Chapter 4

<School>

Belle was a bit disappointed to see the Bentley was no longer outside.

“Where’s the school? Are we walking?” she asked Amy.

“It’s about 5 miles away. Now Gary’s here I’m afraid the Bentley isn’t big enough for us all.”

“I can sit on Poppy’s knee,” Belle pleaded.

“And I’m sure you’d both enjoy that, but we’ll have another person on the way back, and I’m not sure Lia wants Katie on her knee.”

Lia looked at Katie, “no offence honey, but you’re a bit heavier than Belle.”

“And you’ve got bony legs.”

“So that’s settled,” Amy said, “but all’s not lost, we’ve got a nice 7-seater.”

Belle reached out and touched Amy’s hand, “I’m sorry, I sound like a right cow. It’s not that long ago that I was sleeping in a grotty office under Kings Cross Station, and now I’m annoyed because we’re not going in a Bentley.”

Amy turned to look at Belle, “it’s OK sweetie, it’s so easy to get used to luxury, and that’s the point. They make nice things because people like them. And now I know where you were hiding when I was looking for you.”

“It was Flower who found it, then Flower got into trouble, she was mixed up with a prostitute who got her hooked on drugs, so I was on my own for a few weeks. It was quite scary.”

“How did you get out?”

“Poppy and Katie found me...”

“Katie found you,” Poppy reminded her, “which is amazing, because she found you even though she’d never seen you.”

“That’s because your description was so detailed,” Katie told her, “and that’s why I knew you loved her more than you could ever love anyone else. But it was OK, we found Lia, and she holds the place in my heart that Belle holds in yours.”

A moment later Gary emerged from the house and used his remote to open one of the doors on a long line of garages along the left-hand side of the building.

“I’ll let you look at all my cars tomorrow,” Amy assured them as Gary carefully reversed a Range Rover from the garage.

“Do you have any electric cars,” Belle asked. “We had a ride in an electric car when we were on the telly, it was quite fancy inside, with a big screen instead of dials. We have some electric vans for deliveries, but they aren’t as fancy.”

“I have an electric Mini, it’s only good for going to the shops though, as it doesn’t have huge range. I’m hoping to trial one of the new electric Bentleys that’s coming in a couple of years, and I’ve an electric Jaguar I-Pace but Pixie’s got it at the moment as I’ve no space in my garage. I’m having a new garage built down the other side which will have a bank of car chargers.”

“Cool, we’ve been talking about the environment in science at school, that’s why I’m interested. Have you heard of Greta Thunberg? She’s great, she went on strike from school to protest about climate change. Poppy won’t let me go on strike...”

“I have heard of Greta, and I feel a little bit guilty every time I drive my cars, but right now they’re really the only practical option for most of my long journeys. I use the electric Mini a lot though, if that makes you feel better.”

“It does, thank you.”

“OK, there’s seven seats in here,” Amy told everyone, “Two up front, three in the middle, and two at the back. The back seats are, shall we say, compromised, so the people with the littlest legs need to sit back there.”

“I’ve never sat in a third row before,” Belle cried as she pulled open the door, clambered over the middle row and strapped herself in.

“Excellent,” Amy said with a grin, “that’s one back seat taken, mmm, you can’t sit there Lia, you’re way too tall. It may be a squeeze for you Poppy, I can sit back there if you like.”

“It’s OK, how long will be in the car?”

“10 minutes each way, tops.”

“Then I’ll be fine in the back,” Poppy agreed.

“Super, and so you cause no further damage to my leather, it’s easier to get in the back if you drop the middle seatback,” Amy told her with a grin.

“Ahh, I’m so sorry, she is house trained, honest. It’s just she gets a bit excited.”

“It’s absolutely fine,” Amy assured Poppy, “look, there’s not even any marks.”

Poppy dropped the middle row seat back and climbed as elegantly as she could manage into the back, where she wasn’t too cramped, she was sure she’d be able to walk later.

“Am I in trouble,” Belle whispered.

“Not even slightly,” Poppy replied, “but maybe you should do what I did on the way out.”

“I like Amy, she’s great.”

“She’s amazing,” Poppy replied in an awed whisper, “like, she’s so cool, so normal, but just look at her house, and her cars, and she’s got a frigging helicopter.”

“Oh yeah, I wonder where she parks it, I kind of expected it to be on the roof or something.”

