Playtime came round. Cal extended his reign of terror and punched Ethan, Lofty and Noel. Noel punched Cal back and made his nose bleed. Cal went whining to look for Miss Freeman but couldn't see her or Mrs Beauchamp anywhere. He went to the sickroom because he thought he'd have a lie down whether they said he could or not.
Mrs Beauchamp heard the door being tried and came running out with her lipstick all smudged. She gave Cal a big handkerchief and told him to go to the boys' toilets and clean up. Cal felt better already, he knew what Mrs Beauchamp had done… she'd pretended to be careful about New Trition and had been stuffing a doughnut at playtime! He would write it on the blackboard when his nose was better.
Cal got crosser and crosser during the afternoon. Miss Freeman kept looking over at him and giggling helplessly.
Then came the moment when the kids all had to introduce themselves.
'I'm Zoe and my best friend's Max. I like Barbie dolls and Max, and Frozen and Max. And chocolate and Max.'
'I'm Cal and I hate everybody here'.
He hoped Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman would get cross and have to give him a lecture so it would make the day go faster. But they just nodded. Slutbags, thought Cal, using one of his favourite bad words.
'I'm Max and I like Zoe. And football. And pretending to be Dr Who in the Tardis. And Zoe. And playing on them big wall bars outside. And Zoe.'
'I'm Ethan and I like listening to posh music and playing with my toy cars. And I don't like being punched.'
'I hope nobody punches you here, Ethan.' Miss Freeman looked quite fierce. Three little hands were poised to go up but they crept down quickly because everybody knew snitches were Poison Bad,
'Now, Ben, you've been quiet, let's hear from you. Maybe you can tell us why everybody calls you Lofty.'
At Miss Freeman's soft voice, a little tear ran down Lofty's face. He would have to tell the truth and everybody would hate him forever.