Читать книгу The Day the Ear Fell Off - T.M. Alexander - Страница 10

getting rid of Newboy

It didn’t take long for the campaign to start. In history (we’re doing Romans), Fifty was sitting in front of no-name Newboy. He put up his hand. ‘Please Miss Walsh, I’m finding it difficult to concentrate because someone behind me keeps kicking my chair.’

Lies. Good move, I thought. Unless Lily had grown stilts, there was only one pair of legs that could be guilty. Newboy didn’t get a full-blown telling off – after all, it was his first day – but it showed him we meant business.

At lunch, I was confident Newboy would decide we weren’t worth the bother. We demolished sausage, peas and jacket potato and headed for our spot and can you believe it? He was there. Sitting cross-legged on the ground with his back to us, picking at the bark of the biggest tree – our bark, our tree.

An open declaration of war if ever there was one.

I’d like to say we were up for it but I think we were all a bit . . . not scared but . . . confused . . . about what to do next. Generally kids don’t act like Newboy – they find someone who doesn’t mind playing with them.

We hovered for a minute nearby. Copper Pie kicked the ground a few times, sprinkling dirty specks over the back of Newboy’s white T-shirt.

He twisted round so that I could see one of his eyes. ‘Hi.’

Not one of us answered.

I waited to see what was going to happen. Hoping there wasn’t going to be a fight.

‘Let’s just go somewhere else,’ said Bee quietly.

Phew! My thoughts exactly.

‘No way,’ said Copper Pie loudly. He walked round so he was facing Newboy and stopped with the toe of his trainer actually touching the skin of Newboy’s knee. Newboy did nothing.

‘Let’s show the newbie —’

‘No. Let’s not show anyone anything,’ I said quickly.

‘Same,’ said Fifty. (He can’t say ‘I agree’ like normal people.)

Bee yanked Copper Pie’s arm and dragged him away. We all try and keep him out of trouble. It isn’t always easy.

‘Go find yourself some other kids to hassle,’ she shouted.

‘Loser,’ Copper Pie added on the end.

Newboy didn’t look up. He didn’t even stop flaking the lumps of loose bark off the tree. I couldn’t help thinking that if there was a loser round here, it wasn’t him. Although leaving didn’t seem right, none of us wanted to spend another breaktime with the limpet boy.

‘He’s probably got something wrong with him,’ said Fifty. I hadn’t thought of that. I glanced over to check. It was almost like he knew I was studying him because he shifted round a bit and we accidentally locked eyes (or glasses in his case). And he smiled a big friendly smile. It was almost impossible not to smile back but, by whipping my head back quickly, I managed. It was very creepy. I had expected a glare.

‘What’s wrong with him is the fact that he’s a cling-on,’ said Bee, leaning against the wall by the loos. ‘We need a plan to lose the stalker, and the first part of it has to be to get outside before him.’

‘Agreed,’ said C.P. ‘Then we’ll have the advantage.’

‘But we need to stop him from following us . . .’ said Fifty.

‘A blockade,’ I said.

‘Made of what?’ asked Fifty.

‘We could rope off our area, tie one end to the branches and put the other through the wire fence.’

There was a general lack of enthusiasm for my idea. Not unusual.

‘He’d climb under,’ said Fifty. ‘What about a fire?’

We always ignore anything he says that’s to do with fire. It’s an unhealthy obsession (according to his mum) and scary (according to us).

‘We could make a really bad smell,’ said Copper Pie.

‘You don’t need us for that. You could do it on your own,’ said Bee.

‘Sandbags,’ I said.

‘Get real, Keener.’ Bee has lots of expressions she uses to diss people.

‘Right, everyone think. It needs to be something we can get past but stops him,’ said Fifty, spelling out the problem.

‘Bodies,’ said Copper Pie.

Fifty made an excellent you-total-idiot face. ‘What?’

Copper Pie said it again. ‘Bodies. We’ve got four. He’s got one. We make a human wall, like in football.’

Fifty quickly changed it to a you’re-not-as-stupid-as-you-look face. ‘You’re not as stupid as you look,’ he said. ‘What does everyone else think?’

‘It might work,’ I said, not very keenly. I didn’t fancy getting into a scrap.

‘Right, morning break tomorrow, we’ll make sure we get out there first, lock arms and stand tall. There’s only one way in to our patch so he’ll have to break us down or give up.’ Bee has a habit of stealing other people’s ideas and making them seem like hers. Luckily Copper Pie didn’t care.

‘Newboy’s done for!’ He made two fists and did a yob face. It wasn’t much different from his regular face.

‘Same,’ said Fifty.

‘Four against one. What’s he gonna do?’ said C.P.

I couldn’t help thinking that he’d find some way round our plan. Newboy was definitely not your average kid.