NINE
Small and bouncy and ebullient, like a puppy.
‘Go on then, what did 'e say? Proctor? ‘Ow many did you get?’
‘None.’
‘Bloody liar! Go on then, show us your hands,’ Jamie Strawbridge demanded of Nicholas Garforth as he came out the side door into the playground. ‘Go on, show us. Nobody gets sent to Proctor and comes out without strokes of the cane.’
Jamie Strawbridge, inevitably known as Strawberry Jam or Jammy by his pals, or Jamface by his enemies, was Nicholas' closest friend, although Nicholas always felt that it was Jamie who wanted to be friends with him, rather than the other way round. He was small and bouncy and ebullient, like a puppy bounding around a bigger dog wanting to play, and sometimes Nicholas found him tiresome, infuriatingly infantile, and wanted to smash his m
