Bill was nervously fidgeting as he stood on the kitchen table as the giant women rushed around the room. The table lurched and Bill fell to his knees, pain splintering out from his kneecaps when his mother jostled the table as she went past.

“Tina where’s your P.E. kit?” Anna asked as she looked after the dark-haired blur as she ran out of the kitchen door.

She didn’t even notice she’d knocked him over. His cheeks burned as again he was reminded of his pitiful size. Tina’s thundering footsteps echoed down as she ran up the stairs.

“Found it!” Tina shouted down from her room.

“Claire, have you got your lunch?”

His older sister came to a sudden halt as she reached the kitchen door handle before turning and rushing past the table, knocking it with her oversized handbag on her way to the fridge to retrieve her lunch.

“Okay Bill, are you ready for your first task?” Anna asked as she stepped up the table, her giant shadow eclipsing him, he fell back onto his rear from his knees and looked up at his giant mother and swallowed.

“Yes,” his heart was hammering in his chest, maybe he preferred it when she didn’t see him.

Anna lifted one of her black flats. The colour drained from his face, it was one of her work flats, this was not a good sign. Anna placed the shoe on the table carefully, he could feel a slight rumble from the heavy object but it didn’t jostle him this time. She turned the shoe on its side and a wave of warm damp musk emitted from the flat.

He could see the inside from where he knelt. The dark insole had sunken, moulding to the shade of her heel, the edges were tattered and flaking and he could just make out the slight glistening of moisture too. He swallowed and looked back to his mother, her expression was neutral, lips pressed into a soft line.

“I want you to climb out of my shoe before we get to Claire’s school.”

“Wait why does he have to do that?” Claire asked, he looked over at her so fast his neck cracked. Nervous relief began to build in his stomach.

“He needs to learn climbing skills and level them up as fast as possible,” Anna answered without missing a beat.

“Well yeah, but why your shoe? Can’t he try to climb out of your bag or something? Or climb your hair to your ear? That would be a good skill!” Claire replied, her tone becoming higher and quicker as she was stuck with inspiration.

“One of the highest causes of accidental squishing is boys getting stuck inside shoes from trying to get the attention of girls and women, when he can climb out of my shoe we can move to more challenging trials,” Anna explained as if it was the most honest thing in the world.

His stomach dropped and started to fill with dread. He swallowed and looked back to the turned-over flat before looking back to the two giantesses.

Claire’s expression fell into one of resignment. She couldn’t find the fault in her mother’s logic and as a healer, she was more than experienced with the tragedies that had befallen tinies.

“Can we at least use a…less used shoe?” Claire asked, her voice had lost its assertion.

“He needs to learn how to climb out of used shoes, it’s less likely he’ll end up in a new shoe,” Anna justified, her gaze returning to her tiny son.

“Are you still sure you want to do this?” Anna asked, her eyebrows raising.

Bill swallowed.

“Yes,” part of him was relieved she asked if he was sure but he still doubted she would accept a ‘no’ as an answer, after all, he would be stuck home with her all day. There was no telling what she’d make him do instead.

“That’s a good boy, now why don’t you get in the shoe and we can get going,” Anna said, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly. A message appeared in Bill’s vision inside a transparent grey box.

Quest: Escape Mommy’s Shoe
Objective One: Climb into Anna Tenner’s Shoe
Objective Two: Climb out of Anna Tenner’s Shoe
Reward: Basic Climbing skills & 1 Basic Perk Point
Penalty: Ride home in Anna Tenner’s Shoe

With a shaky breath, Bill took a nervous step towards her flat. He looked at Claire, she was pointedly looking at the floor and not at him, he looked to his mother, her eyes were glued on him and there was something of a gleam in her stern eyes.

“Are we going yet! We’re gonna be late!” Tina asked loudly as she ran back into the room, her footsteps booming, Bill could almost feel them through the ground.

“Soon, just as soon as your brother gets in my shoe we can go,” Anna answered, though her gaze never left her tiny son.

The table shook beneath him as Tina’s hands gripped the edge, he stretched out his arms, waving them to stabilize himself.

“Hurry up Billy! We’re gonna be late!” Tina pleaded in her high-pitched voice; Bill’s eyes squeezed shut at the sudden volume. Feeling much smaller, he continued his way to his mother’s flat.

