Chapter Nine

Arthur walked to the bus stop by himself on Monday morning. He left early, hoping to avoid Ash, but she’d obviously had the same idea. When he got there he found her sitting by herself.

They hadn’t spoken since Saturday morning when they’d had their disagreement. Arthur knew they should have been over it by now, but this was their first argument and it felt strange – uncomfortable, somehow. The rest of the weekend had passed slowly. He’d spent most of it playing an Xbox game that Joe had bought him for Christmas. His heart wasn’t in it, though, and he barely noticed any time one of the computer-generated zombies attacked his avatar. As he stirred some soup for himself and Joe on Sunday afternoon, he spotted Ash through the kitchen window. She and Max were on the green chasing after Ice while the pup rolled after a football. Arthur could have gone out and said something, but he didn’t know what to say. He certainly wasn’t going to apologise, as he was still certain that his hunch about Ice was spot on, but he knew that Ash wouldn’t want to hear about it again.

‘Hey,’ Arthur said as he got close to the bus stop.

Ash looked up. ‘Oh, hi.’

‘Going in early?’

‘Something like that. Listen, Arthur–’

‘No need to apologise.’

‘Apologise?’ she said, affronted, her voice rising. ‘Why would I apologise?’

‘Oh, so it’s me who’s in the wrong, is that it?’ Arthur shouted, equally outraged.

Ash didn’t reply, but the way she crossed her arms and stared at him said it all. Just then, a bus pulled up to the stop. They boarded in silence and sat at opposite ends to each other.

It was the first proper day back to normality after the Christmas break for thousands of workers and schoolchildren so the traffic moved frustratingly slowly. Whatever their reasons, it turned out it was a good thing they’d left early because otherwise they’d have been late for their first day back.

The morning bell rang as they walked across the car-park in front of Belmont School – Ash keeping twenty paces ahead of Arthur at all times, pointedly ignoring him. The building was modern and boxy, with one side completely constructed from glass. At the sound of the bell they started to run, and as they dashed inside they found that they weren’t the only ones late and racing down the hallway. Other students and even some teachers were speed-walking towards their classrooms, including their own Miss Keegan.

‘Hi, Miss,’ Ash said when she caught up with her.

‘Oh, good morning, Ashling. Arthur.’ Her strawberry blonde curls cascaded out from under a pink, woollen beanie and she was wearing a matching cardigan with a yellow blouse underneath. She was younger than most of the other teachers in Belmont and certainly the most fashion conscious.

‘I saw you two on the news last week,’ she said as she walked with them. ‘You were lucky Arthur was there, Ash.’

Ash’s face flushed red as she muttered grudgingly, ‘I know.’

From the stony silence that followed, Miss Keegan realised that all was not well between the two friends so she quickly changed the subject. ‘We have a couple of new students today, so you’re no longer the new kid, Arthur.’

Despite their argument, Ash and Arthur looked at each other, concerned. Could this mean Loki was back in his Will-disguise? Like the rest of the world, Miss Keegan had been hypnotised to forget that Will had ever existed, so he could easily have slipped back into class and only Arthur, Ash and Max would know that he was a threat.

Their fellow pupils were mostly sitting around on the desks when Ash, Arthur and the teacher reached the classroom. They were swapping lists of Christmas presents or sharing funny stories about things that had happened over the break. When they saw Miss Keegan, they all shuffled into their seats with much scraping of chair legs on the linoleum floor. Arthur took his seat next to Ash and quickly scanned the room. No sign of Will. In fact, there was no one new here at all that he could see.

‘I trust you all had a nice break,’ Miss Keegan was saying, taking off her coat and pulling some books out of her large handbag. ‘I hope you’re all so well rested that you can’t wait to get back to work!’

There were some groans at this. Kevin and Colin – the ginger O’Toole twins – said in sync, ‘Go easy on us, Miss!’

‘Yeah, Miss,’ Rob Tynan spoke up. ‘We need to warm up first.’

The class made some general sounds of agreement as Miss Keegan chuckled to herself. Just then, there was a knock on the door. The teacher went over to answer it, holding a finger to her lips at the class. Arthur caught a glimpse of their principal before the teacher shut the door behind her. As the other pupils started murmuring and whispering to each other again, Arthur turned to Ash.

‘Could you see the newbie?’ he asked.

‘Nope. Do you think it’s him?’

‘Will?’

She nodded.

‘I hope not.’

