In the living room, the shouted greeting had triggered frightened wails from Luke's toddler sisters. He watched his mother rush out from the kitchen to soothe the girls. There was a stressed and reproachful expression on her face; she often seemed to look like that, lately. Luke decided that avoidance was the best response to his father's question and headed towards the stairs. But his dad could move remarkably quickly for a big man and he caught up with Luke at the foot of the staircase and grabbed his arm.

"Oh no, you don't. In there." He pointed at the kitchen and towed Luke inside. Luke shook off his father's grip with an irritable jerk of his arm.

"Well?" Dad asked, holding up the papers to Luke's face.

Luke rolled his eyes and sighed, as though he was dealing with a simpleton. "It's my school report," he said, choosing to answer the original question literally. His father wasn't impressed.

"It's appalling," he snarled. "I don't believe you've done a single day's work at the high school in the two years you've been there."

As this was almost true, Luke did not bother to reply. His mother, having calmed down the twins, came back into the room, still looking worried and upset.

"Hi, Mum," Luke ventured, trying to introduce a bit of friendliness into the conversation.

But Dad turned out to have Luke's mother playing on his team.

"Your mother and I are very concerned about your lack of progress," he said.

Mum nodded and added, "I can't understand it, Luke, when you used to do so well at the village school."

Luke knew he wasn't going to be able to explain the differences between the two schools to them. He might have tried if it was just his mother but he wasn't going to attempt it with Dad there. His father seemed to be constantly on his back about something or other.