Outlaws

Robyn, Scarlet and Will meet in detention, given for trivial reasons, and when the supervising teacher dozes off, they are able to chat, and become friends.

All three are struggling in various ways.  Robyn, who is on the autism spectrum, lives with her Grandad as her Dad is often away on business: she loves helping him in his bike repair shop, but she is finding it very difficult to make friends at school, as she joined in Year 8, and friendship groups were already settled. Grandad is getting forgetful, though, which is cause for some concern.

Scarlet is really happy with her new foster parents, except for the fact that the daughter, Megan, resents her presence and, although she is all sweetness and light in front of her parents, she bullies Scarlet in private and at school. Scarlet has had bad fostering experiences before and is desperate to make this placement work.

Will’s Mum hardly gets out of bed, and he has to try and feed and look after his 2 younger brothers, trying to earn money by selling essays. All three want to keep their troubles to themselves, but sometimes little snippets slip out, and they gradually come to understand what the others are going through. They are all on special grants or scholarships, and, when each is informed that these are ending, they realise that the Headteacher is targeting them and other vulnerable pupils, and using their funding to build his special projects for the school. Proving it is tricky, and they take some risks before they find a way to expose the Head’s fraud and get their funding back.

Robyn is able to tell the kindly Mrs Patel, of the pastoral team, about her Grandad, and he is diagnosed, and helped, especially by Dad’s return home. Megan’s bullying of Scarlet comes to light, and her parents step in. (Author Emma Norry was brought up in care, and knows only too well about the difficulties this can cause).  Will’s Dad finally starts contributing financially, and the story ends with drama-loving Will on stage as the Artful Dodger, Scarlet dancing, and Robyn enjoying being in charge of lighting: the friends have not only found each other, but also now feel that they belong.