He stopped at the opening and took a cleansing breath, his eyes bulged, and the acidic stench of vinegar and his mother’s natural musk burned his nostrils. Squeezing his eyes shut his body shook with an involuntary shiver. He pressed his hands against the walls of the opening of her shoe, it was damp to the touch and squelched as his fingers dug into them and he stepped onto the shoe’s opening before jumping inside.

Objective One Completed: Climb into Anna Tenner’s Shoe

The flat suddenly lifted and rotated and Bill fell face-first against the sole of the shoe, his tiny frame fitting easily in the moist indent of his mother’s heel.

“Right let’s go,” Anna said as she turned and headed to the door.

Wind rushed above the opening of the flat, Bill slammed her palms against either side of his head over his ears, trying to block out the high-pitched sound when he was suddenly thrown forward by the shoe’s motion. With a grunt he splatted into the toe section of his mother’s flat, the thick fabric squelching under him and coating his body in her foot sweat and grime. Goose bumps scattered over his skin as he involuntarily shivered. He was thrown back again and while briefly in the air he saw the flat change direction, the back of the flat slammed into his back sending him sprawling on the moist floor. His mother was swinging her arms with her stride. The shoe tilted down and he began to slide back down to the toe section.

“Right, everyone in the car,” Anna said as she unlocked the dark blue Nissan Qashqai and slid into the driver seat before dropping the flat containing her son into the cup holder, angled so that the heel was pointed upwards. Her lips nipped together as she tried not to laugh at the mental image of her tiny son trying to climb up her stinky work flat, she had been wearing them for years, she’d almost broken them down with her foot sweat and prolonged use.

She heard Tina jump in the seat behind her and close the door, the crinkle of the barrier bag containing her P.E. kit falling into the footwell. The passenger door opened and Claire hopped into the car, lowering her handbag into the footwell before getting belted in. Anna reversed the car out of the driveway and put her foot down on the accelerator, they had to make up for time or her daughters really were going to be late for school.

“Mom isn’t that a bit mean?” Claire said as she pointed at her upturned flat, Anna nipped the inside of her lower lip.

“It’s best for him to build skills the hard way so that when-if anything happened, he has a better chance of getting out of it in one piece,” Anna lied, difficulty rarely had any impact on skills at the low levels.

“Okaaay…” Claire said quietly before turning to look out the window.

Within her stinky flat Bill was cradling his pounding head in his palms, to say that landing was rocky would be a colossal understatement and now that the car was moving the cavernous flat was vibrating so hard his teeth were chattering. His eyes were starting to water from the stench.

“Come on Bill you can do this, let’s get out of here,” he muttered to himself, barely able to hear it over the car engine. He leaned forward, his feet sinking into the toe of the flat and his knees pressing against the indent of his mother’s toes. He pressed his hands into the wall, and he quivered as his hands sunk into the damp fabric, he tried to curl his fingers and grip it but the insole didn’t have much give,

Swallowing again he tried to climb, pressing his knees hard against the insole and slamming his palms into the wall he propelled himself forward, before he could make a second stride, he slid back down the wet vibrating wall and was crammed back into the toe section, his body curled into a ball. His body vibrated with the wet walls; it was like his bones were been shaken out of his body. His headache was getting worse.

Bill forced himself to his feet, bracing himself against the sweaty wall, his legs were starting to ache. He noticed the tattered fabric lining the insole his mother had worn away. Shuffling to one side of the shoe he grabbed the rubbery tears and crammed his foot in the crevice between the insole and inner wall.

Gritting his chattering, burning teeth, he pulled himself as close to the crevice as he good, his nose crinkling as the stench grew stronger from the trapped sweat. Bill bent his arms and pulled himself up, he crammed his other foot into the crevice. He stayed in place. His heart lifted with elation and he grabbed the next closest torn piece of fabric and pulled himself up before pulling his lower foot out of the crevice and cramming it back in higher. It felt like the vibrating would crush his toes in the tight space but he was making progress.

Inch by minuscule inch he climbed up the crevice of his mother’s foot. By the time he was level with the rise of the insole from her instep, he was drenched in a mixture of her and his sweat. He slowed and took several deep breaths, his muscles were burning and he was out of breath, his fingers burning as he gripped the fabric so hard her knuckles were white.

The vibrating suddenly dulled.

