Burning Secrets by Clare Chambers

now on his first visit, someone had nicked his stuff. How the hell was he going to get home without clothes?
    Cold and frustrated, he marched back to the poolside. “Kenny,” he hissed up at the lifeguard dutifully keeping watch over an empty pool, “someone’s nicked my stuff.”
    Kenny looked astonished. “What do you mean?” he said, climbing down from his high chair.
    â€œMy bag’s gone. I left it in there and it’s gone. I haven’t got any clothes! Is there any spare kit I can borrow? Or can you phone my mum?” Even as he said this he realised he didn’t know the phone number at The Brow.
    â€œI’m not allowed to leave the pool unattended,” said Kenny.
    â€œBut there’s no one in it!” Daniel protested.
    Kenny hesitated.
    â€œI’ll stay and look after the pool,” Daniel pleaded.
    â€œHave you got a lifesaving certificate?” Kenny asked.
    Mum was right: he is retarded , thought Daniel. “Look, if anyone comes I’ll tell them they can’t go in until you get back,” he said desperately.
    â€œAll right,” said Kenny with extreme reluctance. “There might be something in Lost Property you can borrow. What size shoes?”
    â€œNine,” said Daniel, wondering what his mum was going to say when he told her he’d lost his trainers. Not mentioning it wasn’t an option as they were the only pair he had. Unobservant as she was, she’d notice if he took to going out without shoes.
    After five minutes waiting in the cold, Kenny returned carrying a short green science overall and a pair of rugby boots, thickly crusted with dried mud. “All I could find,” he said apologetically, as he handed them over before climbing back on to his high chair.
    â€œEr . . . thanks,” said Daniel, doing his best to hide his dismay. There was no alternative – he had to get home and he couldn’t walk over the moors barefoot. The boots at least fitted, although they felt clammy and disgusting without socks. The overall looked plain weird with hairy legs, but it couldn’t be helped. Oh well. The locals already thought he was weird – this would just confirm their view. He poked his head out into the corridor, checking that there was no one about, and then crept out, the boot studs clattering on the lino. He hadn’t taken more than two steps when the door to the girls’ changing room flew open, there was a squeak of surprise and he found himself looking into the astonished face of Ramsay Arkin.
    â€œOhmygod! It’s you,” said Ramsay, biting her lip against a laugh as she took in his strange appearance. “Why are you dressed like that? In fact . . . ” She looked more closely at the pattern of chemical stains and scorch marks on the overall. “That’s my lab coat!”
    â€œSorry, I was just borrowing it. Someone’s nicked my clothes,” Daniel tried to explain, beginning to sweat with embarrassment as he recounted the story of the disappearing bag and Kenny’s raiding of the lost property box. On any other day he would have been pleased to bump into her – hadn’t he kept coming over this way with just that in mind – but not now, when he was looking like a drowned flasher.
    Ramsay looked appalled. “Nobody here steals things,” she insisted. “There must be a mistake.”
    â€œPeople keep saying that,” Daniel said, beginning to get annoyed. “But my stuff didn’t walk off by itself.”
    â€œI can’t believe it,” Ramsay said firmly, a frown of concentration crumpling her smooth forehead. She marched past him and pushed her way into the boys’ changing room without bothering to knock. Fortunately the basketball teams had already left, although she didn’t give the impression that it would have bothered her if they hadn’t. Daniel hesitated before following her in, wondering what the hell