Aware of Jacob’s surprised eyes on him, Oliver slowly got out of his seat. Unlike with Sophie, the class watched him in complete silence as he crossed the room and let himself outside.

As he walked across the grass, he looked back. Several kids, including Jacob, were staring from the window. The faces quickly disappeared, as Miss Wilson must have lost patience.

As he headed for reception, his mind was whirling. What did they want him for? What was so serious that it had to be sent through the phone? Was he being expelled for some reason?

A horrible thought struck him. Had something happened to his father or Emily? That would explain why Miss Wilson had looked so grave.

Emily had told him stories of students carrying knives and breaking out in fights at her school. Had she been caught in one and run through?

Or his father, who practically lived in the attic. Had he fallen down the stairs? Or had his paints caught fire and burnt their house down?

Oliver tried to stay calm, but all he could think was that his last words to his family were:

‘There’s porridge in the laundry’

By the time he walked into reception, he felt as though he was going to be sick. The receptionist looked up. She was as grave as Miss Wilson had been.

‘In Mrs. Kendall’s office, Oliver’ she said, gesturing to the door behind the desk.

‘This is it’ thought Oliver ‘I’m an orphan’

He walked through the door and down a short hallway. He’d only been there once before, but he remembered which door was Mrs. Kendall’s office. He knocked with a shaking hand and let himself in.

Mrs. Kendall was sitting at her desk, with one of the visitors in suits behind her. Sitting in front of her desk was the other one and the wizard.

‘Sit down Oliver’ Mrs. Kendall said.

Oliver sat down in the only available chair, remaining rigid and upright.

‘Can you guess why you’re here?’

Oliver didn’t want to think about it

When he didn’t answer, Mrs. Kendall continued

‘Did you see Sophie and her parents leave earlier?’

Oliver was confused. Were they mocking his now lack of parents? Odd way to broach the subject.

He nodded stiffly.

‘Well, we’ve just received some interesting news about her’

‘You were sitting behind her during the scholarship exam, were you not?’ the wizard interrupted.

Oliver was now completely lost. Was he an orphan or an only child, or not?

Or maybe, Oliver took another look at the wizard, maybe this was something else.

His heart rate began to steady.

Suddenly aware they were waiting for an answer, he said ‘Yes, I was’

As the wizard nodded slowly, the man next to her spoke.

‘When the exam papers were taken over to the hall that day, the teacher carrying them noticed the packing seal had been broken. At the time, he thought nothing of it, assuming it had been checked earlier for damages. He didn’t know that those papers had certain… protections’

‘He only told us yesterday’ Mrs. Kendall explained ‘So we pulled up surveillance footage of this office, where the papers were kept. And lo and behold, who did we see but Sophie?’

‘She had snuck into the office, found the exam questions, took a picture of them, then went home to look up the answers. When she went into the exam, all she had to do was write down what she’d memorized the night before.’

Mrs. Kendal sighed

‘Well, we let Mulberry Academy know. They’d already been making inquiries’

‘We found it odd’ the wizard broke in ‘that a girl who previously hadn’t shown any particular academic talent should get a near perfect score. So, we reached out to your principal to ask about the possibility of cheating during the exam. Which led to finding out the seal was broken…’

‘…and here we are’ Mrs. Kendall finished. Her voice was sad.

‘Poor, foolish Sophie’

She shook her head.

‘So…’ asked Oliver, still confused ‘why are you telling me?’

The two people in suits looked at each other.

‘Because she cheated, Sophie Goddard is now disqualified, and her score is null and void’ said one.

‘And that means’ said the wizard ‘the real winner of the scholarship is you’