Page 4 of Between Us

This information provoked hyena whooping.

‘And they can enjoy it,’ Roisin said, her tone making it clear she was ignoring the innuendo. ‘Not all books have to be studied for education.’

‘Why isGreat Expectationsbetter thanFifty Shades, though? Is it because it’s by a dead man, Miss? Isn’t that sexism? And … alive-ism?’ Amir chewed his pen again.

Despite herself, Roisin smiled. He was putting sincere effort into this derailing.

‘It’s becauseGreat Expectationsis about class, social mobility and the way we use that social status to judge human worth, andFifty Shadesis about a billionaire having sex with a college student.’

Getting the teacher to say the word ‘sex’ was of course a huge victory in itself, and her Year 10s’ last period before the weekend now took on a festival atmosphere.

‘Exactly, Miss, so a college student boning, like, Elon Musk, is socially climbing then,’ Amir said, pausing for a high five with Pauly, the pensioners’ choice of dog-sitter.

‘It sounds like you’ve thought about this, have real insights on this subject,’ Roisin said, folding her arms, leaning against her desk. ‘Perhaps you should give a presentation on the meanings and themes ofGreat Expectationsand their mirroring inFifty Shades?’

‘Totally up for that, Miss. I’ll need a telly bringing in, though, because I will have to show clips from the films to explain what I mean properly.’

‘Sadly, those films are an eighteen certificate, Amir, so not only is it not allowed, but I’m also sure you’ve not seen them.’

‘I totally didn’t see them because my auntie doesn’t have them all on Blu-ray, Miss.’

‘Well done, Auntie.’

The bell rang – a piercing shriek – and the usual scramble to the door ensued while Roisin called, ‘Papers on my desk before you go, please!’

‘Is your husband’s new show on this weekend, Miss?’ Amir said, loitering, as he hooked his rucksack over his shoulders.

Roisin was momentarily startled.

‘Sorry,boyfriend,’ Amir said, mistaking the reason she looked taken aback.

Roisin had thought Joe’s next project had flown under the radar of the population of Heathwood School. She’d been careful to barely mention it to colleagues, too: forgetting the name of it when they asked. Promising and then failing, on purpose, to tell them when it aired.

But if Amir knew, then everyone knew, or they soon would do.

‘Uhm, yes, on late, though. After the watershed for you.’ She tried to recover a smile. (Was the watershed even a thing any more?)

‘I’ll ask my auntie what it’s like then,’ he said, with a wink and a cackle, as he swaggered out.

Alone in the classroom, Roisin tied up the unruly stack of pages of lined A4 with hot hands and swallowed, hard.

2

Miss Walters, a popular and, at thirty-two, youthful member of the English department, was known for two things.

Firstly – and this was a low bar for fascinating character traits, but that was comprehensive schools in leafy areas like Cheadle for you – she had burgundy hair.

Roisin didn’t spend much on her appearance, but her one vanity splurge was her below-shoulder-length mermaid waves. They were a glossy shade of black-claret grape that wasn’t so punk that it immediately registered as not natural, but equally didn’t exist outside of children’s picture books, Marvel films, or Aveda. Joe called it herwarrior space princesshair.

She usually wore it up in a large crocodile clip for work, which didn’t stop admiring female pupils asking for details of prices and treatments involved, and the male ones sometimes wanting to know why she had ‘a purple bun’.

The other thing to know about Miss Walters was that her partner, Joe Powell, was a screenwriter.

Three years ago, he’d created and written a drama about Scotland Yard’s real life ‘super recognisers’ squad,people withincredible powers of recall for faces:SEEN.(Caps Lock, trendy production company’s own.)

Initially, the nature of Joe’s job was merely gossip in the staff room, but you no more contained gossip in the staff room at Heathwood than an airborne virus.

She’d not expected Joe’s show to become a culturally beloved, ‘water cooler’, mega ratings hit that millions watched. In her defence, neither had Joe, or the television bosses. Its cast of unknowns were now household names, its plot twists were worthy of tabloid stories, and on the evenings when it was transmitted, Twitter didn’t really talk about anything else.

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