Split Second (6 page)

I thought about what Jas had told me earlier.

‘I don’t think being a little bit skinny, trying to make sure you don’t let your parents down by working hard and having an individual taste in clothes make you weird,’ I
said.

Rosa pursed her lips, her eyes hardening. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Just remember I told you she was odd. And her brother’s really arrogant.’

‘You mean her twin brother?’

‘Yeah, Nat. He’s in our house.’ As Rosa spoke, a look of hurt flashed across her face. ‘Acts like he’s God’s gift to girls. Just cos he’s good-looking
he thinks he can get away with being rude.’

‘Thanks for the tip,’ I said, letting an edge of sarcasm creep into my voice.

Rosa looked like she wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. We agreed we’d meet up later, then I shoved my timetable away and headed outside to find my Spanish class.
Luckily it was next door.

I settled myself into a desk at the back. I tried to focus, but my thoughts drifted to Jas’s twin brother. None of the guys in my Spanish set looked particularly attractive to me, but then
Rosa’s idea of ‘good-looking’ might well be completely different to mine. Or perhaps Nat didn’t do Spanish.

Either way, I was intrigued.

The lesson itself was hard – far more difficult than I was used to – and I soon forgot about everything else. After Spanish, came PE with the other girls from my year. I didn’t
have any gym kit but Gail had given me some spare things of Rosa’s. I did okay with the handball and running activities. I’ve always been well-coordinated and love that feeling you get
when you run hard and your muscles warm and loosen. I noticed that while Rosa appeared to be enjoying herself too, poor Jas was in agony. Hopelessly uncoordinated, she was the last to be picked by
the team leaders and dropped more balls than she caught.

She offered me a rueful smile as we headed off to the Science lab. The setting for Science subjects followed the Maths sets which meant, again, no Rosa. It was a relief, to be honest. I’d
just had to deal with her bringing over another one of her friends to tell me how awful it was about Mum dying, an anguished smile of sympathy on her face.

Jas and I strolled along, chatting about the upcoming Physics session. Jas was just warning me that the teacher was a bit dull when she looked up and waved at someone across the corridor.

‘There’s Nat,’ she said.

I looked up, interested. I couldn’t see who Jas meant at first. There were several boys standing around the Science lab door. Then one of them pushed another, they both stepped back and I
saw him.

He
was
good-looking, just as Rosa had said. He had the same dark, sleek hair as his sister, though his was cut short and messy. He was tall, like Jas, and slim, though not anywhere near
as skinny as her.

He turned and I could see that his face was a male version of hers – longer and squarer in the chin – and that his eyes were a bright, intense blue. Wow, he was gorgeous.

He stared back at me. My stomach gave a little skip.

Jas took my hand and dragged me over. My heart beat fast.

Nat didn’t take his eyes off me the whole time I was walking towards him.

‘This is Charlie,’ Jas said.

‘Hi.’ His voice was cold and hard.

‘Hi.’ I tried to smile, but my face didn’t seem to move properly. Why he was being so unfriendly?

Nat stared at me for a few more seconds. Then, without another word, he turned and strode into the Science lab. Jas looked after him, a frown on her face. I could feel myself flushing. Rosa had
been right about Nat. He was rude, as well as good-looking.

The Physics lesson was practical and interesting. I worked with Jas and another boy on the experiment we were doing. Every now and then I looked over at Nat. Once I thought I caught him watching
me but the rest of the time his face was turned away.

Maybe I was being oversensitive, but it felt like he was deliberately ignoring me. At the end of the lesson he stalked out without looking over, even though Jas called out after him.

That was strange, wasn’t it? I mean, he really seemed to have taken a dislike to me. What on earth could I have done to upset him?

I felt sick to my stomach. It wasn’t just the horrible images from the bomb blast that had been flashing through my head ever since that Maths lesson earlier this
morning. It was also the fact that Charlie was so closely connected to something that, so far, I had only thought about in terms of my own family. Suppose she guessed that Lucas had taken the bomb
to the market? No, that was stupid and irrational. There was no way she could know about Lucas’s involvement.

Even so, my pulse raced whenever I thought about it.

