Chapter Two

   It was lunch time and Jake had insisted that I sit with him and his mates, again. My mind convinced me that I wasn’t going to get away from him at all today, whether in school or out of school. I found out a bit more about the other two but they seemed to let Jake do their talking for them. I wasn’t bothered about their quietness (or shyness) with me. They seemed nice enough. When I first arrived here, I thought I would end up making friends with a group of popular girls who always tried to get the lads’ attention or try to skip class without the worry of getting into trouble. Obviously, I was proven wrong after the end of my first hour. As I was wondering how big Jake’s gang was, I was grasped round the shoulders. My mind had trailed off to the extent that I had left my current predicament open. Swiftly coming out of my daydream, I noticed that an older pupil had sat in the empty seat next to me. Judging by the strength in his arm, I guessed he must be about eighteen, maybe a little older.

   ‘...don’t tell me you’ve been keeping the new girl to yourself, Jake?’ came his gruff voice from beside me.

   ‘Back off, Travis. Leave us alone.’

   ‘Hah. No chance. Why don’t you introduce us to your girlfriend then?’

   I suddenly blushed at his broad assumption. My head was bowed but my eyes rose up to check Jake’s reaction. Only then did I notice that he was in a worse predicament than me. He had another two older boys stood behind him. Both of them were broad shouldered and quite muscular for their ages.

   ‘She is not my girlfriend,’ Jake forcibly corrected him. ‘We’re just friends and that’s all. Now will you please leave?’

   ‘Or what? You haven’t got your bro here to help you. So why don’t you stop messing around with us?’

   My frustration had exceeded its safe mark and I decided enough was enough. ‘I can speak for myself, if you don’t mind? And you’re hurting my arm, so – let – go – please,’ I said with the hint of a sneer.

   ‘Oh, Miss I-Can-Take-Care-Of-Myself, is it? How would you like to hang around with us? We’re more mature than these year eleven boys.’ His grip tightened around my shoulders so that I was forced to go sideways nearer him.

   ‘I can choose my friends for myself, thanks. And if anything, you’re being more childish than these year eleven boys.’ He didn’t like that. And, along with my stern stare, I gave a huge jolt of my shoulder, got up and walked outside. Before I got even half way between the table and the canteen door, my wrist was grabbed from behind and I was forced to be turned around. Before my focus could kick in, my arms were pulled behind me and my hair was pulled down so I had to look upwards.

   ‘So, you think that being the new girl everyone has to do what you want? Well, let me tell you, we’re not ones for being told what to do.’ His voice seemed so close over the silence of the rest of the school in the small halled area. ‘Let her go. If she says she can speak for herself then let’s see if she can defend herself.’ The words hit me like a wall. Surely, this moron wasn’t going to begin a fight in the middle of the whole school. Thankfully though, my arms were released and I could feel the cut-off blood rush into my fingertips. I let my face go blank. Yes, I could fight but not on a spontaneous request. This was not how I imagined school to be like or the people in it.

   ‘What? Not up for a fight or are you too chicken to bother?’ he teased and sneered at me.

   ‘No, I’m no chicken but I won’t fight you. Just leave me alone and stay away,’ I barked at him.

   ‘What’s going on here? Travis?’ The woman’s sharp voice sounded from behind me but I didn’t bother to turn and face her as she didn’t mention me.

   ‘Nothing, Mrs. Rosher.’ He walked off with the two broad lads in tail. I followed them with my eyes before walking towards the door again. I felt the eyes of those nearest me glare at my back as I went by, but I didn’t care. There was only one person I wanted to speak to right now.

   ‘Tif, are you okay?’ came his voice from behind me. I carried on until I was outside, where no one could hear us.

   ‘Yeh, I’m fine. Let me guess, they were from the other gang?’ I said when the door had closed behind him.

   ‘Yeh, kinda. I’m sorry. I should have warned you that they might try something. Sorry,’ he repeated. ‘Now do you believe me about the other gang?’ I nodded with a hesitant smile. ‘Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look it.’

