Melissa pulled her sock off and showed the red lines across her toes and the purple mark down her calf muscle. Donald was impressed. So was everyone else.

"I fell over on some rocks," said Melissa, pulling her jersey up and showing everyone the bruises on her back.

"George pushed her," said Daphne.

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did. I saw you!"

"Is that all?" asked Mr Gamper.

"Yes," said Melissa.

"The Heroes now have an extra 12 points," said Mr Gamper "Which puts them into the lead with a total of 117 points. Well done team!"

Half-hearted clapping. Booing. Hissing. Miss Trollop blew the whistle and looked, for the first time, like a crabby old school teacher.

"Some of you seem to have missed the point," she said, cutting the air with knife-like words of ice. Her tone was like an icy wind, freezing everyone solid.

The room fell silent. It was so quiet you could hear the birds singing outside and the stream far away in the bush. You could even hear the clock ticking on the wall.

"I think you should know something about Melissa," said Miss Trollop, "Before you go putting her down. When she was born, she had a hole in her heart. She's had three major operations, and her heart has stopped five times since then. For three years she suffered from migraines and asthma. But she never complained. When she was seven, she caught glandular fever and spent six mouths in hospital. Again, she never complained. Her mother didn't want her to come on this camp but Melissa insisted. I know none of you knew this, so I couldn't have expected you to be any different towards her, but now you do know I think you ought to give her a big hand for coming."

Every kid clapped like they'd never clapped before. Melissa went red with embarrassment, and pleasure, as everyone crowded round her to show their appreciation.

"Good one!" said Samuel, giving her the thumbs up.

"Cool!" said Juanita, patting her on the back.