“It’s way too noisy to land it around here,” Amy told them as she slid into the passenger seat, “and my pilot doesn’t like all the trees. It’s kept quite near the school, there’s a tiny airfield there, too small to land Geoff’s plane, but a few people have small two and four-seater planes there. One of my neighbours has a four-seater plane, he sometimes gives us rides, Gary likes to take photos from the air.”

“That’s so cool...” Belle replied, “we flew to Greece on holiday a couple of times, I liked the plane, but I didn’t like the airport, it was too crowded and noisy.”

“I’ve never been in a plane,’ Poppy said, “I’m not sure I fancy battling an airport, train stations are bad enough.”

“I’ve never been in a plane either,” Lia added, “in fact, unless I completely blacked something out, today is the first day I’ve ventured outside the M25...”

“Seriously!” Katie gasped, “you’ve never travelled outside London?”

“I don’t think so, we never went on holidays or day trips, we weren’t that kind of family. Dad was either in the pub, passed out drunk or ... well, you know what he used to do to me. The furthest I ever travelled is to my auntie’s house when she took me away one time he nearly killed me ... Oh, hang on a sec! I’ve been to Margate, when I was little, Mum took me away one time dad was in prison.”

“I’ll sit this one out,” Katie told them.

“No!” Poppy insisted, “tell us where you’ve been!”

“I feel bad...”

“Don’t be, just because me and Lia had shit lives doesn’t mean you should be ashamed for having nice holidays. What was your favourite holiday?” Poppy asked as she and Belle rested their chins on the seat backs in front.

“Most of our holidays were in places mum was playing concerts, my mum, my birth mother, is a concert pianist,” she told Amy, “And dad is her manager. She used to play in small orchestras in cruise ships, or short residences in places like Dubai or South Africa. She did a month in Las Vegas once, it was in July and August so I had to miss the last week of primary school and didn’t get to say a proper good bye to lots of friends who I never saw again, because they went to a different secondary school.”

Lia touched Katie’s cheek and wiped a tear away, “ahh shit, your mum managed to make even something exciting like a trip to Vegas into something bad for you.”

“I know, that probably wasn’t her fault, but nothing she did worked out well for me. So yeah, my best holiday. She did a cruise on the Nile, it was 14 nights and we saw the pyramids and Luxor and Cairo and Alexandria,” she told them breathlessly, “but the most exciting part, I was reading Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile, so I kept imagining bad things happening to mum, like something falling off a temple in Luxor, or her being shot by a jealous wife, because naturally mum was sleeping with a few of the guests, and dad was drinking so he didn’t find out anything he didn’t want to know.”

“How old were you?” Amy asked.

Katie counted years off on her fingers, “Ten I think.”

“And you knew about your mum having affairs?”

“Yeah, she didn’t hide these things very well. I always felt different, you know, I was never attracted to boys, even at primary school, and mum knew this and hated it, so I think she deliberately let me find out about her activities.”

“Perhaps she was hoping you’d see her having sex,” Lia suggested, “maybe hoping you’d wonder what she was doing, be fascinated by it and be instantly converted to straight sex.”

“I did catch her, and it most definitely did not convert me,” Katie laughed, “all that pushing and shoving and grunting and ... well ... secretions,” she grimaced comically, “that stuff is not my bag at all. You can have all the men you like Lia, and I’ll borrow their girlfriends for the night.”

“And what If I want them both?” Lia asked.

“Then I’m off to Poppy and Belle’s for the night.”

“It’s a deal,” Lia laughed.

Amy looked stunned.

“Ahh, this is our joke,” Lia told her, “Because I do enjoy straight sex, despite my family’s best efforts to ruin it for me. It’s only a joke though, because there’s only one man on this planet that I trust, well, two, but Jeremy is not on the market. Ahh, sorry Gary, that’s not meant as a slur, it’s just I don’t know you yet.”

“Absolutely no offense taken,” Gary shouted back.

“By the way, how did you manage to maintain eye contact with Lia,” Belle asked, “even I can’t do that.”

“To be fair, I did hear you tell my wife that you’re obsessed with boobs,” Gary replied.

“Ahh, caught me out,” Belle laughed.

“Honestly though, living with Amy, and spending time with her clothing averse friends, I’ve got so used to naked bodies that I just ignore them until it’s time to pay attention.”

