Summerland by Lucy Adlington

Author:Lucy Adlington
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471408281
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2019-08-19T16:09:49.121000+00:00

Liver and Onions

I took a deep breath. ‘This is a bad idea.’

‘It’s a great idea,’ said Angela Goose. ‘Here, don’t you know how to tie a tie? Stand still, I’ll do it.’

‘I have never worn a tie before.’

‘Never worn a tie, never been to school. What have you done?’

As if I could tell her that.

We were behind a hedge, on the road heading out of Summer village towards town. I’d already layered up with my disguise – a blouse, a gymslip, gym knickers and a blazer, all in the most disgusting shade of dark cabbage green. Angela was adding the finishing touches. A wool hat with a badge, and a striped green and yellow tie.

She stepped back to examine her work.

‘Brilliant! You look just as awful as the rest of us now, though prettier than most, I’ll give you that. I couldn’t blag a spare satchel off anyone, so just stuff things in your blazer pocket or give them to me to carry.’

‘What things?’

‘Pens, books, homework … Oh. I suppose you don’t really have anything like that.’

I had nothing. Not even my knife. I was planning to spend the day as a normal English girl, and I guessed they weren’t usually armed. My own clothes would be wrapped in an old mackintosh and hidden in the hedge until school was over.

Yes, school.

Angela gave me one final, critical look-over. ‘You’re too smart. Loosen your tie, shove your socks down so they’re a bit wrinkled and, whatever you do, don’t wear your hat straight.’

Colin and Poppy Oakley were some way ahead on the road. As we walked we were joined by other cabbage-green pupils heading the same way. Mostly they ignored me. I was happy just to watch and listen and learn what normal girls were like. They giggled, they gossiped, they moaned about homework and mooned over boys, marking them out of ten on their looks. I thought about Joseph Summer. What would they mark him now?

A high brick wall surrounded the even higher brick school.

‘It looks like a prison,’ I said, wary.

‘It is,’ groaned Angela. ‘We’re sentenced to boredom till three thirty this afternoon.’

She didn’t look so bored. She talked non-stop and said hello to everyone.

‘Hey, who’s your friend?’ asked one of the boys. He pulled one of my braids. Without thinking I shoved him away, hard, and clenched my fists, ready to defend myself. No knife, but that was all right. I knew where to hit first to bring a boy down.

The other pupils smelled a scrap brewing. By some unconscious, savage choreography they gathered round and, at the same time, left a space like a boxing ring. Next thing, a chant started.

‘Fight fight fight fight …!’

‘Girls versus boys!’ whooped Angela. Fuel on a fire. How quickly people turn against each other.

The boy looked bewildered, tried to back away. ‘I were just being friendly …’

‘Is that the girl you told us about, the one who floored Colin Oakley?’ asked one of Angela’s friends.

A collective murmur rippled across the playground.

That’s

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