The blue notes

Text C: an original fiction extract.

Maya had told Kiran that the novel mattered to her. She had not told him that she had never finished it. Its place on her shelf, between two books she could discuss confidently, had become a useful kind of disguise.

When he returned it, she opened it at the kitchen table. Blue writing occupied the margin beside a speech she remembered admiring. “He wants her to feel grateful,” it said. Further down, someone had drawn a small ladder beside a paragraph and written, “Every kindness has a price.”

Maya closed the book hard enough to move her cup. She had asked Kiran to take care of it. Apparently, he thought taking care meant improving it with his opinions. Before he could remove his coat, she was explaining the difference between borrowing something and owning it.

“I didn't write those,” he said.

The answer seemed particularly insulting because the ink was right there. She opened the page and pushed it towards him. He read the note. Then he looked at her rather than at the book.

“I wrote about the brother in my essay. That's the part I told you I liked. I didn't get this far.”

Maya had been preparing a reply to a different sentence. She turned several pages to gain time. A folded sheet fell onto the table: instructions for a school reading project, dated three years earlier. Under the printed questions was a list in blue ink. The descending tail on the letter g matched the word “grateful” in the margin. At the top she had written her own name.

She remembered the project suddenly: reading on a train, furious with the character, using the book itself because she had no notebook. She had abandoned it before the final chapters. Later, a glowing review had supplied the opinion she repeated when anybody noticed it on the shelf.

Kiran picked up his bag. Maya said she was sorry, but the words came out too quickly, as though they were another way of getting her turn back.

“It's not about whether you're allowed to write in your own book,” he said. “You asked me a question and then you didn't want an answer.”

After he left, she tried reading the scene again. Her old note was annoyingly convincing. The kindness in the speech did seem to demand payment. She could also see why she had once liked the words: they were beautifully arranged. For the first time, neither response seemed to cancel the other.

She considered rubbing out the pencil ladder before remembering it was ink. Then she considered sending Kiran a photograph of the project sheet. That would prove the mistake, but he had never needed proof of his innocence. She put her phone down and fetched a sheet of writing paper. The book remained open beside her. She would finish it eventually. First she needed to write something that did not begin by explaining how understandable her behaviour had been.

You are Maya. Later that evening, write a letter to Kiran about what happened.

In your response:

• explain what made you react as you did when the book was returned
• describe what you discovered and how it changed your understanding
• explain what you regret and how you intend to act differently

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.