by Annie Dalton
Brice jammed his hands in his pockets. “To be honest, I’m feeling like I’m in way over my head,” he said in a tight voice.
I nodded sympathetically. “I bet. Still it’s early days yet, right?”
I was secretly dying to ask him all kinds of nosy questions. Like, could you get rid of a persistent hellhound once it became attached to your vibes, or did it have to follow you around until one of you eventually crumbled into dust? And how come Jordie’s brother’s soul got damaged in the first place?
If it had been me and Lola we’d have been up discussing Shay all night. But it seemed like Brice had said all he wanted to say.
Tell the truth, Mel. I actually got a really strong feeling that Brice wanted to talk to me about his case, but something was making him hold back.
Maybe if I expressed a kind of general interest, Brice would feel like he could open up?
“So what’s Jordie’s brother like?” I asked in a casual voice. “Does he rap like Jordie?”
Brice glanced at the boy silently shovelling down everything Nikos had put in front of him. “I’ve never even heard that boy talk,” he said softly.
Chapter Sixteen
A police helicopter was hovering over the hospital, churning up the night with its blades. After emergency sirens and that constant, pavement-shaking bass line, police helicopters form the third most common ingredient in Park Hall’s edgy urban soundtrack.
Jools and I barely even glanced up at it as we came out into the freezing wind and rain. After the stuffy atmosphere of the children’s ward, the subzero temperatures were a shock.
“That little cutie just laps up angel kisses, doesn’t he!” Jools enthused through chattering teeth. “Did you see that smile?”
“Yeah, and that clueless nurse said it was wind!”
Four days had gone by since the hellhound incident and my new life as an honorary EA was turning out to be seriously hectic. Up early for dawn vibes, (I know!), plus twice daily rehearsals, and obviously I tried to help out the EAs as much as I could.
After tonight’s rehearsal Jools and I had popped in to check on her shocked newborn: the baby who was having problems adjusting to his home planet. I waited, shivering, while Jools checked her phone for messages then remembered I hadn’t actually checked mine for ages.
Most of my messages were from a deeply jealous Lola!
“You guys actually rescued your sister from a real live hellhound! AND you’re giving angel lessons! Well, take it easy, OK? We don’t want any humans unexpectedly sprouting wings, do we? Oh, yeah, tell that creep Brice he has to call me. Miss you!” BEEP
Jools was talking on her phone now, so I ducked into the wheelchair bay out of the wind and rang Lola. Her phone was switched off, again, so I left yet another rambly message, keeping her up to speed with events in Park Hall.
“They’re calling the show PURE VIBES, isn’t that cool! This production’s even got Mrs Threlfall buzzing and trust me, she is not a naturally buzzy lady! She’s so thrilled the kids are doing something positive, she’s letting them off lessons so they can rehearse! Oh, yeah, remember Miss Rowntree? The teacher who called me an ‘airhead with attitude’? She totally can’t do enough to help! I know! And obviously it’s early days, but working on the show seems to be bringing Karms and Jax even closer.”
I felt a pang then because I didn’t have anything good to say about Sky.
“Lollie, listen,” I remembered. “Brice is having a super-stressful time with his guardian angel module. Send good vibes, yeah?”
When I rang off, I was v. spooked to find a new message from the bad boy himself.
“Got some news that’s going to blow you away, but I can’t tell you, because you won’t get off the stupid phone! Oh, yeah, I’m at KISMET, that little Turkish cafe next to the tattoo parlour!” BEEP.
When Jools and I finally rocked up at KISMET, crackly Arabic music was playing on an ancient cassette player. Brice was watching a group of taxi drivers play dominoes: a game which involved violent slamming on tables, a barrage of friendly insults in at least six different languages, and howls of laughter.
We joined him at his table. “And you’re here in this atmospheric cafe because?” Jools hinted.
Brice reluctantly tore himself away. “Oh, yeah, they needed a washer-up.” He saw our expressions and rolled his eyes. “Not me. Shay’s got a few hours work.”
“You’re waiting to walk him back,” I said astonished.
