Cool School (19 page)

hree months later you're in Rio de Janiero. It seems years since the school burnt down and you copped all the blame. No one would believe you, and when you were expelled from the smoking ruins of the school, with the Principal pointing a firm finger down the road as he told you to get off the premises and never come back, you soon found that no other school wanted you either.

Eventually you got a job as a kitchen hand on a cargo ship and so you ran away to sea.

Now, three months later, the ship's arriving in Rio. It's the first time you'll have touched land since you signed up for life on the ocean waves. The ship drops anchor in the harbour, and the customs officers come aboard. But what's this? They take one look at you and glare accusingly.

‘You're the kid who burns schools down,' they chant. ‘We don't want you here. No way are you coming ashore.'

After a few more days on board, still in the harbour, you transfer by flying fox to another ship leaving for Johannesburg. Little do you know that when you get there the same scene will be repeated. You're doomed never to touch land again. For the rest of your long life you'll be refused entry to every country in the world, and you'll spend the entire time at sea, transferring to one ship after another.

And all because you wouldn't let that kid at school have your locker.

or a moment you struggle, but only for a moment. As those hot firm lips squelch onto yours you start to feel dizzy. The roar of the crowd gets fainter and fainter. ‘I wonder if Norths won or not,' you think, then, as your arms hold Alex tighter and closer, you stop caring. You don't know how long the kiss lasts but when the two of you finally separate the oval is in darkness, the crowd has gone home, and nothing but scraps of paper and empty cans remain as evidence that a game was played there.

‘I'm sorry,' Alex says.

‘Sorry? What do you mean? That was great! Who cares about stupid old football?'

‘I've got a confession to make,' Alex says.

‘Confession? How do you mean confession?'

‘Mikel told me what he'd done.'

‘Mikel?'

‘Mikel's the little guy who made the deal with you about Norths winning for as long as you're watching them.'

You stand there with your mouth open.

‘And,' Alex continues, ‘I'm a Magpies supporter.'

You don't say anything.

‘I tried to talk you into missing the games,' Alex says.

You start to walk away.

‘I'm sorry,' Alex says again, to your back.

Somehow you're not surprised. Those Magpie supporters will stop at nothing.

fter school you can hardly wait to get back to your locker. Boy, what a pigout you're going to have tonight. You lead the rush out of class when the bell goes and run along the corridor, twenty metres ahead of the usual stampede. Most of the people following you are your friends, because all through afternoon school you've been promising them handfuls of chocolate bars. You get to your locker, and with the pack thundering up behind, you fling the door open. Suddenly there's a silence behind you that matches the emptiness in your locker. Yes folks, there's nothing in your locker and there's a crowd of ex-friends behind you. They start walking away.

‘Guys, guys,' you say, ‘I can explain, believe me. I can explain everything.'

The trouble is you can't, and there's something in your voice that must have told them that, because they keep walking.

After they've gone you wander sadly through the deserted corridors of the school, out through the front door, and into the street. As you do, a group of people come out of another exit about thirty metres along. You're astonished to recognise the little butter-menthol kid.

But you can hardly recognise him. He's surrounded by a squad of uniformed police officers: so surrounded that you only get a glimpse of him.

They throw him in the back of a divvy van and drive away.

Next day you read all about him in the papers.
SCHOOLBOY SUPERCRIM
, they call him.
STUDENT MASTERMIND
.

You start to read one of the stories. It begins: ‘Charged with the theft of eight hundred and thirty chocolate bars and two thousand basketball cards, a young student pleaded very very guilty in the Central Criminal Court today . . .'

o,' you say virtuously. ‘It wouldn't be right to do that.'

At that moment the roof splits apart, the clouds open, the heavens roll back and you hear the strumming of harps. Suddenly you're surrounded by angels. They lift you with no effort at all, and you find yourself rising rapidly through the air. You're floating like fairy floss in an updraft and the sweet music is all around you.

But above the music comes a huge voice, rolling around the skies. It's the biggest voice you've ever heard.

‘Welcome to Heaven,' says the voice. ‘It's time you came here. You were just too good for the mortal world.'

ome closer,' Cedric says.

You move about three centimetres closer.

‘Closer,' Cedric says again.

This time your toes wiggle in your shoes, and you figure that's enough movement to keep him happy.

‘That locker,' Cedric says.

‘Yes,' you whisper. Then you clear your throat and try again. ‘Yes?'

‘I want it.'

‘But, but I need it.'

‘You can have mine.'

‘Well, why do you want mine then?'

‘Better temperature,' Cedric says.

‘Better temperature? What on earth do you mean?' you ask.

‘Well, it's for me flowers, see,' Cedric says bashfully. ‘The locker I got, it's too hot. Me flowers fall apart. But your locker, it's twenty degrees all year round. That's perfect, see.'

He pulls a box out of his pocket and opens it. You go right up to him and have a look. There are a dozen glass slides in the box and he pulls them out and shows you each one.

‘That's a Japanese windflower, see. Comes out in autumn. It's a type of anemone. And this is star jasmine, real pretty smell. Now this, this is a viola, called Irish Molly. You know it flowers itself to death, Irish Molly. That's sad, isn't it?'

You start to realise that Cedric isn't a violent monster. He's a gentle guy with an amazing knowledge of botany. You smile at him. ‘Sure you can have my locker,' you say. ‘And listen, you want to come look at my grandmother's garden this weekend? She's got some great flowers.'

Cedric gives you a big grin, and you realise you've just made your first friend at your new school.