by Jacky Gray
“Earth to Judith. Request for take-off denied. Suggest you dock immediately.” Miss Leon’s cool plummeted with the corny lines, but the rest of the class were too busy reacting to the morning’s entertainment to notice.
Jude blinked. “What? Sorry, miles away.”
“I noticed. I asked if Mr Frearshall had given you the transfer letter. Ray doesn’t know anything about it.”
“No.”
“Would you fetch it for me, please? I suggest you go straight to Miss Hindle in the admin office.”
She caught Ray watching the discrete exchange. Sure, she’d run around all day for the smug ... she snagged as his infuriating grin turned into fleeting concern. What was he worried about? It would be worth taking a peek at the letter; it might contain something interesting.
“Sure, no problem.”
Passing by her best friends, Kat and Liv, she saw their undisguised astonishment at her gross personality aberration. Cool it guys, it didn’t make her Teacher’s Pet, just a good excuse for a skive. This could take all morning.
“And I want you back in the next ten minutes or someone will come looking for you.”
Wow, thought-police, now. “Yes, Miss Leon.” Three bags full. Again.
In fact, she’d have had more fun staying; she had no chance to do anything more than watch Miss Hindle’s hopeless rummaging for the misplaced letter. By the time the receptionist finally located it, in a folder clearly marked “New Starters,” the full ten minutes had passed.
As she handed the envelope over to Lenny, Jude caught Ray studying her intently. Plastering on the smuggest of smiles, she caught his eye and watched a dark flush creep over his face.
Ha! That would get him going.
In the first class, maths with Miss Leon, he toned his attitude down a notch; probably content with the shocking impression he’d made during the initial few minutes. Ray obviously knew his stuff when it came to algebra, beating Liv to the draw on several answers. Liv normally reigned as undisputed queen of maths – heck, she was undisputed queen of everything. But he gave her a good run for her money with the questions on the board. He finished a split-second before her, but dropped a mark for trying a smart-arse shortcut and getting it wrong.
Miss Leon enthusiastically publicised the neat shortcut trick, explaining it in great detail to the rest of the class in the forlorn hope one or two of them might get it before the bell rang for second lesson.
As they waited at the back of the mob all trying to exit the room at the same time, Liv demanded answers. “Come on, Jude. The letter business. You, of all people, a teacher’s pet? Doesn’t ring true.”
Jude zipped her lip and Kat quickly picked up the need for discretion, nudging Liv to button it. Several other girls in front chattered excitedly.
“Wow. Did you get a look at him?” Danielle pretended to swoon.
Carla grinned. “Definitely a hunk.”
“How could you tell with him stuck in that chair?” Dirty Diana lived up to her nasty reputation.
“I don’t care about that. You must admit, he’s drop-dead gorgeous.” Her sidekick, Simpering Cecily, fanned the air in front of her face.
“I suppose he’s not bad looking, but you couldn’t exactly dance with him.” Diana’s voice dripped boredom as it carried back down the corridor.
Jude felt like slapping the sneer off the girl’s spoilt face as she spotted Ray emerging from the room. She couldn’t tell whether he’d heard the exchange as he explained in great technical detail the performance of the wheelchair’s drive mechanism to Kevin, the class techno-geek.
As Liv pulled Jude’s arm to get her going again, Ray glanced up and winked. What was that all about? Was he letting her know he didn’t care about Diana’s rudeness? Had he figured out Jude’s earlier bluff about seeing his details? Did he fancy her? Whatever, he presented an engaging mystery.
“Right, no stalling. Spill the beans.” Liv interrogated Jude at break as they stood by their favourite piece of hedge, behind the admin block, out of sight of any patrolling teachers.
“I was late again this morning ...”
“No kidding.” With a nifty RER eye-roll, Liv rummaged in her bag.
“Yeah, they were late opening the rink, but ...”
“We get the picture. But we’re not interested in your Olympic ice-skating training.” Liv’s grin softened the sarcasm as she found the chocolate bar and tore off the wrapper. “Just tell us about the new guy.”
