"I'll find it."

"But give me a couple of hours to correct homework," she said. "Don't come before half-six."

"Sounds perfect."

"Darren Shan," she whispered, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth. "Who'd have believed it?" She leant towards me, and I thought — hoped! — she was going to kiss me, but then she stopped, adopted a stern expression and pushed me back into class ahead of her.

The lesson passed in a blur. Debbie tried hard not to pay special attention to me, but our eyes kept meeting and we were unable to stop smiling. The others kids noted the remarkable bond between us and it was the talk of the school by lunchtime. If the students had been suspicious of me at the start of the day, now they were downright wary, and everyone gave me a wide berth.

I breezed through the later classes. It didn't bother me that I was out of my depth and ignorant of the subject matter. I no longer cared or tried to act clued up. Debbie was all I could think about. Even when Mr. Smarts threw my maths copy at me in science and bawled furiously, I only smiled, nodded and tuned him out.

At the end of the day I rushed back to the hotel. I'd been given the key to a locker, where I was supposed to leave my books, but I was so excited I didn't bother with it, and carried the full bag of books home with me. Mr. Crepsley was still in bed when I arrived, but Harkat was awake, and I hurriedly told him about my day and meeting Debbie.

"Isn't it wonderful?" I finished breathlessly. "Isn't it incredible? Isn't it the most…" I couldn't think of any way to describe it, so I simply threw my hands into the air and yelled, "Yahoo!"

"It's great," Harkat said, wide mouth spreading into a jagged smile, but he didn't sound happy.

"What's wrong?" I asked, reading the unease in his round green eyes.