Nowhere Boys (17 page)

‘Is that really him?’

‘He’s so cute.’

Sam skated confidently up to Jake. ‘Different universe, same Sam.’

‘Dude, they’re not talking about you,’ said Jake.

Sam stopped his skateboard.

Ellen rushed up to Andy, accompanied by a posse of girls who were all Mia’s friends. ‘Can I interview you for my blog at recess?’

‘You were so brave, saving Ellen,’ said Raquel.

‘Uh, yeah sure,’ said Andy, looking at the others uncertainly.

‘Saving Ellen?’ said Felix. ‘What are they talking about?’

‘Ellen was about to get run over by the school bus and Andy jumped in front of it and saved her,’ Raquel chirped.

Sam, Felix and Jake looked at Andy.

‘It was nothing. I was going to tell you about it but what with everything that’s been going on …’

‘
It was nothing
,’ repeated a breathless Ellen. ‘You’re so modest. You saved my life.’

The girls surrounded Andy and dragged him towards the school steps. Sam, Jake and Felix watched in disbelief.

‘Andy, a chick magnet?’ said Jake. ‘What the hell?’

Felix walked off with his head down.

Sam watched as more girls ran towards Andy. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. At least Mia wasn’t one of them.

Sam followed the others down the corridor towards the noticeboard, where their timetable was posted.

Great, same as their old timetable. The first period was science with Bates.

The corridors were bustling with kids but no-one gave Sam a second glance as he wandered towards the science labs.

He swung open the door. Jake, Andy and Felix were already in the classroom. In fact, almost all the seats were taken. Luckily the one next to Mia was free. He grinned and made a beeline for her.

‘Watch your bags, peeps, here comes the thief,’ a voice called from the back of the class.

Sammy.

Sam ignored him and was about to slide into the seat beside Mia when Ellen slipped in front of him. ‘There’s a spare seat over there.’ She pointed across the room to the only spare seat left – next to Mikey, the most unpopular kid in class.

Sam looked at Mia who was suddenly very interested in her science book.

He sat down next to Mikey, who put his hand out with a friendly smile. ‘Hi, I’m Mikey.’

‘Yeah, I know who you are.’ Sam looked away.

‘All right class, listen up,’ Bates walked in and banged on the desk with a ruler. ‘We have four new boys starting at Bremin High today. Stand up, boys.’

Felix, Sam, Andy and Jake all stood up.

Bates stared hard at Jake. ‘What a pleasure to see you again,’ he referred to his notes. ‘Jake.’

Jake looked at the floor.

‘Apparently, they’re cousins.’ Bates shook his head in disbelief. ‘I’d like everyone here to make them feel welcome.’

Like that was going to happen. Sam could feel Sammy’s eyes boring into the back of his head.

‘All right, then. Books open at page twenty-three. We will be continuing our research into the extraction of chemical compounds from plants.’

Sam opened his book but before he could even find page twenty-three, a scrunched-up ball of paper bounced off his shoulder. He flattened it out, and saw the word ‘Loser’ scrawled on it.

Mikey looked apologetically at Sam. ‘Sorry, that was probably meant for me.’

Sam turned to see a grinning Sammy making an ‘L’ shape on his forehead. He screwed up the note. ‘I don’t think so.’

As Bates droned on about extracting iodine compounds from seaweed, Sam opened his exercise book. At least he had some paper and a pen in front of him now.

He began to draw. Drawing always made things better. You could draw your fears, your feelings, your dreams – anything that was bothering you. Sam’s pen moved across the paper in fine strokes. He focused hard. Maybe he could draw his way back to his real world.

Before he knew it, the bell had rung. Sam carefully slipped his drawing into his folder and stood up. Sammy pushed past him and made a show of putting his arm around Mia as he made his way towards the door.

Sam joined Felix, Jake and Andy in the corridor. He watched Sammy saunter off down the corridor with Mia. ‘What does she see in that jerk?’

Jake raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s pretty obvious.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Well, you’re kind of the same. You’re both vain, both skater dudes –’

‘I’m nothing like that twisted gimp!’ Sam protested.

‘Nah,’ said Andy, thoughtfully. ‘He
is
better looking than you.’

‘What?’ Sam turned on him.

Andy made a quick exit. ‘Ah, I said I’d meet Ellen on the oval.’

A basketball bounced in Jake’s direction. ‘You coming to shoot hoops, bro?’ called Trent.

‘Sure,’ said Jake, throwing the ball back.

