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‘It wasn’tstealing. Cockface let me do it. He left his office open and everything unlocked.’

‘Why would Mr Cockrun do that?’

‘He was setting me up, wasn’t he? So now I’m on camera stealing medicine. If Cockface tells, I go to prison. And who’ll look after Pauly and Joey then?’

‘I can look after Joey,’ says Pauly, chest all puffed out. ‘I made him scrambled egg yesterday, and—’

‘Shut up, Pauly,’ says Lloyd, giving him a shove.

‘So … when the police came the other day,’ I say, ‘had you taken tablets from the school medicine cabinet?’

‘No.’ Lloyd bangs his fist on the cushioned chair. ‘Not that time.’

‘I’m confused.’

‘I got those tablets from another kid. Itoldyou. The headmaster never wanted me arrestedthattime. It was the caretaker who phoned the police. Cockface was furious with him.’

‘I’m still confused.’

Lloyd’s forehead bunches in frustration. ‘And they say I’m the thick one. Listen – Cockface left his office open for me so I could take medicine. You with me so far?’

‘Yes. But when?’

‘Ages ago. This waswaybefore the school inspectors came. Cockface set me up. He wanted to get me on camera stealing medicine. So now he has something over me. If I do the wrong thing, he’ll give the video to the police and I’ll go to prison.’

‘You wouldn’t go to prison for that, Lloyd.’

‘Yes, I would,’ Lloyd insists. ‘Because it’sdrugs, isn’t it? That’s what Mum went to prison for. I’d get at least two years.’

‘Is that what Mr Cockrun told you?’

Lloyd nods.

‘So the headmaster is blackmailing you?’ I ask, horrified. ‘Is that what you’re saying? He has camera footage and he’s using it to make you behave?’

‘Behave and keep quiet.’

‘Keep quiet about what?’

Lloyd shuffles in his seat.

‘Lloyd, you can tell me,’ I say. ‘You won’t go to prison. Mr Cockrun isn’t telling you the truth. If he’s making you keep secrets … well, that’s not okay.’

Lloyd sighs. ‘All right. Fine. Cockface does things to make the school look good.’

‘Like what?’

‘When the school inspectors come,’ says Lloyd, ‘Cockface opens the holes in the fence and lets us out. All the special needs kids. We go to the park. If anyone asks what we’re doing there, we say it’s a nature project.’

‘We run for it,’ Joey pipes up. ‘Prison break!’

My head is whirling. ‘Why?’

‘So we don’t make the school look bad,’ Lloyd explains. ‘By being thick and that. Cockface cheats on the exams. Gets us in his office and tells us the answers on exam day. If the inspectors met kids like us at the school, they’d wonder how Cockface’s exam results are so good. Because some of us can only just write our own names.’

‘How many children does he let out of the school?’

‘Hundreds,’ says Joey.