‘It’s not a problem. You were really … honest with me. And I got a bit upset. But I think I’m getting better now. I think I’m finding a way through it. A way to deal with it.’ There’s a part of me that is amazed at how I’m finding words for things at the moment – things I found difficult to talk about up until a few weeks ago are suddenly flowing out of my mouth. Well, maybe not flowing, but they’re definitely coming out. It’s refreshing, liberating even, to be so visible. To be out of the cloud.

‘You have no idea what you’re finding, Josh.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Do you know what kind of stuff you’re getting into?’

‘Yeah, I’m finding the truth. And I’m getting less afraid of talking about it.’

‘I heard about English yesterday. Everyone’s talking about it. Maybe it’s best you keep—’

‘Alright, Soldier!’ Vince sits down heavily on my right. Alan slaps me on the back – a little too hard maybe – and slides in on my left. ‘What’re you talking about?’

‘Nothing.’ Dana hastily starts to stack things on her tray, making moves to leave.

‘Hey, D, stay a while.’

‘No, I’ve got a detention with Amber again.’

‘You should try being good for a change. Like Josh here.’

‘Yeah, well…’ Dana flashes her eyes at me once more as she turns to leave, barging past a group of younger kids as she does so.

‘Josh, I hear you told Burgoyne some truth yesterday?’

‘Yeah, I s’pose so. She wanted me to believe some kind of nonsense about—’

‘I’ll stop you there.’ Alan’s voice is harsh, firm. For a second I see how much like his brother he is. ‘Look, Josh, I like you. You know that, right? But the thing is with these liberal cucks is that they’re in control at the moment. And any time someone says something they don’t like, they feel a need to react.’

On my other flank, Vince is moving closer, his left arm pinning my right elbow against my side.

‘Which makes trouble we don’t need. You’re new to this, and it’s not your fault, but you’ve got to learn that you can’t just spout off about things in public. There will be consequences. We can’t be close to you, can’t help you, if you bring attention we don’t want. Our whole operation might be blown. Do you understand?’

Alan is smiling. I smile back, ‘Yeah, sure. I get it. No more truth in class. OK.’ I reach for my phone in my pocket, ‘Hey, check these out, they’re really—’

Alan interrupts me, his firm hand holds mine down. ‘Good. And you’ll also understand why this next bit has to happen too.’