Music and Lies (George and Finn Book 1) (5 page)

Chapter Nine

GEORGE

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I now had my own supply of food. I knew the way to the village. And I had a friend, sort of. I hadn’t seen much of Cami since he had shown me around the site. And I couldn’t say I actually wanted to. Finn was entirely different.

When he smiled, his face lit up in an amazing way, quite beautiful. Despite his superior attitude, I had to admit I quite liked being with him.

‘I’m starving,’ I said as we arrived back at the campsite. The walk to the village and back had taken over an hour, and I hadn’t had anything since breakfast. ‘How about having an early tea? I could do sausage and beans.’

Finn had been looking around in that way of his, like he needed to know everything that was going on, but my words brought his attention back to me. I liked that. ‘Aye, fine, why not? Bring your stuff over to my tent, there’s more room there. I’ll maybe cook tomorrow.’

He was right about his tent. He must have been one of the first to arrive at the site and had chosen a position in one of the corners of the triangle, with the opening of the tent facing the fencing. It gave him a bit of privacy, and meant no one could camp in front of him. I wished I’d thought of that. The way the site was filling up I was soon going to be completely boxed in.

Finn even had two folding camping stools and a wooden box you could use as a table. I put the food down on this and lit the little stove. I was very proud of myself when I managed this first time.

It was quite a long while later when we eventually sat down with plates of steaming food. It
was
the first time I’d tried cooking on the single-ring stove and it wasn’t exactly easy. We ate in silence for a while. But I needed to know stuff and I was sure he could fill me in. He seemed relaxed. This was my chance.

‘Can you tell me about the festival? And everything?’

He smiled cautiously. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘Well …’ I realised I wanted to know more about him, for a start. ‘Do you come to festivals like this often? Don’t your parents mind?’

‘I don’t have any parents.’

‘Oh. Ah. Sorry.’

Shit. That certainly put an end to that line of conversation. Of course, I was dying to ask what had happened to them, but his face had that cold, closed look again so I thought I’d better not. ‘And how about Marcus? How come he organises this sort of thing?’

‘He’s done it for years,’ said Finn with a shrug. ‘Only thing he’s any good at far as I can see. He was a roadie for a while, I suppose that’s how he got into it.’

‘Ah,’ I said again. I wished he’d carry on talking without being prompted. This was interesting. ‘I suppose that’s how he knows all the bands and everything?’

‘That’s part of it, at least.’ Finn’s expression brightened. ‘He’s certainly feeling very pleased with himself at the moment. He’s pulled off quite a coup and managed to get Murdo Mensah to confirm that he’s coming. If things go well, he’ll headline on the final Friday.’

‘Murdo Mensah?’ I stared at him. Murdo Mensah! This was amazing!

‘Haven’t you heard of him? He’s …’

‘Of course I’ve heard of him! Best New Artist at the Brit Awards about five years ago, then he kind of went off the tracks, then he came back and did that brilliant acoustic album. I love Murdo Mensah!’

‘Looks like you’re in luck, then.’ He seemed amused by my enthusiasm. It probably wasn’t cool to be enthusiastic but for once I didn’t care.

We talked about Murdo Mensah for a while longer. He was a Scottish-Ghanaian musician, based in Edinburgh. I suppose that meant this was an easy festival for him to come to. He hardly ever did gigs so Finn was right when he said this was quite a coup. Once this was public knowledge any unsold tickets would disappear in a flash.

I could hardly believe it. Murdo Mensah was going to perform live, and I was going to see him! Wait until I told Manda and Sophie. In fact, I’d text them as soon as I got the chance. They’d be so jealous, even if they were more into boy bands than acoustic music.

Eventually I remembered I was trying to pick Finn’s brains about the festival crowd, and I turned the conversation back to that.

‘And what about Dex? Does he have contacts in the music business as well?’

Finn gave a sneer reminiscent of Cami. ‘No, Dex Barker isn’t into music. He has other fish to fry.’

‘Do you know him well? I’d never met him before Saturday. Becky’s mum isn’t that keen on him.’

With a hint like that I thought he would surely tell me something, but he just left a long silence.

‘I take it you don’t like him much?’ I suggested.

‘He’s a nasty piece of work,’ he said. ‘Not too bright and much too violent. That makes him dangerous.’

I stared, my fork in the air. I hadn’t expected this. He sounded angry.

‘Why does Marcus employ him then?’

‘Marcus thinks he’s useful. Which I suppose he is. If you’ve got one thug looking after security it keeps the other thugs away.’

I said doubtfully, ‘I used to think festivals would be a lot more, well, organised. I didn’t think you had people like Marcus and Dex running them.’

Finn snorted. ‘This isn’t your corporate kind of festival, you know. The people who come here come
because
it’s not like that.’

