Julie came round yesterday and I put my plan into action. We sat in the front room, Mum went into town and left us to it, and got all our books out all over the dinner table. Julie does English, Maths, and Chemistry with me. We both do History but with different tutors. The other subjects she does, I don't, so we didn't bother trying to revise those together. Well, after about two hours of going through notes and talking about stuff like the Korean War and Pythagoras my head was beginning to ache. (Who am I kidding? After about ten minutes of that stuff my head was beginning to ache! But I waited til we'd done two hours.) So I suggested we stop for a break. All that time I'd been drip feeding Julie with drinks. There was a coffee pot on the table and I brought out cans of coke and bottles of orange juice. So when we stopped she needed to go to the loo, real bad.

I sent her upstairs and while she was out of the room I went through her bag. My heart was beating so fast I thought it would pop out. I didn't know what I was going to find in there and at any minute she might come back in. God kows how I'd explain myself. Anyway, I didn't get caught but I did get her keys. I dashed into the kitchen and hid them in a cupboard. When she came back I was just coming out of the kitchen with a plate of biscuits. She smiled at me and looked almost normal, not like a nutter with a family who keep digging empty graves in thier garden. She certainly ate a lot of the biscuits like a normal kid. And I thought I could put a lot away!

We did about another hours work after that then her mobile went and she said it was her Dad telling her to come back home. She packed up and went off none the wiser. I went into town later and got a copy of all her keys cut. The guy in the shop looked at me a bit weird so I said they were my keys and Mum was mad at me for loosing them all the time so I had to get spares cut all at the same time so she could keep them. He grinned and rolled his eyes so I guess he must have a freakishly 'in control' mum too.

Julie and her family went out for thier usual Saturaday night family outing last night but I wasn't able to go and let myself in. Mum's got a new man in her life - Paul. And I had to spend the whole evening round his house getting to know him and his geeky kid. More of that another day.