We switched our suitcases from right hand to left and back several times along the way, and Gregory told me to hurry up. Inside the green-painted iron railings bigger boys than me, in various degrees of fear and bemusement, came, went and lingered. Parents, having delivered their darlings, loitered comparing notes with other parents because the rain had stopped and they could. Cloud parted and the sun shone through. Gregory, like the rain, stopped, and I did too, on his heels. ‘Ask for the assembly hall,’ he said, pointing me at a doorway with pillars that looked like an open mouth with teeth. I panicked. ‘Who will I ask?’ ‘Have you got your letter?’ I panicked harder. I thought Gregory would stay with me until I knew what to do next. Obviously, I was wrong. ‘I go that way.’ He nodded towards a building in shadow with many black windows that must have been the senior school. I released my suitcase and fumbled in my pocket hoping I had lost the letter. Without it, they might send me home.
