‘Look,’ Mum said, ‘it’s only natural. Give him a couple of days and I’m sure he’ll be fine. He just needs to be by himself. It doesn’t mean he hates you.’

But I know he does.

2nd August, 1.45 p.m.

Mum and Lily keep nosing their heads round the door. Sometimes it’s to see what I want to eat next. (The answer has only been this: banana sandwiches and crisp sandwiches.)

Often, it’s just, ‘Are you OK?’ (And there’s no answer to that.)

The whole village found out what happened within seconds. Mum says villages are like that. She also keeps giving me the ‘peer-pressure resistance’ talk. ‘Walk away next time, Alfie.’ She’s said this about a hundred times. ‘Walk away faster!’

She can’t figure out how I fell into it. ‘You’ve got such a strong temperament,’ she said, shaking her head. But she hasn’t met Tombard.

I think Lily understands. She hasn’t said much, but when I first came home and spilt out the whole story, she shook her head and bit her lip and looked like she was remembering things from her old school.

They just carried Dad up to my room on Mum’s laptop. Tried to tell him how everything’s been, but my words fell out in a muddle, ending with, ‘… and Sam still hates me.’

‘Chin up,’ Dad said. ‘You’ll be back playing footie again before you know it. Make the most of your free time and get outside training. Lily’s been out a lot, Mum says. You need to do the same. No point sulking in your room.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Lily says you’ve hardly been anywhere.’

‘Been out today. It was appalling.’

‘Oh, Alfie, it can’t have been that bad.’

‘It was. We had to go to Lily’s doctor appointment, and Mum got talking to the mum of a small guy in the year below me, and he made cutthroat signals to Lily behind his mum’s back – the whole time. About me. Definitely about me.’

‘It might not have been …’

‘Was. Could tell by the way he shook his head and pretended to back away from me slowly, as if I might do something. And even worse – Mr Lombard came up to me in the street afterwards and accused me of leading Tombard astray!’

He said this was Strike Two. He didn’t say what Strike One was, but I’d guess it was trespassing. Didn’t tell Dad that part. How am I ever going to leave this house again? Whizzy’ll act up as soon as I do – I just know it.

‘It’ll all blow over soon.’

‘Lily actually defended me, for only the second time in history. She called him a loser, using hand signals, then said, “Just because he was there, doesn’t mean he did it.”’

‘Well that was—’