Bad Company (7 page)

‘I’ll go anyway,’ he said.

‘But Jonny … your interview,’ Mum reminded him.

He looked up at her and managed a smile. He could always manage a smile at Mum. ‘I’ll go after. It’ll be all right.’

But it wasn’t all right. It was the most humiliating day of my life. To stand in the headmaster’s office and have to admit to him, my voice shaking, exactly what I’d done.
Murdo was there too, and that made it a hundred times worse. His eyes were hard and cold as he stared at me. I tried not to look at him, but as a vampire in a ghost story his eyes pulled me towards them.

‘But why would you do such a terrible thing?’ he asked when I’d finished.

‘He was always horrible to me.’ It sounded stupid even as I said it. I wanted to get back at Ralph Aird, but that would have meant telling them about J.B.’s stupid job and Ralph’s dad in the same prison as he was and I just couldn’t say it. I wanted to cry, but I held the tears back and only said again, ‘He’s horrible.’

Murdo sighed. For once he didn’t fly into a rage or throw things or pull at his hair. He only said in a soft Highland lilt, ‘You weren’t in this alone.’

I glanced at J.B. I had already expected this question. So had he. And I had told him again and again that I wouldn’t bring Diane into it. That was the least I could do for her.

‘But why not?’ he had yelled at me. ‘She’s every bit as bad as you. She egged you on, I could tell that in the diary.’

But I wouldn’t tell on her. It was the one thing I could do that was right.

I swallowed and lied. ‘There was no one else involved.’

Murdo shook his head violently. ‘No. No. She was in it with you. Tell me, Lissa.’

But I wouldn’t budge. You don’t grass on your friends.

I was suspended from school for a week. That was bad enough, but worse was to come. As I was walking through the empty playground on my own (I refused to leave with J.B. and he had hurried on for his interview), Diane came rushing up to me. Her lips were white with anger.

‘Where have you been?’ she demanded. But she knew. The news had travelled through the school like an inferno. ‘If you’ve been telling on me, I’ll say you lied. I’ll never forgive you.’

I tried to tell her I hadn’t but she wasn’t in a listening mood.

‘Anyway, I didn’t do anything. You did it all yourself.’

‘Diane I know, I wouldn’t …’ But she only pushed me away.

‘If that’s all you think of our friendship you can just forget it. I don’t want to be friends with you any more.’

And though I called her back, she ran off, wouldn’t listen.

That was the worst thing of all. Diane was no longer my friend. That was finally what made me cry in the quiet
solitude of my room, away from everything. I cried because I had lost the only friend I had. I had lost Diane.

If I’d had the nerve to run away from home then, I would have.

I was suspended for a week.

No one phoned to ask where I was.

No one phoned to find out when I was coming back.

No one cared.

My only consolation was that J.B. didn’t get the job. He pretended not to be disappointed when the letter arrived. But he was.

So was Mum, but she looked at me as if it was my fault. ‘Your mind wasn’t on the interview, Jonny.’ I heard her comfort him. ‘You had so many other things to think about.’

The main other thing being me.

Well, J.B., we all have problems, I felt like telling him. I had been expected to go to school, sit exams, do well, when the front pages were full of your trial and your guilt and your villainy.

You’ve just got to get on with it.

Anyway, I had lots to think about myself.

Like going back to school.

Chapter Eleven

My mum offered to come with me the morning I went back to school, but I said no. The last thing I needed was to walk in through the school gates protected by my mother.

So I went alone. Knowing I would be alone the whole day. I wouldn’t even have Diane.

It was even worse than I could have imagined.

As I neared the gates I could see them all waiting for me. All the pupils in my year. They were standing on the pavement forming two lines across from each other. To get into the school I would have to pass between them. They were silent as I approached, so quiet it was terrifying and if I’d had the courage I would have run away then. But all I could do was to walk towards them, my whole body shaking.

Murdo had once told us about ‘running the gauntlet’. I
never thought then that one day I would have to do it myself.