The door opened again and the class fell back into hushed silence. Miss Keegan re-entered, ushering a boy and girl in front of her.

The boy was almost as tall as Miss Keegan but of a much broader build. He had small brown eyes through which he squinted at his new classmates, a large and crooked nose that looked like it had been broken at some stage and a strong, square jaw with hints of facial hair already sprouting along it. His black hair was shaved close to his head and he grimaced at them with an expression that said I’m bigger than you, so don’t test me. He had a backpack slung over one of his powerful shoulders and his brown school uniform was a couple of sizes too small for him, with the sleeves stopping well short of his wrists. Arthur doubted that they even made the Belmont uniform in his size.

The girl, on the other hand, could easily be summed up as petite. Standing at just over four feet tall, her slim frame was a twig compared to the trunk that was the gargantuan boy behind her. Her straight black hair was pulled back from her face by a light-blue hairband and hung in a bob just above her neckline. Her deep brown eyes popped out from her sallow skin; they were watchful, studying each face in the class. When they landed on Arthur they stopped and he couldn’t help but look away, discomfited. It felt as if the eyes were looking into his soul. Unlike the boy’s, her uniform fit her perfectly. However, the coat she wore over the uniform was far too large for her and bunched at the elbows. It was an adult-sized trench coat and it trailed along the ground by her feet, only serving to add to the illusion of her littleness. Instead of a backpack, she held a cracked leather attaché case in her right hand. She smiled a toothy grin at them all, clearly pleased and excited to be there.

‘Class,’ said Miss Keegan, ‘this is Ellie and Xander Lavender. They’ll be joining us for the rest of the term.’

‘Ex,’ said the boy Xander. His voice was a deep baritone rumble, certainly more grown-up sounding than anyone else in the class.

‘I’m sorry, Xander, what was that?’ Miss Keegan asked.

‘I prefer to be called Ex, Miss Keegan.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ She turned back to her pupils. ‘Ellie and Ex Lavender.’

The boy nodded his head slightly while the girl waved.

‘Maybe you’d like to tell the class a little about yourselves?’ Miss Keegan suggested. ‘Ex?’

‘No, thank you.’

‘I’ll do it!’ Ellie said eagerly. She put her case carefully on Miss Keegan’s overflowing desk and took a step towards the class. ‘As Miss Keegan said, I’m Ellie Lavender and this is my brother, Ex. He’s thirteen, nearly fourteen. And I’m eleven, just gone. Usually, we’re home schooled although I’ve been in five real schools in the past. But our parents are archaeologists, you see, so they’re pretty intelligent. And they’ve gone on a dig in Greece for a few months, so here we are! Speaking of which,’ she turned to Caroline Cusick in the front row, ‘I see that you have just come back from Greece.’

‘How did you–’ started Caroline.

‘Thank you, Ellie.’ Miss Keegan cut her off mid-sentence. ‘If you’d like to take a seat, we’ll begin the class.’

Two vacant chairs sat right in front of Arthur and Ash, which the Lavender siblings went straight for. Ex sat right down while Ellie busily took off her massive coat. She hung it on the back of her seat and put her hand out to Arthur.

‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I’m Ellie. What’s your name?’

‘Ellie,’ Miss Keegan said, turning away from the blackboard she’d been writing on. ‘Maybe you could make time for introductions during break? We have work to get on with.’

‘Of course, Miss Keegan. Sorry, Miss Keegan.’ Ellie sat down and faced the teacher studiously.

Arthur looked at Ash. She swirled her index finger in little circles at her temple and crossed her eyes, indicating that Ellie was nuts. She was right, Arthur reflected. Whoever this pair were, they definitely weren’t like Will. Despite that, he still felt wary of them. He suspected that any new classmates would take a long time to earn his trust nowadays.

When the bell for break rang, the fifth- and sixth-class pupils trooped out to the all-weather pitch at the back of the school. The pitch had been the last piece of construction work to be completed when the new school was being built and it was a much appreciated addition for the majority of the pupils.

Rob Tynan, who liked to consider himself the best sportsman in the school, tossed a rugby ball from one hand to the other.

‘How about some rugby?’ he asked loudly. The ball fell between his arms and bounced unevenly away. He stretched to catch it, then nonchalantly rubbed his hand through his hair as if nothing had happened. ‘Rugby, yeah?’

‘Can the girls play too?’ Tara Egan asked, taking a step forward and grabbing the ball from him. Rob wasn’t a fan of letting the girls join in and often suggested rougher sports for lunch break to put them off.

