Chapter 2

Lucy tugged her plaid skirt down to the exact length the rules demanded, before taking a deep breath and entering the school gate.

Every part of her silently begged that old Ms Trunchbull wouldn’t notice her today. Her bottom still ached slightly, and she had gone to the trouble of stealing her mother’s plain white knickers, in the hope that those might satisfy the headmistress if she decided to look up her skirt again.

But as she neared the gates, she came across yet another figure of dread. There he was, “Pervy Ed”, slouched on the bench just outside the school, his wide-rimmed glasses reflecting the morning light. His thinning dark hair was greased back, and his blue tracksuit jacket stretched tight over his paunch. Beside him was his dog, a black labrador.

Lucy’s skin crawled. Everyone at Willowbridge High knew he was a creep, lurking around the gates every morning, leering at the girls. Yet the police never did anything. No criminal record, they said. As if that made it okay.

“Morning, little Lucy,” he called, his voice nasal and sickly sweet. “Skirt’s looking ... neat today.”

Lucy kept her eyes locked on the ground and hurried past, her heart pounding against her ribs. How did he know her name? The bullies, probably. They must have fed him stories, laughing behind her back. He was disgusting, maybe forty or fifty, jobless, always there at opening and closing time, like a vulture waiting for scraps.

“Maybe after school, you can share a drink with me?” He called after her.

Lucy muttered under her breath, imagining herself standing up for herself, against Ms. Trunchbull, against the bullies, against that creep Ed. Lost in her daydream, she didn’t see the step. Her foot caught, and she pitched forward, crashing onto the ground with a sharp cry.

“Fucking hell, you stupid idiot!” It was the mean girls. Jackie’s smirk widened the moment she spotted Lucy sprawled on the corridor floor. The other girls laughed.

“Clumsy fool,” Jackie sneered.

Lucy scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could, one hand clutching at her skirt to keep it pulled down, her cheeks burning with humiliation. Yesterday she hadn’t even had knickers on; if she had fallen then, she didn’t know what she would have done. Thank God they hadn’t noticed.

“Well, well, Lucy,” Jackie continued. “Gonna get in trouble again? You were ages in the headmistress’s office. Bet you got absolutely torn apart.”

“I—I didn’t say anything about you,” Lucy whimpered. “I swear. I didn’t.”

“You better not have, you little freak,” Jackie hissed, stepping closer. Lucy flinched, shrinking back.

Naomi appeared, cowering back as she saw the mob around Lucy.

“Oi! Weirdo!” Jackie called out to the brunette. “Your little lezzie friend wants to lick you out again, why don’t you girls get it on, come on!”

Beri walked up to Naomi angrily. “Why did old Trunchbull go so easy on you yesterday? Did you tell on us? You a grass?”

Naomi blanched and stepped back, expecting an attack.

“The fucking Paki can’t talk, can she?” It was Teresa, a venomous stout little brunette. She was secretly jealous of the smaller, prettier girls. “All she does is draw stupid little doodles, that right, Paki?”

“Leave me alone,” Naomi mumbled, trying to push past.

But Teresa stuck her foot out, and Naomi tumbled to the ground with a cry. Her books spilled open, and for the second time in two days, her skirt rode up, exposing her panties in a humiliating flash. Pages of delicate bird sketches fluttered to the ground.

Beri stamped on them, ripping the pages with a cruel laugh. “Look at this shit! Who draws birds, you freak?”

“Nooooo!” Naomi’s voice cracked as she scrambled to gather the torn pages. She had spent hours on those drawings ... each feather, each wing, a tiny escape from the nightmare of school. Now they were ruined, just like everything else.

She clutched the shreds to her chest. The girls’ laughter echoed around her, interrupted only by the school bell summoning them to assembly.

---------- Lucy and Naomi sat beside each other for most of the day, a chasm of silence stretching between them.

At the end of the day, Lucy gathered her things, her fingers lingering on her bag straps. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something to Naomi. But then...

“Oi, ginger!” It was Jackie. Lucy turned to see the gang of girls standing there, their eyes locked on her. “You coming with us? We’re walking out.”

Part of her wanted nothing to do with them, wanted to scream at them for what they’d done to her. Another part, small, pathetic, desperate, felt a flicker of pride that they were including her. Another part of her knew there would be hell to pay if she said no.

Sure,” she lied, pressing her lips into a forced smile that felt more like a grimace. Jackie smirked, satisfied, and turned to lead the way. Lucy followed. Behind them, Naomi pretended to fuss with the contents of her bag. She kept her head down, her dark hair falling like a curtain to hide he tears falling from her eyes as she was abandoned.

The girls laughed and joked about Naomi as they walked out of the school gates. “Did you see her face when she fell?” One girl sneered. “Like a baby deer! And those drawings ... oh my days! She’s so strange.”

“Does she ever eat? She’s so skinny I could snap her like a twig” said Teresa, gruffly. “I just look at her and she starts shaking. Fucking loser.”

The other girls scoffed and laughed. Lucy joined in, a little too loudly, and she caught the attention of Teresa, the stout girl glaring jealously at the slim petite girl.

“I dunno what you’re laughing at, ginger, you’d break in half in a strong wind.”

The other girls cackled, their laughter turning sharper. She opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out.

Suddenly, there was an interruption. “Evening, ladies. Another hard day’s studying done?” Pervy Ed sat on his usual bench, his blue tracksuit stretched over his paunch, his wide-rimmed glasses glinting as he took in the group of girls.