I stepped between the rows and held my breath. They didn’t shout. They didn’t scream at me. What were they going to do? Harry Ball was the first. He produced a whole bagful of rotten tomatoes and threw them at me. They splashed straight on to my face, into my hair. I let out a yelp as they exploded against my lips. I gagged and tried to spit them out but they were on my tongue, in my mouth, down my throat.

That’s when I started to run. Then they all took their turn, pelting me with every rotting thing they had, rancid pears and squashy bananas and more tomatoes. I tried to duck and dive and avoid them, but it was impossible. I tasted mould and tried hard to keep my mouth shut, but with every direct hit I let out a yelp and my mouth was filled with rotten fruit. I immediately imagined maggots crawling down my face, wriggling round my tongue. I was crying out and I began to run faster through that angry crowd, dying to be past them. The smell was all over me, in my hair, in my clothes. I’d turn from one side and only get hit from the other. And all the time not a word, not a murmur escaped their lips.

At the end of the line, there was Nancy and Asra, their
faces grim. They pelted me harder than the rest. Nancy spoke the only words. ‘I never thought you could be this bad.’ And she let go with another handful of tomatoes straight into my face.

I ran, crying, heading for the toilets. Ralph Aird hadn’t been in that crowd, and I was soon to understand why. He was standing at the revolving doors that led into the main school. I hesitated when I saw him, sure he was waiting to throw something even more disgusting at me. I would have to pass him, and I’ve never been so afraid in my life. He had a look of such venomous hatred. He spat in front of me. ‘I’ll show you, Blythe. You’re goin’ to be sorry.’ It was all he said, but it made me even more afraid.

And then, suddenly from behind me, all of my year came sprinting forward. I was so sure they were after me again and I almost tripped through the doors and into the main school. They wouldn’t dare touch me there.

But they weren’t interested in me any more. They drew Ralph into their circle, Nancy and Asra and the rest and pulled him away, laughing.

And that’s when I understood.

Ralph had not been one of the ones who had pelted me. They had made sure of that. If I told on them, and I suppose they expected that I would, no blame would be
attached to Ralph Aird. Now, it was being made very clear to me that Ralph Aird was one of them. I wasn’t.

I cleaned myself up as best I could in the toilets, all the time knowing I could get rid of the smell, but I would never rid myself of the humiliation. No matter how hard I scrubbed.

The door of the toilets squeaked open and I held my breath. Was this someone else to torment me? I dried my eyes quickly with a paper towel and swung round to face whoever it was.

It was Diane.

She stood at the door, one foot casually crossed over the other, her arms folded, just staring at me.

Diane hadn’t been one of those at the school gates, but was she going to throw something at me now? I couldn’t have borne that.

‘You’re in a mess,’ she said. She kept staring at me. The suspense was awful. What was she going to do? Finally she let out a long sigh. ‘You didn’t tell on me, did you?’

‘Of course I didn’t,’ I said at once.

And then she smiled. Or did the sun come out? At that moment they seemed like one and the same thing.

‘I knew you wouldn’t.’ She came toward me and started brushing down my blazer. ‘Well, that should prove to you
the kind of people who are in this school. Not our kind of people at all.’

She linked her arms in mine. ‘Come on. We’ll show them. We don’t need people like that.’ She laughed loudly and wrinkled her nose in disgust. ‘Scum of the earth.’

Everything was all right again. Diane was still my friend.

And did I need her! Because no one else was talking to me. As we walked along the corridor, anyone we passed turned away from me. They hardly looked, they never smiled. That was to be my punishment. Every one of the pupils in the school was a part of it. No one was to talk to me. I was to be ignored. ‘Sent to Coventry’ I believe is the stupid expression.

I didn’t care. I had Diane. We walked to each of our classes, arms linked, while she whispered insults about them all and made me giggle.

Murdo’s class was the one I was dreading most and as we filed in they all turned from me one by one.

Murdo was at his desk, and despite my efforts I was still in a mess.

‘What on earth happened to you?’

I sensed they were all waiting for me to tell on them. They were expecting it. I hesitated, wanting them to worry for a bit.

‘There’s such a lot of rubbish in this school, it’s very hard to avoid rubbing against it.’

