Sach was off.
At lunchtime he went to the top of the playground, towards the mound of grass where Sid and his pals smoked round the back of the dining hall. There was no one around, only two wee kids with legs dangling off the muddy verge and books open on their laps.
He wandered to the library. It was deserted. The librarian frowned at him and stared back at her computer. In a corner mostly blocked by shelves he browsed through the spines, chose a book and sat at a desk.
Half a page later he heard a squeaking, rolling sound. He looked. Jennifer Black was coming towards him, books piled in her hands. Behind her a parked trolley was heaped with more. She passed, dumped the books on the floor and got on her knees. She slid to one side and propped herself on an arm. He heard the sound of her tights rubbing, glanced at her skirt riding high and shoes strapped to her feet with one buckle, a scuffed leather flower round the button. She turned. He was back in the book.
“Which comes first?” She was holding a hardback either side of her face. “They’re both McSomething but this’s got an A. This doesn’t.” She peered at it. “Mc.”
Nicky pointed. She dropped them, thudding on the floor.
“You be careful with those,” the librarian yelled.
Jennifer Black put her hands on her hips and climbed to her feet. She scowled at the books, spreading them around with a toe. She looked over.
“You’re the Skelf’s pal?”
Nicky nodded and stared back at the page.
She stepped nearer and crossed one leg in front of the other and put her hands on the back of a seat. She said, “How long’ve you two been wee bum chums then?”
He closed the book over his thumb. Close up you could see the powder brushed over her face, specked on the light hairs across her top lip. Her eyelashes curled, set stiff with black gunk blobbing between the strands.
“I dunno.”
“Like, primary?”
“Nursery.”
She laughed. “Tell us a story then.”
“What about?”
Jennifer Black shrugged. “Whatever. Something to give him a riddy. He’s always taking the piss out me for everything. He’s a cheeky wee shit.”
The librarian yelled from somewhere. “We don’t use that calibre of language in here, thank you.”
Nicky squeezed the book, crushing his thumb between the pages. He looked right at Jennifer Black’s eyes, then blinked out the window behind her. She yawned. Both arms stretched to the ceiling, fingers linked above her head. She arched her back and her shirt strained at him. Yawn over, she said, “You got none?”
Nicky shrugged.
“Must be something you can tell me.”
He looked around then leaned forward and started telling her. “He showed me this thing once. When we were wee. It was this thing you strapped round your belly.” He held the book there, showing her. “For exercising the muscles.”
“Like a stomach toner?”
“His mum kept it in a drawer under her bed. He took me in there and showed me it once. You strapped it on and turned the wee dial and it fired electric shocks at you.”
“I know. Fuckin’ hell,” she whispered, but she was grinning.
“Right. Sorry. Pete took me in their room once and got it out the drawer. Then he put it on. Said he was going to give himself a six pack.” He patted the book. “He straps it on and switches it on and turns it up full power and he—”
She frowned, lips making a wee grin, tongue between her teeth. “What?”
“He,” Nicky let the book fall in his lap and flapped both hands downwards, “filled his pants.”
“Shat himself?” She laughed and covered her mouth.
He grinned and nodded.
“You mean just a wee bit, or properly shat himself?”
“He bolted straight to the toilet.”
“When?”
“I dunno. A few years ago. First year. No one else knows about it.”
She laughed at the ceiling. “What a riddy,” she said.
The librarian stuck her white head into the section, tapping her watch. “You better watch it young lady. Enough nonsense.”
“Sad cow,” Jennifer Black said when she’d gone. She crouched to the books again and built them into a pile, then looked up at him through her fringe. “That’s not bullshit, it actually happened?”
“Yeah.”
She smiled and went back to piling.
Nicky looked at the top of her head, the perfect line where she parted her hair. “I didn’t know you liked all this.”
“The library. Reading and all that.”
She didn’t reply.
He left the library before the bell. Jennifer Black had finished in his section, gone back to her trolley and trundled to the next one. She was still there. The librarian looked at him from behind her desk and said, “She’s not like us.”
“What?”
“She doesn’t care about books, like we do. You think she’s here cos she wants to be? It’s punishment. She was fighting. She’s always fighting. Left a chunk of fingernail in some poor soul’s face.”
When he got there, his fingers were numb with the cold but the school shirt stuck to his skin. He’d phoned Sid to find out where to go, saying his cousin was buying a bass. Fadge might be able to help out. “I’ve seen the fat bastard put his bass on the wrong way round,” Sid said. “I told you. He doesn’t know shit about shit.”
A few folk passed wearing the other school uniform. Nicky sat on a wall behind a hedge and peered up the street. His breath came back and his chest still pounded.
He didn’t realise it was her until she was close. At the stop of the street, in her uniform, she looked like a boy out of first year. She made quick wee steps, eyes on the pavement, wearing grey trousers instead of a skirt. He took a breath and set off towards her.
“Annie.”
She walked fast. She was halfway up the path when he reached her. The gate clanged shut over his voice.
She turned and gave him a look.
“Hi.”
“What you doing here?”
“Is Fadge in?”
“I’ve not been in yet. Have I? Usually I’m first. Sometimes he doesn’t get back for pure ages. Goes to the woods looking for pornos or something.” She shrugged her school bag off and chucked it in the porch. Nicky stepped on the first slab of the path and took hold of the gate.
She came to the other side. “Did you come all the way from your school?”
“I was kind of passing. You awright?”
“S’pose. Usual shite day of schooling. You?”
“Fine. Yeah.”
“You want me to check on Gordon?”
“I always think it’s weird seeing folk in their uniform.”
“I look about eight.”
Nicky put his hands in his pockets. She rubbed her hair, messing it and pulled at a sleeve, stretching it over her knuckles. Her face was pale – dark circles under her eyes. A yawn came and she kicked a stone off the path. “I’ll go and see if he’s in,” she said.
When she reached the steps she skipped the first and climbed the second then third and collected for her bag from the porch. She was almost at the door. He blurted her name.
She looked back.
“D’you want to do something?” he said.
“What, now?”
“Not now. But I’m going to town on Saturday.”
“This Saturday?”
She nodded. She had a hand on the door handle.
“Can I come?” he said.
“Do what you want. If you want, then meet me at central. One o’clock or something.”
“Under the big clock?”
“That’s where everyone goes. At the side, where the chemist’s is. Should I get my brother?”
Nicky shook his head. “I can speak to him later.”
“He’ll be here soon,” she said and turned through the door.