Her lips are soundlessly forming my name, but I shake my head mutely.
“I’m sorry,” I say as Mrs.Sinclair looks from my phone to me.
I see the disappointment in her eyes, and I know that it’s worked. She believes me.
“Henry,” she says slowly.
“It’s not true,” Emma insists again. She has to stop crying, I can’t bear it. “Please, I... It wasn’t like he says.”
“Emma, your phone please,” insists Mrs.Sinclair calmly.
Emma bites her lip as she hands it to them. Her eyes are desperate, and I can’t look at them.
“Nothing,” murmurs Mrs.Sinclair to Mr.Ward.
“She put him up to it then, for all I know.” His eyes are blazing.
“I thought you saw Emma coming out of your office?”
“She was standing outside it,” says Mr.Ward.
“And Henry? Was he there too?”
“No...” Mr.Ward hesitates.
“I got out in time,” I say. I never knew I was such a good liar.“I heard your voice just as I got around the corner. I was relieved that nobody had seen me but... It was wrong.”
“Henry,” Emma pleads quietly.
I suppress the urge to clench my fists. Don’t show any emotion.
“Fine.” Mrs.Sinclair hands Emma her phone. “Emma, please go back to class.”
“What?” she blurts. “No, I...”
Mrs.Sinclair presses a button on her phone. “Could you come and show Ms.Wiley out, please?”
Emma looks blankly from one to another as Mr.Harper enters the room.
“What’s going to happen? I mean...”
“Emma, you don’t have to worry about it. I will inform your mother that it was a false alarm and that there’s no need for her to come over.”
For a moment, Emma looks as though she’s going to argue. But she knows as well as I do that there’s nothing she can do.
I avoid her eyes as she follows Mr.Harper out.
“Sit down, please, Henry.” Mrs.Sinclair points at the chair in front of her desk. Then she looks at Mr.Ward. “You may leave too now.” He opens his mouth, but she cuts him off. “Please.”
I withstand his dark glare as he walks past me. He wanted to cause trouble for Emma, for whatever reason. I’m sure of that as I sit down.
“Henry, I don’t know what to say.” Mrs.Sinclair walks up and down on the other side of her desk. The way she often does when we have something to discuss. As head teacher and schoolcaptain. But now I’ve broken the rules, and it’s her job to punish me. “How did those photos get onto your phone?”
“I took them.”
She eyes me, waits a second or two, as if she wants to give me one last chance to put everything right. I say nothing.
“Why, for God’s sake?”