Rob gave her a pitying look. ‘Really? Ha!’

With that, Tara threw the ball. It soared far and wide across the pitch and Megan Gallagher caught it mid-air. She held it above her head triumphantly.

‘Yeah,’ Tara said, as the other girls giggled, ‘really.’

‘OK,’ Rob agreed reluctantly. ‘But I bags captain!’

‘Bags!’ Tara said quickly before anyone else could claim the second captaincy.

They picked teams. Almost the entire class agreed to play, so the pitch was quite cramped. Rob picked first and went for the new boy, Ex Lavender. They didn’t know what he was like on the pitch so it was a gamble, but judging by the new boy’s powerful physique, Rob guessed the gamble would pay off. Tara’s first choice was Megan, followed by Arthur. While Tara’s team was quite evenly mixed, Rob didn’t want to pick any girls. He eventually had to take one – Ash, the last one standing. Just once, Ash thought, just once I want to be picked first. Ciara O’Connor and Caroline Cusick were both too precious about their hair and nails to join in, so they sat on the sidelines with a couple of like-minded fifth classers and the new girl, Ellie.

Although Arthur had been Tara’s second choice, he thought that her faith in him was misplaced. He loved basketball, and had even won medals for his efforts back in Kerry, but rugby was one sport he had never excelled at. His uncle in Kerry, who was a huge rugby fan, boasted that the sport was more ingrained in his blood than any other, including Gaelic. (This, of course, was considered blasphemy by the GAA supporters in their town, but it always made Arthur laugh to hear his uncle wind them up on purpose.) Coming from Munster, Arthur naturally enjoyed watching rugby. But playing it was out of the question. He had a light, slim frame – perfect for basketball, not for rugby.

This game, however, was getting off to a flying start and Rob’s team had already scored one try, partly thanks to a vital pass from Ash. Arthur’s team now had the ball. Niall Fitzgerald passed it to Mark Curtis, who passed it to Brian Savage who passed it to Robyn Power who passed it to–

‘Arthur!’ she shouted as the ball bounced feebly off his chest and onto the ground. Arthur had drifted away, not really paying attention. He looked down at the ball by his feet, rocking over and back.

‘Pick it up!’ someone shouted at him.

He did as they said, grabbing the ball and clutching it tight to his chest, then he ran in the direction of Rob’s goal line. His heart was thumping as his legs pounded off the rubbery all-weather surface. Since it was still freezing, they were all wearing coats, hats and scarves; a drop of sweat rolled into his eye, stinging it. But he ignored the discomfort and kept going. He hadn’t far to run now: he could see the line coming up before him and no one was in the way, just footsteps thundering after him.

Suddenly, something yanked him backwards. Whoever it was had grabbed the back of his coat, stopping him in his tracks and pulling him in the opposite direction through the air. He heard the hood of his coat, caught in the grip of his attacker, rip as easily as tearing toilet paper. The person let him go and he fell with a heavy thud onto his back. The ball flew out of his arms and straight into those of Ex Lavender, who was looming over him. That’s who had been pulling him backwards! Without even giving Arthur a second look, Ex kicked the ball back down the field to cheers from Rob’s team.

Arthur stood up, his back stiff and sore. He arched backwards and heard a loud crack, which actually helped relieve some of the pain.

‘You all right?’ asked Ash, who was standing nearby.

‘I will be. I’ll just sit out the rest of the game.’ He hobbled off the pitch and sat on one of the bleachers, making sure he wasn’t anywhere near Ciara and the other girls. He didn’t feel like listening to them prattle on about eyeliner and shades of nail polish, especially when he was already in pain. The game went on without him, everybody too engrossed to notice his absence and, as he grew bored of watching, Arthur’s thoughts once again drifted off.

‘Sorry about my brother.’ Slightly startled, Arthur looked up to find the source of the voice. Ellie Lavender had left the girls and was standing over him. Her too-big trench coat danced in the breeze.

‘It’s OK,’ he said. ‘Not your fault.’

Without asking if she could join him, she sat down.

‘Arthur, right?’ she said. ‘I’m Ellie. Nice to meet you.’ They shook hands.

‘Sorry again about Ex,’ she continued. ‘I got the brains in the family and he got the brawn. I like to think I got the best deal.’

‘He’s pretty strong,’ Arthur agreed.

‘He doesn’t know his own strength.’

