All the loners were on my side, that’s what it made me think. That’s what I was now and I knew how it felt. I was on my own and my brothers were at bigger schools.

‘What am I gonna do? What you gonna do?’ I said. ‘After me he’s gonna be beating up everybody.’

He looked worried and a bit lost.

‘You on my side?’

‘Yeah,’ he said.

I suppose that’s all it needed, Patrick with his big ears coming up to say he didn’t want Ian Barrett to be the best fighter in the school. I had to do something.

I couldn’t have got home anyway.

‘Tell everyone it’s after school in the playground. I’m gonna deal with Ian Barrett.’

It went round like wildfire. People started coming up to me, ‘What you gonna do?’

‘You scared of Ian Barrett?’

I could see they weren’t sure what to do.

‘He’s gonna kill you, so do what I tell you.’

When I came out in the playground, he was there with his gang. They were making out they’d already won, climbing up on the roof of the shelter with their sticks like he was king of the castle. People were running around the playground like they were going home, but they weren’t, they were waiting to see what happened.

‘You gonna come down?’

‘No,’ he said, and looked down his nose at me. That was a mistake, people getting ready to run saw he was strong but he was stuck, so they stayed. A crowd built up by the chain-link fence on the rough ground separating the infants from the juniors. Some of them started climbing up to get a better view. It was like they were getting up high to show we were strong too. I told them to get down. They did and that put me in control. I told everyone to start picking up stones.

‘You coming down?’