   ‘Why should I be okay? Everything here is new to me and I hate having to try to fit in quickly. I want to go home.’

   ‘Well, you’ve got two more hours then you can go home or come to my place for a bit, if you want to?’ His face and voice told me he definitely meant it at us being friends. He waited while I thought it through in my head (or appeared to).

   ‘If your parents don’t mind having another kid in the house for a while.’ He shook his head and pressed his lips together. ‘I’ll come then. On the basis that we stay downstairs.’ He suddenly put on a defensive face.

   ‘Tif, we’re friends. I’m not that type of guy, honest.’ I rolled my eyes, shook my head and smiled.

   ‘And to think that we hated each other when we first met.’

   ‘So tell me some more about yourself? You know quite a bit about me,’ I commented on the way to his house.

   ‘Well, if we’re going to be friends... but no. You’ll be able to find out more about me at mine. My little brother will probably spill stuff out later anyway. Oh, speaking of him, he tends to totally embarrass my friends when they come round.’

   ‘How old is he then? Just to give me some scope.’

   ‘Twelve; plus you’re a girl so he’ll have more to bring up, if you get my meaning?’ He winked at me as I looked up. Feeling the blood rush into my cheeks, I quickly dropped my head.

   ‘In other words, prepare for more of my worst first day.’ He nodded. ‘Anything else you want to warn me about?’

   ‘Nothing that I can think of, I mean, I haven’t had a girl round mine before.’ He grinned quickly.

   We walked on up the street, hands in pockets, playing stone football. I had some time to think about how it wasn’t an awkward friendship between us. It was strange that our impressions on each other had turned into friendship at all. On first impressions, I made it so that I could find nothing in him to like but after a while I was proven wrong. It turned out that you just have to give people the chance to show you who they really are. We walked down a couple more streets before either of us spoke again.

   There weren’t many houses down this road. All of them were much bigger than the bungalows and houses nearer the school. They had large drives and large gardens, and each had about three floors.

   ‘Which one’s yours?’ I asked as we walked past the first two houses.

   ‘A few more houses down. Looking at these you wouldn’t think I was a gang member, ha-ha.’ I smiled solemnly, not knowing how to take in what he just said. ‘This is my place...’ he mildly bellowed as we stepped past a high hedgerow. It was very similar to the neighbouring houses but had a difference to it because of the touch its owners had put on it. Ivy had grown up the front wall and had grown up the pillars between the windows. And in its own way it looked slightly eccentric. ‘What do you think?’ he asked at my slightly wide eyed, wide mouthed expression.

   ‘Wow. It’s very pretty and looks a little big for five people,’ I assumed openly. He shook his head as he began to walk down the path.

   ‘Not five, six. I have a sister as well, but she isn’t here all the time. And there’s my dad but he spends a lot of time away with work.’ I followed him slowly, a little nervous about meeting his family.

   He took out his keys out of his bag, unlocked the door and walked in. Holding the door for me, he called into the house to see who was already here. Nobody answered.

   ‘Good, no one’s home yet. I’m starving, what about you?’

   ‘I’ll have whatever you have, I’m not picky.’

   ‘You can leave your stuff by the door, no one will move it.’

   On the small tour to the kitchen, I found out that it wasn’t just the house itself that was big. The rooms were huge; each one was about twice the size of the corresponding rooms at my house. The kitchen was really modern. The worktops were made of polished granite, the white specks within the black rock shone out like the stars in the night sky. There were hidden cupboards behind solid-looking wooden panels, as I found out while watching Jake search through the kitchen for whatever snacks he had in mind.

   ‘Do you like biscuits? That’s all I can find, I’m afraid. Mum must have hidden everything from my little bro.’

   ‘Not bothered.’ I shrugged my shoulders.