‘He’s older than the rest of us. What’s he doing in sixth class?’ Arthur instantly regretted such a straightforward question, but when he looked at Ellie she didn’t seem to mind. She seemed pretty straightforward herself, he supposed.

‘Like I said, I got the brains and he got the brawn. He’s always struggled at schoolwork. Any time we’re in a school, teachers like to keep him a year behind.’

‘And they put you a year ahead?’ Arthur asked.

‘Sometimes two years!’ Ellie said proudly. ‘Home schooling is better for Ex. He doesn’t feel as out of place there.’

‘Neither do you, I bet.’

‘I can talk to anyone. About anything.’

‘Really?’ He nodded to Ciara, Caroline and the other girls, who were staring at her out of the sides of their eyes and whispering frantically. ‘Even them?’

‘I don’t think they like me very much …’

‘How did you guess about Caroline’s holiday in Greece?’

‘Oh, that was easy. I spotted the tan lines on her face as soon as I came into the class.’

‘What tan lines?’ Arthur looked over at the girl in question.

‘See how her face is tanned but there are whitish patches around her eyes?’ Arthur did notice them now that she’d pointed them out. Ellie continued, ‘That told me that she was recently somewhere hot and sunny – she needed to wear sunglasses. And then I noticed the airport tag that was still stuck on her backpack. The letters on it were ATH – the code for Athens. I just put two and two together.’

‘Wow!’ exclaimed Arthur, genuinely impressed. ‘You got all that so quickly?’

‘It’s a game I like to play, although sometimes I think it scares people. I shouldn’t have said it in class. Those girls don’t really like me now.’

‘I’m sure they’ll come around.’

‘Maybe.’ She looked at the game and watched as her brother scored yet another try to great applause. ‘Like I said, I’m not afraid to talk to anyone but … well … I’m not very good at making friends. People don’t seem to get me.’

Before Arthur could comment, she turned back to him. ‘So, Arthur, tell me about your adventure.’

He was taken aback and rendered momentarily speechless. ‘Uh, adventure?’

‘You did nearly drown a few days ago, right? You and Ash? Ciara and Caroline were talking about it and I may have eavesdropped.’

‘Oh!’ He breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Yeah. Quite the adventure, all right.’

Just then, the school-bell rang, announcing the end of break-time.

‘So?’ Ellie urged. ‘Tell me what happened.’

‘That’s the bell, though,’ he said. ‘We need to go back to class.’

‘Oh, yeah.’ She seemed disappointed. ‘It always takes me a while to get used to following the school-bell routine.’

Ellie had got the hang of the school-bells by the time the last one of the day rang, and she rushed from the classroom as eagerly as the rest of her classmates. Before they went, the teacher reminded them that the annual parent–teacher meeting would take place in a couple of weeks’ time and gave them all flyers to take home. Arthur and Ash walked silently together to their bus stop just outside the school, the air between them still not clear. They stood in silence, neither quite knowing what to say to the other.

‘Oh, hi guys!’ Ellie said, catching up with them. Ex was standing behind her; he just nodded at them and grunted.

‘Hi, Ellie,’ Arthur said. ‘Have you met Ash yet?’

The two girls shook hands.

‘This is Ex,’ Ellie said, reaching up to lay her tiny hand on her huge brother’s shoulder. ‘Say “hello” Ex.’

‘Hello Ex,’ said the older Lavender sibling as Arthur and Ash’s bus pulled up.

‘Ooh!’ said Ellie, as Arthur and Ash started to board. ‘The number 11 bus! Eleven’s a good number. It’s lucky.’

‘Really?’ Arthur asked, stepping onto the bus.

‘Yup! Well, goodbye, Arthur! Goodbye, Ash! See you tomorr–!’

The bus door whooshed shut, cutting off the end of the word.

‘What a pair of weirdos,’ Ash said, walking up to the second deck of the bus and finding a seat near the back. Arthur sat next to her.

‘I like them,’ he said.

‘Even Ex? After what he did?’

‘He was only playing the game. Maybe he doesn’t realise his own strength. I kind of feel sorry for him.’ He took this as his opportunity to make up with Ash. ‘Actually, speaking of which …’

‘Yeah?’

‘I just want to say I’m sorry for arguing with you.’

‘I’m sorry too,’ she said.

‘I still think you should be careful around Ice, though.’

‘And I still think you’re wrong.’

‘I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree then,’ said Arthur.

Ash studied him for a moment then nodded. ‘Friends again?’

‘Friends!’ agreed Arthur.