Next day at lunchtime I was sitting quietly with Ben, quizzing him about the council meeting the day before, when two things happened.
I had just found out that the money would be sorted and counted in the records room, before being locked in Principal Curtis’s office for safety. Perfect, I thought, and then my mobile phone beeped with a text message.
‘Probably Blocker being a dork again,’ I said to Ben as I pulled it out of my bag.
I had just enough time to see that whoever the message was from, it wasn’t Blocker, when Phil Domaine marched up right in front of us.
I braced myself for some kind of abuse, but it wasn’t me he was after.
He said nothing, just thrust out an envelope towards Ben.
‘What is it?’ Ben asked, taking it hesitantly.
‘It’s yours,’ Phil said and strode away without another word.
Ben looked at me and raised an eyebrow, then tore the end off the envelope. He shook out the contents. It was a brand new one hundred dollar note.
Not Blocker’s, I had that, folded neatly into a back compartment of my wallet. It was Phil’s.
‘He shouldn’t have done that,’ Ben said. ‘I’ll give it back to him.’
‘Yes, he should,’ I said, quite amazed that he had actually done it. ‘And, no, you bleeding well won’t. It’s yours. You keep it.’
Ben looked at it for a moment, then shrugged and put it in his pocket. ‘I didn’t expect to be paid for dragging that girl away from the wasps; it was just the right thing to do.’
At that moment, I was really proud to be Ben’s friend, although I couldn’t help wondering about my silly idea of him being a robot. He didn’t seem to see things the same way as us humans.
I checked my text message. It was from Erica.
I hadn’t seen her all day as we didn’t have French, and my heart soared when I realised it was from her.
SO WHN R WE GOING OUT SMWHERE? she texted and added :-).
I hadn’t thought about that. Now that we were officially going out, I supposed we needed some place to go out to. Perhaps the movies.
I started to text her back to suggest exactly that, when my phone beeped again. I eagerly opened the message expecting another gift from heaven.
But this was from the depths of hell.
U R DED MEAT.
I knew the number immediately.
The truth about Caitlin Howard must have eventually found its way to her big brother because Johnny went for Blocker in a big way after school.
It was down on bottom field, well away from the eyes of any teachers, and it was almost over by the time Ben and I got there.
Johnny was a rugby player and a bit of a tough nut, but Blocker was, well, Blocker. Johnny ended up in North Shore hospital with a dislocated shoulder.
Blocker had put two members of the same family in hospital within a week. I hope he felt proud.
Johnny never told on Blocker though. He never told his parents or any of the teachers just who had beaten him up. I suppose he couldn’t.
After all, he had started it.