A shake, no…
And we carried on the yes/no game until I reached the last question, a bowling-ball of dread sitting heavy in my stomach.
‘Do you know why Dawson is eating your lunch?’
She shrugged.
‘I have to talk to him.’
Maddie looked at me, face aghast.
‘I’m not going to tell him off. But he might be in trouble. And even if he’s cross, it’s still the right thing to do. He’ll understand.’
Her mouth opened and closed in panic.
‘Trust me. It’ll be okay.’
I ignored Dawson’s long, irritated sigh when I came in his room and pulled up the beanbag again.
‘Who’s stealing your lunch, Dawson?’ I hoped he’d appreciate my direct approach.
‘Nobody.’ He scribbled furiously on the picture he was working on.
‘I’m going to sit here annoying you until we talk about it. The sooner you do, the sooner you can get back to Squash Harris.’
‘I can’t believe Maddie.’ He spoke through gritted teeth. I was surprised the pencil didn’t snap.
‘I caught her taking food. She’s nine. I’m a great interrogator. And it wasn’t hard to guess what’s happening.’
‘Yeah, but still. She’s broken the Cameron code.’
‘That may be. But what matters is why you’ve been doing it, not how I found out.’
‘Youknowwhy.’ He looked at me now, eyes blazing. ‘I shared her lunch because I’m starving. Because I don’t want to eat food that’s been spat on. Or kicked about. Or dunked in the toilet.’
‘Oh, Dawson. Why didn’t you say?’
He didn’t blink. He knew I knew why.
‘Is it one kid, or a few of them?’
‘It doesn’t matter. I’ll tell Maddie I’m sorry and I’ll stop eating her lunch. So you can forget about it. I’ll have a bigger breakfast or something instead.’
But his entreaties were half-hearted. I suspected Dawson had reached his limit.
‘Dawson, there is a difference between not having friends, and people being actively mean to you. If this was Maddie, would you think it was okay for me to do nothing?’
‘I’ve only got three months left. If you tell Mum and Dad they’ll talk to school. Everyone will know.’
‘I can’t not tell them about this.’
‘They’ll be really upset.’ He pulled at his cheeks in distress.
‘That’s not for you to worry about. It’s part of being a parent. Families work together, share their problems, help each other.’
Well, families like the Camerons did, anyway. I couldn’t recall that being part of the Birkenshaw code.
We talked a little more about what had been happening, when it had started. The least worst way for us to tell Ellen. Apologising to Maddie.
