“No, Alex,” Efia said, handing me a sheet of A4. “What the hell is this?”
I looked over the typed letter, on headed paper from “Foresight Properties Ltd” and addressed to Maggie at Wonderland. It was an expression of interest in the property, asking whether Maggie had considered selling, or whether she might consider it “for the right price”. It was signed by someone called “Georgie Graham”.
I frowned. “So, it’s not Tyler’s company, but property developers were after Wonderland?”
“Oh yes, but you already know that. You’ve known it all along.”
“Efia, how would I know that?”
“Who’s the registered director of ‘Foresight Properties Ltd’, Alex? Who is it?”
I held my hands out. “Literally, I’ve no idea!”
Efia nodded, then bent down to my level, so we were eye to eye. “Kendra King.”
My mouth went completely dry.
“So, three months ago, Maggie gets this letter asking to sell,” Efia said, while I sat staring at the letter. “She obviously refused, because Wonderland is still here and it’s not up for sale. You then suddenly show up, get injured, start working here, and what happens? Threatening letters start to appear, most of which you just so happen to find. And then the ante is upped, isn’t it? Kendra’s little mole is planted right in the heart of Wonderland, and like a virus, you worm your way in, fooling everyone into thinking you’re a harmless, sweet little boy, who wouldn’t say boo to a goose. And all that time, you’re plotting to bring the place down for your rich stepmother.”
“She’s not my step—”
“Who had the opportunity to plant the bad egg? You. Who knew which doors to tamper with in the Mirror Maze? Get the bad publicity, make the locals think we’re trouble, turn everyone against us, so the takings drop, and Maggie is forced to sell to whoever will take it. And who’ll be there when she does? Your stepmum and her property company, ready to regenerate the town – or rather, get rid of everyone who lives here and fill it full of people with money.”
I shook my head. “No…”
“We liked you, Alex,” Efia said. “We thought you were our friend. We thought we could trust you. And all this time…”
“Ben!” I said, hoping he would see sense. “Please!”
But his eyes were full of hurt, like I’d stabbed him.
“I swear to you,” I said, trembling as my world collapsed around me, “I didn’t know about any of this. I believe you, of course I do, but I didn’t know! I barely even speak to Kendra, I didn’t even know what she really does for a living, I—” My heart was hammering, my head was light, everything was swimming. “I didn’t,” I muttered. “I wouldn’t…”
“But you did, didn’t you, Alex?” Efia said. “Was it fun, Alex? For you? Was it all some undercover bit of excitement? See if you can get away with it, yeah? Thing is, it’s not a game for us. Me and Ben aren’t working at Wonderland just to earn a bit of extra pocket money on top of our allowance from our rich parents who own companies. We need these jobs. But you wouldn’t understand that. You wouldn’t know what it’s like to really struggle for money, as long as you and your family get richer, who cares, right?”
That wasn’t true. I wanted to say that my dad wasn’t rich, that after the divorce with Mum he’d probably have to sell the house, that Kendra wasn’t family anyway, that—
“Anything to say, Alex?” Efia said.
I looked up at her, so angry, her eyes full of hatred. “Um.” I swallowed.
“Um,” she said, in a mocking voice. “Um, I’m Alex, um… I put on this act so you’ll feel sorry for me and think I’m harmless, um…”
Ben tugged at Efia’s arm. “Come on, that’s enough, let’s go.”
My mouth was open. I just stared. I couldn’t… I didn’t know how to…
“Just don’t show your face at Wonderland again,” Efia said.
“Ben…” My voice was hoarse; I barely rasped his name. “Ben, please, I … please, Ben, please…”
He shook his head, his eyes cold. He walked off with Efia, leaving me on the bench.