“It’s just common sense,” he said gruffly. “If our four-legged fiend knows Shay’s got angelic security, he’ll keep his distance, plus it gives us a chance to talk, man-to-man, or cosmic-misfit-to-lost-boy or whatever.”
This guardian angel module was bringing out a side to Brice I’d never seen.
“Brice, not to be hardhearted, but what can it actually do to him? Obviously being followed by a hellhound isn’t ideal, but it’s just a nightmare pretending to be a dog, right?”
“Do you guys want to know about this - it’s kind of disturbing?”
Brice glanced uneasily at Jools.
“No, we do,” I insisted.
He took a breath. “Ok, to put it crudely, a hellhound will only adopt you if you’re already in extremely deep poo.”
“I can see that.”
“Sorry to contradict you, darling, but I don’t think you do see. I’m talking the deepest excrement. Like, say you hurt somebody so badly you can’t ever put it right.”
Jools suddenly got extra busy arranging her scarf.
I swallowed. “You mean like you actually killed someone?”
“Just for instance,” Brice said hastily “You didn’t mean to do it, but - bosh! - it’s done and there’s no going back.”
He pulled a bottle of water out of his pocket and had a long gulp. “You’re so horrified and disgusted at yourself, it’s not long before those dark voices start up in your head telling you that you’re just a bad seed and you shouldn’t even be allowed to live. Trouble is, you’re freaking scared of dying. That’s when hellhounds start sniffing round your Nikes, sweetheart.”
“Brice, sorry to sound like a stuck CD, but what can they actually do to you?”
He took a deep breath. “Nothing - and everything. When a hellhound comes into your space, it’s like you’ve got your own hotline into the Hell dimensions. How bad you felt before is nothing to how you feel now. Your vibes drop. You start attracting bad luck. Soon other humans only have to look at you and they know you’re bad news…”
I had a flash of Shay’s face at the cafe window. Was that what I’d seen? A haunted soul too ashamed to live and too scared to die?
“I can’t come to any more rehearsals, Mel,” Brice blurted suddenly. “Last night I just went out for like, half-an-hour, just for a break, and when I got back to the kids’ home there were tracks right up the hall, and I found more under his bed.”
“Under his bed!” Jools looked appalled.
I felt a sorrowful ache deep inside. After all those boys went through, Kelsey’s little bro had still ended up in care.
“I just can’t see it ending,” Brice said in despair. “I know how it’s supposed to work - that kid has to forgive himself, or he’ll spend the rest of his life trapped in his own personal hell. I just can’t see how it’s going to happen, unless—”
Jools swiftly put her hand over his. It was perfectly friendly, but I saw him immediately check himself.
He tried to laugh. “Quite right, Jools. Been watching too much Dr Phil with Shay. Believe it or not I didn’t call you to whinge.” Brice yanked his phone out of a back pocket and fiddled with some buttons.
“Hold up. Got to find the right picture first. OK, if we just zoom in, it should - yes!” He handed me his phone. “This is Sky Nolan, right?”
I felt my whole Universe wobble. “Where did you take this?”
“In this cafe, about an hour ago.”
“Here? In this cafe? Seriously?”
You could see him loving my
surprise. “Want to see who she was with?”
“Don’t keep her in suspense, you pig!” Jools said.
“OK, see where it says ZOOM OUT? Click on that.”
I zoomed and clicked. “Omigosh,” I breathed.
There they were, all three Shocking Pinks, drinking Pepsi at the same table, in a Turkish taxi drivers’ cafe!
“I couldn’t eavesdrop too much,” he said apologetically. “What with the domino dons over there. But they seemed pretty friendly.”
I gazed at the three smiling faces.
This is exactly what our teachers are always banging on about; you give humans the tools and they sort their problems out beautifully all by themselves.
“That was such a lovely thing to do, Brice,” I told him tearfully. “Especially when you’ve got so much else on your plate.”
“Don’t cry yet,” Brice teased. “You haven’t even heard the best bit, yet! They’ve persuaded Sky to be in the show.”
