Worse Than Boys (20 page)

‘You’re for it this time, Driscoll,’ I heard someone else say.

I hurried after the teacher, as much for protection as anything else. ‘What is going on, Mrs Tasker?’

She didn’t look back. All she said was, ‘I really hope you don’t know, Hannah.’

Wizzie, Grace and Sonya were already in the head’s office when I went in. ‘What’s all this about?’ I asked.

Sonya shrugged. ‘We’ve n-n-not been t-t-old yet.’ Nerves bringing on her stutter.

Mr McGinty yelled at us. ‘Shut up! Be thankful I’m speaking to you before the police come.’

The police? I glanced at Wizzie. She shrugged too, in that couldn’t-care-less fashion that annoyed everyone so much. But she had two little red spots on her white cheeks and I knew she was nervous too.

When the head spoke again, it was me he looked at, me he spoke to. ‘There was a fire at Erin Brodie’s house last night.’

‘What’s that got to do with us?’ I blurted the words out. I was frightened suddenly. The sirens in the night, had they been heading for Erin’s house?

His eyes flashed with anger. ‘Don’t you dare interrupt me! It would seem it has a lot to do with you. That fire was no accident. It was started deliberately. Rags soaked in petrol were lit and then pushed through her
letterbox. A gang of girls was seen running away.’

‘Was anybody hurt?’ Grace asked nervously.

‘It was only sheer luck that there were no serious casualties. Everyone was treated for smoke inhalation and one of the neighbours had to jump from an upstairs window.’

‘We weren’t that gang of girls,’ I snapped out.

‘Weren’t you?’

Couldn’t he see that by the look on our faces? Sonya was ready to burst into tears. Grace was shaking. Wizzie was staring at the floor. Why did she always have to pretend she didn’t care?! She refused to look up at him.

‘Your parents have been sent for. They’ll be here shortly.’ I could hear Grace begin to cry now. ‘Because of Lauren’s mother’s disability, the police have gone there.’ I had wondered why Lauren wasn’t here. I knew now. He looked around us in disgust. ‘Get them out of my sight, Mrs Tasker.’

We were herded into an empty room while we waited for our parents and the police to arrive. ‘Who could have done this?’ I said.

‘None of us,’ Grace said.

And Wizzie didn’t say a word. She sat away from us, with her back turned.

‘Any ideas, Wizzie?’ I asked.

‘How should I know?’ she said, her face still turned away from us. I wanted her to look me in the eye and say it.

We sat in silence while we waited. Grace was scared of her dad’s reaction. Sonya was crying softly.

Everyone seemed to believe we were guilty. Guilty until proven innocent. Yet there was no real proof against us, was there? A gang of girls seen running away. The town was full of gangs of girls. Could have been any of them. But who?

I knew I didn’t do it.

And not the Hell Cats either. There had been a time when I would have believed them capable of anything. That was before I had got to know them, to like them. I had changed my opinion of them entirely. Lauren was too happy rehearsing for the part … she wouldn’t risk that now. Sonya never thought up anything bad to do. She thought joyriding was the most exciting thing she’d ever done. Grace just followed along behind, did what the rest suggested. Never came up with an idea of her own.

But Wizzie? I tried to believe Wizzie couldn’t be capable of this either. Wizzie, who seemed to have a
secret life somewhere away from us.

I kept thinking of what she’d said just yesterday and it frightened me.

I’ll show you what getting your own back on Erin Brodie is.

Was that what she’d done – shown me what revenge is really like?

Chapter Fifty-One

I was proud of my mum for the first time. When the police questioned us, she didn’t fall apart as I expected her to. She didn’t start screaming and shouting like Grace’s dad, or swearing like Sonya’s parents. She simply told the police her daughter would never do anything like that, no matter how badly she’d been treated, or how much she resented Erin. I could see she was ready for a good cry, but she held it in. She stuck up for me.

The WPC who was there wouldn’t let it go. She started right into me. ‘We know there was bad feeling between you girls. They threw you out of their gang. You wanted to get back at Erin.’

I looked at her defiantly. ‘They didn’t throw me out,’ I said. ‘I left.’

‘They treated her really badly,’ Mum said. ‘Especially that Erin. Hannah went into a terrible depression. But
she pulled herself out of it.’ Mum clutched at my hand on my lap. ‘I was really proud of the way she pulled herself out of it. And I know she would never do anything to hurt anybody.’