‘Oh,’ I said. I supposed it made sense. ‘So, do you think it was Dex who did something to that man, the one who’s in hospital?’ I’d begun to think it was. What I really wanted to know was
why
.

‘I don’t know, do I? I was up in the forest, same as you. Like I said before, it’s nothing to do with us.’

I shrugged. ‘But it’s odd that no one will talk about it. And why everyone is so nervous of the police.’

‘People like these are always nervous of the police,’ he said, as though that was obvious. ‘They’ve generally not had very good experiences of them. Police tend not to like people with dreadlocks and tattoos and scruffy campervans.’

‘And I suppose a lot of them take drugs,’ I hinted.

‘I suppose they do,’ said Finn. ‘Not all of them, but the police don’t believe that.’

‘Do you?’ I said, speaking without thinking. ‘Take drugs, I mean.’

‘What’s it got to do with you?’ he said again.

The question had just popped out and now I felt stupid. I was so fed up of people making me feel stupid. ‘Well, I thought you were against it. You weren’t keen, when Cami offered me some dope that first day. But now it sounds like you’re apologising for them.’

‘Best if you stay clear, but that’s just my opinion.’

‘Becky seems to be off her head the whole time.’ I felt a quiver of unease as I put this into words. What if it wasn’t just weed Becky was using? What if it was something else?

Finn had finished his food and put the plate down on the grass beside him. I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Eventually he said, ‘Beck’s got her own problems. That’s why a lot of people end up taking drugs. They think it’s going to solve something. But it doesn’t. It totally doesn’t.’

I felt uncomfortable. His tone was bitter, and I got the feeling it wasn’t Becky he was talking about. He stood up abruptly and took my plate from me.

‘I’ll get some water and wash these.’

He walked away, leaving me sitting there feeling young and foolish.

Chapter Ten

GEORGE

Work on the fencing finally started the next day. The stuff had arrived at last – hundreds of massive mesh screens about two metres high, that could be clipped together to create a long metal barrier. This was part of the ‘security’ operation so Dex was in charge, and as I was supposed to be working for Dex, I expected to be busy at last.

It didn’t work out like that. The first part of the morning was totally frustrating. Most of the time people just hung around and did nothing. The screens were too heavy for me to lift, so I couldn’t do that on my own, but it soon became pretty obvious that the thing most needed here was organisation. I wanted to scream at someone to get started, but managed to hold my tongue.

By lunchtime, things began to happen. Someone had got the guys with a truck to drop off the barriers in lots of twenty at regular intervals around the ground. I don’t know why they hadn’t done that sooner. Then we started pulling them upright and clipping them together. Not exactly complicated. When we’d finished the side by our camping area, I went back to the main arena and found Dex shouting at a couple of boys dressed all in black with those silly droopy hats that made them look like something out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

‘Look what you’re doing! You have to make sure you leave openings where they’re marked. Jesus, you people are idiots. How do you think we’re going to get in and out if you fence off the whole bloody place?’

The boys had been putting a barrier directly across the entrance from the family campsite to the festival arena. I mean, how stupid can you get? One of them scratched his head, making his hat droop even more, and began to drag a barrier aside.

I was finding Dex much easier to deal with today. He didn’t try to stand too near me. Actually, he seemed relieved there was someone around who understood what he wanted. He gave me a walkie talkie and told me to make sure they did things right on the river side of the plot.

This was exciting! I’d never used a walkie talkie for real before. It would have been really cool if it had been one of the radio headsets, like you see on films, but presumably Marcus’s budget didn’t stretch to that.

All people needed to do was follow the plans, but most of them didn’t seem capable. I stopped worrying about saying something out of turn and made sure people did what they were supposed to. I told them I was passing on Dex’s instructions, which I was sometimes. I remembered Finn had said these people didn’t like ‘organised’ festivals, but Christ, did they have to be so useless?

In the late afternoon, Becky appeared. She seemed fairly normal. She looked tired, but not spaced out. She’d also washed and, finally, changed out of her pink ballroom dress. Today she wore stripy leggings and a long black top that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else but made her look like an eccentric ballerina.

‘You’re doing a good job,’ she said, after watching for a while. ‘I knew you’d be useful. You always were the organised type.’

‘What happens once all the barriers have gone up?’

‘Once the punters start to arrive, we have security stationed at every entrance. All you need to do is check that people have the right wristband, showing they’ve paid. Haven’t you a staff wristband yet? You’ll need one.’

‘I don’t think anyone has one.’

‘God, Marcus is so chaotic. He’ll lose money if he doesn’t get cracking.’

‘Do festivals like this make money?’ All these weird people just seemed to be here to have fun. It didn’t look at all like a business enterprise.

‘Suppose they must do. Not as much as Glastonbury and those places. But Marcus always seems to have plenty of cash.’

‘Do you know him well?’ I’d noticed Marcus had been more interested in the fact I was Becky’s sister than anything else about me. He’d asked me twice about her since that first meeting, but I’d never seen him go near her and Dex’s van.