   After finishing a whole pack of digestives, he left me to wonder around the house while he went upstairs to change. I went through every room downstairs, careful not to touch anything. I was just wondering what jobs his parents had when the front door unlocked and opened. Unfortunately it happened to be Jake’s younger brother and I was right in the firing line of his vision. However, he hadn’t seen me when he had walked in; he kept his back to the inside as he stepped over the threshold.

   ‘Jake! You home?’ he shouted as he shut the door.

   ‘Yeh, I’ll be right down!’ came Jake’s voice from upstairs. I heard the trampling of his footsteps as he made his way down the long staircase. I watched his brother closely, he still hadn’t noticed me. But that was about to change. He stood up from putting his bag down and taking his shoes off and turned around. The look on his face was picture worthy. If only I hadn’t left my mobile in my bag. By the time he had grasped himself again, Jake had reached my level.

   ‘Oi, Dil. Wake up,’ he said as he snapped his fingers in front of his brother’s face, as if to break a trance. He blinked about four times before he found his voice.

   ‘Jake’s got a girlfriend, Jake’s got a girlfriend,’ he repeated over and over.

   ‘She is not my girlfriend, Dil. Shut up.’ All I could do was watch, and press my lips together to stop myself from bursting into laughter.

   ‘You’ve got a girlfriend,’ Dil repeated. He pulled out his tongue before running off further into the house.

   ‘Right, that’s it,’ Jake began, but whatever else he wanted to say I didn’t hear because he chased Dil into the living room, through the kitchen and upstairs. I waited by the banister for him to finish his dealings with Dil. He came downstairs rubbing his hands together.

   ‘I’m going to tell mum!’ Dil shouted from the confines off his room.

   ‘Unlikely!’ Jake shouted back, he rolled his eyes. ‘Sorry about that. Annoying, isn’t he?’ he said quietly to me.

   ‘I wouldn’t know; but I guess that’s the point of little brothers, to be annoying.’

   ‘Do you want to head off now? I can show you more of the town.’

   ‘I have nothing to do. I go where you go.’

   ‘Alright then, let’s go. You can leave your stuff here and pick it up later.’

   I grabbed my mobile out of a bag pocket and put on my coat. We traipsed around the so-called backstreets of the town. We asked each other questions for about two hours, which by the end of, it had grown dark and Jake said that we could head off to the place.

   It had grown colder by the time we neared the park, which we had passed once before but from another road. Even though I had my coat on I was still cold. My shoulders and knees were shaking uncontrollably and my teeth were chatting together. Jake must have noticed or heard because he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I didn’t blush or show any reaction. I kept my hands in my pockets so I wouldn’t freeze any further.

   We rounded the corner but he didn’t remove his arm from around me. If I was being honest with myself, it was quite comforting but it didn’t warm me up at all (well, not on the outside anyway). In the light beams from the street lamps, I saw that the park was no longer empty. A shadowed group of people were grouped around the swings and the roundabout. Jake never mentioned how many were in his gang but over there was about fifteen or so. I knew that they weren’t just boys, there were girls but from what I gathered there weren’t as many as there were lads.

   Jake whistled from beside me and I saw that some of them knew straight away that it was him. They turned around from the pack and stalked over to the small gate. It was too high pitched of a whistle and I felt like I could no longer hear anything.

   ‘Ow, I think you popped my eardrum.’

   ‘Aww, do you want a kiss better?’

   That was not what I expected him to say. Please don’t change your personality because you’re with your mates, I thought deep in my mind.

   ‘No, I don’t!’ I exclaimed.

   ‘Hey, I was only joking. Come on, I’ll introduce you to my other friends.’ Thankfully his arm went back down to his side. I stepped a little away so to give me a bit more freedom and confidence. I wasn’t sure now if I wanted to be around him for much longer. I wasn’t sure if I could really trust him and his word. I watched the onlookers intently and checked their body reactions as they noticed me.

   ‘Jake, where you been, mate?’ called one of the boys by the gate.

   ‘Showing Tif the streets,’ he replied. ‘Why? How long you been waiting?’

