‘Can I try on my uniform when you’ve finished admiring your tongue?’ she asked.

I snapped my mouth closed as she pressed her fist against her lips to stifle a giggle. Her heart-shaped face in the mirror, her blue eyes bright with laughter; this was a frozen moment, never forgotten.

‘I’m sorry…’ Colour flushed across my cheeks, spread down my neck.

‘I’m sorry too,’ she said. ‘I thought the fitting room was empty.’ She shook out the school uniform she’d draped over her arm. ‘God! It’s hideous, isn’t it?’

‘Hideous.’ I should have faced her but, somehow, talking to her reflection felt less embarrassing. ‘It’s far too big for me and I hate the colours.’

Her lips puckered. I thought she was going to laugh again but, instead, she said, ‘I hate them too. I’ll look so disgustingly fat in this skirt.’

‘No, you won’t.’ I turned around and spoke directly to her. ‘It’ll look lovely on you.’

‘Tell me what you think.’ Before I could move, she wriggled out of her t-shirt and jeans. She was wearing a bra, a flimsy white piece of lace that pushed two swelling buds upwards and outwards. Mine barely existed. It seemed unfair that someone so small should have such beautiful breasts. She buttoned the blouse and fastened the skirt. The hem of her skirt rested neatly on her knees and the cream blouse enhanced the colour of her skin.

‘It’s dire on both of us,’ she said, almost apologetically. ‘I suppose we’ll just have to get used to looking awful.’

‘No, it looks really nice on you.’ I felt no envy towards her as we stood together and observed our reflections.

‘Are you nervous about starting in St Agatha’s?’ she asked.

‘Sort of,’ I admitted. ‘I know some of the girls from primary so that will help.’

‘I won’t know anyone,’ she said. ‘I hope we’re in the same stream. My name’s Karin Moylan. What’s yours?’

‘Nadine Keogh.’

‘Do you think we’ll be bullied?’ she asked.

The same fears had been running through my own mind. I’d heard of wedgies and heads being pushed down toilets but that seemed like boy torture. With girls it was different. I imagined being excluded from groups, whispered about, picked on, the victim of vicious lies.

‘Why should you be bullied?’ I couldn’t imagine such treatment being meted out to her.

‘People will pick on me because I’m small.’ She looked up at me, her eyes filled with dread. ‘I can’t sleep thinking about it. But you’ll be all right. You’re so big they’ll think you’re a fourth-year.’

I immediately stooped my shoulders, a habit I’d developed the previous year when I became the tallest girl in my class.

The curtains opened again and my mother said, ‘What’s keeping you, Nadine?’ She stopped when she saw Karin. ‘Oh, I didn’t realise you were with a friend. Come on out so that I can take a proper look at the pair of you.’

We emerged from the fitting room. Karin was composed as she twirled around but I stood self-consciously in the open space, aware of my large feet and gangling arms, convinced the customers passing by were comparing my lankiness to her petite frame.

Her parents were sitting on a sofa in the waiting area. Max Moylan had the resigned expression that men acquire in an all-female shopping environment. The sofa was a two-seater but, even then, I sensed the distance between him and his wife. Joan had her daughter’s small-boned physique but her hair, split in the centre, was long and black, a fringe almost covering her eyes. Max stood up when he saw us and whistled. Karin had inherited his fair complexion and his wide-eyed embracing gaze. I’d never known a father who wore a ponytail. It seemed incredibly cool and daring.

‘You look very elegant, young lady,’ he said to me. ‘I reckon you’ll be a famous model someday. Mark my words, you’ll knock them for six on the catwalk.’

Karin tilted her head. Her gaze sharpened, as if she was viewing me with fresh eyes. She smiled and said, ‘Wouldn’t that be absolutely brilliant.’

When our uniforms were purchased, we headed towards the exit. Our mothers exchanged a few words before they parted. The natural light emphasised the artificial blue-black sheen of Joan’s hair, the colour too stark for her pale face. Later, my mother would claim that Joan was freeze-framed in the sixties. Karin walked ahead with her father, her arm linked in his, and I knew she’d already forgotten me.

On the first day of term I saw her in the assembly hall with Sheila Giles. Sheila, who’d been in my class in primary school, suffered from acne. Her face looked painfully inflamed against Karin’s creamy complexion. I waved across at them. Sheila waved back but Karin’s expression was puzzled, as if she was trying to remember where we’d met. From that day on they ignored me. They ate together in the school canteen and walked home arm-in-arm in the evenings.

I hung around with the girls I knew from primary school. In our intimidating new environment we were drawn to each other by familiar ties. When Lisa Maye turned fourteen we were the only girls in St Agatha’s invited to her birthday party. Sheila arrived with her older brother Theo and some of his friends. The atmosphere changed soon afterwards. The older boys hung out in the garden where the trees were slung with fairy lights and a gazebo had been erected. They grew more boisterous as the night wore on. Lisa’s father ― who organised the teenage discos in the tennis club and was no slouch when it came to sniffing out underage drinkers ― ordered them to leave after he discovered their secret stash of vodka in his garden shed. Sheila had been drinking with them. She was incoherent by the time her mother collected her. She collapsed as she tried to walk to the car and was immediately driven to hospital. There were rumours of a stomach pump being used but Sheila, when she returned to school, kept her head down and refused to speak to anyone about that night.

Her friendship with Karin was over. They sat at opposite ends of the canteen and Sheila walked home from school alone. She was crying in a cubicle when I entered the school toilets one morning. We were the only two pupils in the toilets and the sound stopped when I asked if she was okay.

‘Mind your own business,’ she snapped.

I recognised her voice, though it sounded thick, phlegmy. She must have been crying for a long time. She blew her nose and cleared her throat. ‘Buzz off and leave me alone.’ This command ended on a hiccupping sob.

That evening I stayed behind to speak to Miss Knowles, my art teacher. She believed my drawings had a maturity not normally found in the work of a first-year student. Her praise excited me, removed me a step further from my own self-absorption. Most of the pupils had left by the time I reached the bicycle shed. I was about to wheel my bike out when I heard a boy shouting behind the shed wall.

A girl screamed but the sound stopped so abruptly I knew a hand had been pressed to her mouth.

‘Shut up, you fucking bitch.’ The boy’s voice was deep and guttural. Probably a third or fourth year student. ‘If you slag her off again about her face I’ll fucking kill you. You weren’t invited to that stupid party so stop taking it out on her.’

I grabbed the pump from my bike and ran around to the back of the shed. Theo Giles had pushed Karin against the wall and had, as I suspected, gagged her with his hand.

‘Leave her alone,’ I shrieked.

He glared back at me but kept his hand over her mouth. ‘Fuck off, stupid ginge,’ he yelled. ‘Me and this bitch have agro to sort out.’

I struck him across the back of his head with the pump. He was so surprised that he released Karin immediately and spun around. Like Sheila, he suffered from acne. His face was mottled, his expression murderous as he lunged towards me. Karin screamed again. The sound ricocheted across the empty schoolyard. A flock of crows perched on a rubbish bin shot into the air. Her eyes were gleaming with what I believed was terror but would later realise was fury. I flailed wildly at Theo with the pump but he wrenched it easily from me.