“I ran straight into his wheelchair, parked by the notice board.”
“How could you not see that?” Liv took a huge bite.
Jude assumed her friend’s emphasis referred to the size of the wheelchair and not the devastating good looks of its inhabitant, but she could have been wrong. “I was too busy staring at Fearsome’s open door. I would have made it, but Ray started yelling and woke the sleeping monster.”
“Get a move on, Jude; we only have eight minutes.” Kat spoke up with uncharacteristic impatience.
Jude’s watch confirmed the lateness; she must stop milking it. “Bugger. And I can’t do lunch; I’ve got barely ten minutes to pig my sarnies.” She wasn’t looking forward to the resulting tuna-flavoured burps.
“Another detention?” Kat’s face always gave good sympathy.
“What else?” Jude’s eye-roll broke speed records. “Anyway, I went to get Ray’s letter to see what he was so worried about.”
Kat hung on her every word. “What do you mean?”
Jude filled them in on Ray’s behaviour and the strange expression on his face when she agreed to get the transfer details for Lenny.
“What was in it?” Kat munched on a tub of grapes and cherry tomatoes.
“Yeah, what’s the big mystery?” Liv finished chewing and folded the wrapper, tying it into a knot and teasing out the ends.
“Don’t know.” Jude couldn’t help watching this much-repeated origami trick – a sign of Liv’s borderline OCD. “The envelope was sealed.”
“Typical.” Liv’s wrapper had flattened into a perfect regular pentagon.
“Miss Hindle took ages finding it so I had to rush back. And anyway, I’d have needed a steaming kettle to break the seal properly.”
“Judith Briskell, girl detective – NOT!!!” Kat watched far too many ancient TV shows. “What do you think it could say?”
“I don’t know, but he thinks I do.”
“That could be useful,” Liv said thoughtfully.
“How?”
“If he already thinks you’ve read it, he might let something slip.”
“Yeah, good thinking.”
The bell rang for the next class and they went their separate ways.
As predicted, Jude had no time at lunch to do much more than marvel at the way Ray managed to incite such strong reactions in so many of their classmates in a few short hours. She stood with her friends at the back of the enormous lunch queue, wolfing down her sandwiches as Liv reported on an incident at the start of the physics class. Luke Harper, a bad-tempered jock, seemed to have taken offence at Ray’s brash attitude and obviously superior intellect.
“It all started innocently enough with Luke asking Ray which football team he supported. He said he didn’t and the jock kept on pushing ’til Ray blurted out he wasn’t into spectator sports.”
“Oh my God, that’s terrible.” Jude saw the goof straight away.
“Yeah, right. Anyone else would have taken the hint and let it drop, but Luke took it really low, asking if Ray was into wheelchair Olympics.”
“He might have genuinely thought ...”
“Oh, right, Kat. As if.” Liv shook her head, her eyes saying no one could be that naïve. They all knew Kat’s middle name was gullible, but the attraction of opposites was one of the things which made the trio work so well.
Liv carried on with the tale. “Someone asked Luke how many events he’d pulled at the inter-school track meeting at Fernley. Then all the lads were talking about sport with Ray stuck in
the middle of it.”
“Poor Ray.” Kat had her empathy face on again.
“Luckily, Frazer came in and started banging on about light refraction through a prism so it all broke up.” A beat. “The group of lads, not the light.”
“Nerdy science joke alert.” Jude held up crossed fingers.
Liv ignored her. “I watched Ray and Luke exchanging a couple of dirty looks; there’s definitely some friction between them.”
“Surely you don’t think Luke would take on a guy in a wheelchair?” Kat always defended her next-door-neighbour, despite his bad reputation. “I know he’s been bad lately, but …”
“No.” Liv frowned. “I know he’s not vindictive. But I can see how Ray’s smart-arse remarks would wind Luke up; he’s used to a bit of respect from most of the lads.”
