“That’s not fair!”

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Story continues from yesterday:

“Mum, can I use the computer?” Luke asked when he got home.

“Jared’s using it at the moment,” she told him, “his laptop’s playing up.”

“That’s not fair,” Luke complained, “Jared’s got his own computer, he should ‘ave looked after it prop’ly.”

“He said you broke it.”

Luke was momentarily stumped. He didn’t remember breaking it. He was fairly sure he hadn’t.

“I didn’t,” he said eventually.

Mum recoiled from the blast of heat when she opened the oven door and reminded herself not to lean in when she did that. “What do you need it for? Homework?” Before Luke could answer she turned away from him and transferred twelve chocolate chip cookies to the cooling tray. “Is it for something important?” she added.

Thankful he could answer truthfully he told her that yes it was absolutely very important.

“Okay,” she said, “ask Jared not to be too long.”

Luke tutted and went into the living room to do that. “How long are you gonna be?”

“As long as it takes,” said Jared unhelpfully.

“How long d’you think that’ll be?”

“Well the more you bother me, the longer it’ll take.”

“Mum said you’ve got to hurry up because I’ve got some important work to do.”

“I don’t think so,” said Jared, “you don’t do anything important in Year Seven.”

“Well what’re you doin’ that’s so important?” said Luke as he leaned in to look at the screen. “You’re playin’ cards!” He pulled at Jared’s shoulder. “You can play cards with actual cards! Let me use the computer!”

“Get off!” Jared elbowed Luke without taking his eyes off the screen, “I was here first!”

Luke took hold of the office chair and tried to wheel it away from the computer but Jared held tight to the desk with his hands and feet. Jared grinned when his brother gave up and let go, but when the chair jolted back against the desk, his can of lemonade toppled and splashed its contents all over the keyboard. Both boys instantly forgot their squabble and were silent. The playing card images stretched and distorted on the screen before being replaced by a mass of fuzzy lines.

“You’re not supposed to have drinks by the computer!” Luke pointed out.

“It’s your fault it fell over,” said Jared angrily, “if you hadn’t pulled the chair …”

****

Confined to his room Luke had no idea how he was going to get the research done by tomorrow. It really wasn’t fair. It was Jared’s fault for having a drink on the desk which he knows he’s not supposed to do. It was Jared’s fault for playing games on the computer and refusing to let him do his important work. It was all Jared’s fault so it wasn’t fair that they both got punished. He laid back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. It wouldn’t be so bad if he could at least phone Isabel and tell her he didn’t have access to a computer. Then at least she’d know it was all down to her. He hoped she was getting somewhere with it. He wished he’d picked up some leaflets from Kris’s stall when he had the chance. There might have been some useful information there that could have helped with this research. He continued to stare at the ceiling with these pointless regrets going round and round in his head until, finally, a useful thought emerged. A month earlier Dad had given him his old mobile phone. It had £5 credit on it but he was only permitted to use it for emergencies.

“Well if this isn’t an emergency I don’t know what is!” thought Luke aloud.

He took out his phone and sent a carefully worded text to Kris.

****

Early Thursday morning Dad put the car in reverse and looked over his shoulder before backing out of the drive. Before he’d changed into first gear, an old brown Talbot Sunbeam pulled up in front of him. A woman with short green hair and rather too many piercings for his liking, got out and began to walk up the path to his house. Dad rolled down the passenger side window and leaned across the seat.

“Can I help you?” he called.

The woman turned back. “Is this Luke Walker’s house?”

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m a friend of his,” she said, smiling, “he asked me to bring him something.”

Luke’s dad turned off the engine and got out of the car. “Really?” he asked, walking towards her “and what might that be?”

Kris didn’t want to put Luke in a difficult position with his parents by saying too much. “Is Luke here?” she asked.

“My son is eleven years old,” said Mr Walker, who was turned a little frosty by her evasiveness, “so I like to know who his friends are and what they get up to.”

“Yes, of course,” said Kris apologetically, “he needed some information for school.” She handed him the envelope she was carrying.

Luke drew back his bedroom curtains in time to witness the scene. He pulled on his trousers in record time, rushed downstairs and flung open the front door just as Kris’s car rattled out of view. His dad handed him the envelope.

“This is from a friend of yours,” he said, “where do you know her from?”

“Thanks,” said Luke, “oh, she’s jus’ one o’ the leaders at youth club.”

Dad raised his eyebrows, “is that right?” he said, “because she seems to think you met at the health food shop where she works.”

Luke froze almost imperceptibly before saying, “oh, yeah, health food shop, I forgot,” and he hurried back inside.

****

“Read these,” said Luke to Joe on the bus, “Kris got ’em for us an’ we need to learn ’em so we can tell Mr Flanagan.”

Joe flicked through several pages of information, “I can’t learn all this by registration,” he said anxiously.

“After lunch then,” said Luke, “we’ll learn it at lunch time and tell him at afternoon registration.”

“Okay,” said Joe, and began to read.

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Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀

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