“That is SO cool,” I gasped. “She’s going to do stand-up, right?”
“Stand-up was mentioned,” he said, nodding, “but she wasn’t interested. She wants to introduce the other acts, she says.”
I was childishly disappointed, when I should have just been hugely relieved that Sky was coming back to school. The past few days she’d totally dropped off my radar. Every time I called in, I’d find her mum and Dan with the boys playing happy families, but no Sky.
Jools pulled a face. “Gotta do my baby-sitting, guys, I’m afraid.”
“Want company?” I asked.
She grinned. “We’d just end up talking.”
“True,” I giggled.
In fact, EAs did sometimes keep each other company during the tedious hours of watching absolutely nothing happen on the CCTV monitors. This wasn’t the first time I’d offered either. If I had a suspicious nature I might have thought Jools just didn’t want me around.
I felt like I needed to go back and crash, but instead I sort of hovered. Thanks to Brice I’d had a magic glimpse of the Pinks’ reunion, which made me feel even worse about not helping with Shay. Before I could put my guilty feelings into words he pointed sternly at the door.
“Get some rest, angel girl. Got your big show coming off next week, then all that hell trash will go right back where it belongs.”
My heart suddenly lifted. If the Shocking Pinks were back as a team, the PODS didn’t stand a chance!
Chapter Seventeen
The bored red devils on the stage were slowly turning into unbelievably bored green aliens.
In the wings Tariq was flicking buttons and levers on the school’s fancy new computer, making adjustments to his lighting FX.
One alien stumped down off the stage and became a huffy kid again. “I’m off for a smoke,” he growled.
For the third time that morning, Tariq whizzed out in his wheelchair to protest. “These guys are jokers, Jax! How can I do my work if they’re disrespecting me like this?”
“Stay on your marks, Vibe Tribe,” Jax called in a warning voice.
“I would not waste my energy disrespecting you, wheelchair boy!” the kid flung at Tariq. “We never even noticed you before you decided to wheel yourself right into our special show. I mean what are you, man? Just the freaking techie!”
Karmen quickly took him aside. “I know it’s boring, Marlon, but Tariq has to know where everyone’s going to be on the night, or this show’s going to be pure garbage.”
“Going to be?!” snorted Jordie, who was going down with a cold.
Jax signalled urgently from across the hall. “Just got a text from Magic Boy. He reckons he’s got to drop out - says he’s ‘hurt his wrist’.”
Karmen just crooked her fingers, miming a phone.“Call the slacker up, girl! Tell him now he really has to do magic!”
“You tell Magic Boy if he don’t show up, he gonna answer to the Vibe Tribe,” Marlon yelled.
I decided to go for a nice calming walk. I’d like to tell you that the greatly-improved light levels had turned my depressing school foyer into a wondrous haven of tropical plants, with vibey little fishes speeding about in a shiny new tank. There were some groovy posters which Tariq had designed on his laptop, but as soon as fresh posters went up, other kids instantly defaced them with stupid comments. The truth is, my old school still had all its old hassles and as the dark icky vibes from the hell school percolated though into human reality, new and disturbing problems started to surface.
Just yesterday, I’d heard Miss Rowntree tell Mr Lupton that kids in her class had even worse concentration spans than usual. She put it down to the mystery headaches everyone was getting. Mr Lupton had heard rumours our school might be suffering from ‘sick building syndrome’.
The EAs and I were like, “Hello!”
Yet despite the odd tantrum and sprained wrist, the cast of PURE VIBES seemed serenely immune to any toxic fallout from the PODS school. It was like they were on their own glowy little island.
Jools reckons that if you’re one-hundred-per-cent focused on creating something uplifting, it’s next-to-impossible for bad vibes to bring you down; and we were seeing daily evidence of the super-positive effects the show was having on the kids who were taking part.
Even Mrs Threlfall had complimented Mr Lupton on the unusually co-operative behaviour of the pupils in the show. We’d been noticing this for a while; in fact Hendrix joked that if we didn’t know better, we’d think these kids were turning into angels. Smoking, swearing angels for sure, but that magic spark which Jools was always on about was now actually visible in their eyes.