“Only because they’re afraid of the size of him.” Nothing frightened Jude.
“Boys, eh? So easily scared.” Liv winked. “Talking of smart-arse, I used to think I was good at maths, but that trick this morning? I mean, like: Wow.”
“Don’t forget he’s been at a different school for the last three years; maybe they teach them advanced stuff.” Jude couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling that this newcomer’s arrival had affected most of the class in some way.
“Maybe he’s one of those sad types who spends all night with his head in textbooks.” Kat winked at Liv, who understood the joke was aimed at her.
Jude took the remark at face value. “More likely to be on the Internet; he’s bound to spend all night on it.”
“He does. I heard him telling nerdy Nigel his dad gets free broadband from the university.” Liv’s ear-to-the-ground tactics always brought results.
“There you are, then.” Jude glanced at the clock. “Oh, blimey. I gotta go.” As usual, she’d forgotten to keep an eye on the time and had only thirty seconds to get from the dining hall to the deputy head’s office, without running and without collecting the £200 as she passed “Go.”
Slowing down, she heard voices through the open door: Fearsome’s loud and condescending, the other low and vaguely familiar. And so-oo sexy. A quick peek at her watch confirmed her worst fears. Should she knock the door and draw attention to the fact she was half a minute late, or wait ’til he’d finished? Oh, what the heck, she could have been standing there since ten past for all he knew.
She tapped quietly on the door and listened as the deputy apologised.
“I’m sorry, but I have a detention to run. Tell your father we’d be very interested in any help he can give us improving our network; it does seem to struggle at peak times. Good of him to offer.”
Jude was totally astonished to see Ray wheeling himself out of the office, even more so when he gave her a big wink before heading off down the corridor. What on earth was he doing there? And why right now? Had he figured she’d be late and was trying to cover for her? After all, it was his fault she’d got caught. In your dreams, girl. Probably just sucking up to the big noise. She responded to Fearsome’s gesture to enter, opening the maths book with a big sigh as she tried desperately to remember Ray’s shortcut trick.
3 Kat’s Beauty and the Beast Tale
Kat and Liv were at the back of the queue when Ray joined it, smiling a secret smile. He happily answered their questions about his family and hobbies as they shuffled along. Five minutes later, they’d moved all of three feet closer to the front when Terry walked past on his way out. He stopped to ask about the Art homework, scurrying off before Kat finished telling him it could be any type of vegetable.
She shouted after him. “Terry, it must be fresh; a tin of peas won’t do.” Knowing how nervy he was, she wished she’d not bothered as he turned to listen. The next thing she knew, Terry was on the floor and Luke’s sausage, chips and beans were swimming in half a cup of coke.
Luke leapt up like a scalded cat and grabbed a handful of Terry’s shirt. “You’ll pay for that, dork-face.”
“It wasn’t his fault, leave him alone.” Ray sprang to his defence in words if not in action.
“Because you tripped him up deliberately?” Luke let go of the trembling lad and rounded on Ray, bending down so their faces were inches apart.
“No, it was an accident. You guys aren’t used to having a chair around the place.” Ray maintained icy cool, holding his ground without flinching.
“If anything, it was my fault, I distracted him.” Kat’s words fell on deaf ears, but she sensed Ray’s plot to distract Luke’s attention. Standing in front of Terry, she gestured for him to scarper; the poor lad was much too timid to survive Luke’s ogre-sized wrath.
Ray refused to be intimidated. “Get real. The negative camber makes the wheels splay out at the bottom; Terry wouldn’t have spotted it.”
After five seconds of serious stare-down, Luke straightened and made a performance of examining the wheels. “Whatever. I want to know who’s going to buy me a new lunch.”
“Here, that should cover it.” Ray flipped a coin which Luke caught easily.
“But this is only a pound; it’s one-eighty for lunch.”
“Yeah, but you’d eaten half of it already. Fair’s fair.”
Kat tried reason. “Maybe if you take the tray up to the counter and explain what happened, they’ll give you another plateful.”
