It was what they had called him on that day, and on every day since. Terry Arnold and his brother Brian fancied themselves as the Kray twins of Kingscroft Comprehensive. They had  attracted a straggle of like-minded, bored and brutish teenage boys more interested in brawling and bullying than books to join them. They spent most days stalking vulnerable victims amongst their fellow pupils to rob of their sweets and pocket money or to frighten and humiliate for entertainment. On that day, they had found Treasure. But he had been a disappointment. He had ignored them, no matter how badly their taunts had hurt and bewildered him. Treasure hadn’t flinched when they had mocked his mum and abused his dad. He had no idea what some of their words even meant. He only knew that they were being used as weapons, and that he was the enemy. Not because of anything that he had done, but because of who he was. His failure to respond to the boys’ crass jibes frustrated them and violence was their only answer. Terry threw the first punch and once Treasure was safely on the ground, the others found the courage to spit and kick. Treasure didn’t fight back. What was the point? He couldn’t win. He was outnumbered and much smaller than any of them, and he couldn’t make himself the one thing that might have saved him from their attention in the first place. White. But he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing his tears or hearing him cry out. He simply lay there and waited until they had finished with him. A whistle from the playground signalled that the lunch break was over, and Terry and his companion thugs swaggered away in the direction of the school buildings without a backward glance. When he was sure that they had gone, Treasure stood up. As he wiped the blood and spit from his face, something on the edge of the football pitch caught his eye. He stumbled towards the pot of white paint that one of the groundsmen had left behind, forgotten, after marking out the lines. Treasure lifted the pot with both hands, raised it high and tipped its contents over his head. Now he was white.

Treasure continued scraping at the hateful words on the bench. Nearby, a group of girls had begun a skipping game, taking turns to jump in and out of the rotations of a rope held at either end by one of their classmates.

Never tell a secret, never tell a lie

If you break a promise you will surely die

Say your prayers at bedtime, God forgive your sin

Then when you get to heaven the angels let you in

Treasure had kept his promise that he would never tell his parents what had happened that day.