The feel-good vibes from the show weren’t only confined to the cast. Some of them were beaming out beyond the school and into the local community. For instance, a local hardware store had volunteered to donate paint and materials for the atmospheric urban backdrop Karms and Jordie had designed. And you should have seen Tariq’s face when his mum rocked up with ladies from her Women Aglow keep-fit club, bringing Tupperware boxes crammed with little goodies which they’d baked especially for the cast! He looked ready to die of shame!
I felt a sudden rush of relief. Sky had just walked into the foyer. Two hours late, but as she told the others, “All I do is be cute and read cue cards. How much rehearsal does that actually take!”
The first time my mate had rehearsed her links, I was worried she couldn’t hack it. She drifted out on to the stage, looking totally out of it - until they switched on the mike. Then, after a slightly shaky start, the old sassy, flirty Sky kicked back in like she’d never been away. In that moment it was like she was born to be a link girl. She had this hilarious way of bigging up the performers’ acts which was totally OTT, yet it worked.
Karmen and Jax said the audience was going to love her.
The rest of the cast didn’t seem so sure. “I get a bad vibe off that girl,” Jordie told Marlon. “She think I don’t notice but deep down she laughing at us, man.”
It upset me to hear that, partly because I knew what he meant. Sky had a faintly patronising way of treating the other cast members, like they were endearing little five year olds putting on a puppet show for their mummies and daddies behind the sofa.
I wasn’t comfortable with this new superior Sky. I was also disappointed by her casual attitude to the other Pinks. When she’d originally agreed to be in their show, I’d pictured them hanging out together almost constantly, like before. In fact she hardly saw Jax and Karmen outside rehearsals.
But like I tried to tell Helix, it’s an ancient cosmic law; when girls get boyfriends, everything else goes out the window.
I say I tried to tell her. For some reason, my inner angel had been out of touch for a while. I’d sent a few hopeful probes into mystical inner space suggesting it would be nice to catch up, but all I got was one of those TV info streams flashing across my mind going: SHAY SHAY SHAY SHAY SHAY.
I just beamed a stroppy message right back: Thanks for nothing, girl! Like I don’t feel guilty enough. Mind tellin
g me how I’m supposed to help Brice with Shay AND work on a show, AND make sure my friends don’t backslide?
Immediately after that night’s rehearsal, Jools had to beam back to Matilda Street to dash off an assignment for a course she was taking in Dark Studies. I needed some fresh air after the total madness of the show, so I walked back alone.
I hadn’t been past the Cosmic Cafe for days, so I was shocked to see that someone had sprayed graffiti on the door. Nikos had obviously been interrupted in the middle of cleaning it off. Now it just said: SHAY IS A MUR…
You’re gonna get yours Shay. We know what you did Shay.
It was like someone had shaken a kaleidoscope; suddenly I was seeing a new disturbing pattern. Like I told you, spraying graffiti is a well-known leisure activity in my neighbourhood, and Shay is a common enough local name that my brain hadn’t made a connection with the other hate graffiti I’d seen when I arrived. Now it seemed like the same ill-wisher had been out to get Brice’s Shay all the time.
The cafe must have been having a slow night, because Shay was inside, polishing his plate with his last piece of bread. Brice was keeping a careful watch from a nearby table, clearly in need of some space.
I wondered why his hell-dog boy preferred to eat free meals in the cafe instead of eating at the kids’ home; but mostly I wondered how he could still swallow, with those malicious words splattered across the door for the whole world to see.
I saw Shay getting up to leave. Worried that Brice might think I was checking up on him, I stepped back into the shadows as they came out of the door. I could hear Brice chatting to Shay now in a bravely upbeat voice. As I watched Shay trudge away, unaware of his loyal bodyguard, I felt like I had never seen such a broken-looking kid.
There were now just two nights to go before the final show. The EAs had planned a super-thorough cosmic sweep down at the school. Jools called Brice up and offered to mind Shay while he went down to the school with that night’s ‘sweepers’.