Behind him the other boys snigger.
'Let's go,' he barks.
He strides off leaving the four biggest boys to hoist me up.
I squirm as much as I can, but the string only seems to get tighter, rubbing painfully against my skin. I'm dragged back to the clearing and tied against the largest tree, the string digging into my middle.
'I think it's time to remember what you really are,' Aspen says.
He takes the stanley knife from his pocket and exposes the blade. It flashes in the light.
I decide to use the only weapon I've got. I scream. I've spent so many years purposefully lowering my voice, I don't even know whether I'll be able to do it and at first the only noise I can make is a rattling squeal. But then it switches up and this sounds emits from me I had no idea I was capable of making. The boys back away in shock.
'Tape her mouth shut!' Aspen yells. Maxon gropes in his bag before dashing over with a roll of duct tape. He rips off a strip with his teeth and places it over my mouth. For a second our eyes meet. Maxon and I used to play together at nursery. I try to scream again but the sound is muffled against the tape.
'Now where was I? ' Aspen says.
I can see his breath in the air. He walks towards me, his eyes and the stanley knife flashing. Why can't he just beat me up, I think. I've taken enough beatings to know I can handle them. What's another black eye? But beating me up would be boring.
He takes the stanley knife and slices through my sweatshirt, from the neck downwards, taking care not to cut through the string holding me in place against the tree. He slices again. The material falls away, landing at my feet. He does the same with my school shirt, leaving me wearing only my white T-shirt and binder. The cold hits me then, so icy it stings.
Then Aspen is cutting through my T-shirt and I realise I'm crying, hot tears running down my face. I close my eyes. If they're going to do what I think they're going to do next, I don't want to see their faces. As I hear the fabric of my T-shirt torn away from my body I hear a collective jeer. Then Aspen is sawing through my binder, the stanley knife snagging on the thick material.
'Keep still,' he demands.
I squeeze my eyes shut, my body consulving, no tears left.
'Aspen Leger!'
The voice of Mrs Bos, the Deputy Head, is unmistakable.
The knife bounces off my knee as it drops to the ground. But still I can't open my eyes. I keep them squeezed shut as I'm untied, as the tape is carefully removed from my mouth, as Mrs Bos forces my arms into her coat and phones for assistance. I finally open them to be guided back to school. The last thing I see are my tattered clothes on the ground and the gleam of Aspen's knife on top of them.
I find out it was the caretaker who alerted Mrs Bos. He saw Aspen and his gang heading to the woods and got suspicious. I'm later told some of the boys tried to run, but were quickly rounded up, along with Rose.
I'm given some uniform to wear from the lost property box. Everything is too big. Mum arrives to collect me. When Mrs Bos realises we don't have a car, she gives us a lift home. Mum doesn't say a word, just wears this grim look on her face the whole journey.
I don't speak for a week.
I never go back to the GSR.
