One (Sarah Crossan)

In Geometry

But how do they know?’

Tippi asks

Yasmeen.

We are supposed to be correcting

each other’s answers,

talking through the equations we

got wrong.

Mr Barnes, the teacher,

isn’t even in the room.

He left

after setting us the task and hasn’t come back.

‘I told them.

I didn’t think it would matter,’ Yasmeen says.

‘But the thing is,

it isn’t like cancer.

With HIV

people think you’ve only got yourself to blame,

right?

Well,

I refuse to justify myself by

explaining

how I got it.

Screw that

and

screw them.’