The nine-year-old boy did as he was told, looking slightly crestfallen. Luckily, Umar and Richard didn’t seem to mind their return, given where they’d just been put.

Regaining her composure, she gave the same warning she’d given almost daily since term began. ‘Pencils should stay in hands and not be inserted into your body. It’s very dangerous, as I’ve told you before.’

What was it with boys this age and shoving things into every available orifice? She only had to turn her back for two seconds and someone had rammed something somewhere they shouldn’t. Especially Amias. The boy was addicted to mischief. Only last week there’d been a slight panic when he’d stuck a marble up his nose. Bella had dislodged it by closing off his other nostril and making him blow his nose as hard as he could. The offending object had shot out at such a speed it rolled across the classroom and ended up under the arts and crafts trays. Half the class had then scuttled out of their seats, following its path to see where it had gone. And then there was the incident with the plastic frog and his inner ear which, quite frankly, didn’t bear thinking about. Harrowing was the only way she could describe it. The number of times she’d asked the question why only to receive a shrug in reply was mind-boggling.

Amias was what they’d describe at parents’ evening as a ‘lively’ child. If he wasn’t sticking things in places they didn’t belong on his person, he was doing so on the school premises; shoving toilet paper into the sink or trying to steal it to throw at his friends during breaktime. Every class had a boisterous child like him, and though he could be a handful, on the whole, Bella considered herself lucky. She at least hadn’t had to deal with Miss Radcliffe’s Year 5 class and a boy they’d nicknamed Lucky Louis on account of his recent fractured wrist, busted lip, and the giant lump on his head, all from his antics on the playground.

Turning back to the board she continued to write out the sum they’d been working on.

‘Miss?’ Leonie asked, her quiet voice only just audible above the ruckus that had begun as soon as her back was turned.

‘Yes, Leonie?’ Bella turned back to her class.

‘Can I go to the toilet, please?’

‘But you’ve only just got back from break.’

‘Yes, but I’ve drunk a whole bottle of water and now I really need to go.’

‘Me too,’ said her best friend, Hannah.