Free School Run by Sophie King

summer?’
    ‘I’m not sure. But, Frank, don’t you think it’s important to get a speaker in fast? I mean, drugs are a big issue and the sooner we can get the message across to the younger ones, the less likely they are to continue the habits of their older siblings.’
    ‘Kitty, dear.’ Frank patted her shoulder. ‘I admire your enthusiasm and I hope it will last, but there are enough posters around the school for the kids to get the message, and we have to hope that their parents do their bit in this direction.
    At the moment, to be honest, we’re all far more worried about the Ofsted visit. It was meant to have been last month but the inspector was ill and now, heaven help us, it’s on Thursday. The last week of term! Couldn’t be worse. Are you ready?’
    ‘Well, I’ve prepared my lessons for this week, as usual.’
    ‘I’m sure you have. But would you know what to do if the little devils in your class asked awkward questions, which they love to do whenever we have visitors – especially official ones?’
    ‘What kind of questions?’
    ‘Dear me, Kitty! Embarrassing questions designed to make young teachers like you feel inadequate. Just be on your guard, that’s all. We didn’t get a very good Ofsted report last time and we need to improve. Otherwise we might be in trouble. All right?’
     

 
     
    7
     
    NICK
     
    ‘Now we’re moving on to our doc spot where our very own Dr Jim offers alternative health advice.’
     
    ‘Change channels, Nick, darling,’ said a girl who was walking past him in just a pair of pants. ‘That station’s really boring – my granny listens to it.’
    Good for her, thought Nick, looking the other way as he adjusted the lighting in the studio. In some ways, it had been fortuitous that Amber had postponed today’s session until tomorrow. She’d sounded a bit put out when he’d said he couldn’t do tomorrow. Tough. Besides, today’s cancellation had given him longer to walk Mutley and prepare for the shoot.
    ‘No, love,’ he called. ‘Can you stand where I first put you? Over there. That’s right. Tilt your chin to the right – a bit more. Lovely. Now I want you to close your eyes and open them, thinking of something you’d really like to do.’
    The other girls, waiting at the side in their dressing gowns, tittered, unlike the model in front of the camera: she looked as though she’d rather be naked than wearing the tarty pink bra and pants set that Nick’s assistant had had to cajole her into. ‘They’re hideous,’ she said. ‘Can’t I wear something else?’
    ‘Sorry, love. This is the kit,’ Nick had said. ‘But your amazing looks are going to make everyone want to buy them.’
    He hoped it was true. As a fashion photographer, it was his job to make everything look so tempting that the readers (who were as diverse as the magazines and advertising catalogues that he worked for) instantly lusted for them.
    Advertising paid best, but the clothes were usually awful. He preferred magazine shoots because they were more prestigious and used more interesting merchandise. The only one he didn’t like working for was Just For You , which had a ghastly deputy editor who insisted on going to every shoot and picking holes in everything.
    Still, when Julie went to university, he’d need to do more advertising if only to pay her fees and accommodation.
    University! Nick’s heart always sank at the prospect of his little girl going away but he knew it was the right thing for her – and that Juliana would have wanted it. She’d have been so proud of their daughter. She would also, thought Nick, wryly, have been able to help him steer Julie through her penultimate year at school. The A-level system was so complex nowadays: you could take and retake modules to get a better grade rather than having to perform well in one batch of exams at the end of the sixth form. Julie had already retaken one of her French papers although the results wouldn’t be published