CHAPTER THIRTY
There was no sign of Kendra or Dad when I got back home. I slammed the front door behind me, then barrelled up the stairs, kicking the door of Kendra’s office in the back bedroom open. I needed verification. I needed to see this for myself. Trembling, I reached for the box files on the shelf to the side of her desk, ripped them open and riffled through the papers inside. I dropped the first box and started on the second, and halfway down I found what I was looking for: financials, charts, and letters to potential investors about the area on the promenade “currently occupied by Wonderland”. “Currently occupied”, like it didn’t actually belong to Wonderland, it was just a guest, ready to be moved on whenever someone else felt like it. Money. Property. Profit.
The pounding in my ears exploded out of me. I swept everything off her stupid desk, papers, cups, pens, the pot plant all crashing to the floor, then I pulled the rest of the files off the shelf, letting them smash open on their way down, while I kicked everything now on the floor against the wall, smashing, destroying—
And the next thing I knew, I was sitting in the middle of all the wreckage, sobbing. I’d come so close. So close to everything being different and finally changing. It wasn’t just about Ben, although, of course, he was a huge part of this. It was that place. It was all those people who had become friends. This summer, for the first time in my life, I was starting to become happy to be me. I’d started to believe that life might work out OK.
I laughed at my own stupidity, because I should have known better.
This whole summer at Wonderland had been little more than a dream – a really nice dream where I was different and happy and felt good about myself. But now it was time to wake up and realize none of those things were true.
Nothing had really changed at all.
Dad found me.
“What the hell, Alex?” he said.
He must have seen something in my eyes, pain or hurt or I don’t know, but it was enough that he didn’t go ballistic. Instead, he sat down in the middle of the wreckage of Kendra’s office, put his arm around me and pulled me towards him. “What’s happened?”
So I told him everything and when I got to the end, he was just silent.
“Did you know?” I asked.
He sighed. “Kendra runs a property development company, Alex. She’s involved with deals all over the town; that’s what she does. But everything you’re saying, underhanded tactics, threats?” He screwed his face up. “That doesn’t sound likely.”
I gave a little snort and looked down at the floor. Dad had no idea what Kendra was really like. He had no idea how she made me feel. I knew damn well how evil that woman could be, but what was the point in telling him? He must have seen that for himself loads, but it hadn’t stopped him being with her.
“Kendra plays by the rules,” Dad continued. “She plays fair.”
“Fair?!” I said. “What’s ‘fair’ about trying to buy Wonderland? Booting us all out – lots of us love that place, Dad. It’s where we go. You can’t hang out at a luxury apartment block with a stupid bar on the ground floor.” I sighed. “Well, not if you’re sixteen, anyway.”
“The town’s changing, Alex. And honestly, I think for the better.”
“Yeah? Better for who?”
He didn’t answer.
I stood up and walked to the door. “Ground me, take my allowance to pay for the damage, I don’t care.”
I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the pool party outfit that I’d got ready this morning, folded neatly on my chair. They would all be finishing getting ready about now, maybe meeting up for a pre-party get together, before heading over to Splash Down! Everyone would know by now. Everyone would be disgusted at the snake who they thought had been living in their very midst. I opened Spotify and selected “Pity Party Playlist 1” because, yeah, I did have enough Pity Party playlists to
warrant numbering, and just so you know, number one is the gloomiest, most pitiful, of them all, that starts with Green Day, ends with the Smiths, and has a whole heap of Manic Street Preachers in between. Oh, and some Coldplay, because “Fix You” always makes me want to weep uncontrollably.
I wondered who Kendra got to do her dirty work. Did she bung Drake a few hundred quid to put the bad egg in the goose and tamper with the Mirror Maze? Did she get him to press the fire alarm? Using her money to oil the wheels of injustice so she could get what she wanted? And maybe she still will. Maybe everything that’s happened will still tip the place over the edge. When the holidaymakers leave, takings will drop massively. Maybe that’s when the bank will close in, and with all the bad publicity, Maggie will just decide to sell after all. You can only fight for so long. Eventually, if the punches keep coming, you just get tired and give up.
I didn’t know where to go from here.
I didn’t even have any tears left.