Anna parked up outside a large building with bright red metal fences around it with a big sign that read ‘Victoria Primary School’ in a font that made it look like the children had painted it on with small hand prints acting as a border for it.

“Bye, mom!” Tina shouted as she leapt out of the car, barely remembering to grab her P.E. kit.

“Have a good day sweetie,” Anna called after her but Tina was already through the gates and deep inside the school – and she had forgotten to close the car door again.

With an irritated sigh, she got out of the car and slammed the back door shut before getting back in and slamming her own door shut and squealing away from the curb and in the direction of Claire’s school, unaware that the sudden motion had caused little Bill to lose his grip and fall back down to the toe section of her work flat.

“Ahh!” Bill cried out as he fell back from the seam, falling headfirst back into the toe section and landing with a warm squelch. He shivered as he felt his pyjama top press into his back, his mother’s sweat seeping through the thin fabric. It was starting to get difficult to breathe, the warm humid air weighing heavy on his chest.

He rolled over onto his side and pushed himself up onto his knees when he was suddenly thrown off the ground as his mother went over a speed bump a touch too quickly. His tiny body flew all the way up to the rise of the instep, he threw out his hands, bending his fingers into claw-like shapes, and Bill slapped against the instep.

He stretched his arms as high as he could and tried to grip hold of the moist hill, small droplets of sweat oozing out between his fingers as they pressed into the insole and he began to slide back down.

“No! No! No!” Bill shouted, his voice muted by the car’s rumbling engine, his bare feet landed back in the toe section with a familiar squelch. He didn’t waste a second and began shuffling back to the edge of the shoe to climb the seam again, cramming his foot back into the crevice and pulling himself back up.

New Skill Unlocked: Determination, you have shown yourself to be a determined individual, when you fail at an objective you get back up and try again, you now gain +1% to all attempts made to previously failed objectives.

Bill flinched, nearly falling back down when the small transparent box appeared in his vision, mentally dismissing the notification he refocused on his task. Gritting his chattering teeth, his skull trembling in his head, he pulled himself up another inch, his mouth filling with the taste of sweat and blood.

“You can do this. You can do this. You can do this!” he muttered through clattering teeth and pulled himself up another step.

He passed the hill of his mother’s instep and could see the circle of light from the opening of the flat.

“I’m going to do it!” He shouted, stretching his arm as far as he could reach and pulling himself half his body length up, nearly slipping when he tried to cram his foot into the crevice but he managed to maintain his position.

His chest was starting to ache.

“Almost there, just a few more inches,” he pulled himself up, arms trembling.

He was suddenly flying back again as his mother flew over another speed bump. The sweaty cavern around him began to move, flipping over.

“Fuck!” Bill shouted as his back slammed into the leather top of the shoe, the back of his head bouncing off the surface. Before he could even sit up, he was suddenly slammed back into the toe section as his mother slammed on the brakes sending him and his shoe slamming against the interior of the car.

“Thanks, mum,” Claire called as she jumped out of the car.

His heart sunk into his gut. A daunting notification appearing his vision.

Objective Two: Climb out of Anna Tenner’s Shoe: Failed
You have failed the Quest: Escape From Mommy’s Shoe
Penalty: Ride back home in Anna Tenner’s Shoe

“Have a good day sweetie!” Anna called out after her daughter in a rush, barely getting it out before the door slammed shut behind the teen.

The matriarch turned her attention to the upturned shoe, she picked it up turning it back round and looking in the cupholder, she saw no sign of her speck of a ton. Anna turned her gaze to the opening of her work flat and peered in, yep there he was, curled up in the toe section.

“Looks like you failed sweetie,” Anna sighed, “I would have thought you’d have definitely got out when the shoe upturned, if I didn’t know how much my feet stink after work, I’d think you liked it in there,” she giggled, he looked just like his dad used to.

“Sorry, mum…I nearly did it but-“

“No buts, if this had happened when you were in school with Claire you’d be squished,” Anna cut him off, her tone turning from amusement to parental firmness.

Bill looked away from the opening, staring down at her giant toeprints.

“Maybe this penalty will give you some more motivation to climb out when we get home,” Anna reached down with her free hand and slipped off one of her sandals before lowering the flat, angling it to make sure her son stayed in the toe section, she didn’t want to squish him on the drive home.

“No!” Bill shouted as five giant bare toes slid into the opening, banishing all traces of lights as they crawled towards him, searching for him.

