place and I’m in another, with a huge, great wall between us.’
Callum looked out across the sea. ‘Maybe we are in different places . . .’
‘No, we aren’t. Not if we don’t want to be, we aren’t.’ I willed Callum to look at me.
‘I wish it was that simple.’
‘It is.’
‘Maybe from where you’re sitting.’ At last Callum turned towards me, but his expression stemmed the words I was about to say. And then, just like that, his expression cleared and his easy smile was back. ‘You’re very young, Sephy.’
‘I’m only a year and a bit younger than you, so don’t start talking down to me.’ I fumed. ‘I get enough of that at home.’
‘OK! OK! Sorry!’ Callum raised his hand in a placatory manner. ‘Now then, how about some Maths?’
Still annoyed, I opened my school study book. Callum shuffled closer until his arm and mine were touching.
