It was the last day of school. Luisa showed her school I.D. card to the guard, pushing the rungs of the turnstile and passing under the plastic arch of the metal detectors. The summer sun shone through the barbed wire above, baking the grey concrete buildings and gravel playground.

Typically, no one grassed on Terry so no action was taken but the school was alight with gossip about the fight. Oliver bravely came in the next day, one eye swollen shut and his face puffy and bruised.

Luisa sat in English, her favourite subject. They were wrapping up their final class, having already been given a huge homework project that would be used to tier them into sets next year. The project would also serve to keep them busy over their summer holiday. Matthew Tomlinson sat on the table in front of Luisa's. She was surprised to catch herself thinking that it would be their last class like this, and she would actually miss viewing the back of his head. His dark hair was as healthy and thick as an otter's coat. Luisa enjoyed looking at it in class as it shone and reflected the light of the changing seasons. She didn't know how or why he had ended up in the White Manor zoo, only that he had come to White Manor six months ago from a private school in London. On Matthew's first day, the boys in her class had made fun of his postman-shiny shoes and had taken one off and thrown it out the third-floor window. She remembered the shock and fear on Matthew's face as the boys manhandled him. As the months went by he put his hand up and spoke less and less, and when he did speak his accent changed from well-spoken English to more of the 'White Manor Chat'.

Matthew lived close enough to the school to be allowed home for lunch and he exercised the privilege with devotion. He vanished during school breaks. He had not made any friends at White Manor, but to Luisa's knowledge, he had not made any out-and-out enemies. He turned around towards Luisa's table, leaning back precariously on just two legs of his chair. "Hey, Luisa." he whispered, "Can you help me out here? I am on question nine and I could do with a hand. I mean, umm, I would try my table, but..." He gestured to his table-mates loudly daring each other to push a piece of string farther and farther up their noses, then swallow it down and pull it out their mouths.

Luisa grimaced. "That's disgusting." She looked down at her paper. Wait a second, question nine? She glanced up to see Matthew's face studying her own. His brown eyes held a depth that hinted at a mature understanding of the world, like he had seen some stuff. His face had begun to change from a boy to a man, with his top lip darkening.

He seriously should know the answer to that question.

Emma, the freckled girl sitting next to Luisa, leaned over. "Oi, Matthew," she whispered. "I've got the answer to question nine, it's... HAVE A SHAVE MATE!" The girls at Luisa's table burst out laughing.

Matthew went bright crimson and the dusting of hair on his top lip to which she had referred beaded with sweat. "Fine." he murmured, allowing his chair to bang back down onto four legs, taking himself back to his table and out of the conversation.

Later that day, Luisa waited in the abnormally quiet lunch line. Even the lack of danger made her feel a little anxious. There was always a base-level of carnage happening at White Manor school, so when it was still, a feeling of foreboding gripped her. Her previous class had been Drama and Luisa and her group had been dismissed late for putting excessive swearing in their final Drama piece (not Luisa's idea)—which meant she had arrived too late to meet Stacey and Stacey's friends that she usually lined up with. She was standing by herself, almost at the front of lunch-line in the corridor outside the canteen, fighting the instinct to hold onto her elbow and look at the floor. Hopefully no year elevens come by. She imagined pulling the webbing of an invisibility cloak around her shoulders and throwing the hood over her head, snapping out of vision. The thought of it helped her relax a little. Let the White Manor boys do their thing and leave me to get through these last few hours of the term unscathed.

Oliver and his friends started pushing in from the back of the lunch-line. They shoved past some year sevens who hadn't moved out the way.

"Move!" Oliver shouted. His swollen eye had subsided into two bruised rings, making him look like a ghoul. As he and his friends barged their way through, Oliver booted a year seven's book bag out of the line, strewing its contents across the hall. The year seven quickly grabbed them up and sped away.

Oh great. Just perfect. Luisa thought about escaping too, but her stomach growled a hungry reproach. She stayed put. The rowdy group had pushed past everyone else and settled behind her.

