CHERUB: Brigands M.C. - Robert Muchamore Page 0,38

‘We should start a petition for a no homework on your birthday rule.’

‘No homework ever would be better,’ Lauren smiled, as the pair headed towards the doors of their adjoining bedrooms. ‘And free butterscotch ice cream in every classroom.’

‘Yay,’ Bethany agreed. ‘And all lessons to be taught by Rafael Nadal look-alikes with their shirts off.’

‘I like the way you think,’ Lauren laughed.

Bethany opened her door, and then shot backwards in fright as a bang and a blue flash blasted out of her doorway. It was followed by orange and green sparks, a whizzing sound and a wall-trembling thud. As she stood shielding her ears a grey cloud billowed into the corridor and set off a smoke alarm.

‘What the bloody hell?’ Lauren gawped.

Bethany’s twelve-year-old brother Jake and his friend Kevin Sumner had jumped out of the room directly opposite and videoed the firework display on a camera phone.

‘Takedown!’ Jake shouted.

‘You little dickhead,’ Bethany shouted back as she wafted the smoke away from her face. ‘Look at my room! Everything’s gonna stink of smoke. You could have started a fire!’

‘It was only a few fireworks in a biscuit tin,’ Jake grinned. ‘We had fire extinguishers on standby.’

As Bethany rushed into her room to open the balcony doors and clear the smoke, a pair of hands grabbed her from behind, giving her a second fright. The hands were followed by a gentle kiss on the neck.

‘Didn’t you appreciate that?’ Bethany’s fourteenyear-old boyfriend Andy Lagan grinned. ‘If you think it was loud out there you should have been in here. My ears are ringing.’

‘Serves you right,’ Bethany yelled indignantly, as Andy peeled off a set of eye goggles. ‘At least you were expecting it.’

But she managed a smile as her bathroom door came open and bodies began to pour out singing Happy birthday to you. All of her friends were there, including Lauren’s boyfriend Rat, a whole bunch of girls and a few older kids.

Lauren’s sixteen-year-old brother James Adams stood in the middle of the gathering holding a chocolate cake with candles ablaze and Happy Fourteenth Birthday piped across the top in icing.

‘You look like a tomato and you smell like dog poo,’ Jake sang noisily, as he followed Lauren into the room. Andy sheepishly phoned down to ground-floor reception to explain that the building wasn’t on fire and that the siren was a false alarm.

‘I hate you evil bastards,’ Bethany giggled, and she plunged two fingers into the cake and wiped a brown smear across James Adams’ cheek. She licked chocolate frosting off her fingers and told everyone that it tasted great before hugging a couple of the girls.

‘Why wasn’t I in on this?’ Lauren complained.

‘You and your humongous trap,’ Jake answered.

James placed the cake on Bethany’s desk beside a pile of forks and paper plates. She’d already opened some gifts at breakfast time, but there were more presents on her bed.

Feeling happy, Bethany put an arm around boyfriend Andy and brother Jake and smiled for another picture.

‘My idiot brother and my idiot boyfriend,’ Bethany grinned. ‘But I love ’em both really.’

*

Eight floors down, thirteen-year-old Dante Welsh – formerly Dante Scott – sat in Zara Asker’s office. Zara had been promoted to chairman of CHERUB two years earlier and was currently five months pregnant. Pictures of four-year-old Joshua and two-year-old Tiffany adorned the desk and the window ledge behind her head.

‘What’s it feel like being back?’ Zara asked.

‘Weird,’ Dante admitted, speaking with a slight Belfast accent as he ran his hands through shoulder-length red hair.

‘I looked up the stats,’ Zara said, moving away from her desk towards a roll-top cabinet beside the fireplace at the opposite end of the office. ‘Thirty-four months is the second longest mission on record and easily the longest of any agent currently serving on campus.’

‘I was only supposed to be gone for six weeks,’ Dante smiled. ‘I met some good people, but I wouldn’t be too sorry if I never went near another Belfast housing estate again.’

‘And the thumb?’ Zara asked.

Dante held his left thumb in the air, showing a nasty scar and stitch marks that ran all around. ‘Feeling’s almost back to normal. That surgeon did a blinding job sewing it back on.’

‘Your mission controller, Eimer, said you worked hard to keep your fitness levels up.’

‘Yeah,’ Dante said. ‘I didn’t want to come back to campus and have old Mr Large get his teeth into me. So I bought some discs and a weight bench. I went running whenever I could and I even got some sparring