to go to bed in a minute. Can I quickly brush my teeth?’
Bruce tutted. ‘Go on then, but don’t take all night.’
Kerry padded barefoot into the bathroom and squeezed out a ball of toothpaste. Bruce and James waited by the open doorway in their boxers while she brushed. Kerry tried to control her laughing, but she couldn’t resist having another dig.
‘Fourteen kilometres,’ she shrieked, spluttering white toothpaste foam all over the bathroom mirror.
Bruce couldn’t take any more abuse.
‘Let’s see how you like being laughed at,’ he shouted.
As Kerry bent over the tap to rinse her mouth, Bruce dunked her head. He only meant to nudge her so she got water over her face, but he did it too hard. Kerry’s front tooth hit the tap and she sprung up furiously.
‘You idiot,’ Kerry stormed, nervously feeling inside her mouth. ‘I think you’ve chipped my tooth.’
Bruce realised he’d overdone it, but he wasn’t about to go apologising to someone who’d spent the last ten minutes taking the mickey out of him.
‘Good,’ he snapped. ‘Serves you right.’
Kerry grabbed a glass off the sink and threw it at Bruce’s head. He ducked and the glass shattered against the wall.
‘Cool it,’ James said. ‘This isn’t worth fighting over.’
‘Do you think I’m gonna grow a new tooth?’ Kerry screamed.
She stepped forward and gave Bruce an almighty shove. Bruce adopted a fighting stance.
‘You want a piece of me?’ he shouted.
Kerry looked ferocious as she wiped her lips on to the sleeve of her nightshirt.
‘If you want to get your arse kicked by a girl for the second time today,’ she snarled, ‘that’s fine by me.’
James wedged himself between Kerry and Bruce. He was taller and stockier than the two kids he was trying to keep apart.
‘Get out the way, James,’ Bruce said.
‘I’m going for Bruce whether you like it or not,’ Kerry said, drilling James with her eyes. ‘If you’re in my way, you’ll get damaged.’
James could beat either Kerry or Bruce for strength, say in an arm-wrestle, but fighting was more about skill. Kerry and Bruce had done combat training at CHERUB for five years, whereas James had come to CHERUB less than a year earlier. He’d be out of his depth in a stand-up fight against either of them.
‘You’re not fighting,’ James said unconvincingly, hoping Kerry was bluffing. ‘I’m staying right here.’
Kerry stepped forward, swept James’ ankle away and jammed two fingers into his ribs. It was an elementary technique for knocking someone over without seriously hurting them. James crawled towards his bed as violence exploded over his head.
Kerry was off balance after knocking James out of the way. Bruce used this to his advantage, putting Kerry out of action with one blow. Kerry staggered forward, gasping for breath as the end music for The Simpsons came on the TV.
Bruce thought the fight was as good as won. He moved to put Kerry in a headlock, but she’d played Bruce for a sucker. She quickly regained her balance, spun out of the way, hooked a foot around Bruce’s ankles and swept his legs away.
James clambered on to his mattress; half horrified, half curious to see who would win. There was no way for him or Gabrielle to get help: the fight was blocking the doorway.
Within seconds of hitting the floor, years of self-defence training collapsed to the level of two drunks grappling on a pavement. Bruce had a clump of Kerry’s hair wound around his wrist and Kerry was dragging her nails down Bruce’s cheek. They thrashed about, cursing one another and eventually rolling into the TV table. The first couple of knocks rocked the TV close to the edge. The third made the TV topple, face first, into the floor. The glass screen cracked and orange sparks spewed across the floor. Some of them hit Bruce and Kerry’s bare legs, then the lights went out and the ceiling fans went silent.
James looked out of the window. All the lights outside had gone too. The exploding TV had fused the electricity for the whole hostel. The fight kept going, but all James could discern were shadows and grunts.
Now Bruce and Kerry were over by the TV, James had an opportunity to get help. He sprang off his bed and grabbed the door handle. Gabrielle thought the same thing at the same moment and they nearly collided in the dark.
The corridor was tinged with green emergency escape lighting. Kids had their heads sticking out of their rooms, all asking each other why the electricity had gone