“Huh, they might do it for you, but not for me. They don’t like me.”
“I wonder why?”
Kat frowned at Liv to hush her up. After asking them to save her place in the queue, she picked up Luke’s tray. “If this works, you will give Ray his pound back, won’t you?”
“Ok.” Despite his gruff tone, she could sense the anger dissipating.
Kat was one of the few people who could handle Luke because she’d lived next to him for the last nine years. Their parents had connected instantly on the day the Harpers moved in. Two days later, on her own because she hated girly games, she bumped into Luke – literally – at Saint James’ Infant school playground. He solemnly picked her up, dusted her down, and invited her to join in with the boys. Their friendship lasted through the years when boys think girls are a waste of space and the girls hate them right back.
In year ten, everything went wrong, leaving him with a massive chip on his shoulder. He isolated himself from everyone, even Kat. Most of the class saw him as a bear with a sore head and left him to it.
She reached out to him before they broke up for summer, and he showed signs of unbending. Then she spent the entire holiday in Ireland, catching up with family, and never saw him. So far, this term had been maniacally busy, trying to adjust to new teachers and timetables.
Carrying the tray, Kat realised she’d neglected him and tried to make up for it. “Um, you know the new shortcut thingy in maths?”
“The cripple’s trick?”
“Luke Harper!” Kat’s voice held sufficient outrage to redden his cheeks.
He ignored it, saying gruffly, “Yeah, what about it?”
“Did you get it?”
“Of course I did. It wasn’t that clever; anyone could have worked it out. Someone probably showed it to him, anyway.”
Luke’s defensive outburst halted as they reached the food counter and Kat used her considerable charm to push in and persuade her favourite server to give Luke another meal free of charge.
“Thanks,” he said, holding out the coin. “Will you give this to the cr ... to the Donelly kid, please?”
“On one condition.”
“You want me to show you the maths thing.”
“No, but if you’re offering.” Her smile didn’t have the power to coax one from him. “I was going to say on condition you let us join you for lunch.”
“Feeling sorry for me? Save it. I choose to eat alone.”
“Not at all, purely selfish reasons. The tables are filling up quickly and it would really help if you can save us a place; well, three, actually.”
“If I can.” His frown made no promises.
“Don’t force y
ourself.”
When they joined him, Luke’s scowl said he realised how he’d been tricked into thinking the other two places were for Liv and Jude. With Jude on detention, her place was taken by Ray. A challenging glare from Kat quelled his potential protest, and he moved to make room for Ray’s chair. Luke remained silent, his personal raincloud hovering over his head, as Liv quizzed Ray in great detail about his former school.
Luke didn’t speak until the conversation turned to the maths lesson. He touched Kat’s arm to gain her attention. “If you wanted to come round tonight, I’m free after school. We could go over the problem you were talking about.”
“What, no rugger training?” Ray’s innocent expression belied his sarcastic tone as he winked at Liv.
Liv never missed an excuse for a witty remark, the more sarcastic, the better. “A night off? How will the PE department survive if their number one star doesn’t show for training?”
“They will,” he said shortly, obviously annoyed at the dig. A moment later he stood and left.
Kat turned on Liv. “Did you have to do that? Was it absolutely necessary?”
“Oh, come on. He deserved it, the way he’s been on at Ray all morning. Anyway, he wasn’t exactly the life and soul.”
“I know, but he’s been through a lot lately. Probably suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“Oh, no. Kat’s been watching Casualty again.” Liv’s light-hearted quip was simultaneous with Ray’s darker, “As if. What could he have been through that’s so bad?”
Kat was stung by the disbelief in his tone; even more so by the knowing wink he aimed at Liv. She struggled to suppress the anger in her voice. “Being hauled to the police station; his brother in hospital for meningitis, and his mum dying. Nothing much at all.”
“How come you know all this? Is he your boyfriend?”
“Not at all.” Kat explained how he lived next door and they’d known each other since infant school.