The policewoman didn’t look convinced. ‘I’d take her down to the police station right now, have her charged.’

She said it as if I was dirt beneath her feet.

‘Oh, come on, WPC Duff. She’s only a young girl. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.’ The other cop was a man. He even managed a smile at me.

Did they think they were fooling me? I’d seen too many TV cop shows to be taken in by this ‘good cop–bad cop’ routine.

‘Just tell us the truth,’ the policeman said.

And what was the truth? Yes. I wanted back at Erin, revenge for all the things she’d done to me. But not like this. ‘I don’t know anything about that fire,’ I said. ‘I would never have done anything like that.’

‘Maybe your friends did it behind your back.’ Bad cop this time.

I shook my head. ‘No. We would challenge them to a fight, but we would never do anything like this.’

‘You can speak for all your friends, can you?’

I hesitated a moment too long. I knew it sounded like a lie. ‘Of course I can.’

Even as I said it I was wondering if it was the truth. How well did I know Wizzie? And I was scared. Scared that she was behind it all.

Wizzie’s parents didn’t even appear at the school. They had already consulted their solicitor and Wizzie was taken home to be questioned there.

It was Wizzie my mum blamed. ‘She’s a bad lot. You should keep away from her. I’ve always told you that. I mean, her family’s even got their own solicitor. That tells you how often they’re in trouble.’

‘But I’ve never seen any real badness in her, Mum.’

‘But you think she might have done this. I can see it in your face.’

And that was what I was really afraid of. The others all felt the same.

We all phoned each other later that night, all except Wizzie. I tried her, we all did, but her phone was switched off as usual.

‘We’ll all get the blame if they prove it was Wizzie,’ Grace said. ‘I got a real hiding and it wasn’t even me. How can we prove we weren’t with her?’

Lauren managed to make us laugh. ‘When the police
came to my house my mum kept telling them she would have heard me if I’d got up in the middle of the night to go out and start a fire. She was using sign language at the time. It was so obvious that she wouldn’t have heard a bomb going off. Even the cops laughed.’

But all I could think about was Wizzie. ‘We have to talk to her,’ I said. ‘We have to get the truth out of her.’

Next day I half expected Wizzie not to be at school. But she was. Leaning against the gates, looking nonchalant – a good word to describe Wizzie – nonchalant. As if she hadn’t a care in the world.

‘What happened to you last night? Couldn’t get you on the phone.’

‘Tired. Decided to have an early night.’

Grace asked the question we all wanted to ask. ‘You wouldn’t have done this without telling us, would you?’

‘You mean, like setting fire to Erin’s flat?’ She looked all around us, saw in our faces that maybe we did think that. ‘Let me ask you something. Did you lot do it without telling me?’

‘Of course we didn’t.’

‘Well, if I can believe you, you can believe me.’ Wizzie glared round us all.

Lauren said, ‘You’re right, Wizzie. Sorry I asked.’

‘That’s good enough for me.’ Sonya said.

But it wasn’t good enough for any of us really. Later, when Wizzie was in the toilet, we all shared the same thought. She didn’t actually say she hadn’t done it.

Chapter Fifty-Two

The police might not have any proof against us, but that didn’t matter at school. We were guilty and they all made sure we knew it. If we hadn’t been together I wouldn’t even have come to school.

We walked into the canteen, arm in arm. Heads high, we had nothing to be ashamed of. ‘You’re supposed to be innocent till proved guilty!’ I shouted at all the accusing faces.

‘In your case we’ll make an exception,’ someone called back.

Here I was, once again, being blamed for something I didn’t do. But this time, at least, I had my friends with me, and they knew I wasn’t guilty.

We were left alone. When we walked in somewhere, everyone else walked out.

‘Good!’ Wizzie yelled after them as they all stomped out of the toilets. ‘Prefer privacy anyway!’

She laughed, and was annoyed because none of us joined in. ‘Come on, you’re always telling me to lighten up … Well, I have.’

‘Lighten up, Wizzie? This is serious! Nothing to joke about.’

‘Nobody got hurt. Wasnae that bad.’

