Generation Next (10 page)

Trust me, the Monday morning after Hunter's party won't go down in history as one of my all-time favorite mornings. If anything, I should have been on a high: GenNext was going live that very morning, and I'd ended the previous week in a swimming pool being kissed by a gorgeous woman. Most people might say those two items alone added up to a pretty decent result, but any positive vibes I managed to conjure up in my head that morning soon evaporated every time the grim vision of Ella and Hunter kissing re-emerged. It literally made my stomach turn over.

When I hurtled downstairs at 7 a.m., I found Mum sitting at the breakfast bar in her robe, staring out into the garden.

“Hey, Mum.”

It was like she didn't hear me.

“Is there a cup of coffee going?”

She suddenly came to life, as if somebody had just switched her on at the plug socket. Jumping up, she grabbed a cup from the cupboard and flicked on the kettle.

“Sorry, Jack, I was miles away.”

She'd been a bit weird all weekend and I started to wonder if there was something going on between her and Dad that I didn't know about. I sat down and inhaled a bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes while I thought about it.

“Are you worried about something, Mum?”

“Don't eat so fast!” she said, sitting down next to me with two cups of coffee.

“That's not an answer.”

“The only thing your dad and I worry about is you,” she said, touching my arm.

“We've been through this. I'm fine this time, I told you.”

Mum got up again and started unloading the dishwasher, which had a cup and about two teaspoons in it. She was definitely distracted.

“I guess . . . Sometimes I worry that you don't think I can handle myself, Mum. You know, 'cause of what happened.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, still at the dishwasher.

“Well . . . does Dad think I should have fought back a bit harder? Or do you, maybe?”

At that she spun around, a look of concern on her face.

“No, Jack, don't ever think that. We think you did exactly the right thing. You can't win with people like that, with bullies. I'd rather you ran away from a fight than had someone stick a knife in you, like you see on the news every other week. God forbid. I'm proud of the way you handled it all.”

I was about to answer when Dad interrupted us, bellowing from upstairs: “You'd better get a move on, love, the traffic will be murder!”

I shot Mum a puzzled look. Where the hell were they going together first thing on a Monday morning? Didn't he have to be at the office? Wasn't she opening the hair salon?

“Your dad's just running me up to the doctor's,” she said. “I've been feeling a bit tired and Dr. Murrell said I might need to take some iron tablets and something else I can't remember the name of, so I've got to pop in and get a prescription.”

“But . . . what kind of—”

“It's nothing to worry about, Jack. I've just been working long hours and I need to take some time off.”

“You do work too hard, Mum,” I said. It was true. Mum was a brilliant hairdresser and had loads of loyal clients, so she was always taking on extra last-minute jobs here and there because she didn't want to let anyone down. I looked at her. She didn't seem sick but I couldn't help but feel a little worried.

“Well, I can't trust anyone to hold the fort,” Mum said, laughing to herself. “I've put that young girl Shanice in charge this morning, God help me. She nearly burned Mrs. Hamilton's head off the other day, leaving the peroxide on for too long.”

I smiled weakly at her and got up from the breakfast bar, dumping my bowl in the freshly unloaded dishwasher.

“Yeah, well you need to chill out and look after yourself, Mum, do you hear me?”

“I hear you, Jack,” she laughed. “Now get yourself off to school.”

Walking to the bus stop, I tried to shake the notion that Mum might have something seriously wrong with her. Even though she was playing the whole thing down, it was going to niggle away at me until I knew for certain she was OK. I looked up into the bleak gray sky as I wandered past the long line of semi-detached houses on my road, and wished the sun would at least come out. It was supposed to be spring, after all. A bit of sun would make everything seem better. Maybe.

So you know when you're thinking that you really don't want something to happen, and then that's exactly the next thing that happens? Well that's how my morning went. I spent the bus journey to school making notes on my iPhone and formulating plans for the next stage of
GenNext: a) to take my mind off my conversation with Mum that morning, and b) to stop my mind from wandering back to thoughts of Ella, because by this point, quite frankly, I was beginning to feel a bit pathetic about the situation. Yeah, so she's dating a total idiot, big deal. Get over it, Penman, there are other girls out there and there's nothing you can do about it anyway. Right? Right.

