It was just over a week since the incident with his bunk, and although nobody had poured piss on his bed sheets again, things had otherwise got worse. The whole school seemed to have turned against him. Most of the teachers went out of their way to humiliate him, to prove to the other students that he didn’t belong. And the kids who weren’t sneering at him or sniggering or secretly stealing his stuff – his headphones were gone, as well as his best pair of trainers, and, this morning, his underwear – behaved as though he didn’t exist, which in some ways was even worse. People walked directly towards him in the corridors, forcing him to veer out of the way. He would put his bag down on a chair to reserve a lunch seat, and return to find someone else sitting there, his bag knocked on to the floor and kicked away beneath the tables. Doors would swing shut in his face, and not even the younger kids would look him in the eye. He was being treated as though he were a parasite. An invader. A cancerous cell floating around a body, whose response was to pretend there was nothing there.

He’d been keeping an eye out for Callum and the others, but none of them were in any of his classes, and because they were older the boys both slept in a different dorm. But now here they were – Callum, Lance and Melissa – having clearly come looking for him.

He was just beginning to smile when someone barged him from behind.

‘Hey!’ growled Callum, immediately leaping to Ben’s defence, and as Ben turned he saw the kid who had shoved him instantly pale. He was taller than Callum, and probably stronger, but even so he dipped his eyes and scuttled away along the corridor. Callum watched the boy go, before turning his attention back to Ben.

‘Are people still giving you trouble?’

Ben glanced quickly at Melissa. He shrugged, as though it wasn’t as big a deal as it felt. ‘Nothing I can’t handle,’ he replied, hoping it sounded more convincing out loud than it did in his head. More pupils emerged through the doorway behind him, and he stepped out of the way, just in case.

Callum was looking at him intently, and Ben couldn’t decide if his colour-washed eyes appeared cruel or kind.

‘We were just going to head out into the grounds, hang out for a bit in the woods,’ Callum said at last. ‘Do you want to come?’

Delight bloomed in Ben’s stomach, and he couldn’t stop it from showing on his lips. But then he remembered: he had another lesson. Ms Kennedy, who was almost as bad as Mr Cavanagh.

‘I can’t,’ he said, not even attempting to hide his disappointment. ‘I’ve got Latin.’

Callum’s mouth curled at one corner. ‘So? The three of us have got double-period English.’