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‘Come in.’

Kelly took a deep breath and slowly entered the room.

Mr Gough was sitting at a large desk surrounded by papers and files. His office was lined with bookshelves filled with a mixture of old and modernbooks. The wall behind the desk was covered with framed photos of him with important-looking people. They were probably past pupils, Kelly thought – successful, amazing, brilliant past pupils, who weren’t scholarship kids and didn’t tell their classmates to eff off.

The headmaster looked up and smiled. ‘Kelly, what a nice interruption from these reports. How can I help?’

He was so kind thatKelly felt emotion welling up. She stood in front of him and blurted out, ‘I screamed at Melissa just now and kind of swore a lot. I’m sorry, I’ll apologize. I don’t want any trouble. She just … she … I’m sorry …’ Kelly was sick of it. Sick of Melissa bullying her every day. It was relentless, and not being able to defend herself properly because she was afraid of getting into trouble wasexhausting.She’d been biting her tongue and trying to avoid Melissa and her friends for weeks and weeks, but it never stopped. She began to sob.

Mr Gough jumped up and came around to her. He patted her shoulder and gently guided her to the leather chair opposite his desk. He handed her a tissue. ‘There now, calm yourself and tell me everything. In my long experience as headmaster of many schools, problemscan almost always be sorted out.’

Kelly blew her nose as he went back to his seat behind the desk and waited.

‘Would you be more comfortable if I called my assistant Darina in to sit with us? Another female in the room, perhaps?’

‘No, please. I just want to talk to you on your own. I don’t want anyone else knowing about it.’

‘Very well. In that case, I’ll just need to leave the door ajar.’

She told him the story, and when she got to the part about Melissa being so horrible about her mum, she saw his face darken. ‘So I just saw red and I told her to … well … eff off and stuff. I know it was wrong. I just … She was being so mean about my mum and … well, my mum is the best. You know, she’s sacrificed everything for us.’

Mr Gough took his glasses off and wiped them. Kelly held her breath.

‘Kelly, what Melissa said to you, about you and about your mother, was utterly unacceptable. She has let herself down by behaving in this way. Your mother is a lovely lady and her complete devotion to you and your brother is remarkable.’ He paused. ‘I completely understand why you said what you said, but I can’t allow a student, no matter how much they have been provoked, to shout expletives atanother student.If I let it slide, the whole school would be shouting the F-word at each other morning, noon and night.’

Kelly put her hands over her face. ‘I know you have to punish me, but please don’t let my stupid anger hurt Dylan or the scholarship. Please.’

Mr Gough leant over and patted her hand. ‘Don’t worry about that. This incident won’t affect the scholarship at all.’

Kelly lookedat him. ‘Really?’

‘I’ll have to give you detention to show that we don’t accept verbal aggression, but that will be it. I think it’s best if we keep this as quiet as possible. We don’t want any fuss. St Jude’s reputation is everything. We pride ourselves on having a zero tolerance to bullying.’

‘Thank you.’ Kelly gulped back tears. ‘God, I was so scared I’d messed up. My friend Shannon saidI should stop letting Melissa taunt me and stand up for myself and then when she said the thing about Mum … Well, anyway, I know it was a mistake and I promise I won’t ever tell anyone to eff off again, no matter what they say to me.’

‘Has Melissa’s name-calling and bullying been going on a while?’

Kelly hesitated. She didn’t want to make things worse by making a big deal of this. ‘Occasionally,’she said. ‘WhatsApp messages and stuff.’

Mr Gough nodded. ‘I see. Well, no student in this school should have to suffer name-calling or bullying. I’ll be having very stern words with Melissa.’

Kelly’s head snapped up. ‘Oh, no, don’t. It’ll just make it worse.’

‘I promise you it won’t. I’ve dealt with many bullies in my time. Melissa is nothing. Now, I will have to notify your mother of theincident and the detention, I’m afraid.’

Kelly pushed her hair out of her face. ‘You’ve been so nicealready, but is there any way you could not do that? She’ll worry that the scholarships will be taken away and she’ll get herself into a state. Punish me, but don’t tell Mum.’

Mr Gough studied her for a moment, then nodded again. ‘All right, I understand. I won’t call her. What I’m going to askyou to do now is not going to be easy, but I need you to apologize to Melissa. It’ll help smooth things over. I’ll bring her in here and you do it in front of me. It means that if she makes a fuss of the incident with her parents, I can tell them honestly that you have apologized and the matter is over. It also gives me a chance to make sure Melissa knows that I won’t tolerate her nonsense. Thisargument really shouldn’t escalate or cause any more trouble. We will nip it in the bud today and move on.’

‘I’ll do anything to protect Mum and Dylan.’

Mr Gough smiled at her. ‘You are a very brave and selfless girl, Kelly, a credit to your mother. Don’t ever forget that.’

Ten minutes later Melissa was standing in the headmaster’s office with her arms folded, glaring at Kelly.

‘It’s a disgrace,Headmaster, she has a really violent temper. I thought she was going to punch me.’

‘Melissa,’ Mr Gough said, bending down so he was eye to eye with her, ‘please refrain from dramatizing the incident. Now, Kelly has something she wants to say to you. But before she does I want you to remember this. We don’t tolerate bullying in this school.’