Lia nodded, “that’s a cool attitude, maybe I’ll add you to my ‘not complete shitheads’ list.”

“Thank you,” Gary replied sincerely.

A moment later Gary slowed, pulled off the road and stopped at an ornate gate.

“Here we are, girls,” Amy said as Gary wound his window down and tapped a code into a box on a post.

“Those are very fancy gates, much better than the ugly ones at my school,” Belle told her.

“They were already in place, we just added a motor to open and close them,” Gary replied as he rolled slowly through the gates before pausing to check they closed properly behind.

“We were just going to leave them open during the day,” Amy told them, “And lock them at night, but the school inspection people said I had to ensure the grounds were secure at all times. Luckily for the girls that still smoke, there’s plenty of places they can sneak out when they need to.”

“What if they want to, you know, sneak boys back?” Poppy asked.

“Well, we discourage that kind of behaviour,” Amy replied, “but just between you and me, the girl sized gaps in the bushes will also accommodate boys. And the girls know where to find contraceptives and stuff. I’ll introduce you to my Jenny later, she’s the school counsellor, she makes sure all the girls know about safe sex, and safe relationships, about how to see through the lies told by professional groomers like Andrew Tate. I hope you all like Jenny, because she’s coming home with us later.”

“Well, she’s got a great name, so she’s off to a good start,” Poppy said.

“It suits her much better than the one she was born with,” Amy replied.

“What’s her birth name?”

“I’ll let her tell you.”

Poppy now realised why Amy asked about transexuals and left it at that.

It was about a quarter mile from the gate to the house, and when the girls saw the house, they were amazed.

“Now this is the kind of house I thought you’d live in,” Belle said as she waited impatiently for Katie to get out so she could climb over the seat and explore.

“When you said it was just a house,” Poppy added, “I kind of expected something like Alex’s house, not a frigging mansion.”

“Yeah, it’s a big house, but it needs to be, to sleep 50 girls and 10 staff, I think what I meant before is that all the rooms are the kind of rooms you’d find in a house, no big classrooms and meeting rooms.”

“Would it be rude of me to ask how much the school cost?” Lia asked.

“Not at all, it’s all in the charity’s files, or at least I think it is. Gary, all the finances are publicly available, aren’t they?”

“Not publicly yet. The Charities Commission have them, but they’re not on our website. It’s complicated, but there’s no reason why you can’t tell Lia.”

“I think we ended up paying £2.5 million for the house and land, the grounds cover about 400 acres, I think. The building was a bit of a wreck. We’d have saved a lot of money by doing the work piecemeal over a few years, but I’m not that patient, so we had a lot of work crews in. I probably spent another £2 to 3 million on fixing the house and building the sports centre, although some of that money came from grants.”

“How much does it cost to run the school?”

“A little help here, Gary,” Amy cried.

“In a nutshell, we don’t know, because we’re still paying for the initial set-up, Danny will be able to give you a better idea. He’s away at the moment, as we have a student in hospital...”

“How is Elisha?”

“She’s OK, she’ll feel shit tomorrow, but she’ll be fine by Monday. Anyway, Danny will be back later. He’s been working with a couple of education charities who’re helping us plan for the next few years. His best estimate is, when the school is full, it will cost Amy £30k a year per girl.”

“Oh man, that’s like, £1.5 million a year.”

“It would be even more if I was paying Danny via the charity, but I’m paying him from my own money, not the charity.”

“Why do you pay him out of your own money?”

“Because he’s my bitch!” Amy laughed, “no, it’s because he’s worth more than I could realistically pay him for being the head of what is really a very small school. He does a lot of extra work for my foundation. Like, this week he’s looking at some homeless shelters in Liverpool that need money, and he’s been down to Birmingham with Gary to visit a couple of drug rehab centres for sex workers. And in the middle of all that, he’s working with some architects who’re drawing up plans for extra buildings here so we can double the capacity. And next week, Gary and Danny are going to look at a building in North Manchester where we might open a second school.

“That’s why I’m paying Danny the big bucks, because he’s worth every penny and more.”

“What does his girlfriend do? Does she work for you?”

“She works a couple of days a week, I think she’s here today. You’ll like Chloe, she’s a lovely girl. Oh, where’s Belle?”

“I’m here!”

“See the woman with the blue hair in window?”

