It was troubling.

Mum and Dad agreed that we could go on the school camp. I knew they would, but we had to go through a long period of time where we didn’t know for sure. It was part of our punishment. The days before the trip were charged with excitement at school. No one knew what to expect because it was only for our year group and no one had any older siblings, obviously, who could tell them what it was like.

But they’d heard stories.

The night before, Aiden and I packed our bags with Mum and Dad supervising. It was mainly a matter of making sure we had clothing to cope with all kinds of weather conditions, but that was something we were used to. Quite a bit of available space was taken up with Aiden’s food. All of us normal kids were being catered for at the camp, but clearly he had to take along everything he was going to eat. The only slight problem was that Aiden was due to go into hospital for one of his routine procedures, but Mum and Dad agreed that he could do that once we got back from the excursion.

We took two books each. There was no point taking tablets. We’d been told that there wouldn’t be reception where we were going.

Mum and Dad drove us to school on the Monday morning of the trip and it was chaotic outside the building. Everyone else’s parents were there and bags were strewn all over the place and people were hugging each other and there were people with clipboards and people in uniform and … Well, it was enough to take your breath away.

‘Have the best time, kiddlypunks,’ said Mum. She had a meeting and couldn’t hang around to say goodbye when we actually left. That was okay. At least she said it quietly and left with a minimum of fuss. Dad went at the same time.

Then the coach turned up. It was amazing. It looked like a normal coach, but I knew from Mum and Dad talking about it that it was state of the art. There were steel shutters that could cover the windows in case of an unexpected event and apparently it was more like a tank than a regular coach. You could fall off a cliff and be safe, though I hoped that wouldn’t be tested.

There was so much paperwork to be filled out, but finally everything was in order and we boarded the coach. Charlotte was a little ahead of me in the queue and as I went past she patted the seat next to her. I stopped, thus blocking the gangway and making everyone behind me stop as well.

‘Thanks Charlotte,’ I said, ‘but I think I’ll sit with Aiden. I mean, I won’t have much chance to be with him when we’re all in our dormitories.’ I spoke quite loudly and the bus had an echo to it. Aiden seemed a little surprised. He turned and gave me a bit of a strange look. But it was obvious he was pleased.