There was just this huge, gaping emptiness inside me.
You can only fight for so long…
There was a knock at my bedroom door.
I swallowed and stared down at the floor, my leg bouncing, pulse quickening. I knew it was her.
The door pushed open.
I didn’t look up. I just waited for whatever the next punch was going to be. It didn’t even matter now.
Her footsteps.
She came to a stop just by me. I could feel her eyes on the back of my neck.
And then a sheet of paper in my field of vision. “Take it,” Kendra said.
I still didn’t look at her, but I took the paper, blinking at it through my stinging eyes, trying to focus on the words, but failing. It was all just swimming around. Letters, numbers, dates… I had no idea. I shook my head. “What even is this?” I muttered.
“It’s why I didn’t go through with my offer on Wonderland,” she said.
I let her words sink in, staring at the paper.
“It’s true I was interested in it, Alex. And it’s true I made some initial enquiries about whether Maggie might look to sell. It’s a prime location, and it’s a good size.”
I was still looking at the paper, and I still couldn’t make sense of it.
“But there’s one huge problem with Wonderland,” Kendra continued. “So huge, it’s a deal-breaker, so I had to withdraw my interest.” She perched down on the bed next to me. “It’s a listed building.”
I swallowed. “I don’t … what does that mean?”
“It basically has protected status, on account of the architectural style and when it was built. The upshot is, you can’t ever demolish it. And you can’t significantly change it, either. It makes it entirely unsuitable for my purposes. There was nothing I could do with it. There’s nothing any developer could do with it. I don’t want to buy Wonderland, Alex.”
I shot her the briefest of sideways glances.
She released a long breath. “And for the record, however low an opinion you have of me, I’m not the sort who puts pressure on vendors to sell through dirty tricks, so whatever’s been happening at that place, I can promise you, it has nothing to do with me. Although I hope that much is obvious, since I have no interest in buying it anyway.”
“But you do hate the place,” I said. “And maybe you’d rather it wasn’t there? Maybe it’ll put people off buying the new apartments you’re building up the road?”
“It crossed my mind, Alex, yes,” Kendra said. “But in the end, I don’t think it’ll make much difference. My clients are mostly Londoners who are selling up and getting out of town. Trust me, when you’ve seen the ‘delights’ living in London has to offer, an amusement arcade isn’t really going to worry you.”
“Huh.”
“I think you should take that document and show your friends. Show them it’s not me, and that you had nothing to do with this.” She got up and walked to the door. “In any case,” she said, turning back, “do they really think I’d use you to carry out a dirty tricks campaign?”
I looked at her. Why not me?
“Oh, come on, Alex. You’re not exactly cut out for industrial espionage type stuff, are you?”
I sat up a bit straighter and pushed my shoulders back.
“Your talents lie elsewhere. If I was looking for … someone to be an assistant supervisor at a soft play centre, for example, I’d consider you.”
Oh my god, not even supervisor, but assistant! Also, “consider” not “hire”.
“Anyway,” she said. “Go and put your friends straight.”
“Kendra? I’ll clear up your office.”
“It’s already done, Alex.”
I looked at her. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded and closed my door behind her. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. I would not be allowed to forget all this, and I would pay – terribly. But I’d have to brace myself for her emotional blackmail and passive aggressiveness masterclass another time. Right then, I needed to put something right. Because all this, this sadness, that was old Alex. And I wasn’t that person any more.
I couldn’t be.
I didn’t want to be.
I paused Spotify.
And then I deleted the Pity Party playlists.
All frickin’ twelve of them.
And I put on some better clothes, did my hair, and for the first time in my life, got ready to put up a fight.
You probably think I mean Ben.
I don’t.
I was fighting for me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The end-of-season pool party was pretty much how you might imagine spring break from American movies, only British, so a bit more crap. The palm trees were fake, the inflatables in the main pool were already looking limp, and, rather than stopping off on his tour of Ibiza, Ayia Napa and Cancún, the DJ had definitely more likely stopped off after a ten-year-old’s birthday party, a garden fetê and the year seven disco.
