Billie

I went to my room and grabbed my phone; at first I just played around on it, but after a few minutes I found myself going back to the text messages. I couldn't help it - no matter how awful it was, how much I dreaded them, somehow I had to read them again and again.

I hadn't even had my phone long; phones weren't allowed at my last foster home. But when me and Toni came to the dumping ground, Mike gave me and Toni one each. He said it was so we could phone him, or anyone there, when we needed. They weren't very good phones, anyway - Carmen told me that the council didn't give care homes much money for things like that, so I suppose Mike could only afford to buy out-of-date ones for me and Toni. But still, it was better than having no phone at all, so we'd been over the moon at the time. Now, though, I wasn't so sure.

Why on earth had I made that phone call? I'd found the number by chance, when I'd been on the internet, and I'd suddenly had the urge to make the call; I'd felt like I needed to talk. I'd never have guessed that it would be such a terrible mistake.

And now the texts just wouldn't stop, whatever I did. I'd tried ignoring them, replying, asking for them to stop - everything. But they kept on coming. Not too often; several times a week, sometimes every day, sometimes hardly at all. That's what made it worse; I never knew when they were coming.

I'd thought about asking one of the older kids to help me change my number, of course. But I couldn't bring myself to. Though I dreaded the texts, I didn't want to miss them either, in case they said something important. However much I hated them, I had to read every single one.

I just didn't know what to do. I'd never had to face a problem like this by myself before; I'd always had Toni. She'd know what to do now, I was sure. But for the first time, I was on my own. I just couldn't tell her what was happening. She'd hate me forever if she knew what I'd done, how stupid I'd been. We'd tried so hard to move on, to get away from everything. But now I'd brought it all back, with one phone call, one stupid mistake. And I couldn't undo it.

I'd been waiting for that final text, the one that would change everything, that would end all the months of happiness we'd spent at the dumping ground. And earlier that day, it had finally come.

Toni

"Wait, so what do you want me and Billie to do tomorrow?" I asked Floss.

"Well, you need to help me distract May-Li first," she said. "I've planned it all. Billie and I will pretend we need the toilet, then while we're gone, Finn's going to pretend to fall over and tell May-Li he's hurt his leg. After that, you tell May-Li that Billie and I have disappeared, and suggest you split up to look for us. Then Harry drops his drink all over the floor, and while he distracts May-Li, you sneak out to join us."

"That sounds quite complicated," I said. "Are you sure it'll work?"

"Of course! What could possibly go wrong? Anyway, after that, we go into town, and do our dance routine."

"Dance routine?"

"Yeah! I've got it all planned. I'll teach it to you and Billie later, okay?"

"Um, okay..." I muttered. I was starting to regret agreeing to go along with Floss's plan, but there was no way she'd let us back out now.

Billie

"Billie? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I called out, opening the door to Harry. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to check you were okay. You sounded like you were crying." he stared at me.

"No, no, I was just... watching something on youtube," I lied, embarrassed. "Like I said, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, concerned. "You don't look it."

"Yeah, well. Look, Harry?" I asked, suddenly thinking. "Um, say if someone asks you to do something, but you know it's a bad idea? What would you do?"

"Is this about Floss's plan?" Harry asked. "I know she can be pretty fierce, but if you don't want to go along with it, you should tell her."

"No, it's not Floss." I told him. "It's... something personal. I can't really tell you."

"Well, if it's something you don't want to do, then tell the person," Harry said. "You can always say no."

"Not this time," I muttered. "They won't let me."

"What do you mean?" Harry looked even more concerned now. "Billie, is someone bullying you?"

"No..." I said, quickly. "Look, it's nothing."

"Well, you look pretty upset about it," Harry said. "Maybe you should speak to May-Li if it's worrying you? Or Toni? I'll go with you if you want."

"I can't." I said. "I suppose I'll have to sort it out by myself. But, Harry, promise me one thing. Please can you not tell Toni about this?"

Harry looked surprised, but he nodded.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" he asked. "It might make you feel better, and I won't tell anyone."

"Well..." I thought about it. Harry was pretty good at keeping secrets, and I couldn't bear to keep it to myself. Maybe he was right, and talking would help.

"Okay," I said, closing the door. "I'll tell you."