CHERUB: Class A - Robert Muchamore Page 0,10

got sent home,’ James said. ‘We were the ones who tried to break the fight up.’
He noticed Lauren and her best friend, Bethany, with their noses squished against the outside of the window behind Mac’s desk.
‘As I understand from Meryl Spencer,’ Mac said, ‘the four of you came back from a training exercise, went into your room and began taunting one another and bickering. Is that true?’
The kids gave a mix of shrugs and nods. Outside, Lauren and Bethany were sticking their tongues out and mouthing rude words.
‘As far as I’m concerned, that makes all four of you responsible for what happened,’ Mac said. ‘Gentle ribbing leads to teasing, which leads to nastiness and, as in this instance, it sometimes leads to violence and an eight-thousand-pound bill for an air ambulance. While each of you is serving your punishment, I want you to reflect that you’d all be enjoying another two weeks of holiday if you’d had the sense to behave decently towards one another instead of winding each other up. Is that understood?’
The three kids nodded. James hated how Mac’s way of twisting the facts around made him feel partly responsible for Kerry getting hurt. What made him even more annoyed was Lauren sticking a sheet of paper up to the window that said JAMES SUCKS in giant black letters. Gabrielle couldn’t stop herself smirking.
‘By way of punishments, I want the three of you to report to the head gardener after you finish lessons every afternoon. We don’t have enough staff to give the lawns the attention they deserve in the summer, but you guys putting in two hours’ mowing a day for the next month will certainly help.’
James groaned to himself. With extra fitness training in the mornings and mowing in the evenings, the next month was turning into a nightmare.
‘Any questions?’ Mac asked.
The kids shook their heads and stood up to leave.
‘And James,’ Mac said.
James turned back. ‘What?’
Mac raised a picture frame off his desk and turned it towards James. It showed Mac, standing with his wife, his six grown-up children and an ocean of little grandkids.
‘James, would you kindly inform your sister that the glass in this picture frame gives me a very good reflection of everything that’s going on outside my window. I want to see Lauren and Bethany in this office and you can tell them that they’ll be joining you on gardening duty for the rest of the week.’
5. SLEEP
TWO WEEKS LATER
James got up at 5.30 a.m., despite his whole body begging him to stay under the duvet. He put on his running kit and headed to the athletics track as the sun rose over campus. It took him an hour to run twenty-five laps: a distance of ten kilometres. He showered, then traded some homework with Shakeel over breakfast. Lessons went from 8.30 until 2.00, with half an hour for lunch. After lessons, there was Karate practice topped off with forty-five minutes’ circuit training. Boiling hot, James downed half a litre of orange juice and collected one of the ride-on mowers from the gardeners’ storeroom. It wasn’t hard driving the mower, but the sun was on him the whole time and the grass pollen made his eyes itch.
It was 6.15 p.m. by the time James got his first chance to relax. Dinner was a social event, with everyone mucking about and catching up on gossip. Most cherubs had done their homework before dinner and had the evening to themselves, but the mowing meant James hadn’t even got started. Homework was supposed to be two hours a day. Some teachers were decent. Others piled on so much work it took heaps longer.
When James got back to his room it was gone 7.00. He sat at his desk, spread out his textbooks and opened his homework diary. In the two weeks he’d been back on campus, James had acquired a backlog of homework that sucked up every second of his free time.
It was a warm evening, so James left his window open. A breeze clattered into the plastic slats of his blind. James’ eyes were gluey and the words in his textbook drifted out of shape. His head slumped on the desk and he dozed off before he’d written a word.
*
Kyle lived across the hall. He was nearly fifteen, but he wasn’t much bigger than James.
‘Wakey wakey,’ Kyle said, flicking James’ ear.
James’ head shot up from his desk. He opened his eyes, inhaled deeply and looked at his watch. It was gone ten o’clock.