I tried not to look in Charlie’s direction during the class practical session, but I still made a total mess of my experiment, much to Callum and Rick’s annoyance. They were used to
coasting through all their Science lessons, reliant on the fact that I normally found the work fairly easy. But today I seemed to have forgotten everything I knew.

What was Jas doing making friends with her? Had either of them talked about the bomb? About Lucas? I shuddered. Man, if I had recognised Charlie, perhaps
she
would remember
me
?
I looked up at the end of the experiment. Charlie was watching me, an expression of curiosity on her face. What was that about?

I told myself I was overreacting. She was probably just curious because Jas and I were twins. People were often interested in the twin thing. I snuck a final glance at her as she packed her bag
then I grabbed my own and strode out of the room.

Jas came running up behind me. ‘What’s the matter?’ she said.

‘Nothing,’ I said. Then, knowing Jas wouldn’t buy that for a second, I lowered my voice. ‘I recognised that girl . . . from that day in the market, you know . .
.’

Jas’s gaze softened with sympathy. I looked away, hating myself for not telling her the whole truth. Still, what choice did I have?

‘I wondered why you acted like that earlier,’ she said. ‘I get it, but Charlie seems nice.’ She leaned closer. ‘Not a bit like her cousin.’

‘Yeah, that’s not hard.’ I grinned. ‘Anyway, I’m sorry for showing you up.’

‘Timbuktu sorry?’ Jas said, raising her eyebrows and smiling.

‘And back again,’ I said.

We laughed, but it made me feel sad. Moments like this were just faint echoes of a time long past, when our home had been full of nonsense in-jokes like that one from
Oliver
. . . stuff
that didn’t really make sense, but which connected us in a way that outsiders couldn’t hope to understand. I’d always been close to Jas – I was older than her by half an
hour: ‘Fighting to come out you were,’ Mum once told me, ‘unlike poor Jas who didn’t want to come out at all’ – but I missed the closeness that our whole family
once shared.

Charlie was hovering about, waiting for Jas. She was looking vaguely in my direction, though not meeting my eyes. She really was very pretty. I tore my gaze away.

‘See ya later,’ I said to Jas, then headed to the canteen, praying that Charlie wasn’t going there too.

She wasn’t. In fact, I didn’t see her again that day and managed to avoid her for most of the rest of the week. To my relief, Charlie didn’t try and speak to me again
either.

But I always knew when she was in the room, almost as if I had a sixth sense for her presence. And, as the week drew to a close, I was forced to admit that Jas had been right – Charlie
did
seem nice. She wasn’t all giggly and simpering like Rosa and so many of the other girls and she was certainly good with Jas. I hadn’t seen my sister smile so much at school
in a long time.

I was also increasingly certain that Charlie had no idea Lucas had been involved in the bombing. Which of course made sense. After all, it had been chaos in that market. If the police
hadn’t realised Lucas was involved with the bomb, why would an innocent bystander like Charlie have done?

The weekend came and I did all the usual stuff: a meagre food shop with Jas, then several hours helping Dad at the garage. Two of our regular clients announced they were no longer able to pay
their bills. It was a blow but, as Dad pointed out, at least we didn’t need the Future Party’s free food bags just yet. Posters featuring Roman Riley had sprung up all over north
London, advertising where the next handouts were going to take place. Since the Canal Street market bomb the Future Party no longer used any covered or indoor venues, but they were still organising
free food in the poorest areas of almost every town in the country. As a result, they had won the last two by-elections – which meant more seats in Parliament. There were ten Future Party MPs
now including, of course, the leader, Roman Riley.

On Sunday, I met Callum and the others in the park for a game of football. Mum was in when I got back that afternoon. She was watching the news on TV, a cup of coffee growing cold in her hands.
There had been a riot in south London in response to the Government’s latest austerity measure: the closing of two local hospitals.

Mum didn’t take her eyes from the screen as I came in and sat down at the table.

‘Imagine if they closed Lucas’s hospital,’ she breathed, worry etched across her face.

The screen switched to an interview with the Mayor of London. He was surrounded by a scrum of reporters.

‘There is simply no choice,’
the Mayor said.
‘I know it’s hard, but everyone has to bear their fair share.’

Mum shook her head.

