I looked down at Max. I think a tiny bit of me was hoping he would flash me a grin and tell me to sit back down. Max would make me realize it had all been a mistake. That it was a joke and the punchline was coming soon and then we’d all laugh. If so, I promised myself I would laugh the hardest.

Except, when I looked at him, Max didn’t make me see that it was a mistake or a joke at all.

He made it a hundred times more real.

MAX

Max didn’t mean to do it. If you’d asked him the day before – even ten minutes before – he would have laughed in your face if you told him what he was about to do.

It didn’t even feel like a decision that he made. It was pure instinct.

Max moved away from Leo.

Not a lot. Probably not even enough for most people to notice. An outside observer wouldn’t have spotted a thing. But Leo wasn’t most people, he was Max’s best friend. Had he noticed?

Max’s thoughts were spinning so hard they made him feel dizzy.

What was happening? Why was it happening?

And why did it feel so familiar?

Almost as soon as he asked himself the question, Max knew the answer: Mr Schmidt sounded like his father. Since the day he’d banned Max from playing with Leo and Elsa, Max’s father still hadn’t talked about it much at home. Mother wouldn’t let him. But there had been a few times when he hadn’t managed to stop himself. He’d be reading the newspaper and would blurt out something that made Max itch with embarrassment: blaming Jews for everything that was wrong with the world, ranting about how much better off the country would be without them.

Max forced himself to switch off whenever it happened. Made himself believe that it was just his father, ranting. That he would get over it.

But he didn’t. And now the headmaster seemed to have become infected with the same hatred.

Max could feel his best friend’s eyes on him. He didn’t dare look up, though. He couldn’t bear to look into Leo’s face and see what must be a world of betrayal, hurt and fear in his eyes.

So, his face warm with shame, Max stared at the floor and shifted his body a tiny bit in the direction of the other children. The children who still belonged. A small part of his brain knew that he was letting his best friend down. But the bigger part had a question beating against it.

What if I’m next?

And so, he shuffled closer to a boy on his other side who he had never particularly noticed before, he stared at the floor, and he held his breath until the headmaster spoke again.

LEO