Sally, Suze and Lou had to decide. They liked the new kid, but was that enough to admit her to the circle?

Suze had heard about initiation from an early stage. Her dad was a mason. Whatever that was. He was in charge of initiation. She had asked her dad, casually, what initiation was.

Somebody had to do something that they wouldn’t normally do to prove that they were loyal. It also sounded as though it had to be something that embarrassed them, just a bit anyway.

Suze told the others and this is what they decided to do: the new kid would get invited over and they would do the initiation thing in Sally’s dad’s broken-down old shed. They each had to think of something to be part of the initiation.

Lou came up with the best: a candle. Just a bit dangerous and it would give a great atmosphere to the whole thing. Really spooky light reflecting off the cobwebs.

Suze brought a rope. Even their ten year-old minds found that a bit sinister. Hanging had been abolished that summer. Which felt like a good thing, but lots of kids liked to dwell on the details. Suze used to talk about the pit of lime she had heard about that the bodies were supposed to fall into. When she told her dad about this, he said that was in the olden days.

Sally’s was a bit lame. Something that was in the shed already. An old Wellington boot. In the end though this turned out well as it was full of spiders.

The new kid turned up at 12 on Saturday as commanded. She was smiling when she turned up. Pleased to be asked along. But when they got in the shed and Lou lit the candle she began to look worried. All three of them explained what was going to happen, nervously talking over each other so that the new kid struggled to make sense of it. The most important thing though was that if she stuck it out she would become one of them.

Suze tied her to the old camping chair while Sally brought over the boot and removed the new kid’s sock and shoe. It took a while but eventually she plunged her foot inside the boot. No screaming, that was the condition. And she had to keep it in there for five minutes.

‘Fish fingers are ready,” shouted Sally’s mum.

‘Ok, we’ll be back in five, maybe ten minutes Suze said to the new kid, and they all dashed out leaving her tied to the chair.

‘What’s that smell?’ asked Sally’s dad, as they gulped down their lunch more quickly than usual.

‘The shed’s on fire!’ shouted Sally’s mum looking out of the window.

Everyone said afterwards that Sally’s dad was a hero. He spent the night in hospital but he was ok. Eventually, so was the little girl, but she had to have a skin graft. Whatever that was. They said she could be in the group, but she didn’t want to after all that. In a way it was her fault. The boot had knocked over the candle when she kicked it off. Who knew the can of paraffin in the corner had been leaking all that time?