Friday morning was covered in frost. Oliver was shivering in his jacket as he picked his way across the treacherously slippery courtyard. Normally on such a morning, Oliver’s father would be up in the attic, wrapped in a blanket, painting the sunrise.

But instead, Oliver had heard him snoring in his bedroom when he got up that morning. On the kitchen table were the family accounts. His father’s meagre salary was at the top, followed by a long list of deductions.

When he climbed the steps to the classroom, he was expecting Jacob of Miss Wilson to already be there. But to his unpleasant surprise, someone else was already in the otherwise deserted classroom.

Hannah.

Sitting at her desk, playing on her phone, she barely glanced up as Oliver sat down. Phones weren’t allowed at school, but Hannah had a knack for keeping them hidden from the teachers.

Oliver wondered why she was here so early. Hannah and her gang normally came in five minutes before the bell.

Suddenly fearful, he opened his desk. To his relief, it was all how he had left it.

Picking up his library book and pencil case, he looked up at the schedule. ASSEMBLY was once again in its usual Friday morning position.

Lost in thought, his elbow knocked his pencil case to the ground. Pens, pencils, and crayons burst out across the floor.

Quickly, Oliver ducked down to clear it all up, expecting a snarky comment from Hannah.

But Hannah ignored him, still fixed on her phone.

Crouching down, he noticed his pen had rolled under Hannah’s seat. He stretched his hand out to grab it.

‘Don’t’ Hannah said, without looking up ‘come near me’

Oliver sat back down with a thump. He slumped, with his head in his hand, thinking Jacob couldn’t come soon enough.

*

Jacob ended up not arriving until just before the bell rang.

‘Overslept’ he said, by way of explanation. Then, seeing Oliver’s raised eyebrows, elaborated.

‘My parents found out about me entering the scholarship, and they not happy. They spent all night lecturing me on Whitecliffes and all the reasons I should be happy to go. Didn’t get to bed until, like, one.’

He looked up at the schedule and groaned.

‘It’s gonna be freezing in the hall. They never put the heaters on’

He was right, as it turned out half an hour later. They sat, teeth chattering, on their usual bench at the back as Mrs. Kendall read out the notices.

‘…dairy products from the canteen will face a price increase of 30 cents, and the slow dancing classes are cancelled due to a complete lack of interest’

‘Now’ she said, gesturing to one of the teachers who came forward with a large purple envelope ‘we have exciting news for two lucky students’

Oliver’s class shifted in their seats, tensing up.

‘These two worked hard, and have shown dedication throughout their time here at Sheppardton Primary’ she continued

‘It has been a privilege to have them here, and to announce them as the winners of the King James Scholarship to Mulberry Academy’

‘The winners’ said Mrs. Kendall, drawing two gold edged certificates from the envelope ‘are our own Hannah Chesnut and Sophie Goddard!’

The audience burst into cheers as Hannah and Sophie sprung up squealing. Oliver clapped less enthusiastically. He had expected this, but it was a bitter blow, nevertheless.

Hannah and Sophie nearly tripped over themselves as they all but ran to the front where Mrs. Kendall was waiting, beaming. She shook both their hands and presented them each with a certificate.

As they held them up, Mrs. Kendall spoke, raising her voice over the applause.

‘These two will attend Mulberry Academy for the next five years, and I know they will do us proud’

Oliver felt Jacob nudging him and turned to see him saying something. But he couldn’t make him out over the noise level in the hall.

‘What?’ he tried to ask, but Mrs. Kendall kept speaking.

‘Well done, and everyone join me in congratulating two of our best’

The applause swelled again, and two boys whistled.

The gold on the certificate flashed as Hannah raised it above her head, her smile slowly becoming a smirk.

*

‘I said ‘At least you don’t have to worry about going to the same school as Hannah now’’ Jacob said after they left the hall.

‘That’s the only bright side to this’ Oliver said wearily

He knew he should feel relieved, but he just felt drained.

He tried to tell himself that Jacob was right. Next year, he’d be free of Hannah, and he could at last go to school without worrying about whether his lunch would still be in his bag or if his library book would be returned intact. But there was a small part of him that wouldn’t let him feel happy.

