by Jean Ure
We didn’t get back home till really late on Sunday night. Mum was fussing cos of me having school next day, but Dad said, for goodness’ sake, what did it matter, just for once? I certainly wasn’t bothered! My brain was still all fizzing and buzzing, so that I began to wonder if I might have been a bit hard on Maya. Maybe this was what it was like, falling in love? Though of course, as I reminded myself, there was absolutely nothing wrong falling in love with a boy of fourteen. There was everything wrong falling in love with a boy of Jake’s age! But I really couldn’t think about that now. It was gone midnight when we arrived home and I was quite happy for Mum to hustle me straight upstairs. I would check with Maya in the morning. See how she was getting on.
Next morning, not surprisingly, Mum had to call me three times before I finally managed to unglue my eyes and fall out of bed. I ended up in a mad rush, tearing off to the bus stop, still trying to cram my last piece of toast into my mouth. I arrived, panting, at exactly the same moment as the bus. And there was no one there! That is, Linzi was there, but no Maya.
“Where’s she got to?” said Linzi.
“I don’t know.” I stared round, helplessly. Not a sign of her!
“So you getting on, or what?”
I didn’t really have much choice. The next bus wasn’t due for another twenty minutes. It would make me late and that would ruin my record, cos so far that term I’d been one hundred per cent punctual. Mrs Croft, our year group tutor, had even congratulated me.
Linzi said, “Well?”
I said, “Yes, OK.”
I sprang on to the bus and the doors clamped shut. There was still no sign of Maya. It wasn’t like her to be late! I had threatened her too often with dire consequences. What could be keeping her?
I peered out of the window, hoping to see her racing towards the bus stop, but still nothing.
“She’s going to be really late,” said Linzi, in tones of satisfaction. “She’ll cop it!”
“I’ll give her a ring,” I said.
I tried, but she didn’t answer. Probably left her phone somewhere. Again. I sent her a text, which she almost certainly wouldn’t pick up, but there wasn’t much more I could do.
“Maybe she’s run off with her boyfriend,” said Linzi. She gave a little titter. “Then she’ll really be for it!”
Or more likely Jake would be.
Linzi looked at me hopefully.
“You think she has?”
“Of course not!” I snapped. “That’s a ludicrous idea.”
Auntie Megs would have been on the phone to Mum in an instant.
“She’s probably just overslept,” I said.
“You reckon?”
“Well, I did,” I said. “I thought I wasn’t going to make it.”
Linzi said, “Hm.” She didn’t sound convinced. It was like she actually wanted Maya to have run off. I suppose in a way I couldn’t blame her. School life can sometimes be so dreary, what with the same old lessons and the same old teachers, day in, day out, that you just long for something exciting to happen. Not that it would be exciting for poor Auntie Megs, and it wouldn’t be very exciting for Jake, either. He would be in serious trouble.
As we reached the school gates I saw Maya’s friend Tansy walking ahead of us and ran to catch up with her.
“Did you see Maya over half term?”
“No.” Tansy pulled a face. “She was supposed to be coming on Saturday for a sleepover with me and Bella, but she sent a text saying she couldn’t make it.”
“Oh.” My heart almost stopped. “Did she say why?”
Tansy shook her head. “Bella says we’re lucky she even thought to text. You know how scatty she is.”
Irresponsible, Dad would have said. Like Uncle Kev.
Cate was waiting for me in the classroom, eager to tell me about the camping trip she’d been on and to politely inquire if I’d had a good time up in Sheffield. I said, “Yes, it was amazing.” Cate said, “So was camping. You’ll never believe what happened!”
She proceeded to tell me in minute detail, but even though I did my best to show a proper interest Cate wasn’t fooled. She knows me too well.
“What’s wrong?” she said. “You’ve gone all vacant!”
I just had time to hiss, “Maya’s not here,” when the bell rang for Monday morning assembly and we all had to go stomping off, single file in deathly silence, to the hall. If we didn’t go in single file there would be pile-ups and traffic chaos, and if we didn’t maintain deathly silence the noise would be intolerable. That, at any rate, is what Mrs Croft says as she watches over us with her beady eyes, ears alert for the faintest rustle.
“Maya’s not here?” whispered Cate.
“She wasn’t at the bus stop. I don’t know where she is! She’s not answering her phone.”
“So what …?”
“I don’t know!” I swivelled round in search of Tansy or Bella. Bella caught me looking at her and raised her eyebrows. “Have you heard anything from Maya?” I mouthed at her. She frowned and mouthed back at me: “What?”
“Bella! Mattie!” Mrs Croft put a bony finger to her lips. “Stop talking!”
We subsided, instantly. Mrs Croft is not someone you argue with. She is horribly strict.
The hall had started to fill up, Years Seven and Eight down at the front. The prefects were already there, sitting on chairs along one side. I craned my head, checking that Jake was where he should be. Cate craned with me. We turned, to look at each other. Jake wasn’t there! Cate slowly shook her head. Not exactly accusing; more like reproachful. You really should have done something! But what? I’d talked to Maya! If she didn’t listen, it was hardly my fault.