I couldn’t believe she’d said that. ‘Nobody got hurt? Wizzie, Erin’s living in a hostel. Her family have lost everything. They had a lovely house, lovely things.’ I remembered how proud Erin’s mother had been of her house. The ornate cornices on the ceiling, the beautiful marble tiles in the close. How the living-room wall was dominated by photos of the family she was so proud of. All gone now. The thought of it suddenly made me feel sick.

‘Material things. Don’t matter. They’ll be insured anyway.’

Why was she saying these things? I felt like I didn’t know Wizzie at all. ‘Is that why you did it?’ I had to say it. She drew her eyes up to mine.

‘What did you say?’

‘She said, “Is that why you did it, Wizzie?” ’ Lauren stood beside me.

‘Just because your family knows every insurance scam in the world, doesn’t mean everybody else does.’ I
couldn’t believe Sonya dared to say that to Wizzie.

Neither could Wizzie. She turned on us all. ‘I’m telling you I had nothing to do with that fire.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘I’m sure.’ But there was something in her face, in the way she said it. She looked guilty. She sounded guilty. I didn’t believe her. I was sure none of the others did either.

No one said a word.

‘Do none of you believe me?’

I was the only one who stared right back at her. ‘I don’t think we do, Wizzie.’

She kicked at the sink. ‘Doesn’t matter what I say. You don’t believe me. Some mates you are.’ Her voice was breaking she was so angry. ‘Who cares? Who needs you lot? I’m way past you anyway. I’ll get better mates than you.’

And she stormed out of the toilets.

Lauren began to cry softly. ‘I can’t believe she just said that. Not Wizzie.’

Sonya cried. ‘My mum says I’ve to keep back from Wizzie from now on.’

‘My dad’ll kill me if I run about with her again,’ Grace said.

We all thought it had been Wizzie, running with another gang. So why was I the one who felt guilty? Because she did it for me. That was why. I’d wanted revenge. Wizzie got it for me.

It was a day I would never forget. There was disgust for us in everyone’s eyes. We couldn’t be suspended because there was no real proof against us, but the pupils didn’t need proof. They had tried and sentenced us all. The whole school had taken Erin’s side and I couldn’t blame them.

Wizzie was the only one who didn’t seem to care. After that incident in the toilets she ignored us. She acted as if she enjoyed the glares and the comments. She just glared right back at them. But there was anger in her too. I’d never seen such anger. Anger at us, her mates. Because we didn’t believe her. But how could we? She was hiding something, and we all knew it.

There was something else too that really bothered me. I could read it in their eyes as they watched Wizzie warily. Now people really were scared of her.

Because if Wizzie could do this … what else could she do?

Chapter Fifty-Three

I walked home alone that day. Lauren went off to rehearsals though she didn’t want to. But big Anil came and called for her and he walked with her to the auditorium. ‘At least someone doesn’t think we’re guilty,’ Sonya said.

For once, Grace hit the nail on the head. ‘No, he doesn’t think Lauren’s guilty.’

But then, I don’t think a lot of people did think Lauren had anything to do with it. Since she’d started rehearsals for the school show she was different. She looked different. She wasn’t one of us any more. Everything was changing.

When school finished, I trudged round the corner towards my tenement, and there, standing at the mouth of my close, was Heather. I glanced around, sure Erin and Rose would be somewhere nearby, ready to pounce.

‘I’m on my own,’ Heather said, her voice trembling.
In fact, she was trembling all over. I thought it was with anger until I came closer and saw the tears in her eyes. Big fat tears. And I knew then it wasn’t anger I heard in her voice. It was fear.

Fear? What was Heather afraid of? Me?

‘What are you here for?’ I asked her.

When she spoke, her voice was a sob. ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’ She was crying now, talking through her sobs. ‘I didn’t mean for all this to happen. I’m so sorry, Hannah.’ She took a deep breath before she spoke again. ‘It was me,’ she said.

‘It was you?’ What was she talking about? Then, it was as if my brain exploded. She was talking about the fire! Heather had started the fire at Erin’s!

The tears were tumbling down her face.

‘You set fire to Erin’s house?’ I asked.

She drew in a great sob and shook her head violently. ‘No, no. Of course not that. I didn’t do that.’

‘What then?’

And even before she spoke I suddenly knew what she was going to say.

‘I was the one who told everybody about Erin.’

It was as if the world stopped dead. Erin’s secret. It had been Heather all along.