Free Set Me Free by Daniela Sacerdoti Page A

daughters. Tanya told me when I asked her why they’re not sitting with me at lunch any more. It’s okay because I’ve sort of lost my appetite, so I just avoid the cafeteria altogether. I eat on my own on the bench by the football pitch, how pathetic is that? Or I don’t eat at all. Everyone thinks I’m a freak. It feels like they’re right, because there’s something wrong with me, but I’m not sure what. Even Mrs Akerele doesn’t look into my eyes now. She sort of looks away. I apologised, but she’s shell-shocked. I can’t blame her.
    On the other hand, Polly was always mean. I can’t believe she was ever my best friend. She always said that me wearing glasses and having my head stuck in a book most of the time meant nobody was ever going to like me, as in no boys were ever going to like me, and I used to believe she said those things for my own good. What was I thinking? She believes she knows everything, and she speaks in a funny way. Her voice goes up at the end of every sentence, like she puts question marks everywhere. She’s ridiculously pretty. While everyone else is straightening their hair, she has what she calls a bedhead , all messed up but on purpose . My hair is messed up full stop. She even looks good in her school uniform, and that’s not easy because we have to wear these enormous blazers at all times and we’re not allowed miniskirts. She still looks great. So Ian is going to ask her out, obviously. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m sure it will, especially now that I’m way off his radar. I did say to Polly that I fancied Ian and I hoped that would make him off limits, but of course it didn’t. I should have known.
    Anyway, I’m not even thinking about Ian any more. He looks at me like he feels sorry for me, which makes me feel so ashamed. I wish nobody knew about the Mrs Akerele thing, but it happened in the middle of class and people spread the word. Everyone loves a good story and Lara freaking out at the teacher was the story of the day. “Nobody was expecting you to flip,” Tanya said to me like it was all a lot of fun. She said it with one of her smiles, you know the ones where she opens her mouth and you can see all her teeth.
    It gets worse. Somebody, I’m not sure who, put pictures of me on Tumblr with funny speech balloons like “I’m mental” and “Watch, she’ll stab you” and it went viral. Everyone in the school saw it. I cried. I showed my mum and she said she was going to strangle the whole lot of them – if I hadn’t been adopted, I’d say that my temper is genetic.
    So yes, I can safely say things are rubbish.
    To top everything off nicely, Dad has gone AWOL. When he first left, he came back every week, then every two weeks. Now we barely see him, and when we do, they argue all the time. My mum cries a lot.
    I don’t think my dad likes me much, especially since what happened with Grandma, which is rotten because he’s my dad and it feels like he’s giving up on me. So anyway, the long and short of it (like Nonna says) is that we are going to Scotland. Which is just as well because nobody in school wants to be seen with me. Especially not after those pics. Not that I’ll be missing out on much. If we stayed it would be a case of going to the shops practically every day – or going to the mall , like Polly says because she wants to sound American. I would have to oooh and aaah while Polly and Tanya and the others try on clothes I’m too skinny and self-conscious to wear – in their book, skinny is good, but I’m not the right kind of skinny, apparently – and stand there while they take selfies. Just kill me . If I stayed in London, I’d rather be at home with a book and hide away all summer, but my mum wouldn’t let me anyway, and also I don’t want her to think I’m sad again like I was when my dad died and I