Desperately, I swivelled round so that I could see to the end of the hall, where people were still filing in. Jake was not amongst them.
That was the moment when my heart went cold. No Jake. No Maya. Where were they both?
The hall door opened again and I shot back round, but it was only a teacher coming in late.
“Hey!” Further down the line, Linzi was leaning forward, flapping a hand to gain my attention.
“What?” I mouthed it at her, irritably. She jerked her head towards Jake’s empty chair.
“Where is he?”
How was I supposed to know? I wasn’t his keeper! Any more than I was Maya’s. Oh, but Auntie Megs would be devastated if she’d gone and done something stupid! And even if it wasn’t my fault I’d still feel terrible.
I swivelled again, but the hall doors had been closed. Mrs Croft, at the end of the row, hissed angrily at me.
“Mattie! Just keep still and stop fidgeting.”
Assembly only lasts for about ten minutes, but that day it seemed to go on for ever. I sat there, rigid, not daring to do any more swivelling. Cate squeezed my hand.
“It mightn’t be what you think.”
But if that was the case, where were they? Maya’s despairing cry still rang in my ears: “I love him! I love him so much! And he loves me!”
I hadn’t believed her. I’d thought she was fooling herself, and that Jake was just being kind.
By the time assembly was over I had already lived out in my mind the terrible scene where I had to break the news to Auntie Megs, when I would have to admit that Maya was so head over heels in love she would have done anything, gone anywhere, just to be with Jake – and that I had done nothing to stop her. I had simply sat back and let it happen.
I think, honestly, that I have never been so worried in my life. I had already made up my mind that I would have to go to the office and ask permission to ring Mum. Not Auntie Megs; I couldn’t face that. But Mum. Mum would know what to do! Even if it meant going to the police. Me going to the police. Answering questions. Telling them about Jake. Omigod, Jake! What would they do to him? If he and Maya had run off, what would they do? They might arrest him! They might call it abduction. It could ruin his entire life! All for one moment of madness. Unless he really did love her? But she was only twelve yea
rs old. It was a crime to run away with someone who was only twelve years old! Why, oh why, hadn’t I said something sooner? All these thoughts were racing helter-skelter round my head as we filed back to our classrooms. Jake – Maya – ring Mum – the police…
And then, suddenly, Cate was gripping my arm.
“What?” I said. “What?”
Silently, she pointed. Oh! I plunged forward.
“Maya!”
She was there, sitting at her desk, looking like a cat that has been at the cream. Not a hint of concern that she’d missed assembly and was going to be in big trouble. I rushed up to her.
“Where have you been? Why are you so late?”
She gave me this radiant smile. “We only just got back. We nearly didn’t come at all!”
I could feel myself gaping, my mouth hanging open. What was she saying?
“We went to Brighton! We spent the whole week there. We stayed in this hotel sort of place. It was so fun! I didn’t ever want to come back.”
I stared at her, appalled. Cate flashed me this quick glance. Linzi, brash as ever, said, “Brighton! Well, that’s original.”
Maya looked at her, earnestly. “It’s lovely! I’ve never been there before.”
“Oh, it’s the place to go,” said Linzi.
She had this silly know-it-all grin on her face. Maya, on the other hand, was beaming. What did she have to beam about? Didn’t she realise the trouble Jake could be in?
“Brighton,” Linzi solemnly assured us, “is where it’s all at.”
“Yes!” Maya stared round, obviously very pleased with herself. “That’s exactly what Dad said!”
Dad? Relief came flooding over me in a great wave. “You went with Uncle Kev? When did he …? I mean, why did you …? I mean …”
Maya laughed, happily. “He came back! Sunday morning. He just turned up, with this friend he’d met, and the friend has a car and Dad said, let’s all go down to Brighton to celebrate, and—”
“Celebrate what?” I was totally bewildered. I could see that Cate was, too.
“Dad’s new plan!” Maya brought it out triumphantly. “He and his friend Ken? The one he just met? They’re going to start a doggy hotel and they’re going to call it Pampered Pooches. People will be able to leave their dogs there when they go on holiday and Dad said I can help look after them. We could take them for walks,” said Maya. “You and me! Dad would pay us for it. He wouldn’t expect us to do it for nothing.”
I listened, bemused, as Maya prattled on. She was so joyous I didn’t want to burst her bubble by pointing out that not a single one of Uncle Kev’s ideas had ever come to anything. In any case I was feeling too joyous myself. All that worry, all for nothing!
Even better she seemed to have forgotten about Jake; at any rate she showed no inclination to go and hang around the car park when we left school at the end of the day, waiting to cadge a lift. If she had I might have told her that he wasn’t in school, unless he’d arrived mid-morning, but she didn’t even bother to look in the direction of the car park. Instead, she burbled non-stop all the way up the road, telling me about Brighton and about the hotel they’d stayed in and how they’d gone on the pier and Uncle Kev had taken her on the bumper cars and they’d walked along the front at night and had fish and chips and then gone back on the pier again, and Uncle Kev’s friend Ken had won a stuffed toy and had given it to her, and they’d even managed to persuade Auntie Megs to go on the ghost train, and honestly it had been so fun!
