Like Jacob, I’d never really had any close friends. Now, all of a sudden, I had two. My life felt like it had changed. It felt different, but great too. Like things were all shiny and bright.

But that feeling didn’t last very long.

11

The Dark Knight Falls

Just two days later, the shiny brightness wore right off. One minute I was eating my lunchtime sandwich, the next Jacob rushed me. His eyes bulged with fury as he grabbed my school jumper. I had no idea what was happening, but it felt like I was being manhandled by a gorilla.

“It was you!” Jacob screamed. “You must have told them!”

“W-w-what?” I said.

“You lying little shit!” he yelled, and he clenched his free hand into a fist.

Mr Ahmed and Ms Jenkins rushed in before he could punch me. He was swearing like mad as they dragged him away.

“Think you’ve upset chav boy,” Anu Patel sneered. “He thinks you told everyone.”

“Told them what?” I asked, my stomach churning with fear.

“About scrounging at a food bank …”

My heart sank. I hadn’t told anyone.

“Hate to be you when Jacob comes back from exclusion,” Anu added.

I grabbed my stuff and stormed to the library where Mrs Collier was sitting behind her desk. Her kind face creased with concern.

“What’s happened, Cal?” she asked.

“Jacob went for me,” I told her. “He thinks I told everyone his secret.”

“What secret?” she asked.

I shrugged and dumped my bag on the floor.

“Doesn’t matter now.”

I sat in a corner, and pulled a random book from the shelves. But I couldn’t focus because I was so wound up. Then Freya found me.

“Have you heard?” she asked.

“Yes,” I told her. “Jacob attacked me in the hall.”

“But it was Myles Granger – not you!” Freya said.

“Huh?” I said. “How do you know?”

“Because I heard him tell everyone,” Freya replied. “But why didn’t you tell me?”

“Jacob made me promise,” I told her. “I couldn’t break his trust.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “So what now?”

“We find Jacob,” I said. “Come on, let’s go.”

The exclusion room was in the admin corridor, and out of bounds to pupils without permission. But for once I didn’t care if I got into trouble. Jacob needed to know the truth.

“Are you sure?” Freya said.

“Yeah, course. He’s our friend and we have to help him.”

The admin corridor was deserted, but we waited a moment, just in case. When no teachers appeared, I opened the door and whispered.

“Jacob …”

He was sitting on a chair with his head in his hands. He didn’t look up, so I tried again and Freya joined in.

“Hey!”

This time he did hear. He frowned when he saw us.

“It wasn’t me!” I whispered.

“Yeah right.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Freya said.

Jacob stood up and I couldn’t help but feel scared. After the way he’d been in the dinner hall, I didn’t know what to expect. But I saw that his face was more sad than angry now.