Just as I thought I was beginning to get it all sorted in my head, at least for the time being, I jumped off at the bus stop closest to St. Joe's and who do I almost crash into? Yep, Ella and Hunter. Holding hands—I kid you not. It was like someone had dropped me in the middle of some sick and twisted parallel universe. All these weeks they'd apparently been dating and today was the day I had to come face to face with it. Not only that, but there was absolutely no avoiding them as they were coming out of Caffè Nero and literally walking toward me. So I set my face to “don't give a crap” and hoped for the best.

“Hey, Penman.”

Was I going a bit mental or was Hunter kind of semi-smiling at me?

“What's going on?” I said, walking alongside them toward school.

“Nothing much. Did you have a good time Friday night?”

No, I wasn't losing it: he was actually being pleasant, though probably only because Ella was with him.

“Yeah, it was cool. I haven't been to many parties like that.”

“I bet,” he said smugly.

Ella, meanwhile, was noticeably sheepish, sipping her skinny latte and avoiding meeting my eye, and I wondered if she felt at all guilty. Had she even realized what this was doing to me? You know what, I really don't think she had.

“Look, I know you guys haven't exactly hit it off, but all that needs to change right now,” she blurted out in a fairly demanding voice. “I can't have my boyfriend and one of my best mates not being cool with one another, right?”

“I've told you, babe, it's all cool with us. Right, Penman?” Hunter said, slapping my shoulder.

So that was why Hunter wasn't being his usual repulsive self: Ella had obviously had a word with him. When I looked into his face, however, there didn't seem to be even a modicum of sincerity in this new nice-guy demeanor of his. He clearly didn't mean a word of it; it was just to keep Ella sweet.

“What about you, Jack, are you cool?” she said.

“All good, buddy,” I said.

“Excellent,” Hunter said, grinning. “Any friend of Ella's an' all that malarkey.”

He turned to face Ella, kissing her on the lips, and I'm fairly certain some of that morning's Crunchy Nut
Cornflakes made their way from my stomach back up into my mouth.

“Look, I've got to run, babe, I've got some business to attend to before lessons,” he said. “I'll see you later.”

Then he was gone and I was left alone with Ella. Awkward.

As we continued toward St. Joe's, our pace naturally slowed until eventually we stopped outside the gates. It was like we both knew that something had to be said before we walked any further, so I went first.

“Well this is . . . I mean, why didn't you say anything?”

“About what?” She looked at me wide-eyed, brushing her hair off her face with her right hand.

God, was it possible she really didn't know how I felt?

“Why didn't you tell me about you and Hunter is what I mean,” I went on. “Seemingly it's been going on for a while and we were together, like, every day, working on GenNext and the media production project, so I'd have thought you'd have given me the heads-up on who you were—”

“Look, Jack, I am sorry, really. It was only the last couple of weeks that I realized . . . I mean, by the time I suspected that you kind of . . . you know . . . liked me in that way . . . you know, in a more-than-mates type of a way . . . by then it was already back on with me and Hunter, and I know you're probably not a fan of his, but we've known each other a long time; we have a lot of history together. That's why I kept out of your way for
the last week or so; I didn't want you to feel bad or upset and . . . I'm just sorry, OK?”

Ah, so she did know after all. I shrugged and gave her a look as if I had absolutely no idea what the hell she was going on about.

“You . . . you do like me, right, Jack? This is what this is about, isn't it?”

I shrugged again, looking back at her as if she were babbling a load of utter nonsense. It threw her, I could tell.

“Oh God, I'm really embarrassed now,” she said, looking down at the floor. “I thought . . . well, it seemed like . . . Sorry, Jack, I've read this completely wrong, haven't I?”

“Er . . . slightly, yeah.”

