CHERUB: Brigands M.C. - Robert Muchamore Page 0,55

outside, making sure nobody was around, and then hurled the pack through an open window.

‘You’re a dog,’ Lauren grinned, as Chris caught his balance. ‘Go fetch.’

Chris faced Lauren off with bulging eyes. ‘Bitch,’ he said furiously. ‘What did you do that for?’

But the gang was now laughing at Chris rather than with him, and there was no way he could kick off against a girl in the middle of a crowded common room. His face turned red as he steamed towards the fire doors to retrieve his pack before anyone else got hold of it.

‘Nice move,’ Jane said triumphantly. Anna gave Lauren a big smile. ‘Chris has been asking for something like that all year.’

When Chris came back in with his pack, Joe conveniently forgot that he’d laughed as loud as any of the other lads when Chris had first cracked the penis line.

‘Why don’t you go and annoy someone else?’ Joe asked acidly.

Although Chris was the biggest in the group, Joe was clearly the alpha-male and everyone bunched up so that Chris had nowhere to stand.

‘Gotta go to the toilet before registration anyway,’ Chris said pathetically, and he walked away.

Dante was still on his own and Lauren realised she could introduce him now that she’d won the group over.

‘John, come over here,’ Lauren shouted, before looking back at Anna and Jane. ‘This is my baby brother,’ she explained.

Dante smiled as he sidled up to the table beside Anna.

‘So how come you’re Lauren’s baby brother if you’re both in Year Eight?’ Anna asked.

‘Twins,’ Dante explained. ‘I’m a whole sixteen minutes younger.’

‘Love the Irish accent,’ Jane said. ‘How come you’re different?’

‘Got expelled from my school in London,’ Dante explained. ‘So my dad booted my butt into some boarding school in Ireland for two and a half years.’

Dante saw that the other boys were looking his way. Joe narrowed his eyes.

‘You look vaguely familiar,’ Joe said. ‘Have we met before?’

Dante’s heart sped up, but he’d been told to expect this. ‘Have you ever lived in London?’ he asked.

Joe shook his head. ‘Nah, you just look a bit like some kid I used to know. But he was a carrot head and he wouldn’t show his face in these parts.’

The bell went for first lesson a few seconds later. Dante was pleased to find that Jane and a couple of the lads were in his class, but he hung back and whispered to Lauren before they split up.

‘Fast work, sister.’

‘Relax and be confident,’ Lauren nodded. ‘Don’t be pushy, make them want to be your friend, not the other way around.’

Dante had done the same training as Lauren and was tempted to tell her that he could have done the same thing. But Lauren had done a textbook job, ingratiating herself with the coolest kids in Year Eight before they’d even heard the school bell.

*

James had to register for his courses at Crossroads Sixth Form Centre. To make life easy he picked maths and physics courses that he’d already passed. He sat a maths catch-up test to assess where he was in relation to his classmates and deliberately flunked several questions so that he didn’t appear overly smart.

At lunchtime he found some of the kids he’d met at Marina Heights the night before. They all sat on the grass around a big tree with salads and sandwiches brought from home and took the mickey out of James because he was the only one who ate a dodgy burger and cold fries from the canteen.

He made a point of sitting near Ashley and smiling a lot whenever her boyfriend Julian was around. James didn’t particularly fancy her, but he was a good looking guy and it amused him to piss Julian off. But for the purposes of the mission, Julian’s friend Nigel was more interesting.

Although it was warm, Nigel wore boots and a black leather jacket. The sixth-form centre was in a remote location and kids who didn’t want to wait for buses or parental pick-ups needed their own wheels. Battered Citroens and Fords ruled the car park. A few kids lived near enough to ride push bikes and there was an area given over to motorbikes and scooters.

James’ 250cc Honda might not impress outlaws like the Brigands, but in a sixth-form car park it looked full-on amidst 100cc mopeds and cheap Chinese and Indian scooters. After they’d eaten, James wandered amongst the bikes to show Nigel his Honda.

Nigel introduced James to a boy called Ben who owned a 600cc Kawasaki. He was in the