The flat grew hot and even more humid, he could taste the salt in the air. He could barely make out the shape of her toes and her massive toenails.

Bill pushed his feet against the insole trying to push his way back but the shoe had no give and his bare feet slid impotently in her toeprint. He dived to the side barely dodging her big toe and was pinned by her second and third toes, his legs pinned beneath her warm meaty flesh. They scrunched, pulling him under them, the top of her second toe lightly tapping against his face before resting on top of him. He turned his head taking a deep breath of her toe stench.

Anna sighed, it had been a long time since she’d had a tiny in her shoe, she could feel herself getting wet as she pulled him under her toes and tapped his tiny face. Maybe she would make this his regular penalty when he failed her tasks. And it was about time he did something to help around the house, Claire helped with the cooking and Tina helped with the dusting, he may be small but he can help by giving his tired mommy foot rubs at the end of the day. The thought made her grin, she checked her rear-view mirror and after indicating pulled off and set off home. And turned on the heater before setting on the blower to blow on her feet.

Beneath her hot toes, Billy was taking shuddering breaths the vibrating wasn’t as potent now but still very noticeable. All he knew was his mother’s toes. He was completely blind and aside from the trembling from the car all he could feel was her hot moist foot flesh. He could feel the grime against his face.

“I was so close,” Bill coughed, tears welling in his eyes.

A shimmering grey box appeared in his vision, it was like someone was projecting a slide on the side of his mother’s big sweaty toe, making just enough light for him to dimly make her toes out.

New Profession Unlocked: Mommy’s Foot Boy, you have earned the job role of Anna Tenner’s ‘Foot Boy’ and are to rub her feet after Anna Tenner finishes work and perform all other foot related duties designated.

“Wait…what?!” Bill shouted as he gaped at the notification.

It started to get noticeably warmer.

…

Anna had a spring in her step when she stepped out of the car, absentmindedly grabbing her sandal before locking the door. She would look rather odd if anyone noticed her and her mismatched shoes but she didn’t mind, it was worth it to feel that lovely feeling she got whenever she had a tiny under her foot.

She scrunched her toes, forcing her son between her second and third toes and unlocked the front door.

“I guess I better let you climb out, hadn’t I?” Anna sighed, looking down at her flat, squeezing her toes together and taking a moment to enjoy the little squirming. Pressing the underside of her sandal clumsily to the heel of her flat she slipped her heel free and slid her foot out, smirking when she saw Bill wriggling between her toes, she parted her toes and let him fall back into her shoe.

Anna picked up the flat and placed it on the counter, peering in she saw him curled up in the imprint from her heel. He looked so cute.

“Okay time to get out of my shoe dear,” Anna said, opening the junk drawer and fishing out a wheel of white thread, and snipping off a long piece, she pinned one end under the heel and dropped the other end in the flat.

“Once you’re out I have another task for you and then you can take a break,” Anna said as she turned her attention to the cupboards and began pulling out numerous jars and bottles containing the ingredients needed for healing potions. “Hmm, looks like I’ll need to get some more powdered deer antlers,” she murmured to herself.

Within the hot flat, Bill staggered to his feet, breathing heavily, and filling his lungs with his mother’s foot stench and stumbled his way towards the white thread. In the light from the opening of the shoe, it was like a divine rope sent by the gods to save him.

Quest: Escape Mommy’s Shoe
Objective: Use the thread provided to climb out of Anna Tenner’s Shoe
Reward: Basic Climbing Skills & 1 Basic Perk Point
Penalty: Spend the rest of the day in Anna Tenner’s Shoe

He grabbed the rope and tugged it; the white thread went taught. Taking another deep stinky breath, he leaned back and braced one foot against the wall of his mother’s heel and pulled himself up, kicking out his other leg to step up the damp wall. Immediately he felt the thread digging into his little hands and grit his teeth.

“Come on! You’re not staying in this shoe anymore,” he growled at himself and pulled harder, forcing himself to take another step, his aching legs trembling. There was no way in hell he’d let himself be stuck in his mother’s work flat all day.

He reached higher and pulled, the white thread turning pink where he had been previously holding it as he took another step. His eyes stung with pained tears.

His heart leapt when he neared the top of the flat, he threw out his arm, his left foot slipping he barely caught the tip of the heel. Panic briefly seized him and was replaced with relief when he realized he’d actually caught the shoe. Growling he heaved himself up and threw himself over the edge and with one final push fell from the opening and crashed onto the counter. He lay there breathing heavily, his cheek pressed into the cold, clean, marble surface.