The shot switched to a studio panel containing three opposition politicians. The Future Party’s Roman Riley sat at the end of the row.

‘We have just heard Mayor Latimer claim that everyone has to share responsibility for the crisis,’
Riley said.
‘But why? If a man robs a shop we expect him to pay
for his crime. Him. Not the shop. And certainly not his neighbours. Yet in closing a hospital the Government is forcing the poorest and most vulnerable to pay a heavy price for crimes they did not
commit.’

Mum smiled at the screen. I knew she was remembering how much Lucas had looked up to Roman Riley in the months leading up to the bombing. But all that adulation had been a con. Lucas’s
real heroes had been the hate-filled bigots in the League of Iron. I got up and grabbed a packet of biscuits. For the millionth time, I wondered how on earth Lucas could have turned away from Riley
to sign up for the League’s ugly violence.

A shiver snaked down my spine as I thought about the meeting I was going to on Tuesday. After all the months of watching and waiting, I would hopefully find out exactly what Lucas had been
involved with at last.

More than once during that first week I felt so overwhelmed that I seriously thought my head might explode. It wasn’t just having to get used to a new home, a new school
and lots of new people, it was also having to decide whether or not to stay on with Brian and Gail after my two-week trial period.

I was torn. Sometimes I missed Aunt Karen badly. She had loved Mum as much as me and we’d spent a lot of our time together – before the fights started – sharing our memories of
her. Brian and Gail had barely known my mother and, though I was sure Gail would have been all too delighted if I had opened up, there was no way I could imagine chatting about Mum with her.

On the other hand, now that I’d actually made the break and moved away from Karen, there seemed little point in returning to live with her again. It would never bring Mum back. Plus
Karen’s home was in Leeds while I belonged in London.

And she had no money while Gail and Brian were rich.

I guess that makes me sound materialistic but I was fed up of being poor. Everyday life with Mum had been a struggle but, Gail and Brian had money to burn – and to spare. Right now, for
example, I was borrowing Brian’s old laptop but if I stayed I’d get a brand new one of my one. I was also about to upgrade my phone and Gail had made it clear I was free to buy whatever
clothes I liked.

The biggest downside to staying was Rosa. We just had nothing in common. For example, she was obsessed with some reality-TV-based boy band that played the kind of music I’d been into when
I was ten. She would talk for hours about which of the singers was the best looking – that’s when she wasn’t poring over her hideously girly clothes or gossiping with her silly
friends.

About the only thing Rosa and I agreed on was that Nat was hot, but rude. He’d still made no effort to speak to me, even though it was obvious his twin sister and I were becoming really
good friends.

Jas asked me back to her house the following Tuesday.

‘Dad gave me some money earlier so I could buy some food on the way home,’ she said, blushing. ‘Mum’s always out at the hospital till late and Dad said he had a load of
paperwork to do at the garage so they won’t be in.’

‘What about Nat? Will he be there?’ I asked, trying to keep my tone light.

‘Dunno,’ Jas said, looking at me sideways. ‘Nat goes out a lot.’

‘Oh, right.’ I wanted to ask if he had a girlfriend, but the words stuck in my throat. I hadn’t seen Nat spend time with any girls, but that didn’t prove anything.

I sent Gail a text telling her I’d be late back. I avoided speaking to Rosa, slipping away to meet Jas as soon as the bell went instead of going back to Plato House.

Jas and Nat’s home wasn’t what I expected. Even though I knew they were both on scholarships, I’d assumed that anyone going to private school must live in a
big place, like Brian and Gail did, but Jas and Nat’s house was tiny. Jas showed me around, constantly apologising for the mess.

‘Mum and Dad are out a lot so it’s hard . . .’ she kept saying as we wandered into the living room.

I told her it was fine as I stared at the piano in the corner. The lid was down and covered with dust.

Jas wrinkled her nose. ‘I used to play all the time, but since what happened to Lucas I only really do stuff at school . . .’ She tailed off with a sigh.

We went upstairs to Jas’s bedroom. It was small – barely bigger than the room I’d had at Karen’s – but beautiful, with different fabrics draped across the walls and
soft lights. Somehow Jas seemed to have the knack of putting all manner of different colours and textures alongside each other and making the overall effect look effortlessly stylish.