‘What?’ she frowned.

‘Nothing,’ he shrugged. ‘Let’s get home, shall we?’

Perhaps I’d been wrong to assume he hadn’t minded wearing it.

‘Nothing, my foot,’ said Chelsea, eyeing him beadily. ‘I know that look. What happened, Liam Chalmers?’

Liam looked at me and then to his mum.

‘Bradley and Kyle turned up,’ he eventually said.

‘What, here?’ Chelsea frowned.

Liam nodded, his shoulders slumped and all his former perkiness deserted him.

‘What did they want with Wynter’s Trees?’ Chelsea demanded.

‘Who are they, Liam?’ I asked.

His tone inferred they weren’t friends.

‘Lads from school who I used to hang about with,’ he sniffed.

‘Troublemakers,’ Chelsea added. ‘Did they see you in that get-up?’

‘Yep,’ said Liam, ‘but I don’t care about that.’

‘What do you care about?’ I asked, wanting to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering him. ‘What happened, Liam?’

‘They went to Ned,’ he said, and for a moment I thought he was going to break down, but then he carried on. ‘They went and told him that I was one of their gang and that if it wasn’t nailed down, I’d pinch it and sell it.’

‘Oh, Liam,’ I gasped.

‘And what did Ned say to that?’ asked Chelsea, looking across the yard to see if she could spot him. ‘Because if he’s thinking…’

‘He’s not,’ said Liam, cutting her off. ‘He told them… well, let’s just say he told them to leave.’

‘I should think so too,’ I was quick to say. ‘We know you’re not like that, Liam. We know we can trust you with everything.’

He looked happier when I said that, but only a little.

‘We really appreciate that, Liza,’ said Chelsea. ‘Don’t we, Liam?’

He nodded and gave me a small smile.

‘Right,’ she carried on. ‘Come on, Liam the lanky elf. Let’s get you home. It’s the last day of school tomorrow and at this rate, you’ll be too tired to go in.’

‘I don’t see why I have to,’ he said, sounding more like himself. ‘We never do any work in the last week.’

He had a point.

‘Tough,’ Chelsea firmly said, winking at me, ‘you’re going in.’

‘You won’t be there much longer,’ I consoled him. ‘And you don’t want to give those lads any ammunition or ruin this great new track record your mum’s been telling me about, do you?’

‘Suppose not,’ he said, ‘but I’ve no idea what I’m going to do when I leave next year.’

‘There’s plenty of time to work that out,’ I told him.

Chelsea turned to look at me. ‘You know where I am if you fancy a chat,’ she smiled. ‘You weren’t by any chance thinking about that forest thingy when you zoned out earlier, were you?’

‘Hey!’ Liam cut in.