She picked up a stick that was lying near her feet, and started jabbing it into the mud. Just lightly at first, testing the resistance, before finally plunging it in so forcefully, it snapped when she tried to pull it out.

‘Do you know why my father sent me here?’ said Callum, into the silence that followed.

All Ben could do was shake his head. He’d heard Callum’s father was some super-rich businessman, but other than that he knew as much about Callum as he did about Melissa and Lance.

‘To follow in his footsteps,’ Callum said. ‘To become the man he thinks he is himself.’ He shook his head. ‘Pathetic, right?’

Ben’s thoughts turned again to his own father. Until Ben had been about nine or ten years old, he’d been desperate for his father’s approval – or even just some attention. That was before he’d realised his old man was nothing more than a two-faced liar, no more interested in Ben than he had been in Ben’s mother.

‘And it’s the same for Lance,’ Callum said. ‘He doesn’t belong here any more than the rest of us do. Tell him, Lance.’

‘I’m here on a scholarship,’ Lance said. ‘The annual fees are more than my mum and dad earn put together.’

‘They’re ashamed,’ Callum explained, looking at Ben. ‘They think that Beaconsfield will make Lance better. A better person, a better prospect, a better son.’

Lance started on rolling another joint. He caught Ben studying him, and Ben was the one to look away.

‘Anyway,’ said Callum, once again breaking the silence. ‘I guess the point is, you’re not the only one who feels out of place here. In fact, all three of us knew it the minute we saw you.’

Lance and Melissa nodded. Ben felt his expression contort in confusion.

‘Knew what?’ he said.

Callum gave a smile, and Ben basked in its warmth. ‘That you were one of us. That you’d need us as much as we need you.’

LENT TERM REPORT CARD

Date: 27th March 1997

Student name: Benjamin Draper

Student house: Churchill

Parent/Guardian: Anthony Draper

Comments