“Belle looked across the lawn into an office to the right of the doorway.”

“Yes, I see her.”

“That’s Jenny, why don’t you go get her and introduce your sisters.”

Belle ran towards the front door, pushed it open and a moment later they watched as she appeared in the window and spoke animatedly to Jenny, pointing out through the window.

Soon Belle and Jenny emerged from the school, Belle holding Jenny’s hand.

“Hey everyone, this is Jenny, she’s Amy’s friend and the school counsellor, she helps all the girls, so she’s like Helen. OK, so Jenny, this is Poppy, she’s my sister and girlfriend, and she’s a goddess, a real one.”

Jenny let go of Belle and reached for Poppy’s hand, “a goddess, that’s impressive, are you the goddess of anything specific?”

“I don’t specialise,” Poppy replied casually, “I’m like a GP, I cover everything.”

“That’s good to know, I shall call upon you next time I’m in need.”

“You do that, I’m on all the social platforms.”

Belle moved on, “this is Lia, she’s like the chief executive of our charity or something, I get confused by titles, she runs most of it, and she’s my sister and one of the most beautiful people I know.”

Jenny reached for Lia’s hand, “are you also a deity?”

“I’m not even baptised,” Lia laughed.

“And last, but definitely not least, we have Lia’s girlfriend Katie.”

“Before you ask, I’m an angel,” Katie smiled.

“Damn, why didn’t I think of that line,” Lia laughed, slapping her forehead.

“So, Amy messaged and told me you’ll be speaking to everyone at lunchtime tomorrow, but she’s also identified a few girls who would benefit from a less formal chat. Is that OK?”

They all agreed this was OK.

“Fantastic, if you’d like to follow me, I’ll introduce you all to your new friends.”

“Is Chloe in today?” Amy asked.

“She is, last time I saw her she was working with Shelly and Ashleigh in room 29.”

“Super, I’ll go find her,” Amy replied, she gave Gary a quick peck on the cheek before dashing past the group.

Jenny watched Amy as she ran ahead and into the school, “so, she found you at last, what do you think?”

“About what?” Belle asked.

“Amy, the school, everything,” Jenny replied, waving her arms to encompass the school and surroundings.

“Amy is awesome,” Belle replied with genuine enthusiasm, “she’s so cool, and so pretty, and ... well ... normal. I wouldn’t guess she was so rich if I met her on the streets.”

“That’s the best part, she’s normal, all the girls here can relate to her. They’d never relate to an older woman, or someone who was posh. Anyway, shall we go and find your friends. Honey is closest, so you’re first, Belle.”

They walked into the school and through the lobby, which was the full height of the building. The tall windows above the doorway gave the space a bright and airy atmosphere despite the oak floor and dark wood panelled walls. Where you would normally find portraits of long dead lords and ladies, were bright, colourful paintings by Amy’s favourite artist, Lora Zombie, and a selection of works from the school’s art students.

“This is the lounge,” Jenny told them, pointing to the room on the left where Belle had met her, “it’s like the common room in a regular school, but with comfier furniture. It’s where the girls go to chill if they’re having a stressful lesson, and where they meet any family or friends who might be visiting.”

“Do the girls have many visitors?” Lia asked.

“Not enough, I’m afraid. We have a fund to pay for family and friends’ travel, and Amy always pays for them to stay in the pub in the village. The girls don’t really have many friends, as you know, life on the streets leads to fragile friendships, people move away, or they go to prison, or they...”

“They die,” Poppy completed Jenny’s sentence, “yes, we know that all too well,” she added, sadly.

Jenny reached out and gave Poppy’s hand a gentle squeeze, “will you be OK talking to Alexis and Lily?”

Poppy looked into Jenny’s eyes, “six weeks ago I killed the man who kidnapped Belle and was about to rape her to death. I’ve seen shit that would give most people nightmares. I think I’ll be fine.”

“Ahh, OK.”

“I’m so sorry, Jenny, it’s just what the girls have been through doesn’t make me sad, or upset, it makes me angry. Luckily, Lia is the calmest person I’ve ever met, she’ll keep me level.”

“If you want to talk about the incident, I’m a qualified therapist...”

“So’s Helen, our auntie, but thanks. I’m annoyed at myself for snapping like that.”