I could see that it must have been. Linzi would no doubt have sneered, being the sort of person that went off to places like Marbella for her holidays, but Maya hardly ever went away anywhere with her mum and dad and she was absolutely bubbling over with excitement.
Next day was when she’d normally have gone to the Music Club. I asked her if she was still going to go and she said, “Oh! Yes. I’d forgotten. I’m not really sure classical’s my sort of music.”
“It’s been cancelled, anyway,” said Emily, happening to overhear. “Miss Hopwood’s off sick.”
“Oh, dear,” said Maya. “She was going to audition me for the choir.”
“Honestly,” I said, “I don’t know why you’re bothering. You know we’re both practically tone deaf!”
“Yes.” Maya sighed. “I suppose you’re right. I probably wouldn’t have got in.”
In spite of the sigh, she didn’t sound too regretful.
A couple of days later Jake was back in school, but Maya plainly wasn’t obsessed any more. I couldn’t help feeling it was a bit odd that one minute she could be so deep in love it hurt and the next minute all she could talk about was Brighton and Uncle Kev’s new project. But maybe, I thought, that was what happened when you fell in love. You could fall out of it just as quickly as you’d fallen in. How would I know? It had never happened to me.
It was a week later when Linzi self-importantly came up to us (us being me and Maya) to ask if we’d heard the rumour.
I said, “What rumour?” I tried not to show too much interest as it doesn’t do to encourage her. She is always hearing rumours. Most of them turn out to be totally unfounded, but she still can’t resist telling people. Any more, I suppose, than people can resist listening. It is only human nature.
“Are you sure you really want to know?” she said, darting a sideways glance at Maya.
Why wouldn’t we? Why ask?
“It’s just …” She put a hand up to the side of her face and swivelled her eyes fiercely in Maya’s direction, at the same time contorting her features as if in some kind of agony. What was she playing at? “It’s about Miss Hopwood,” she said.
“What about her?”
“You probably think she’s off sick.”
“That’s what Emily said.” And Emily, unlike Linzi, didn’t deal in rumours.
Linzi smiled, pityingly. “Emily just believes what she’s told.”
“You mean you’ve been told something different?”
“I know the truth,” said Linzi. “Some people –” the eyes swivelled again – “might already have guessed.”
“Guessed what?” said Maya, suddenly waking up.
“The truth!”
“About what?”
“Your boyfriend.”
“I thought it was about Miss Hopwood,” said Maya, looking puzzled.
“It’s about both of them.”
I said, “What d’you mean, both of them?”
“Only ran off together, didn’t they?”
There was a startled silence.
“Ran off where?” said Maya.
“Well, it wasn’t Brighton.”
You really cannot help wanting to strangle that girl. She is just so utterly annoying.
“So where was it?” I said.
“France.” She brought it out with an air of triumph.
Maya said, “France?”
“Spent the week there.”
“Jake and Miss Hopwood?”
“Yup.” Linzi nodded. Obviously very satisfied with herself.
I glanced anxiously at Maya. “It’s only a stupid rumour,” I said.
“I’m just telling you what I heard,” said Linzi.
“From who?”
Linzi shrugged. “It’s what people are saying. It’s why Miss Hopwood hasn’t come back.”
“So where is she?”
“Been suspended.”
“Oh, and she was going to audition me for the choir!” wailed Maya.
“No, she wasn’t,” I snapped. “You’d already decided not to bother.”
“Well, but I don’t understand … why have they suspended her?”
“Cos she broke the rules,” said Linzi. “Teachers aren’t allowed to do that sort of thing.”
“What about Jake?”
“He’s all right. He’s not a teacher.”
Maya fell silent, biting her lip. A week ago, if anyone had told her that Jake had run off with somebody she would have been plunged into the depths of abject mis
ery. Now she just seemed concerned that he wasn’t in trouble.
“It’s still only a rumour,” I said.
“It’s true,” insisted Linzi. She nodded at Maya. “She knows.”
“She doesn’t know any more than you do! It’s just gossip.” I grabbed Maya by the arm. “Let’s go!” We didn’t have to stand there and listen to Linzi spreading malicious rumours. “I don’t believe a word of it,” I said as I hustled us off. “Jake and Miss Hopwood? It’s ridiculous!”
I expected Maya to agree with me. Of course it was ridiculous. Miss Hopwood was a teacher! Instead, to my surprise she said, “D’you remember that day we saw him in his car with someone and you thought it was Hope?”
“Not really,” I said.
“Well, you did,” said Maya. “She had blonde hair and you said it looked like Hope, and I was so-o-o jealous. I’m surprised you don’t remember.”
Taking a chance, I said, “Have you stopped being jealous?”
“Oh, yes,” said Maya. “I’m over all that. It was bliss while it lasted, but—”
“You said it hurt!” And she’d said he loved her back, which had quite obviously all been in her mind. “You said it hurt so much.”
“It did,” said Maya. “It really did! But that’s all part of it. You can’t have love without pain. Like poor Jake and Miss Hopwood … It’s so cruel!” She looked at me, with tears in her eyes. “Think how they must be suffering!”
“You reckon they were actually in love?”