‘Don’t take her away from me!’ Beth screamed.

Laughter rose up from the hall. Behind her, Sasha said: ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake!’ And Mrs Bracken was at the edge of the crowd barking at them all to be quiet. But the air was threaded with a giddy streak that would not be silenced.

Beth’s heart was strobing the way it sometimes did when she woke in the night to the sound of her aunt’s raspy breath, feeling the dry tingle of those rough fingertips passing over her skin. In those moments, she could scarcely breathe, like a damp hand clamped over her mouth, the darkness bearing down on her: the weight of a body pressing hers into the mattress. And all along Eva knew. She knew. And she had done nothing. Nothing! She hadn’t even told Beth, hadn’t warned her. Despair had taken hold of Beth when she held her ear close to the door of Eva’s bedroom and discovered her betrayal. And now, the laughter of those girls roared in her ears, their faces distorted into parodies of themselves, clownish, gaping mouths stretched open. She couldn’t stand it.

‘What the fuck?’ someone said, and the ripple went through the crowd, laughter mutating to breathless awe.

Her hand was shaking. She looked through the crowd for Corinne, but she was gone, the curtain swinging in her wake. No goodbye. No chance to witness. She was gone and now it was too late.

Someone said: ‘Is that thing real?’

Panic soared inside her, mingling with rage, confusion, a swirl of emotions rising like a tornado. She turned to Sasha who was out of her chair now, stumbling backwards, propelled by fear, shoving aside the other girls in her bid to get away. Still Beth’s hand shook. It would not stop shaking. The panic inside her was in the room now, passing swiftly like an infection. Chairs overturned, girls screaming, the thunder of feet all moving towards the doors. And there in the crowd was Lisa. Lisa who wasn’t running or shouting or jostling to escape. She was just standing there, her plain, simple face staring back at Beth, cold with wonder.

Abi drummed her fingers on the handbag that lay on her lap. Where were they? Overhead, she could see a fading grid of contrails marking the cold blue sky.

Her phone rang and it was Mark, breathless, upset.

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

‘Where’s Beth?’ he said.

Corinne walked slowly, her courier bag slung over one shoulder, Eva a pace ahead. They didn’t have much time. A couple of minutes before they reached the car where Abi was waiting.

‘Can I ask you something?’ Eva said, as they crossed the courtyard, past the sundial where the class photos were always taken. The windows of the lower year form rooms shone brightly against the autumn sunlight.