I have to tell you, I felt pretty low at that moment. Even after everything that had happened, I still cared about this girl so much, and the last thing I wanted was to make her feel stupid. I was on a self-preservation roller coaster, though, and there was no jumping off.

“All I was saying was, because we're mates and working together, I didn't get why you kept your boyfriend a secret, that's all.”

“Oh! So you're OK with it, then?” She sounded surprised and hopeful. “And you're OK with us still working on GenNext together?”

“Why wouldn't I be all right about it?” I said. “Like Hunter said, it's all cool with me,
babe
.”

I wasn't exactly sure how convincing I was being or if she was in any way fooled, but it was too late by then.

“Right,” she said, “why wouldn't you?”

“Anyway, I'd better get to class,” I said. “Loads on today. I'll see you later, I expect.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

Ella looked slightly dumbstruck as I turned and walked away from her, leaving her standing alone at the school gates. And yeah, of course I wanted to turn around and shout at her like a nutter: demand to know why the hell she wanted to be with an idiot like Hunter and not with me. But I didn't. I just kept walking. And I'd like to tell you that it felt good, walking away like that, but it didn't. It felt bad. Really bad.

When I walked into the sixth-form common room that lunchtime, I was met with a trio of anxious faces. Austin, Sai and Ava all looked as if they'd just come back from a funeral, and I knew it was for my benefit.

“Don't even,” I said to Ava, as she wrapped her arm around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. I looked down at her wrist, delicately tattooed with a red-haired mermaid, and smiled at my new friend's concern for my mental well-being.

“We were worried when we didn't hear from you all weekend,” she said.

“Yeah, Austin said you'd probably topped yourself,” Sai added.

“Oh did he now?” I laughed. “But you didn't think about calling my parents to find out?”

They all shook their heads.

“You absolute muppets.”

“Seriously, are you OK?” Austin said. “I mean, not to be selfish but things are looking so good with GenNext, I'd hate for something like this to screw everything up before it's even got off the ground, you know? Not after the result we had this morning.”

“Something like what?” I said. “Look, don't worry. Me and Ella are cool, and—What result? What are you talking about, Austin?”

“Sai, grab your laptop,” Austin said urgently.

Sai complied, banging away quickly at the keyboard as we all sat down around a coffee table.

“We went online at nine a.m.,” he said, flashing the screen at me, “and look at the views since a couple of YouTubers put a link to GenNext in their video descriptions.”

“And look at the comments about the interviews; about Ella,” Austin said, pointing at the screen.

“Are they good?” I said, trying to speed-read a few of them while Sai waved the laptop around.

“They're amazing.” Ava smiled. “People love her. Look, I've taken a screenshot of some of the comments.”

“And that's why we're worried,” Austin said. “I mean, if you and Ella fall out . . .”

“Don't worry, Austin,” I assured him. “As I said, we're cool. At least I think we are.”

Ava grabbed my arm, tugging at me urgently.

“But this is all really good news, right, Jack? These figures and stats? We're on our way, aren't we?”

I perused the information once more: thousands of hits in just a few hours and traffic coming from all over the world. A sudden rush of excitement surged upward, like it had started from my feet and was now shooting out through the top of my head. For just a moment, the misery of the last few days melted away and I felt my mouth curl into a massive grin.

“Are you kidding me? Guys, we so are on our way; this is amazing!” I said. “OK, so now we need to figure out what's next.”

“Exactly,” Austin agreed. “Now we've hooked people in, we can't sit back and just hope they keep coming back. We need to ramp it up a notch. I think we should give it a week or so and then drop The Gloves interview. Show everyone we really mean business.”

“Totally!”

After that, the three of us just stood there for a while, grinning at the stats and one another like lunatics. And why not? This was pretty amazing stuff, you know?

Our brief moment of glory was interrupted by a commotion in the hall outside the common room: shouting
and swearing—it didn't sound too friendly. A few people, including Ava, headed toward the door to find out what was going on.

“Hey, what's your problem?” Ava called out as she reached the corridor. “Leave him alone.”