It didn’t matter though. The place was insane. Everyone was here and everyone was partying hard. Stalls placed around the main pool area were serving everything from cocktails and shots to burgers and tacos, whilst couples made out, groups danced, boys gave girls piggybacks, and girls gave boys shoulder rubs. In the distance, all the main rides were open, and the sounds of laughter and screams drifted across the pool, from the kids enjoying the rapids, log flume and the brand-new Mystery of Atlantis ride – opened just this year. Girls in bikinis, boys in swim shorts, and me … in chinos, because this, this was a “chinos situation” as my dad would have it, and I wasn’t planning on staying long.
I may as well have been invisible as I worked my way through the debauched mob, being bashed every which way I turned, as though someone as dorky as me couldn’t possibly exist in such a fun and cool place. I didn’t care. This wasn’t about anyone else, and I was done worrying about what other people thought. I knew I wasn’t a bad person, and I knew I deserved better than anyone who thought I was a loser … or a liar.
I must have been standing watching them from about ten metres away for a full minute before they saw me. Efia, Bella, Caleb, Kem and Ben – they’d colonized a couple of sun loungers, and were sitting sipping drinks out of neon-coloured plastic cups, topped off with giant twisty straws and cocktail umbrellas. Ben was eating tacos. Efia had a cardboard tray filled with stir fry. They were all laughing. That hurt a bit, to be honest. They were all having such a great time. Without me. Like my absence didn’t matter one bit; didn’t even register.
“Can’t believe you’d show your face,” Efia said as I approached them.
“I’m not staying. I wanted to give you this.” I pulled the paper out of my pocket and handed it to her. “Kendra was interested in Wonderland, you’re right. But she pulled out.” My voice was trembling. I swallowed. “Turns out it’s a listed building, so it’s useless for a property developer. She doesn’t want to buy it. I don’t think anyone wants to buy it. Anyway.” I thrust my shaking hands in the pockets of my chinos.
“I don’t know who’s been responsible for everything’s that’s happened. Maybe it was just a prank. Maybe it was Drake or Billy or Carl Hudson or whoever. I have no idea. I just know it wasn’t Kendra who was behind it, and it wasn’t me either. I didn’t even know she was ever interested in buying it, but even if she had been, and even if she’d asked me, just so you know, I would have refused to have been a part of it. I love that place. And I’ve loved hanging out with all of you this summer. It’s been my best summer. Best one, ever. No question. I wouldn’t hurt Wonderland and I wouldn’t hurt any of you.” I looked at Ben. “I wouldn’t hurt you. I wish you knew I’d never do something like this. I wish you thought as much of me as I do of you.” I looked between each of their stunned faces. “I hope I haven’t ruined your night,” I muttered, turning and walking away.
I pushed my way back through the throng, forcing my way past people who didn’t want to move, tutting at me for getting in their way. Tears welled in my eyes now, a mixture of relief that I’d told them, combined with injustice and disbelief and the deep-down pain that any of them could actually think that about me. I’d stood up for myself. But it turned out that felt like a small victory, compared to what I’d lost.
There was a hand on my shoulder. I tried to keep walking forward, but it was strong, pulling me back. I turned. Ben.
I blinked at him through wet eyes and swallowed hard.
He opened his mouth to speak, but his pained face already said it all. “I’m so sorry,” he said, in a small voice.
“Don’t worry about it,” I muttered.
Ben shook his head. “No, Alex. We don’t get off the hook that easily. You deserve better than that.” He looked down at the ground. “Better than me.” He glanced up at me again. “There’s a chill-out area round the corner—”
I nodded and let him lead the way. I wasn’t holding out much hope – it felt like things between us had been irreparably damaged. Maybe this would just be goodbye. At best, I thought it was probably going to be “well, we’ll try to be civil to each other and I promise not to drag you on social media”.
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