A small part of him that had been there since the first announcement of the scholarship. It had grown during his research and had driven him to panic in the exam.

A small part of him that admitted, no matter how much he tried to deny it afterwards, he wanted that scholarship. He wanted to go to Mulberry.

Oliver suddenly let out a frustrated cry.

‘What’s wrong?’ Jacob asked, surprised.

‘I don’t know!’ Oliver threw his head back. The sun had risen enough so his face could feel the heat. He sighed and lowered his head.

‘My parents will be happy about this’ Jacob grunted ‘No way they wanted me going to a weird wizard school. Maybe I won’t tell them, make them find out themselves’

The bell rang for break.

‘Wanna go to the library?’ Jacob asked

It wasn’t even noon, and Oliver already felt exhausted.

‘Yeah, OK’

*

Two weeks later, Oliver was sitting in the classroom. Since the exam, he had simply felt tired.

In the library, he tried reading, but ended up staring vacantly into space. At home, after dinner, he didn’t sit up at night, making his way through a hard-back novel. Instead, he listlessly watched TV in the lounge with Emily and his father or lay in his bed staring at the ceiling. If his father or sister noticed the change, they made no comment. They had read the results of the exam in the school newsletter. They didn’t make any mention of it, but his father had suggested they visit Emily’s school that weekend to see what it was like. Oliver had shrugged noncommittally at the time.

On the board, Miss Wilson was trying to explain circumferences again. As she began writing formulae on the board, Oliver felt his eyes begin to glaze over.

His gaze drifted out the window. From here, he could see down to the main reception and offices by the school entrance. As he stared, he noticed three people standing outside reception.

With some surprise, he recognized one of them as the wizard from the exam. Her shimmering purple gown cut an impressive figure against her two companions, both in dull suits. Curiously, he watched them climb the steps to reception.

Miss Wilson cleared her throat, and Oliver quickly turned back around again and tried to copy down what was on the board. As he filled in the formula for area, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement outside. He glanced up to see a man and a woman walking quickly through the school gates. After looking around for a moment, they walked into the reception building, the man holding the door open for the woman.

Less than a minute later, the door opened again, and a child came out. Oliver recognized him as one of the office runners, students who helped in the office by delivering messages.

Oliver dully wondered where the runner was being sent when, to his surprise, he made a beeline straight for the classroom. He rounded the side of the building, bounded up the steps, and opened the door right in the middle of Miss Wilson’s explanation.

‘Yes?’ she asked tersely

‘Can Sophie come to the office?’ he asked

Miss Wilson nodded at Sophie, who got up, looking confused. She left the room, accompanied by whispering. Oliver watched her cross the grass back to reception.

Miss Wilson managed to quiet the class down again and carried on trying to explain formula for circumference. Oliver tried to focus, but his eyes kept drifting back to the reception block.

Nothing more happened, however, for another twenty minutes, and he was almost able to put it out of his mind.

But then the reception door burst open again, and three people spilled out.

The one in the middle was Sophie. And even though Oliver couldn’t hear from this distance, it was clear she was bawling her eyes out. The man and the woman were with her. The woman, who Oliver realized was her mother, put her arm around Sophie. Instead of going back to the classroom, the man, who must have been her father, steered them both out the gate.

As Oliver wondered what on earth happened, the office phone rang, making everyone jump.

The office phone was in every classroom, and as the name implied, it was a direct line to the reception block. It was only ever used to convey messages to teachers that were too serious to be trusted to runners.

The last time it had been used was two years ago, to alert teachers that a car crash had occurred on the street outside and to keep all children in the classrooms. It had turned out that someone had simply left the handbrake off when they left their car, which had then rolled down the hill to run into another empty parked car.

Which may have explained why Miss Wilson simply looked irritated as she dealt with this new interruption.

‘Yes, Liz here’ she said into the receiver.

As she listened, her expression slowly became graver.

‘Yes…yes, I’ll send him over’

She hung up. Then, to Oliver’s surprise, she looked directly at him.

‘Oliver’ she said, ‘could you please hurry over to the office?’