"Yeah, so at that rave, I had met this girl who was properly fit..."

Although he was behind her, Luisa could imagine Oliver's boastful, leering face. He is such an idiot.

"And I was dancing with her like this."

Luisa was grabbed from behind in a rough bear hug, enveloped in Oliver's arms and a strong smell of deodorant spray, and hauled into the centre of the group. He gyrated against her butt and his friends burst into laughter at the spectacle. His sweaty arms covered her face and neck. She couldn't breathe or see. She jerked her head down, glimpsed light and the identical shoes of Oliver's group. Gulping air, she tried to pull him off her without being too aggressive. But he just squeezed harder, one arm snaking under her neck. His other hand groped at her. She managed to grab enough oxygen to let out a feeble, "UrrgghOlivergerroff!" but he just kept talking.

"And after I'd warmed her up with some grinding," Oliver pushed her forward and exaggeratedly thrust against her, receiving another cascade of laughter from his friends, "then da bitch wanted it so we started pulling, like dis." Oliver pulled her back up, then tugged on her hair, forcing her head to the side, exposing her neck. She felt Oliver's mouth on her neck, soft and wet. He was licking her neck while still thrusting hard into her. "Hmm," he moaned.

Oh my god. Her chest convulsed and her body racked with a shudder but she couldn't move. She had frozen in panic, incapacitated through the humiliation. Like a snake had coiled around her body and squeezed the fight out of her. She felt her face begin to crumple into tears. His friends were roaring with laughter now, but one piped up. "Aww Oliver dan't be 'aat of order, she's gonna cry."

"She ain't gonna cry," Oliver barked back, "she likes it." He hauled her around, his ghoulish face filling her vision, then blurring as tears flooded her eyes. Oliver's slime on her neck was something animal, like a dog pissing on his territory. He snorted in disgust then shoved her away. She stumbled back, now the discarded toy, and fled down the hall, their laughter echoing in her ears.

She burst into the toilet and locked herself in a stall, letting the sobs break out. I can't believe he just did that to me! Grabbing a fistful of tissue she wiped furiously at her neck, removing Oliver's spit. She sat down on the toilet and let her head sink into her hands.

Stacey would have never let that happen if she was there. Stacey would have kicked, scratched and told them that her uncle would come down the school and 'brock dem up'. But she wasn't there. It was just me and I let Oliver do it.

She let her lungs fill with air and tried to put herself back together. Just one more class and then I am done for the summer. She rooted a few stray almonds from her bag. One was a bit inky, but still likely edible. She nibbled the almonds and after a few shaky sighs she exited the stall and shuffled to the sink. Two year ten girls were bent forward over the sink, their hair stretched back in tight ponytails. Both were carefully, and menacingly, scratching their graffiti tags into the bathroom mirror with compasses. The points scarred the mirror with ear-churning scrapes. As Luisa washed her hands she looked into the mirror and accidentally caught one of the girls' eyes. The girl immediately scowled.

"Oi, wat d' you fink you're lookin at?"

Luisa looked down. "Nothing."

"Don't you ever look at me, yeah?" The girl replied through gritted teeth. She gave Luisa a dirty look up and down, then with a derisive snort returned to defacing the mirror.

Luisa made it through her last class of the term and after the final bell she waited outside the front of the school in the usual spot for Stacey.

Stacey had a lot of people to say goodbye to and hug. Since she also wasn't averse to spending some time with her latest boyfriend behind the science building, Luisa sometimes had to wait a while for her to come out. Today would be especially long as it was the last day of term.

I don't mind. I'm just happy to be done. She ignored the growls of her tummy and patiently leant back on the school fence, the rays of the sun gently warming her face as she tried to forget about the less-pleasant moments of the day.

Finally the term is over. No more school for six weeks; fantastic.

Someone close by cleared his throat. She opened her eyes to see Matthew standing in front of her.

