When Good Geeks Go Bad by Catherine Wilkins

Author:Catherine Wilkins [Catherine Wilkins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788000604
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Published: 2019-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Lunch starts off quite awkwardly with Jas. Then it gets a tiny bit better. Then it gets worse.

“What the hell is going on?” Jas queries.

It’s not like her to be this riled up. She’s usually the calm one.

“What?” I ask her. We sit opposite each other in the canteen, each holding our sandwiches.

“We could have moved back next to each other,” says Jas.

Ohhhh. Yeah. Of course! Whoops. “Oh,” I manage. How on earth did I forget that?

“You’ve been complaining about it non-stop for the last two weeks. What’s changed? Why do you suddenly prefer to sit next to Gemma from BUTTS than me?”

Oh no. I’ve done a bad thing. Oh man, I so didn’t mean to hurt Jas’s feelings. How on earth can I explain this?

“It’s the justice, Jas,” I attempt.

“Justice?” Jas is not impressed with this answer.

“Look, Gemma and I were both messing about, and just because of her reputation she was getting the blame. And that’s not fair.”

“Why were you messing about in maths?” asks Jas.

It was fun. “I was bored,” I reply. “I’m really sorry, Jas,” I say. “I wasn’t thinking. I reacted in the moment. I would actually much rather sit next to you.” Almost definitely. No, definitely.

“OK.” Jas sounds a bit mollified. We eat some of our sandwiches.

“Actually, Jas,” I say, “you’d be surprised. BUTTS are much nicer than we thought. I had detention with some of them the other day as well. And they’re actually OK. They’re really funny. Mark is, um… But maybe you’d like them if we all hung out together?”

“Hey! There she is!” Gemma booms loudly behind me. Then suddenly Mark, Liam and Gemma are sitting next to Jas and me, all squeezed on to our table.

“Oh, goody, here’s my chance,” says Jas sarcastically, looking uncomfortable.

“They finally cleaned ‘TAX-AVOIDING SCUM’ off the can machine,” announces Liam.

Gemma says “shame” at the same time as Jas says “good”. OK. I probably won’t tell Jas it was me. Mark winks at me conspiratorially. He actually winks! I don’t think I’ve ever been winked at by a boy before. I glow secretly, and look down smiling. Still can’t see his feet.

“Anyone started Mrs Snider’s history homework yet?” asks Liam.

“Is that the one where we have to write about who we’d pick, if we could meet any historical figure to have a conversation with?” I ask, trying to look normal.

“I have,” says Jas. “Marco Polo.”

“No, it has to be a real person,” says Liam, while Gemma laughs.

Jas shoots me this look that says You really want to hang out with these idiots?

“Marco Polo was a real person,” she says.

“Ha! No, it’s that game!” laughs Gemma.

Jas shoots me another look that says Feel free to correct them any time. Everyone does weirdly look at me then. How come I’m the arbitrator?

“Actually,” I say, “Marco Polo was a real person. He was a merchant trader who travelled from Venice to China. But lots of things are named after him. So, you know, sort of everyone is right.”

“Cool,” says Jas, rolling her eyes.

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