Diane giggled, and so did I. The rubbish I was referring to was the rest of my class.

He didn’t answer that. He knew what had happened. He most probably thought I had got everything I deserved.

What surprised me was that he didn’t mention the collage or me, or Ralph Aird. He went through his lesson as he always did and when the bell rang he dismissed us. All of us except Diane and me. He motioned to us to stay behind and we stood at his desk while everyone else filed out.

‘Why me?’ Diane mouthed. I shrugged. After everyone had left he closed the door quietly and came back to where we stood at his desk.

‘What you did to Ralph Aird was despicable, Lissa. But I know you weren’t alone.’ His angry eyes turned to Diane. ‘And you’re too much of a coward to even admit it. Well, I’m going to tell you thisss, Misssy!’ Now his spit was directed on Diane. She sucked in her cheeks and I could see how angry she was too.

‘You don’t have the right to reprimand
me
. I haven’t done any –’

Murdo’s hands gripped the desk lid and I saw his knuckles grow white. ‘Don’t you dare interrupt me, girl!’
And with that he lifted the lid and smashed it down so hard even the glass in the windows shuddered. ‘I want you both to know that I will be watching your every move from now on. Now get out of my sight before I get
really
angry.’

I didn’t want to see him
really
angry. So I was off, pulling Diane behind me.

‘I hate that man!’ Diane said as soon as we were safely out in the playground. She was shaking with fury.

I was angry too. ‘I hate him as well.’ He would never let me forget what I’d done, and I hated him for that.

Diane pulled me round to face her and stared so hard at me that I blinked. ‘No, Lissa. You don’t understand. I really hate that man.’

And she said it with such venom I was afraid.

Chapter Twelve

May 10th

Here I am writing in my diary again when I swore I never would. But I have to. I don’t know why but writing things down seems to make them clearer to me. And so much is happening. Only now, I’ll keep my diary well hidden. I won’t ever risk J.B. finding it again
.

He’s been acting very suspiciously, since the business with me which he caused, no one could deny that, and not getting that job, which I also got the blame for by the way. He also lost his job in Burgers A GoGo. He didn’t fit in, the manager had told him. I could have told him that ages ago. He’s ancient compared to the other waiters. He’s just been moping around the house since then. I heard Mum trying to talk to him the other morning before she went off to work. Her voice was filled with worry. Snatches of, ‘You can’t go on like this.’ And, ‘Something else will turn up.’ And most significantly, ‘You can’t go on blaming yourself.’

And then, yesterday, something changed. There was a phone call, just after I came in from school. His voice was soft as he answered it and that made me suspicious right away. Then he told me to keep an eye on Margo, he had to go out for a while. He was back within half an hour, but there was something different about him. I couldn’t figure out what it was until today when he was striding about the house, doing the housework, hoovering, yet all the while concentrating hard, as if his mind was on something else entirely
.

He had a purpose
.

Has he got the chance of another job? If that’s the case, why hasn’t he told Mum about it?

Or is it something else? Something dark and sinister and called Magnus Pierce?

It was. I know that now. But at that time, I had enough to worry me just going to school every day.

‘Could someone partner Lissa here?’ Miss Day, our science teacher, looked around the classroom. Everyone else was working in pairs but as usual I was on my own. When Diane wasn’t at school I was always on my own. And Diane wasn’t at school today. She was off for her interview at Adler Academy and the thought that I might soon be losing her scared me. I just had to get into Adler Academy too.

‘I said!’ Miss Day tapped the desk with her pencil. ‘Can we have a partner for Lissa Blythe?’

Everyone found somewhere else to look. Since that day when I’d come back to school not one of my classmates had broken breath to me. Most of the time I didn’t care. I had Diane. Even though our friendship was frowned upon by Murdo, who disliked both of us now, and by J.B. He wanted me to stop seeing her altogether. He might have been able to stop me seeing Diane after school – and he had. But he had no power over who I was friendly with in school. Especially since, thanks to him, I had no other friends.

But on days like these it would have been pleasant to have someone to sit with in the canteen during lunch, instead of eating by myself at a long empty table. Listening to the throb of conversation and not being able to join in.