She frowned. ‘He’s Dex’s friend. He always uses Dex for security at his events.’

‘Is that often?’

‘Every now and then, you know.’

She was going vague on me again. She wafted away soon after, saying she was going up to the office to remind them about wristbands. She said she wanted to make sure they didn’t give staff the fluorescent orange ones, she
hated
fluorescent orange. I was glad she was taking an interest in something, even if it didn’t seem that important to me.

I’d been hoping that Finn might come by. He’d said we might cook together again today, and I’d thought we were getting kind of friendly, but so far I hadn’t seen him. I presumed he would have a job too, but whether it was for Marcus or Dex I couldn’t work out. He didn’t seem keen on either of them.

Cami appeared shortly after Becky had gone away. I couldn’t work him out. Sometimes he totally ignored me, but just now he was quite friendly. He helped lift the last sections of fencing into place.

‘Looks like that’s it sorted on this side,’ he said, wiping his hands on his filthy jeans. ‘Seems to have gone up much quicker than usual.’

I wondered if this was due to my input, but I didn’t say anything.

‘You enjoying yourself, then?’

‘Yes. It’s fun.’ And it was. You could see now what the place was going to look like once the festival actually started. The main stage was set up under a fancy white awning that looked like half a space ship. Two or three other marquees had also been put up, plus a massive, multi-coloured teepee, quite exotic amidst the muddy grass and trees. I liked it. This was the real thing, and I was part of it.

Life was good!

FINN

I’d really thought I might get a bit of peace while the fencing went up. I certainly wasn’t going to get involved helping Dex with that – or anything else. I settled down in the tent with a pile of books. Some of them were those cramming notes for Highers, but there were a fair amount on ancient forests, too. For some reason they were far more interesting.

And then Cami came to visit, just my luck. He pushed aside the canvas flap and peered in.

‘So you’re here.’

‘Looks like it.’ I put a finger in the maths book to mark my place. ‘What do you want?’

‘Nothing.’

He looked around in that way of his, not because he wanted to be helpful or do anything useful. Sure enough his lip lifted in a sneer. ‘Nice and tidy.’

‘That’s right.’

‘I see you brought all your most important possessions.’

I ignored that. I didn’t know what he was getting at and I didn’t really care. Then he crawled inside and sat on the groundsheet next to me.

I swore. ‘What do you want?’

‘Important to keep up with your studies, isn’t it?’ Cami said, nodding at the books.

‘Yes, it is. Be a good idea if you looked at some of your own.’

‘Me? Study? You’ve got to be joking. I’ve got other plans.’

‘You need to work on your portfolio. You won’t get into Art College if you don’t make an effort.’

‘Those aren’t the plans I was talking about,’ he said with a sneer.

‘And does Marcus know about those? Does he know how much you’re involved with Dex Barker?’

Cami had been picking at a scab on one of his yellow-stained fingers. Now he stopped and glared. ‘Who said I’m involved with Dex? You think I’m stupid or something?’

‘Yes,’ I said with a sigh. I’d felt like I was just getting my head around polynomials and now I’d have to start the whole damn chapter again.

‘Don’t you say a fucking word to Marcus, okay?’ Cami glared with narrowed, angry eyes. ‘What he doesn’t know won’t bother him.’

I shrugged. Not my problem. I just needed to remember that.

Then Cami put out a hand and touched the leather case of the guitar lying at the end of the tent.

I slapped it away.

‘Leave that.’

‘I thought if you weren’t going to play it maybe I could borrow?’

‘Get lost. You don’t even play guitar.’

‘Well, you’re not playing it, why do you need it here?’ He put out his hand again and I slapped it away, harder.

‘You never even get it out of its case, do you? Can’t bear the heartbreak or something? It’s still all tied up in the string. Why didn’t you just sell it? Or give it to Marcus? You know he wanted it too.’

‘Clear off, Cami.’ I tried to keep my voice calm. He was just trying to wind me up, although I didn’t know why.

‘Nice to see you, too.’

He tapped his grimy fingers on his knee for a few minutes, and then seemed to think he’d been aggravating enough. He pushed aside the tent-flap and began to back out. He was smirking, as though he’d got what he wanted. I didn’t have a clue what that was, unless it was just that, to be aggravating.

Well, it wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t going to let Cami get to me. I took a deep breath and started again at the beginning of the chapter. Advanced algebra.
Just
what I needed to distract me.

Of its own volition, one of my hands reached out and touched the leather guitar case very, very gently. It felt so soft, so familiar. Maybe I would untie the knotted blue string, undo the zip, just have a look …

I flung the maths book across the tent and pushed my way out. Better to go walking. Better to do
anything
than sit here and think.

I couldn’t help glancing across and seeing Cami head straight for Dex Barker’s van. What an idiot.