Kathy continues to think back to her past and remembers when Tommy apologised for his behaviour a few days after the incident on the field. Kathy is embarrassed again, as this apology is made on a public staircase filled with students heading to and from their weekly medical examinations. Kathy then goes to discuss the situation with Ruth and others. They claim that Tommy needs to be more ‘creative’ if he wants the teasing to end. They also mention how he never brings anything to the Exchanges, an event in which students submit artworks and other students can trade or buy works with school tokens. 

Kathy explains to us that creativity was lauded at Halisham primarily due to the Exchanges. Kathy also describes how Tommy’s struggles with creativity stemmed from a scenario that occurred years earlier, wherein he purposefully painted a rudimentary and rather childish watercolour of an elephant, but their guardian, Miss Geraldine, unaware of the gag, praised him and his attempt instead. 

This ignited the mocking. Kathy then recalls how Tommy resigned to exaggerating the poor quality of his works in order to hide his lacking creativity but the mocking still persisted. However, Kathy then explains, when returning to the football situation, how Tommy, despite spending years throwing tantrums, suddenly stopped succumbing to his rage. 

Kathy found him in the lunchroom line and interrogates, with Tommy explaining that his new guardian, Miss Lucy, told him that he need not be concerned about being the most creative. Kathy assumes this is a silly joke but Tommy promises to explain if she meets him near the pond.