That afternoon her fears had been proven right. A couple of boys, who hadn’t been in the class the day before, had started mucking around. She’d separated them and finally had to send one to the principal’s office. The mood in the room had changed instantly. The rest of the students became stilted and stiff when she spoke to them and she knew then that her time was running out. Soon they would all get a sniff of her inability to cope and, like sharks in a feeding frenzy, they would circle and attack. Even the nicest of kids would join in.

She’d made it through to the end of the lesson and now here she was, collapsed at her desk. The room swam and she had to remind herself to breathe. She recalled Flynn’s voice, “Why don’t you just say no?” She grimaced. Why couldn’t she do that?

The music from the radio was the only sound in the room. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting there, her hands clenched in front of her. Ken had invited her to the staffroom after school. Apparently they were having a short staff meeting followed by drinks and nibbles for someone’s birthday but Keely thought she’d rather go home. Flynn and Maggie were gone and the night before Euan had cooked her dinner. Their conversation had been stilted and forced. He’d seemed preoccupied, she assumed, with Dianna’s pending arrival. Keely would be happy to do her own thing tonight. She looked forward to the tranquillity of the studio and the gentle flow of the river past her door.

A shadow fell across the desk. She looked up, startled to see a student standing right in front of her. She hadn’t heard him come in.

“Hello.” He gave her an odd kind of smile as if he were summing her up.

He was a tall boy, perhaps about fifteen or sixteen but it was hard to tell. He hadn’t been in any of her classes.

“Hello,” she said and looked past him to the open door. There was no one else with him. She stood up. “I’m just getting ready to leave.”

“You’re nice,” he said in a low voice.

Keely froze as she saw him reach a hand towards her.

“I like your hair.”

In an instant, she was back at her last school with the leering faces, the whispered comments, the pressing hands. She gasped in a breath, grabbed her bag and made a dash for the door.

“Wait…”

She heard him call something but she didn’t stop. She rushed across the yard, around the building and out to the ute, where she paused and dug frantically for the key.