Sam looked at Felix. ‘You want to eat our Incredible Hulk sandwiches together?’

Felix shook his head. ‘Sorry. I’m going to find Oscar,’ he said, walking off.

‘Whatever,’ Sam said to the empty corridor.

Sam wandered out into the schoolyard. Everywhere, groups of kids were hanging out together. He sat down on an empty bench and looked around. Well, this sucked. He’d never been alone at lunchtime before. For the past year, he and Mia had met every lunchtime. Before that, he’d gone out briefly with Sally Harper – until she’d realised she preferred horses to boyfriends.

But even without girls, there had always been his skater mates – Jacko, Will, Seb and Oscar. They’d been friends since primary school, but now …

Sam looked over to where the skaters hung out. His friends were all there, and not one of them knew who he was. Not one of them remembered that they’d gone to each other’s birthdays for the last twelve years. That they’d slept at each other’s houses, gone on holidays together, eaten live cicadas for a dare. Instead, there was someone else who’d done all that with them. Smack bang in the middle of his friends was Sammy. He’d called Sam a thief, but
he
was the real thief. He’d stolen Sam’s whole life.

Sam saw Mia walking quickly across the quad towards Sammy.

‘Hey babe,’ Sammy called to her, a little too loudly. ‘Wanna come and watch us jump the bins?’

Sam stood up. He wasn’t going to let that poser take everything that belonged to him. ‘Hey Mia!’ he called out.

She was halfway across the quad. Halfway between them.

She turned around. ‘Yeah?’

Sam walked up to her. ‘I just was wondering if we could maybe have lunch?’

She shook her head, and spoke to him slowly like he had some sort of difficulty understanding English. ‘You know what? I’d really appreciate you leaving me alone because, like I already told you, I
have
a boyfriend.’

‘I know that. I just thought we could maybe talk –’

‘What are you? Some kind of sicko?’ Sammy had come over and stepped protectively in front of Mia. ‘Who do you think you are? You break into my house. You steal my skateboard, and now you’re after my girl. Just back off!’ He gave Sam a push.

Sam felt his blood start to boil. He pushed Sammy back, hard. ‘It’s my house, my skateboard and
my
girl.’

Mia rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, good one guys. What do you think I am? Some piece of property you own?’

Sammy picked himself up. A crowd was starting to gather. ‘You’re a mental patient, man. They should lock you away.’

‘Fight, fight, fight,’ the crowd started to chant.

‘Sam! Stop it!’ Sam heard a voice yelling. But he didn’t care. This loser was going down.

He launched himself at Sammy and they both fell hard on to the asphalt.

Sammy tried to fight him off but Sam was fuelled by a rage he’d never felt before. He
hated
this guy. He hated him so much he wouldn’t care if he knocked him out for good.

He lifted his fist. The crowd was roaring with delight. He was going to smash his knuckles straight into Sammy’s smug, self-satisfied face. That would teach him.

Sam saw a flicker of fear pass across Sammy’s face. Then he felt two strong arms, pulling him away. He kicked and struggled, but the arms were too strong. He could hear the groans of the disappointed crowd as he was dragged onto the grass of the oval and dumped.

‘Jeez, man, are you out of your mind?’ Jake flopped down beside him. ‘It’s our first day. If my dad finds out about this we’ll all be picked up by that woman from children’s services.’

Sam looked over to where Sammy was being comforted by his skater friends. ‘You should have left me alone. I wanted to smash his skull in.’

Jake put his arm on Sam’s shoulder. ‘I know, man. But you’ve got to control it.’

‘Yeah, easy for you to say.’

At that moment, Mr Bates strode across the playground towards Sammy.

‘Actually, I feel the same way, man,’ said Jake.

Sam followed Jake’s gaze.

Jake nodded. ‘You think I want that jerk anywhere near my mum? I feel sick thinking about it.’

Sam saw Sammy pointing him out to Bates.

‘You’d better get out of here,’ said Jake.

Sam jumped up and made a dash for the out-buildings. He didn’t need Bates on his back. Sammy had probably told him some sob story about the new kid beating him up for no reason.

He slipped behind the boys’ toilets. He’d head down to the trees on the school perimeter. He and Mia sometimes used to hang there.

As he approached, he saw Mia sitting by herself under the wattle tree by the fence. Seeing Sam, she immediately stood up. ‘Is there a part of
leave me alone
that you don’t understand?’

‘Mia, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’d be here.’

