CHAPTER 18
Sam and Rosie, naturally. That word sat in the front of my mind as I watched them run across the field, and it was another little barb in my soul. Up and down, my mood; the slightest little thing derailed me.

‘Naturally’. I wasn’t natural, of course, not what they thought I was, not a real girl in any legal sense, but that wasn’t the issue just then. It was how they were acting without a script, natural children behaving naturally. Such things had been beaten and raped out of me in Mersey View, and in other supposedly safe spaces before my entry into that particular circle of hell. I watched two other children of around my age, I saw them dance and laugh, and when I matched them, I had to think it through beforehand.

Part 33

The next day we all assembled at the recording studio. Tom had extracted the twenty tracks required from the CDs and made a new one with just those needed. He had also sorted them into his idea of difficulty level.

CHAPTER 81
The girls had recorded the news, of course, and once we had finished creating a new underwater hazard, we settled in as a crew to watch it a few times, although Jazz and Nell had made their apologies and driven home as we had finished, still being kind enough to fit some of the girls into their cars..

It was Paula who surprised me, her cheeks glowing pink with wind and effort, a smile seeming fixed to her lips. As the rest of us stumbled over the shingle back to the bus stop and Paul’s car, she squeezed my arm in delight.

Chapter 36

Putting down her dress Marcy minced her way to the cabinet where there were indeed a pair of pink rubber gloves waiting for her, along with the products needed to do the wash. For a moment the thought of running crossed her mind. It was at least worth a shot right she decided as she instead of picking up the cleaning supplies she tried just how well attached her leash was to that chain and how well attached that chain was to the pipe.

"Who am I going to believe?" he said. "My lying eyes or the gorgeous babe who wants to move in with me?"