Joey became an instant celebrity in school. The first day she came in, about a week after she came back, it took people a few seconds to recognise her, Joey, the shy girl who had been Myra's pet.

The shy girl who was now one of the most popular people in the school. Her new porcelain skin, slender figure and beautiful features had the older students wanting to be her friend and boys she'd never even looked at, much less spoken to, stopping her in the corridors and pressing cell phone numbers into her hand. She never went out with or even rang any of them. Mostly she was quiet, withdrawn, preferring to talk to just Annie and me. She never ate, ever, no matter how much we begged her to. Not even a pack of potato chips or an apple. I eventually accepted my theory that maybe she just didn't like the cafeteria food. She never told us how she spent the two years she was gone. Everytime someone brought the subject up, even Annie and me, she would turn into a silent statue, staring straight ahead, pale face frozen, black eyes never blinking. So we didn't bring it up.

She told us plenty of stuff about Myra though. Joey told us that, "as far as she could remember", Myra had been some kind of orphan, on the run, without a decent home or family. Apparently, she got her friend, Victor to fill out the medical forms given by her many schools. And she had been friends with Lluvy. How many more girls had Myra been 'friends' with?

When I walked into biology on Thursday, the first thing I saw was Joey sitting at the back of the room, her head resting in her hands, her eyes and mouth both shut, not talking to anybody. She opened her eyes and saw me, smiled and motioned to the seat beside her.

I sat down. 'What are you doing here?' I whispered. Mr. Spence had a strict "no talking" rule.

'Extra tutoring.' She muttered. 'I'm a complete dunce at biology.'

'If Josephine and Emma will finish their conversation,' our teacher said, 'we will be doing the different blood types today.'

Next to me, Joey stiffened.

I looked at her, then raised my eyebrows. She looked completely terrified.

'I will hand out microscopes and pins.' The teacher continued. 'Spike your finger with the pin, not hard, then wipe it on the card. Please, no one bleed to death.'

As the class dissolved into talking, Joey grabbed my arms and swung me round to face her.

'Emma, I can't do this.' She whispered, looking frantic.

'What? But you've never had a fear of blood before.' Normally it was Joey who patched the person up, while Annie barfed in a corner.

'Seriously, I have to get out of here.' She whispered.

'OW!' Someone yelled, and I saw Jake, a tall, black haired guy looking at his finger, where a trickle of red liquid was running down.

Joey leapt up from her chair, a hand over her mouth. She ran towards the door, knocking over two people. The door slammed shut behind her.

'And then she just leapt up and ran for the door.' I said to Annie. We were sitting on her front porch, eating chocolate brownies her mum had made.

'But she's never been afraid of blood before.' Annie said. 'It was always me who collapsed or something….'

'And you know I didn't see her for the rest of the day?' I said.

'At all?'

I shrugged. 'Maybe she was sick after the blood. Unless she left the school.'

'Why would she do that?' Annie asked. 'It's just some blood.'

I laughed and gave her a shove. 'Says you.'

And then we were both laughing, but inside we knew we were both thinking about the same thing.

Joey.

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