Andrew is still being picked on and he thinks it’s my fault; he came home with a big bruise on his face. He is very upset. People are saying that he’s gay, and it’s upset him. He thinks it’s all my fault because they think he’s a weirdo because I am, and they think he’s gay because I’m a lesbian (For God’s sake). When he was going on yesterday I just laughed and wouldn’t discuss it with him, but it’s different today because he’s been in a fight and he’s really upset, he’s saying that he’ll never go to school again. I told him to just ignore them and he said I sounded like Dad – “I don’t think so.†I said, “they’re just idiots, if you let them get on with it they’ll get bored soon and move on to someone else.†He said I sounded even more like Dad. I asked him if he wanted me to go and sort them out, but he said if I did he’d kill himself and then me!! The “them†that are picking on Andrew are a couple of boys from his year called Darren (Dazza – very original) and Joe. They’re just a pair of stupider than average boys who talk about football and who’s hard and who’s not. They used to not mind Andrew and he used to play football with them in the park, but for some reason they’ve changed their minds about him at the moment. I think it’s because they’ve realised that he’s got more brains than them. I told that to Andrew but it didn’t seem to give him much comfort. He says that if I were more “normal†he wouldn’t be getting grief.