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second pair of eyes. Her dramatic finale has left an almost audible aftershock humming beneath everything Assistant Webb says.
    “Any questions?” the Director asked, as she was binning the last folder.
    No one put their hand up.
    If the residents were startled into silence, the staff seemed unsurprised by what their boss did. Maybe they’d seen it before, with the adults who’d been here. Her party piece. From their neutral expressions, Shiv couldn’t say what they made of it.
    Shiv was impressed enough.
    Her counsellor these past months had been so straight, so earnest , the trashing of the case notes was a blast of fresh air. Maybe this place really is different. Maybe its treatment really does work.
    Assistant Webb is still talking. Shiv makes herself study the schedule, “key therapeutic activities” in bold:
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
7.00 – Wake Up
1.00 – Lunch
6.00 – Buddy Time
8.00 – Breakfast
2.00 – Talk
7.30 – Dinner
9.00 – Walk
3.30 –Break
8.30 – Recreation
10.30 – Break
4.00 – Write
10.30 – Lights Out
11.00 – Make

& Shut Down
    “Really, the activities are self-explanatory.” With the faintest smirk, Webb says, “At Walk, you walk; at Make, you make stuff; at Talk, you talk; at Write, you write.”
    “What about Buddy Time?” Caron asks.
    “You have been divided into pairs, three sets of ‘Buddies’. You’re meant to befriend your Buddy, get to know them, spend time with them, look out for them,” he says. “When you’re feeling crap, your Buddy is there to get you through it.”
    “What if your Buddy is feeling crap too?” Caron, again.
    Mikey cuts in. Agitated, talking to himself. “I ain’t having no Buddy.”
    “Hate to break it to you, Mikey, but you’re on my Buddy list, same as everyone else.” Assistant Webb turns to another sheet on his clipboard. “Yep, your name’s right here: Mikey and –” he looks up – “which one of you is Siobhan?”

    “ So , you drew the short straw,” Caron tells Shiv, at Recreation.
    “I think he’s quite sweet.”
    “ Sweet? Mikey?”
    They’re sitting on beanbags in the Rec Room. Before dismissing them all, Assistant Webb suggested this evening’s Recreation period was an ideal chance for Buddies to introduce themselves. Not one pair of Buddies is here though. The girl whose name Shiv forgot (Helen, it turns out) is playing pool by herself. She is fourteen, she says, but so short her feet leave the floor whenever she leans across the table to reach the cue ball. She’s Buddied with Docherty, who has gone for a run. Helen seems not to mind in the least. With her plaits, her Asiatic eyes and calm aura, she reminds Shiv of a Native American shaman.
    Caron’s Buddy, Lucy, disappeared to the loo with a promise to join them afterwards. That was half an hour ago. And Mikey was first out of the Blue Room, without a word to anyone.
    “You and me should ask to be Buddies,” Caron says.
    Caron is in a grump – craving nicotine, on account of having to ration her secret stash, and disappointed by the Rec Room. ( No TV, no DVD player, nothing to play music on … just pool, ping-pong and board games. That’s B-O-R-E-D .)
    “We need to play something,” Shiv says. “Take your mind off cigarettes, yeah?” She scans the shelves of games. “How about Scrabble?”
    Caron shakes her head. “You can’t smoke those plastic tiles. They just melt.”
    Eventually, they settle on Buckaroo. It’s a real laugh. They play for ages – persuading Helen to join in too – and are surprised when an orderly comes to remind them it’s nearly time for Lights Out and Shut Down.
    “It’s going to be OK here,” Shiv says as she and Caron pause outside their rooms to say goodnight. Her face feels stretchy from all the laughter downstairs.
    “I thought you and therapy didn’t get on?”
    “I like Dr Pollard. She seems … different.” Even as she speaks, Shiv isn’t sure whether she’s just glad to be here at last. Committed