Bradley nodded. I’d been getting messages from Joe too, but there was nothing dodgy about them. I mean, he told me his dad was a violent alcoholic and he was thinking about running away with his little sister, to protect her from him. We talked about a lot of stuff, but the Joe I talked to was definitely into girls, from the things he said. But then when I realised he was messaging all of us, I wondered if Leon had told him things about us, so that he knew what to say. He knew how to make us open up, you know.

Singh looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘And what about you two?’ He looked at Courtney and Cassie. ‘Do you have similar stories?’

I think it’s a coincidence, Courtney signed. I noticed she was sticking to BSL this time rather than speaking, probably because the other students were using BSL too. I don’t think the person I was talking to is the same one as these three, she told Singh, flicking her hair over her shoulder. The person chatting to me was another girl, and she spelt her name Jo, without the e.

This girl, she started off by talking about how much she liked school, and how many friends she had, Courtney continued. It almost turned into a competition between us, you know? Who was more popular. Well, after a while she started talking about things she’d done to other kids. Mean things. She was saying how much fun she had making another girl cry, getting a boy into trouble for something he didn’t do, even making fun of a teacher. I didn’t think it sounded like fun, it was all a bit childish, and I told her that. So, she started daring me to do things.

There was a long pause, and I noticed that Kian’s leg was jiggling nervously again.

‘And did you do any of those things?’ Singh asked.

Courtney turned the colour of beetroot. Maybe. A couple of things. I just wanted to see if she was right, that it would be fun, but I felt awful and I apologised afterwards.

No, you didn’t, Kian signed to her. You never apologised to me for sticking my uniform in the sink after PE. How did you even get in the boys’ changing rooms?

You didn’t apologise to me either, Cassie chimed in. Those mints made me so poorly. She turned to Singh. She told me they were weight-loss mints but I had to eat two packets a day for them to work. But they have something in them that makes you go to the loo. It was horrible.

Courtney stifled a laugh. Yeah, but I bet you lost weight, didn’t you?