Objective Completed: Use the provided thread to climb out of Anna Tenner’s Shoe
Quest: Escape Mommy’s Shoe - Complete
Reward: Basic Climbing Skills & 1 Basic Perk Point

New Skill Unlocked: Basic Climbing LV1: You have learned how to climb basic surfaces; basic surfaces are now 1% easier to climb

Anna glanced over at him.

“Well done,” Anna said, there was a hint of something between relief and pride in her tone. Her hand slipped into the pocket of the black robe that draped over her body, briefly causing the fabric around her cleavage to droop exposing more of the pale line dividing her breasts, and retrieved her phone and placed it on the counter.

Bill stared at the giant device, breathing heavily.

“Your next task is an important one, I want you to send me a text,” she turned to look directly at her tiny son to get the importance of her next statement through to him. “I want you to text the words, help me and send them.”

Bill didn’t move for a moment and Anna slapped her palm against the counter making the marble lightly tremble beneath him.

“Now!”

Bill flinched and struggled to his feet, hunched slightly over as he struggled to regain his breath. He looked at his hands, there were thin red lines that slowly seeped out blood from where the thread had dug into him.

Anna unlocked the phone and opened a new text.

“You’ll need to type in my number, I trust you know it, if you ever get taken, I want you to have a chance to get back to us,” she said.

Still panting and bent over, Bill looked up at her, a mixture of emotions inside him. He really didn’t know how he should feel about his mother and it didn’t help that he could still taste the cocktail of his and her sweat on his lips.

He turned his attention to the giant phone and slowly walked towards it. At three inches tall it was nearly twice his height, at least with it being a touch screen he wouldn’t have to jump from button to button. The quest notification appeared in his vision.

Quest: Request for Aid
Objective: Send a text requesting aid to Anna Tenner
Reward: None
Penalty: None

He dismissed the notification and stepped onto the screen, just above the graphical keyboard, the keyboard pulled away and out of sight as he had inadvertently unselected the send-to bar. He looked to his mom to help, she’d turned away and was adding an assortment of ingredients to the saucepan she used specifically for healing potions. He stepped off the phone and walked to the top of the device and stepped on the bar, again the keyboard appeared.

This was going to be more difficult than he’d thought.

“Okay…so how do I reach the middle numbers without clicking off the keyboard,” he muttered to himself, stroking his naked chin like he’d seen so many times on television. He slapped his forehead after a second, he was a little taller than the phone was wide, all he had to do was walk around the phone and make sure he didn’t accidentally hit any of the wrong numbers and it should be a piece of cake.

And so, Bill set about typing in his mother’s number. He did accidentally catch the wrong number on several occasions but he was able to delete them and replace it with the correct one, by the end while his arms were aching and some of the numbers had a faint pink layer to them, he had typed out her number, now he just needed to type the words.

At first, he tried kneeling at the base of the phone and tried to type the phrase but when he tried to reach for e on the keyboard it was just out of reach and he nearly fell forward onto the screen but thankfully managed to catch the edge of the phone with his other hand and stop his fall. After which he went back to his original more tedious method of doing half laps around the phone to type the phrase and hit send.

That giant device buzzed almost instantly as it received its own message.

Objective Completed: Send a text requesting aid to Anna Tenner
Quest: Request for Aid - Complete
Reward: None

Bill flinched back as Anna’s giant fingers came into view and she picked up the phone. She looked at his message and then deleted the conversation.

“Well done, you’re going to do this again tomorrow and each day after, the quicker you can do this the higher chance you will have to reach me should anything happen,” Anna said, her voice was soft but there was a touch of finality to it.

Anna reached up into a cabinet and pulled out a jar filled with still cockroaches, placing it on the counter she fished one out and dropped it in front of him.

Bill looked at it, then at her.

“I want you to spend more time on this one, look over the insect and take it apart and sort the pieces,”

“What!? That’s disgusting!” Bill objected.

“Insects are another big danger to boys, it’s better you study dead ones before you meet with a live one,” Anna said before taking another roach from the jar and pulling it apart over the pot, it was unnerving to see her take something similar size to him apart so easily. “And I’d hate to come home and find out my little foot boy was carried off to an ants’ nest and gobbled up,” she added, a slight grin as she looked at him.

