Stories

You have liked Danny from next door since you were six, and he still does not know your name. His older brother Sam moved away three years ago, and before he left he put worms in your lunchbox and told the whole school you cried at the play. Today a van is outside their house, because Sam is back. He is nothing like you remember. Which brother, what you tell your best friend Amara, and who you walk home with on fair night - every choice is remembered, and the book ends nine different ways.

One year at Hollins costs more than your mum earns in a year, and you are going anyway, because somebody paid. Your mum will not say who. By first break a girl called Tabitha has decided she hates you, and a boy called Wes has decided he does not. Which table you sit at on day one decides who your friends are for the whole book; an envelope in the school office has your name on it; and when you learn who paid - and that Tabitha does not know - what you do with that ends the book three different ways.

On Friday you stayed late to feed Bramble, the class rabbit, and you saw Leo, Tia, Fin and Neve let him out of the caretaker's shed and onto the road. Nobody knows who did it, and Mr Okafor the caretaker is getting the blame. On Monday Leo sits next to you and says you are one of them now. That is not a compliment. It is so you keep quiet. Take the seat or refuse it, tell Priya or keep it from her, stand up in assembly or stay sitting - and find out who tells, in the end, and what it costs them.

You have liked Danny from next door since you were six, and he still does not know your name. His older brother Sam moved away three years ago, and before he left he put worms in your lunchbox and told the whole school you cried at the play. Today a van is outside their house, because Sam is back. He is nothing like you remember. Which brother, what you tell your best friend Amara, and who you walk home with on fair night - every choice is remembered, and the book ends nine different ways.

One year at Hollins costs more than your mum earns in a year, and you are going anyway, because somebody paid. Your mum will not say who. By first break a girl called Tabitha has decided she hates you, and a boy called Wes has decided he does not. Which table you sit at on day one decides who your friends are for the whole book; an envelope in the school office has your name on it; and when you learn who paid - and that Tabitha does not know - what you do with that ends the book three different ways.

On Friday you stayed late to feed Bramble, the class rabbit, and you saw Leo, Tia, Fin and Neve let him out of the caretaker's shed and onto the road. Nobody knows who did it, and Mr Okafor the caretaker is getting the blame. On Monday Leo sits next to you and says you are one of them now. That is not a compliment. It is so you keep quiet. Take the seat or refuse it, tell Priya or keep it from her, stand up in assembly or stay sitting - and find out who tells, in the end, and what it costs them.