I followed her across the room, and when I stuck my head outside, I was somewhat surprised to see Cooper crouching down on the floor nursing his guitar, which looked like it had been broken in about three places.

“What the hell is this?” I said, slightly stunned. “Cooper, what happened?”

There were a couple of guys standing over him shouting insults.

“The kid's a homo!”

“Nasty little faggot!”

Unsurprisingly, they were pals of Hunter's; I'd seen them hanging out with him a bunch of times. A handful of other students were standing around, but nobody seemed to be doing much to help, so before I knew what I was thinking, I was pushing through the gathering crowd and picking up the smashed guitar before helping Cooper to his feet.

“What's he ever done to you, anyway?” I said.

I was standing in between Cooper and the bigger of the two guys and dearly hoping the dude wasn't thinking about beating the crap out of me.

“I don't like what he is, and I don't like the way he looks at me,” the guy said.

I knew this boy, vaguely; he was in a couple of my classes and quite smart, if I'd remembered rightly. I couldn't believe he was behaving like such a dick.

“The way he looks at you—are you kidding?” Ava shouted from behind me. “You need to go home and clean your bathroom mirror, mate, because you're not exactly Taylor Lautner. You do realize that, don't you?”

“He just got in our way,” the chunkier of the two piped up.

“So you smashed his guitar?” I said. “Really nice.”

“He dropped it, didn't you, fag?”

Cooper said nothing; just stood there looking unsure, so I stepped forward, squaring up to the two guys but bricking it the whole time.

“Look, just back off and leave him alone, all right?”

That was when I spotted Hunter, grinning and shaking his head at me from the back of the small crowd.

“Ooh, Penman, you're pretty scary when you're angry,” he said, smirking. “Is there something we should know about you and the traveling minstrel?”

So Hunter being cool with me had lasted what? Three hours? I knew it was just a front for Ella.

“Dudes, you need to walk away,” Hunter told his friends. “You're embarrassing yourselves and me. Just leave it. Let's go get some food.”

That was when Ava stepped forward, furious.

“So as these are your stupid mates, Hunter,” she spat, “what I want to know is, do you agree with them?”

Hunter looked at his pals and then back at Ava, confused.

“What are you bleating on about?”

“I mean, do you think like they do? Those names they were calling Cooper?”

The corridor was full of people but you could have heard a pin drop at that moment.

“Whatever,” Hunter said. “I haven't got time for this.”

“Is that right?” Ava said, her eyes burning. “Because I'm the same as Cooper, do you hear? I'm gay too, and if he's all those things, then so am I. And me and Cooper and people like us are going to shut that crap down in this school.” She looked over at the two boys. “Do you understand? We're going to shut you down.”

As the small crowd slowly scattered, Ava sat Cooper down in the common room while I surveyed the damage to his guitar.

“Thank you, guys, but I think I'm OK,” Cooper said. “I did worry I might be toast there for a minute, but they're usually all mouth, people like that. Of course, I could have done without the smashed guitar.”

Within seconds, Sai and Austin had joined us, closely followed by Ella, who ran straight over to me, looking slightly horrified.

“Jack, are you hurt? Someone said you were in a fight?”

“Hardly a fight,” I laughed. “Not even a minor scuffle.”

By this time, Hunter and his friends were nowhere to be seen and Ella smiled at me proudly.

“Jack, you little hero,” she said.

I was a split second away from telling her about her boyfriend's part in all of it, but I stopped myself. Why make her feel bad? She'd find out what he was really like soon enough without my help, plus it would have just sounded like sour grapes after seeing them together that morning.

“Jack, that was pretty brave, mate,” Sai laughed. “Those were some big-ass dudes, man.”

“Nah. If you want to talk brave, look no further than Ava,” I said. “She just came out in front of half the school.”

“Oh God, I did, didn't I?” she giggled.

“Yes you did, bitch,” Cooper said.

I don't know if it was relief or shock or what, but within a few seconds all six of us were in stitches, arms around one another in a circle, laughing our heads off.