Bella led them into the classroom and noticed the way Amias sneered at Freddie who was sat with Nina, a pile of tissues in front of him. He still hadn’t stopped crying and Nina was doing her best to comfort him. Ever observant, Bella clocked Richard’s expression of abject horror when he saw what he’d done. His eyes widened and all the colour drained from his face. But the thing that upset Bella most was the fear radiating off Freddie when he saw Amias. Her blood ran cold. She would not have any child feeling like that in her school.

Within seconds she marched them down the corridor to Mrs White’s office.

‘Come in,’ Mrs White said in her normal cheerful tones after Bella had knocked.

Bella opened the door and ushered both boys inside. Mrs White quietly put down her pen and clasped her hands in front of her on the desk, looking over the edge of her spectacles. ‘Is something wrong, Miss Moore?’

‘I’m afraid so, Mrs White.’

Bella outlined what had happened, confirming that at least one witness had backed up Freddie’s story and she would continue to investigate though she suspected more children would come forward corroborating Freddie’s side of events. She also mentioned the other incidents that had happened recently. Guilt wrapped its ugly hand around her lungs, squeezing the air out. Had she failed Freddie by not picking up on the pattern? There was no denying this was bullying. Amias’s comments about Freddie’s mum were just horrible. Kids could be cruel, though it was normally unintentional as they learned new social skills, but there was something different about this and it was clear from the comments she’d already had from Mr and Mrs Cole, Amias was parroting things he heard at home.

Mrs White signalled to the two chairs in front of her desk but stood up herself. ‘Thank you, Miss Moore. If you’d like to go back and check on Freddie and continue speaking to the other children, I’ll speak to Amias and Richard.’

Bella did as she was told, noticing the fear on Richard’s face while Amias was petulant. She closed the door behind her and went back to Freddie. He was still upset but slowly calming down and his breathing had returned to normal. About ten minutes later, Mrs White appeared with Richard, who was instructed to sit down. He did, away from Freddie and unable to make eye contact with him. Bella and Nina went to Mrs White.