On Tuesday it gets worse. I turn up to school ready for it, maybe even looking for it.

At the first break, I come out of the toilet and Lachlan Parkes and his friends Josh and Ethan are right outside.

‘Just having something to eat, were you?’ he says. It’s yesterday’s dumb joke, back again. I move to step past him, but he blocks my way and says, ‘Not going to answer me? Not going to say anything, Hershey Fondee Murphy?’

It takes me a second or two to realise it’s my name, in that joke accent. Then Ethan repeats it and laughs. They start chanting it, ‘Hershey Hershey Fondee Murphy.’ They move in around me and start nudging me, still chanting. First just the three of them, then four, then five. People I don’t even know start doing it.

I must step back because I bump into the wall. They take a step closer.

Then I notice Max is nearby, just beyond them, looking at me, saying nothing. Lachlan sees him too.

‘Come on, Max,’ he says. He walks over and gets behind him, putting a hand in Max’s back, shoving him towards me. ‘You know you want to.’

‘No, I . . .’ Max moves, stumbles.

One of Lachlan’s friends bumps into him. Max looks small among them. He’s frowning and his lips look pale.

Lachlan jabs him in the ribs. ‘Say it, Maxie.’

I see Max’s lips move. ‘Hershey Hershey Fondee Murphy.’

I want it to stop. I shout, ‘Voertsek!’ and then realise how Afrikaans it sounds and probably is.

‘Fart sick,’ Lachlan says, and his friends laugh.

Nothing is right, nothing I can say, and Max isn’t helping me. He’s one of them. He told Lachlan the ‘poo sausage’ stuff and now he’s next to him, playing his game and making me feel like an idiot.

It all gets jammed in my head, and I have to get out.

I shove Lachlan hard.

He trips and falls over. He hits the ground with a thump and rolls onto his side. Everyone goes quiet and steps back.

Lachlan gets up, wiping gravel from his hands. He runs at me, swinging a wild punch. I swerve and punch him in the stomach as his fist swings at the air. As he staggers sideways, Josh and Ethan rush forward and tackle me.

I hit the ground face first and their fists are thumping into my back when I hear a teacher’s voice, shouting.