Jake's Tower by Elizabeth Laird

Author:Elizabeth Laird [Laird, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

‘Jake, I’m not thick. I saw him. That day. I saw you hide too. You looked like you’d just busted out from Death Row.’

That made me laugh.

‘I had. That’s just where I’d busted out from.’

I wanted to tell him things then, about Mum, and Steve, and Mrs Judd and the baby. Even about my dad. I would have done, too, if Greg hadn’t come up again and gone on about playing football. And then the bell went, and there was registration, and I just slipped back into the person I always am at school, the quiet one who does what he’s told and never gets into trouble, the one who slips unnoticed down the corridor, the one who never listens to a word the teachers say (if only they knew), but stares out of the window or up at the ceiling and keeps his thoughts to himself.

I always change for PE in the darkest corner of the cloakroom. That way, no one will see me without my clothes on. There won’t be any tricky questions. No sympathy. No prying. Nobody being nosy.

Mr Grossmith doesn’t usually bother with us while we’re changing. He only comes in when he thinks we’re taking too long, and he blows his whistle and yells out, ‘Come on, you lot. Move it. We haven’t got all day.’

But this time he was right there, in the cloakroom, standing in my corner. I looked round for somewhere else to go, but it was awkward. There was nowhere even halfway private. I went as far away from the window as I could, and got my football shirt and shorts out of my bag, so they’d be all ready, and I looked round, and I couldn’t see Mr Grossmith. So I whipped my school shirt off and picked my football shirt up.

Mr Grossmith must have come up without me seeing him, because he was suddenly standing right there beside me.

‘Turn round, Jake,’ he said.

I didn’t have any choice. I had to.

He looked at my back for what felt like ages. Then he said, in a different voice, ‘You’re excused PE today. Go along to the library. I’ll come and see you at the end of the lesson.’

I don’t think anyone else saw my back, except for Kieran. I know he did because there was a funny look in his eyes when I’d put my school shirt on again, as if he was sympathetic but embarrassed at the same time.

‘Lucky you,’ was all he said. ‘I wouldn’t mind a nice little skive in the library. See you at break. I’ve got an extra Mars bar in my bag if you’re interested.’

It was quiet in the library. I fetched a magazine off the rack, and sat behind a bookshelf, and flipped through the pages. Mrs McLeish came in at one point. I saw her between the shelves. She seemed to be looking for someone. I kept still, and she didn’t notice me. She went out and I had the place to myself again.

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