   ‘About half an hour. Are you Tif?’ spoke another. I realised that he was talking to me.

   ‘Yes, and who are you?’ I asked slightly defensive.

   ‘Oooh, tough girl. Hey, Jake, Ben’s been worryin’ about ya.’

   ‘Not again,’ Jake complained. ‘I tell him he don’t need to worry. Bein’ his brother I don’t need him around to be safe. How old does he think I am? Twelve? He can worry about Dil, but not me.

   ‘Tif, this is Will, Jock and Beth.’ Only then did I really notice that one was a girl. She was stood behind the boys and so remained slightly more shadowed.

   ‘Hey,’ they said in unison.

   ‘Hello.’

   Jake opened the gate and walked onto the soft, bouncy tarmac that covered the park ground. ‘Come on or are you scared they’ll beat you up?’ he teased as he walked off with the others directly behind him.

   ‘Don’t call me chicken. And, yeh, I’m comin’.’ I followed suit, further into the darkened fenced arena. I prepared for the only things to be expected from a gang this big. The problem was that the dealings, experiences and rumours I had about gangs weren’t very convincing of what may be the truth for this one. I reached the group of affiliates and stood just outside the ring. I wanted to be sure that I wouldn’t be noticed easily.

   I saw that Jake was preoccupied, in a bear hug with an older boy, for me to talk to or approach him. The older boy, looking closer, actually looked like an older version of Jake. There were so many similarities between them. Jake quickly whispered in Ben’s ear before looking around for me. I eyed him warningly and shook my head a fraction either way. He motioned with his head for me to join him. I thought about it and decided that it wouldn’t do any harm. Using the shadows around the swings, I stalked around the long way to stand beside him. He eyed me, confused.

   ‘Ben, this is Tif. Tif, this is my older brother, Ben. Be nice, she’s new around here.’

   ‘Why wouldn’t I be nice?’ Ben asked from where he stood, leant against a pole of the swing frame. He was much taller than Jake; so compared to him, I was tiny. ‘Hey. Where have you come from then?’ he asked. I looked at Jake, who gave no help at all.

   ‘I used to live fifty miles away. I’d never heard of this place before I moved here,’ I answered.

   ‘Well, it exists. Has Jake shown you around yet?’ I nodded. ‘Thought so. I wondered why he was late comin’.’

   ‘While we’re on that subject,’ Jake interrupted. ‘I don’t need you watching my back all the time. I’m well old enough to take care of my own problems.’

   ‘You can’t be too sure of that, bro. Remember last time?’ Ben must have brought back a bad memory because Jake folded his arms and turned his head. ‘So, Tif. What’s your first day been like?’

   Considering the stereotypical status I had put upon him, as gang leader, Ben was much nicer than all the other lads I had known in my life before moving. ‘Quite interesting,’ I said thinking of all that had happened around me earlier today. ‘Almost got into a fight, but nothing happened.’

   ‘Could have, you just got lucky,’ Jake commented.

   ‘May be but it didn’t,’ I argued back.

   ‘Why you move here?’ asked Ben.

   ‘I didn’t want to. Dad said it would be better further out in the country. I didn’t really get a say.’

   ‘Ah, don’t worry. You’ll be fine here, just take some time to get to know people and no one will guess that you’re an outsider.’ He smiled briefly at me before looking over to the others, who hadn’t been disturbed from their conversations. ‘Want to meet the rest?’ he whispered so only I could hear.

   ‘Wouldn’t hurt.’

   For the next thirty seconds, Ben pointed round the circle and told me everyone’s name (not that I remembered all of them). There were a few that I could easily remember but, with the lack of light, couldn’t put a face to any of them. After he had finished and told them who I was, there came many variations of hello from the ring. I sensed that many of the boys were looking at me in a strange way, and I guessed what they might have in mind for a girl like me (what with all the previous comments I have had involving my looks and physique). Whether they could distinguish my looks from the shadows was none of my concern at the moment.