‘Really?’ Mia looked at him for a beat. ‘You know what? You and Sammy – you’re exactly the same. Completely selfish.’

Sam shook his head in frustration. Why did people keep saying that? It was so far from the truth. ‘I’m nothing like that dickhead.’

‘So coming up to me all the time, even when I ask you not to. That’s not selfish?’ asked Mia, barely controlling her anger. ‘Stealing, fighting with my boyfriend, embarrassing me in front of my friends, that’s for
my
sake, is it?’ She turned away, shaking with emotion.

Sam took in what she’d said.

‘I’m not some prize to be fought over.’ She walked away.

Sam swallowed hard. What she’d said was true. None of it had been about her. It was all about him and Sammy. Maybe he
was
just like Sammy: a selfish boofhead who cared more about being top of the heap than anything else.

‘Mia! Wait.’ Sam ran after her. He pulled the drawing he’d done in science out of his folder. ‘I won’t bother you again, I promise.’ He handed her the picture. ‘Here. I did this for you.’

She took it reluctantly, without looking at it.

‘And you should learn to skate. I know you want to,’ said Sam.

Mia looked at him curiously. ‘How do you know that?’

Sam shrugged. ‘Where I come from I used to go out with a girl who wanted to learn to skate. She wanted me to teach her but I never did,’ he said. ‘I told her it was because I was worried she’d fall. But you wanna know the real reason?’

‘You were worried she’d be better than you?’ challenged Mia.

Sam scoffed at that idea. ‘No way.’ But he stopped himself. That’s exactly the sort of thing Sammy would say. He looked at the ground. ‘The real reason was that I liked having you – er, I mean her – watching me. I liked how that made me feel.’

‘Yep. Like I said. Totally selfish.’

‘Guess so.’ Sam smiled sadly. ‘Lucky I moved here. ’Cause she was probably about to dump me.’

‘Probably,’ said Mia. And, despite her obvious annoyance with him, she smiled back.

Sam looked at Mia. Every part of him wanted to reach out and touch her. His hand moved slowly towards hers but then he froze.

Directly behind Mia was a massive German Shepherd. It growled and fixed its bloodshot eyes on Sam.

‘Mia,’ said Sam, ‘I think we need to
run
!’

andy:
who let the dogs in?

Andy walked across the oval with Ellen and her friends Raquel and Suzie, and a girl with blonde pigtails, who he seemed to remember had once stuck his head under the bubbler for making their team lose at mixed volleyball.

This girl was now smiling at him in a slightly deranged manner. ‘So, can you tell us again how it happened?’

‘No, Betty,’ said Ellen. ‘Wait until we sit down. I’m going to record it for the blog.’ She smiled at Andy. ‘I’ve got my own blog called
Wot the Elle
.’

Andy nodded, then noticed where the girls were planning to sit. ‘Do you mind if we sit on the north-west side of the oval? The pollen from the Norfolk Pine sets off my allergies.’

The girls looked at him uncertainly, then Ellen smiled. ‘Sure.’

On the other side of the oval, Ellen pulled out her phone and pressed record. ‘I’m calling this “Interview with a Hero”.’

Andy looked at the four girls’ eager faces. It was strange, being admired like this. He wasn’t sure what to do.

‘Andy?’ Ellen was staring at him. ‘Come on. From the beginning.’

Andy took a deep breath.
From the beginning.
Well, there was a problem right there. If he told it from the beginning then he’d have to tell her about his amnesia theory, which had been supplanted by his wormhole theory, which had been updated to a theory of lucid dreaming, although that was now well and truly disproven, given they’d been attacked by bees and birds and he’d still not woken up.

‘Andy? My battery’s running low.’

Andy finally opened his mouth. ‘Sorry. Okay. Well, I was just walking along the road, minding my own business …’

The girls surrounding him were silent, all seemingly transfixed.

‘Then all of a sudden the ground started to rumble. I knew the bus was coming.’

Ellen nodded encouragingly. ‘And then?’

‘And then I saw Ellen coming towards me. She looked –’

‘Yes?’ said Ellen eagerly.

‘Like … like she was listening to music and not paying enough attention to the road.’

Ellen’s forehead crinkled like that wasn’t quite what she’d wanted to hear, but Andy kept going regardless. He was starting to enjoy himself.

‘And then I saw it,’ he said. ‘The bus coming, like a fiery dragon behind her. The driver turned, and in that second I thought, “What would Bear Grylls do?”’