Robin Hood 2 by Robert Muchamore

Author:Robert Muchamore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

27. THEM SAME OLD QUESTIONS

After the shock of Clare, the rest of John’s first day at Barnsdale School was an anticlimax. Lunch was edible. It was exam season, so he spent the afternoon in revision sessions he didn’t need and for after-school activity he picked debate club.

The subject was: Is the current government doing enough to fight poverty?

John was assigned to a group researching for a debate the following week. His three female teammates all seemed super-posh, and hearing them talk about poverty felt like sumo wrestlers discussing the finer points of a ballet.

John was naturally shy, and he kept quiet until a girl called Leia got bored enough to back up her wheelchair and ask where he was from.

He told her his name was Kovacevic, but Leia saw right through it and squealed, ‘OMG you’re Robin Hood’s brother!’

In an instant, John went from lonely-new-kid to superstar and all the girls were asking questions.

‘Are you in touch with Robin?’

‘Can you shoot a bow as well as your brother?’

‘Where’s Robin now?’

‘How long can Robin hide from Gisborne?’

‘Is it true Sheriff Marjorie has a secret prison in the Sherwood Castle basement?’

‘Was your dad really framed by the cops?’

‘Have you visited your dad on Pelican Island?’

‘What will Robin do next?’

John’s appeal diminished when they realised his answers were all no or I don’t know, but he still had to fake grin his way through a bunch of selfies.

It wasn’t the worst thing that could happen on your first day of school, but he still felt grumpy and awkward as he walked back to his little dorm room.

Teens chased up and down the hallways outside and there was a near-riot in the kitchen area, where pupils could make toast and hot drinks. John stayed in his room, putting books on the shelf over his desk and hanging clothes in the wardrobe.

‘You’re famous,’ Clare Gisborne said, sounding friendly rather than menacing.

John spun and saw her standing in his doorway. Her shorts and Locksley Kangaroos shirt had grass stains and her socks were pushed down, exposing battered shin pads. John also noted a red welt under one eye and scabs forming on a bloody knee.

‘So, I’m sitting on the toilet after football,’ Clare explained. ‘These girls come into the bathroom, and they’re all like, SQUEEEE! Did you hear that new Year Eleven kid is Robin Hood’s brother? SQUEEEE! I want to kiss him and be the mother of his babies . . .’

John gawped. ‘They said that?’

Clare smiled. ‘I made up the kissing and babies part, but they sounded so thrilled you might have a shot.’

John laughed, then stopped because it felt utterly weird having crazy-evil Clare Gisborne standing in his doorway making jokes.

‘You look beat up,’ John said.

Clare nodded, then told her battle story with relish. ‘Coach let me start as striker and said, Show me what you’ve got. This beefy defender marking me kept giving verbals – saying my dad was scum and my accent was common.

‘I bit my tongue, until she slid in with a leg-breaker tackle.

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