I was taken to the penals room by my form master to give my side of the story.
I hated the penals room – all penals were was the term used for detention at this school. Strictly speaking penals were a particularly nasty form of detention, but we just used the term in general – you rarely had to serve proper penals. The room was also where I’d got my worst strapping (from this man for skipping penals). It was a hot, stuffy little room in a World War II era prefab building – not a nice place. I was interrogated – I said nothing, but my form master told he was going to crack me six unless I started talking and whatever I told him would reduce my punishment. I resisted at first – I was really scared that the stealing would come out – and I dodn’t know what I thought he’d do to me to be honest.