‘Honestly, I’m fine,’ Bella replied, smiling at one of the children as they came out of the toilet so it would look genuine. ‘Did you wash your hands?’

‘Yes, look.’ Johnny held up his hands and wiggled his fingers in the air and one of the children giggled.

‘Not you, Mr Feker,’ Bella replied in mock annoyance, placing her hands on her hips and tutting. More of the children giggled and for a second her pain receded only to come back ten times stronger when she saw Freddie next in line. He waved and she smiled, trying hard to swallow down the tears threatening to get the better of her.

‘Come on then, guys, let’s get going. It’s nearly showtime.’ A moment later, Johnny took some of the children, including Freddie, back to class while Bella waited for Amias to finish. He’d been in there a rather long time.

‘Amias?’ She knocked on the toilet door. ‘Amias, are you okay in there?’ The faint sound of sobbing came through the door. ‘Amias? Amias, what’s wrong? Open the door and come out, please.’

A second later, Amias emerged. The fake beard that had been painted on with face paint had smudged all around his mouth and his eyes were red where he’d rubbed them so fiercely. ‘Oh, Amias, what’s wrong?’

‘I don’t want to do it,’ he sniffled.

‘Do what? The play?’ Her nerves unknotted a little. ‘Have you got butterflies in your tummy? That’s perfectly normal, Amias, but I know you can do it. You’ve worked hard for this.’

He sniffed again. ‘No one likes me.’ This time his tears erupted and the shield of mischievousness that had made him seem older, melted away to show just how young and innocent he was.

‘That’s not true. You’ve got lots of friends. Richard and Umar are your friends.’

‘Richard doesn’t like playing with me since we got into trouble, and Umar doesn’t want to play with me anymore either.’

‘Let’s come away from the toilets and sit over here.’ She took him to one of the small seats nearby and sat him down. ‘Do you think what you did to Freddie has made some of the children a little bit afraid of you?’

He nodded. ‘They think I’m going to do it to them too.’

As they still didn’t really know why he’d done it, she took the opportunity to ask, hoping it would help her understand a little more. ‘Why did you do it, Amias?’

‘Because everyone likes Freddie, and no one likes me.’