I stared at her over the desk. ‘I suppose it’s just a coincidence that Aaron’s captain of the rugby team, and his father paid for the new sports centre?’

‘I’m not at liberty to discuss other pupils with you. This is about Cassie. We really feel it would be best for her if she was removed from school for a few weeks.’

‘She has exams!’ She’d only managed to go to school twice, and both times I’d been called to pick her up.

‘There’s a centre. Many students aren’t enrolled in school and . . .’

That was just great. Cassie, shunted off to the special centre with the home-schooled weirdos and the kids who’d been excluded for setting fire to things. Away from her friends, her routines. Just because some sleazy boys had looked at her picture. And how had Aaron got it? Had he forced her into posing? I felt my blood boil in my ears and I was worried, I really was worried for a minute I was going to hit the woman.

‘I honestly believe this is the best outcome,’ she said smoothly. ‘As you know, technically we aren’t required to let her sit exams anyway because of the fees issue.’

I stood up. I didn’t really know why but suddenly I was on my feet and leaning on her desk. I’d knocked over a pot of pencils and I didn’t apologise or move to pick it up, and it was intoxicating. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself, Miss Hall. A student suffers a terrible loss – her father could die – and then she’s humiliated in front of the entire school, sexually abused really, and all you can think about is punishing her, making her suffer even more. I imagine the media would love to hear about this – a young girl bearing the brunt of what a boy did. Not a word about punishing him for passing on a picture of her, oh no.’

She didn’t even blink. They probably trained them at teacher school. She just looked at me as if I was the enemy. As if I was the classless mother rolling up to school in my Juicy Couture sweatpants yelling and screaming about their darling little thug getting into trouble. Threatening to sue, go to the papers, have her fired. Because I was. I was that parent. She just said, ‘Mrs Morris. I really wouldn’t advise any further media intrusion into your life. You must think of Cassie.’