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Polly was a princess, privileged and pretty she was the girl to be seen with, the centre of an inner circle of the chosen ones. One warm summer lunchtime we were out on the school playing field enjoying the respite from learning, carelessly sprawled across the grass when we were approached by Rob.

Rob was the king of the year above us, their alpha male. He was physically developed, tall and muscled like a proper bloke although still limited by a playfully inconsiderate, adolescent sense of humour. He made me nervous, I thought he was dangerous.

It’s the way of things for their best to be attracted to ours and Polly sat up when she saw him. I noticed her arrange herself to impress. He stood over her while they sparred. It was flirting, outrageously so in fact but competitive in that they sought to belittle each other with cheerful derision. We were young, unworldly, naive and in Polly’s case ominously over confident.

I didn’t hear what she said but in response Rob reached down and picked her up by her ankles. He caught her completely by surprise and lifted her right up straight so she was hand standing in front of him having put her hands on the ground to save her head. Her skirt fell away from her hips exposing her before she recovered from her confusion enough to stop it.

Then Rob spread her wide, swinging her feet apart, one in each hand. He held her like that in front of everyone, all long white socks, thighs and knickers, on display as he looked down at her, helping himself to her dignity, laughing.

After about a minute he dropped her, letting her fall in a heap at his feet before he walked off, his face grinning and smug. I’d have scrambled to my feet and run to hide, for a week, but to her credit Polly tried to cope. She restored her clothing and fought to smile but her face was red, her eyes welling with tears and we all knew she’d been profoundly humiliated.

She sat subdued and shaking, overcome with the rage she couldn’t hide and I felt she’d been taught a lesson in life she’d never forget.

The incident stayed with me and sometimes, in my quieter moments, Rob comes back to teach me a lesson too.