Bill swallowed and gave a false laugh. He turned his attention back to the large bug and tried to mentally prepare himself for the grim task.

Quest: Academic: Cockroach
Objective: Take apart and study the cockroach carcass
Reward: An increased understanding of cockroaches and an increase to chances of survival

The Briarwood Academy

Claire was following the slow-moving rabble of other students as they filed through the hallways. She had quickly found her friend and the two were heading to their Literature class with Miss Blackwood. Amber Li was an Asian girl with an olive complexion and vibrant blue eyes, she wore a black off-shoulder blouse with a green ivy pattern snaking up which warped by her large bust, with a black skirt and dark nylons.

“So how was your dad’s birthday?” Claire asked.

“It was okay, mum made a big dinner and we had some family around and I baked some muffins, I don’t think dad likes being the centre of attention, to be honest,” Amber said, nipping at her lower lip.

“Bill’s the same, he doesn’t like it when everyone’s looking at him, though at that size I don’t think I would either.”

“Yeah.”

Claire pushed open the door to Miss Blackwood’s class and held it open for Amber before following her in. Miss Blackwood was a firm but fair teacher, she was sat at her desk in the corner of the room opposite the door, her brown hair in a professional style, and she wore a white blouse with a black blazer and black suit pants.

Claire and Amber took their seats on the second row, their desks pressed together like the rest of the class, everyone had been paired up in twos.

When Amber sat down, she slipped her hand down her shirt and fished out something small and carefully placed it on the table. Claire looked over and her mouth dropped open.

“Is that Akira?!”

Amber glanced over with a light hum.

“Oh yeah, mom wants him to still attend school and stuff, she says just because he’s small doesn’t mean he can’t be educated, apparently dad wasn’t allowed to attend school and now she’s adamant he will,” she said before going back into her handbag to fish out her notebook and her copy of The Cement Garden. Claire wasn’t a big fan of this book; it involved an intimate scene between two of the siblings and it made her think of her putting Bill…in her intimate area and it made her feel very weird.

“But why was he in your cleavage?”

“I don’t have pockets, it was either there or in my underwear, I think we both prefer my tits,” Amber laughed, Akira was scratching the back of his head and looked to be blushing a little, he was taller than Bill, maybe five inches?

“What about your sock?” Claire asked, thinking back to her brother riding to school in their mother’s work flat, Amber snorted.

“That would be way too mean, and I’d feel really awkward about the smell…” now Amber was the one blushing.

“You know, Bill wants to come back to school too,” Claire said, deciding to change the direction of the conversation.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, mom said he can if he learns the necessary skills.”

“That’s fair, mom’s making sure Akira and dad are always learning skills and levelling up,” Amber said as she scribbled the numerical date on the top of her notebook.

“Really?” Claire asked, a thought suddenly coming to her.

“Yep.”

“How did she teach Akira the climbing skill?”

Amber laughed.

“Akira got that one early when he was little…err well when he was younger, he was always climbing trees so he already had that one before he shrunk. Mom just helps him level it, we have a piece of fabric taped to our table that reaches the floor, at each meal Akira and dad climb up.”

“Oh? That’s not a bad idea but…I think Bill needs to gain more experience climbing before he can do anything like that…”

“Why? How are you guys teaching Bill?”

Claire hesitated a minute.

“Well…mom had him trying to…climb out of her shoe,” Claire admitted, feeling her cheeks warming.

“Her shoe? Oof, I feel sorry for the little guy.”

“Yeah…me too,” Claire said quietly.

They were quiet for a moment.

“Though is similar to how mom teaches Akira hand-to-hand combat.”

“Huh?”

“First she had dad teach him the basic moves then mom started having him use them on her feet, basically he practises the punches and kicks on her foot, massaging them while levelling up his combat skills, strength and endurance…and dad does the other one so he can see how it’s done…”

“I don’t know if that’s smart or cruel…” Claire said after taking a moment to process what her friend had just divulged.

“Both, she doesn’t clean up before and she doesn’t stop during summer…she keeps trying to get me to do it too but…” Amber drifted off, her cheeks going pink again.

“Right class, mouths shut, eyes front! You should have all finished Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden last night so today we’re going to go over the film.” There was a low rumble of cheers at the news they would spend the class watching a film.