“You snapped as a defensive measure, because you’re nervous about talking to the girls, and that’s OK. Lia will be there to help. Alexis and Lily are both lovely, but they’re a bit lost, they trusted some people and that trust was destroyed and replaced with terror. Right now, they need to know they’re not alone.”

Lia took Poppy’s hand, “we’ll show them they’re not alone. I can help them learn to trust people, and I’ve some techniques to help centre yourself when the panic attacks strike.”

Jenny walked the girls upstairs, “we thought it was best for you to start your conversations in the girls’ bedrooms, they feel safe in their own spaces. If they want to take you elsewhere that’s fine. As well as the lounge we have a games room with a couple of TVs, music and games consoles. You can go outside or to the dining room.”

Jenny stopped at the end of the corridor, “This is Honey’s room, she shares it with Tayla and Juno. They both know about Honey’s past, so she might want them to stay.”

“What do I talk about?” Belle asked.

“Let Honey start, listen to what she has to say, then take it from there.”

“OK,” Belle replied, she took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Hello,” came a timid voice from within.

“I’m Belle, Amy’s sent me to talk to you.”

The door was pulled open, and Belle was greeted by a cute girl about her own height, she was wearing a polo shirt and plaid skirt, her blonde hair in a pair of pigtails.

“Err, hello, I’m Honey, do you want to come in?”

“Yes please,” Belle replied brightly, displaying way more confidence than she felt.

Emboldened by a quick hand squeeze from Poppy, Belle stepped inside the room and the rest of girls followed Jenny around the corner and out of sight.

“Did Amy or Jenny say why I’m here?” Belle asked as she took a seat at one of the desks along the wall, Honey sat on one of the beds with Tayla and Juno seated protectively either side.

“She, Jenny I mean, said you’d had a similar experience.”

“Do you want to tell me what happened,” Belle asked, “then I’ll tell you what happened to me.”

“Will this be like when I talk to Jenny, and you won’t tell anyone else?”

“Mmm, I won’t tell anyone, or ... my auntie, she’s a psychologist, she’s helped me like Jenny’s helping you. Can I tell her? She might have advice that I can pass on if I come again, or I could phone you.”

Honey thought for a moment, then had a quick discussion with her friends before turning back to Belle, “OK, you can tell your auntie, as long as you promise to come back some day.”

“My sister Poppy has a charity...”

“We saw you on TV,” one of the other girls interrupted.

“Oh really, that’s exciting, so you know a bit about me...”

“Ahh yes, I should have said straight off,” Honey replied, “and I should have introduced Tayla and Juno.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Tayla and Juno. Great names by the way. So, yeah, Poppy has a charity...”

“Aren’t you part of the charity as well, it’s named for you both,” Juno interrupted, Belle was thinking this may be hard work if they keep interrupting like this.

“Yes, but it’s mostly Poppy’s idea, and Lia, our older sister, she was the tall girl outside, she does most of the work organising things.”

“When you say sisters, they’re not really your sisters, you don’t look anything alike,” this time it’s Tayla with the interruption.

“Ahh, no. None of us are related by birth. We were all adopted by this really nice couple, and the auntie I mentioned isn’t my real auntie, she’s Alex’s sister. Alex and Jenny, that’s my Jenny, not your Jenny, are our adoptive parents. Anyway, what I’m getting at is I think we’ll be working with Amy in the future, so we may be popping back up again, which is good news.”

Honey nodded silently, as she thought, Tayla jumped off the bed and moved around the bed. Belle heard a drawer opening, “do you want a can of pop, Belle? We’ve got Coke, orange Fanta or Dr Pepper.”

“Oh, Dr Pepper please.”

Tayla brought four cans round, handing Belle hers first.

Honey took a sip of her Coke before she spoke again, “OK, so when Jenny spoke to me this morning, she said you’d grown up in a loving family, then your parents died suddenly, and you were given to a creepy uncle.”

“That’s the gist of it,” Belle replied, thinking she’d let Honey tell her story before correcting her.

“I was ten when it happened. There was me, Chris, my little brother, and mum and dad. Everything seemed cool, mum and dad argued, but all parents do that don’t they?”

Belle agreed they did. She tried to think about how Helen handled these type conversations with her and the others. Helen just listened, not interrupting, only asking questions if she needed them to be clearer about something.

“Your parents’ arguments, were they ... err ... noisy or anything.”

Honey thought for a moment.