"Umm, hello..." he began, but Luisa wasn't really listening; she was staring at a thin red cut across his upper lip. He turned crimson. Clearing his throat again, he spoke very quickly, "Hi, I was just wondering, just thought actually, that, well, my dad thinks, my dad thinks that it's always good to do some extra studying, and you know, well, things are always good to work on with someone else but, there isn't really anyone else at this school that would, idiots, really, aren't they! Ha! Oh, well I just wanted to ask if you wanted to... to... or I could umm, well I just, thought that we could... if you wanted to, and yeah, that's just about it really."

He exhaled deeply.

Luisa, brow furrowed, met his gaze at last. "Matthew, what happened to your lip?"

"Ahh," he replied, his blush deepening. "Basically, umm, well ... shaving. I gave it a bash at lunch. I just found out the hard way that you were supposed to go up and down not... side to side."

"Oh!" said Luisa fighting down a smile. "Well when my little brother starts in ten years I'll make sure to pass on the hint."

Matthew beamed. He was about to speak again when he was interrupted by Stacey's return.

"Easy, Gillette," she said, punching Matthew playfully on the arm. "Nice shave!" She didn't wait to engage in conversation, gliding past with a casual inspection of his upper lip while simultaneously linking Luisa's arm and pulling her into her stride. Stacey immediately began regaling Luisa's inner ear. "Oh my god, Luisa– have you heard about what that dirty little hoe Charmaine did with Matty Wads at Josie's party?"

Luisa turned her head to wave 'bye to Matthew, but he had already gone.

* * *

Matthew jogged around the corner of school. Well that couldn't have gone any worse. He licked over his shaving cut and inwardly died once more. My last chance to speak to Luisa and I dicked it right up! He peered down at his cracked watch face and picked up his pace. He had something more pressing to worry about.

Please, please let them not be there.

He tried to fight the fear that crawled up his spine. It had started so slowly. At first the boys would just call him 'Shiny-Shoes', shout it out randomly after finding his lone shoe in the playground. It was so ridiculous as to be laughable – even he laughed at it. Like 'Shiny-Shoes' was any kind of a thing to harass someone about. But, gradually, it started getting worse. One kicked him up the arse when he passed them in the corridor. It shocked Matthew, but he didn't want to get into a fight with some hard-nuts in the year above, so he just dismissed it. Then one had randomly slapped him in the face. They had seemed to get something out of it... and incrementally they started to go out of their way to mess with him. It wasn't the random violence that plagued the school – it was something against him personally.

But he could take it. Quite frankly he had been through too much this last year to let these idiots get to him. If someone had told him last year that he would get picked on he wouldn't have believed them. But this... If he fought back, they'd kill him. The boys had taken to waiting round the side of the school, calling out to him, trying to rattle his cage and today he just didn't want to deal with it. If he could get round the school fast enough, they might be too late to taunt him.

Oh come on, I'm being ridiculous! He forced his legs into a walk, sucked in a shaky breath and rubbed the clammy-sweat from his hands on the side of his trousers. He could not let these idiots know they were actually getting to him. He wasn't going to bloody run away.

Today would be different, it must be. Today was the last day of term. Who the heck would want to wait to shout at someone when they could be going home and killing pigeons or whatever it is they did for fun.

Yes. He would forget about them. At least he had tried to speak to Luisa and that was something. Even thinking of her warm smile made butterflies explode inside of him. He had tried. One thing he had learnt this year was that just because things don't always go perfectly; you shouldn't give up.

He rounded a corner. Shaved heads turned towards him; they were smiling like a pack of hyenas about to descend on their prey. Oh crap. He stopped short and felt the incredible urge to turn and run. For a split-second he imagined shouldering on a jet-pack and boosting the dickens out of there. Instead he studied the pavement, forced his legs into a stifled walk and crossed the road, away from the boys.

They called out to him, "Oi! Shiny-shoes! Where d'you 'fink you're going? Oi! Fink you're too good to chat to me? Oi!

Matthew swallowed hard and ignored them.

Keep walking. Keep calm. Just ignore them. Out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the boys charge across the road towards him, then a fist grabbed his shoulder and ripped him around to face them.

Oh no. Oh shit.