CHERUB: Class A - Robert Muchamore Page 0,18

gang from another estate turning up and starting a fight.
Apparently, a kid had been stabbed in the playground a couple of months earlier. He’d ended up with between eight and two hundred stitches, depending on what version of the story you believed.
‘This is boring,’ Kerry said, after half an hour of standing around without anything happening except a lot of talk. ‘We better go home.’
‘You go if you want,’ James said. ‘I’m staying to see if a fight breaks out. It might be good.’
‘It might also be dangerous,’ Kerry said. ‘I’ve seen a couple of kids with knives and Zara told us to be home before …’
James interrupted, mocking Kerry’s voice. ‘Zara told us da-de-da-da … Chill out, Kerry, what’s the point having a curfew unless you’re gonna break it?’
Kerry looked at Nicole for moral support. ‘Are you coming?’
‘No way,’ Nicole said. ‘I want to see some action.’
They all waited another twenty minutes. A guy aged about fifteen came over and started chatting up Nicole. Then someone’s mobile rang and a rumour shot around. There was a car coming.
‘So what?’ Kerry asked.
‘Stolen car,’ one of the local kids explained. ‘Joyriders. They usually put on a good show.’
Fifty-odd kids piled out of the playground and hurried to a deserted car park a few hundred metres down the road. A cheer went up when everyone spotted the headlights. It was a Subaru Impreza turbo, metallic silver with a giant wing on the back. The driver did a couple of handbrake turns, spinning the car and stinking up the air with tyre smoke. Then he overdid it and smacked into a bollard, leaving a massive graze down one side of the car. The audience whooped and cheered, even though he’d nearly splattered a couple of girls standing astride their bikes.
‘These guys are nutters,’ James giggled. ‘I’d love to have a go at that.’
Kerry gave him a filthy look. ‘It’s so stupid. They could kill themselves, or an innocent bystander.’
‘Loosen up, Kerry,’ James said. ‘You sound like an old fart.’
The Subaru squealed to a halt a few metres away. As the cloud of tyre smoke cleared, the driver and his mate opened the doors and ran around the car to switch seats. They both looked about fifteen.
‘Where are our babes?’ the new driver shouted.
A couple of tarty-looking girls jogged to the car and clambered in the back. When they were inside, the driver lit up the rear tyres and started driving circuits around the estate. He skidded on every corner, nearly losing the back end a couple of times on sharp turns. When the car was out of sight, you could still hear the engine and squealing tyres. The joyriders kept coming back to the car park for more adulation from their audience.
The excitement level went into overload when a police siren went off. James was hoping to see a chase, but the joyriders didn’t fancy their chances. They slammed on the brakes, jumped out and merged into the crowd of kids as three police cars turned into the car park.
Everyone started running. One of the guys they’d been playing football with tugged James by his T-shirt.
‘Don’t stand there gawping,’ he said urgently. ‘The pigs will bust you if they get hold of you.’
Kerry, Kyle and Nicole were already gone. James sprinted off, but the whole of Thornton estate looked identical in the dark and he couldn’t remember the way home. He ended up in the centre of the estate, in a large paved square with lanes of identical houses branching off in six different directions.
‘You know which way?’ a voice asked breathlessly.
James spun around. It was a massive relief to see Kyle. Kerry and Nicole were with him.
‘We can ask one of the policemen,’ Kerry said.
‘Are you totally brain-dead?’ James asked, tapping his head. ‘The police are looking for two boys and two girls. They’ll nick us.’
Kerry looked perplexed. ‘But we didn’t steal the car.’
‘Kerry,’ Kyle said, laughing, ‘how naive are you? In an area like this, cops and kids are like oil and water: they don’t mix.’
‘Well,’ Kerry said indignantly, ‘none of this would have happened if we’d gone home when I said.’
‘Oh, shut your smug hole,’ James said.
‘So, which way?’ Nicole asked.
*
They were all out of breath when they burst through the front door. It was pure luck finding the right street at the second attempt, without bumping into any cops. Zara leaned out of the kitchen into the hallway.
‘Ahh… Here they are. My little monsters,’ Zara grinned. ‘Late as usual.’
The