Belle noticed when she thought, Honey tilted her head to one side, then the other, like she had opposing ideas on either side.

“Sometimes they’d shout, but they were never violent or anything, they didn’t physically fight.”

Belle agreed this is how her parents behaved.

“We were on holiday; dad had borrowed his friend’s caravan in Wales for the week.”

Belle noticed Tayla and Juno were holding Honey’s hands now. She knew they were giving Honey strength just like Poppy gave her strength when she needed it.

“We had a few really great days. The caravan was near Llandudno, have you ever been there? The beaches are really nice and there’s a great ice cream shop, a dead long pier and a cable car that goes up to the top of the big hill...”

“Great Orme,” Juno helped her.

“Yes! That’s the place. So yeah, we had a great time for a few days...”

Tayla and Juno tightened their grip on Honey’s hands.

“ ... then he came back to the caravan one day. He was drunk, really drunk, he was like a monster. He lashed out at mum because she’d not made him any dinner, he smacked her across the face, then he punched her. Chris was crying, he crawled across the floor towards me, dad grabbed his leg and pulled him back, shouting at him for crying like a baby ... HE WAS ONLY A BABY...” Honey cried, “he wasn’t even two...” she added quietly, “ ... he was only a baby and dad picked him up and threw him against the wall, I tried to run to him but he pushed me back, mum tried to pick Chris up but he punched her away ... Chris was bleeding, and he was still ... he wasn’t moving Belle and there was nothing I could do...”

Honey stopped talking, she was crying now, Tayla produced some tissues and wiped her friend’s eyes.

Belle watched, they’d done this before, she recognised the tenderness, these were good friends.

After a quick dash to the bathroom to wash her face, Honey continued, “Mum tried to push dad out of the way to get to Chris, but dad pushed her up against the bathroom door, he had his hands around her neck and mum was going purple. I had to do something, I had to get out somehow and call for help. We were in one of those big green caravans, do you know the ones I mean?”

Belle told her she’d stayed in one.

“So, you know the windows are flimsy. I got on the sofa and pushed the back window really hard, the catches broke, I jumped out and ran for the park office, where the lady phoned the police for me.

“The police and ambulance arrived in minutes, I took them to the caravan but dad was gone. The ambulance people ran inside, they were too late for mum, he’d killed her. Chris lived another few hours...” the last few words were so quiet Belle could barely hear them.

The only sounds for the next few minutes were Honey’s quiet sobs and her friends’ equally quiet words of support, Belle tried not to listen to these private words.

After another quick trip to the bathroom Honey resumed her story.

“I had no close family, so I was placed with a foster family, who were lovely. They looked after me well, or as well as they could. I wasn’t very nice during the 18 months I stayed there. I see that now. My head was a mess, like it was full of wasps or something, I was always angry. Angry with dad. Angry with mum because she must have done something to make dad angry. Angry with myself for running away instead of saving Chris...”

Belle was about to speak but Honey held up her hand.

“I know what you’re about to say, I’ve heard it a million times, but nothing will change the fact that I could have grabbed Chris and taken him with me. I might not have been able to save him, but at least I’d have done something. The only thing that’s changed since those days is that I’m no longer angry with mum. She’d done nothing to make dad angry, he was just a twat.”

“What happened to him, did the police catch him.”

“He didn’t get far, the police had a helicopter out looking for him, police cars came from all over. I think they found him in a couple of hours. He’s in prison now, and hopefully he’ll never get out. Mum and Chris weren’t his first victims. He’d killed someone a while ago, when he was at school. Because he was young when he did it, he was only sent to a boys’ prison for a few years and his record was locked or something, to give him a fresh start.”

“That’s horrible,” Belle gasped, “surely if your mum had known about it, she’d never have married him.”

“Exactly, and that’s why I know it wasn’t mum’s fault, she didn’t make him angry.”

“Err, you said you stayed with the foster family for 18 months, what happened?”

“Amy appeared, she spoke to my foster parents, said I wasn’t getting the best help at the local school, that she had a boarding school, said it was completely free and I would get the best care and education available.”

“And are you getting the best care and education?”

Honey turned to Tayla, “what was I like when I arrived?”

Tayla laughed, “she punched me in the face the first day.”

“I knocked a girl out on my first day at my new school,” Belle told them.

“Seriously, knocked her out?”