Unfortunately for James, the two big rumours currently spreading around campus concerned him.
Rumour number one was that he was going to try and get off with Mr Large’s daughter. Rumour number two was that Hayley Large-Brooks was overweight. As is the way with rumours, the truth had become exaggerated and there was at least one group of red-shirts who’d heard that Hayley weighed over two hundred kilos and that James had to have sex with her in order to win a £50 bet.
The carers were used to fads on campus: nobody went fishing for two years then suddenly twenty boys started going every day. Scoubidous, Furbys, Beyblade and Pokemon had all done the rounds; but the staff were still surprised to discover a sudden appetite for bowling.
The queue for the minibus that typically took a dozen kids to the local bowling alley stretched back more than twenty metres and contained close to a quarter of the kids on campus.
James was embarrassed and Kyle was fuming. Someone had leaked the plan and if any of the staff found out they’d get in trouble. Worst of all, Mr Large still had friends on campus and if word of their revenge got back to him, Meatball would be in serious danger.
‘It’s a disaster,’ Lauren said, as she stood by the fountain outside the main building looking at the queue of cherubs. James, Kyle, Bruce and Rat were with her. ‘What idiot opened their big mouth?’
But Lauren herself hadn’t been able to resist telling her friend Tiffany; Rat and Andy had told a couple of mates in confidence; Callum and Connor might have mentioned something and Kerry had been overheard whilst badmouthing James in the dining-room.
And of course, some of those people had gone on to tell their friends in the strictest confidence, and by the time everyone had eaten dinner, most of campus had some idea of what was about to go down.
‘There’s no way we can go to the bowling alley with all that lot,’ James said. ‘I’ll have twenty idiots gawping at me the whole time and Hayley will suspect in ten seconds flat.’
‘We need a change of venue,’ Kyle said. ‘What about Alien World?’
Alien World was one of those places where you put on plastic vests and shoot laser beams at one another, whilst running between chipboard partitions with spaceships and three-eyed monsters painted on them. As campus had a live-ammunition shooting range and a paintballing arena that was fifty times cooler, nobody from CHERUB ever went there.
‘Sounds perfect,’ James nodded. ‘But do you reckon Hayley will go for it?’
Kyle shrugged. ‘I can get a people carrier out of the car pool and drive you there. But what excuse are we gonna use?’
Rat was a master of excuses. ‘Tell them that you called the bowling alley to book a couple of lanes, but that it’s all booked up,’ he said.
‘But it’s Monday night,’ Lauren noted. ‘It’s always empty on a Monday.’
Rat shrugged. ‘Then say that there’s a special event on: a works outing or something.’
James liked Rat’s idea. He pulled his phone out of his jacket and hit the last number button to call Hayley.
‘Hi, it’s me again. Have you left home yet …? Great. Listen, you’re not gonna believe this but I called the bowling alley to reserve a couple of lanes and the whole joint has been booked out to some big party of computer salesmen. I was wondering if you fancied going to Alien World instead?’
Hayley burst out laughing. ‘How old am I, nine? Besides, I get completely shagged out running around in those places.’
James looked up from the phone and mouthed: ‘She’s not buying it.’ Lauren and the others all looked disappointed.
‘Well is there anywhere else you can think of?’
‘Are your mates going to Alien World?’ Hayley asked.
‘Yeah,’ James said uncertainly. ‘At least I think they are.’
‘Tell you what then,’ Hayley said. ‘There’s a steakhouse on the other side of the lot to Alien World, next to KFC. We can go there while your mates are in Alien World. They do an all-you-can-eat buffet for six-ninety-nine on a Monday, but you’ll have to pay my share, ’cos I’m broke.’
‘Cool,’ James said enthusiastically. ‘That sounds perfect, just you and me.’
‘Well it’ll probably be my mate Rosie and her boyfriend Dean as well, but we can always ditch ’em if things get interesting.’
James got carried away for a moment. ‘Yeah,’ he grinned. ‘Maybe they’ll get interesting.’
He was ecstatic as he ended the call and looked at his friends.