The After School Crime Club by Hayley Webster

Author:Hayley Webster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 9781788006064
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Published: 2023-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

So it turns out I can steal things.

Things that cost £19.99, in fact. More than what they asked me for.

I wasn’t expecting to be able to do that.

It doesn’t matter that I could barely sleep last night, or that when I did I had a dream about Nanna shaking her head at me as I walked through her garden on all fours, snuffling, twenty-pound notes stuck all over my body like hedgehog spines.

Or that part of me knows it was wrong.

Don’t forget, I tell myself. They are giving it to charity. Nobody’s going to be keeping it. Any money it’s sold for will help someone.

Maybe I’m weird and interesting?

I walk into school with my head high. I don’t feel bad. I don’t. They thought I couldn’t do it. Tay Welding thought I couldn’t do it, but Marie stood up for me and knew I could. And I proved Tay wrong and Marie right. I’m ready for any of the things they throw at me. It’s not even about making friends any more. It’s about … proving I’m not what everyone thinks I am. And I sort of feel on a high. Like I’m the one in the spotlight instead of the one behind the camera. Like I have my own theme song. That people are dancing around me, not in front of me.

I’ve never cared what other people think about me before. Nanna’s always been there to say I’m OK as I am, and I’ve always believed her.

But Nanna’s not here any more.

And things are changing.

Soon Rich will live with us, and next year I’ll be in high school. Mum’s always talking about the future. Maybe it’s time to plan my own.

The classroom looks different. Smaller. For the first time I notice more about the other children. The pencil cases. The hairstyles. The collars on the school T-shirts – some folded properly, some creased, some tucked under their jumpers, some bright white and wafting the smell of fabric softener, others grey from a mixed wash and as crumpled as frowns.

I notice the shoebox on Mrs Emery’s desk with the slot cut in the top and the bright writing on the side: “The Big Walk: Sponsorship Money”. A lot of kids in the class have taken part in The Big Walk on the weekends. People gave them money to go for long walks with their families. It’s for a local charity. I was going to speak to Mum about doing it together. But. A good moment never arrived. And now it’s too late and the school are just collecting all the money everyone else managed to raise.

What have I been doing all this time, sitting in my own bubble, not really noticing anything? There is a spare seat on Marie’s table and as I walk in she says, “Willow! Willow! I asked Mrs Emery if you could sit here and she said yes!” She looks so happy about it, how can I say no?

I sit down without thinking, get out my pencil case and my bottle of water.

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