Tree Magic by Harriet Springbett

Author:Harriet Springbett [Harriet Springbett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907605994
Publisher: Impress Books
Published: 2016-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

Next morning, Mary has the impression that a man is tailing her to school. She slows. He slows. She crosses the road. He’s behind her. She spins around. He continues towards her and then stops a few metres away.

“Get lost!” she spits.

His face is familiar. It’s framed by the red and yellow ‘M’ of McDonald’s behind him, and she realises he’s the young man who was taken away by the police the day before. He looks closer to her age now his face is Coke-free and shaved.

“Nice to meet you too,” he replies. “My name’s Gus. And I’ll only get lost if you come with me.”

“Why would I go anywhere with a loser like you?”

“Because you’re bored with going to school every day?”

She restrains a smile. “Not as bored as I’d be if I was with you.”

He laughs; a short, sharp bark. “Nice. I like your sharp corners. What’s your name?”

Mary turns her back on him and continues walking towards school. He follows. She speeds up. He starts to whistle. When she arrives at the school gates she turns to face him once again. He’s skinny, shaggy-haired and undeniably cool in his faded leather jacket and dirty jeans.

“Leave me alone, loser. Find someone else to stalk,” she says.

“I’m quite happy stalking you. See you soon, kiddo.”

She enters the school grounds and then glances over her shoulder. He’s strolling back the way they’d come, his hands in his pockets. Gus. She smiles to herself. He comes from the real world, far from the petty restrictions of her life.

She waits for Trish in the bike sheds. A Year 11 boy offers her a toke on his fag. She accepts and blows smoke moodily towards the tin roof, thinking about the waste of a school day that lies before her. What is Gus doing now?

Trish arrives with Helen. Mary greets Trish and ignores Helen. She holds Trish’s bike while Trish searches through the tangled intestines of her bag for the lock. Helen stares at her, chewing gum. Mary stares back and blows out smoke.

Helen is new at school. She moved into Manor House in Trish’s village a few months ago. She’s blond, pink and girly, and she dresses like the models in Topshop. She has latched onto Trish, who’s flattered by her attention. Mary knows they meet up regularly in the village playground to drink Coke, eat crisps and read Cosmopolitan. Helen wants to take Trish in hand and has advised her to get contact lenses and to cut her ginger hair. Jimmy, Trish’s eight-year-old brother, told her this. He doesn’t like Helen because she pinches him.

“Hey, Trish, I’ve got a new game,” says Mary.

She takes Trish’s arm and steers her away from Helen, pretending not to see the look Trish exchanges with her. Helen follows them.

“Go on then,” says Trish. “It’s not another false-fashion thing, is it?”

False-fashion is a game Mary invented last month. She would start a new trend, rant about how cool it was and then count the number of girls who followed it.

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