I managed to dodge it just before it hit the wall behind me.

‘Everyone stand up and walk out the door!’ I had to shout over Aaron’s cries. We had already practised our evacuation plan, but the kids still looked bewildered.

I snatched up a yellow card from my desk and gave it to Phoebe. The card said: There is an incident in Ms Ayres’ classroom.

‘Everyone stand up and walk out the door!’ I repeated, as another chair went flying. Someone started to sob. Phoebe seized Kayla’s hand and charged towards the exit, but I had to nudge the other kids, who were frozen in horror.

‘Quick!’ I said. ‘Don’t run!’ Meanwhile Aaron had seized a third chair and was sweeping it across a table top, scattering books and pencils.

‘Stupid bitch! Stupid bitch!’ he roared.

As I closed my classroom door behind me, I saw Deb hovering in the hallway. Phoebe walked right up to her and shoved the yellow card into her hand.

‘Who is it?’ Deb asked me.

‘Aaron.’ It hardly needed saying. Aaron was the main reason we even had an evacuation plan.

Deb flinched at the sound of a thump that shook the foundations. ‘Take this to the office,’ she said, returning the yellow card to Phoebe. ‘Do you know where the office is?’

‘Yes! I know!’ Phoebe was almost bursting with pride. I’d shown my whole class where the office was on their very first day.

‘Take Amber with you,’ Deb told her, before guiding the other kids through the door to her room. They were scared. Caleb was whining and Luke wouldn’t let go of her sleeve.

I glanced back into my own room, which looked as if a cyclone had blown through it. Aaron was attacking my desk with a plastic tub. I’d left my purse under the desk, as well as my sunglasses.

Let’s hope Joyce hasn’t gone, I thought, watching Aaron vent. There was nothing I could do to stop him, short of a chokehold.

And that filled me with a profound sense of failure.

2019

2019

‘OKAY, DARREN.’ SHAUN closed my office door. ‘I brought you here because none of us remember seeing you earlier, when someone was in this house. Can you tell us where you went?’

Aaron’s expression was sulky. ‘I dunno.’

‘Sir,’ Shaun snapped.

‘Sir.’ Aaron made it sound like an insult.

‘You weren’t in the dorm. You weren’t in the bathroom. You weren’t outside the bathroom.’ When Aaron didn’t answer, Shaun leaned towards him. ‘Where did you go?’

‘Not in here,’ said Aaron. His voice sounded strange to me—too deep and resonant. My memory was full of his six-year-old chirp.

‘Where were you, then?’ asked Shaun.

‘Dunno.’ Aaron shrugged. ‘Pissing on the bricks?’

Shaun frowned. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’