problem like a missing limb or a pickaxe handle sticking out the back of your head.
James decided that his only option was to bunk off. As soon as the bell went for lunch, he headed out the main gate towards the small parade of shops with hundreds of other kids and just kept on going. James didn't know the area well, but the school bus passed through a village with a decent-sized shopping street a couple of kilometres from the school and thatt where he headed.
It was a narrow road without a pavement. The traffic was light, but it didn't hang around and you had to keep your wits about you when you walked around a bend. The sun was out and the combo of country air and brisk walking cleared James?head. Her only managed a few mouthfuls of cereal at breakfast and by the time he arrived at the shops her started to feel properly hungry.
James?first thought was to wonder where he could buy vegan food. But as he passed a travel agentt and a bakert with gingerbread men and massive cream cakes stacked in the window, he realised that nobody was around and that he could eat whatever he liked. He felt inside his blazer pockets and was relieved to discover a fiver and a couple of quid in change.
Even better, he spotted a burger bar across the road. It was old school, with laminated menus standing on the Formica tables and ketchup dispensers shaped like giant tomatoes. It was busy, but not packed and the waitress told James to sit wherever he liked.
Ten minutes later she slid a Coke and an oval plate in front of him. It was stacked up with fries and a massive dual patty cheeseburger filled with cooked mushrooms and grated onion.
James was still dehydrated from the booze the night before and downed half of his Coke before grabbing the burger and tearing out an enormous bite.
It was easily the tastiest thing her eaten in days and he loved the hot trickle of fat running out of the meat and the sharp, crunchy onions. But as he moved in to take the second bite, he looked at the two slices of ground-up beef and started to wonder.
He remembered reading that hamburger is made from the tough old meat that comes from dairy cows once they get too old to produce milk. Milk machines, one book called them: kept crammed in tiny metal stalls for most of their lives, pumped with hormones and antibiotics, constantly impregnated to keep the milk flowing. As James looked at his melting cheese, he remembered a picture in a book of a cow with an infected udder, and stories of how the bacteria-filled pus leaks into the milk.
Nowt your food, young man??the waitress asked.
Mmm, good,?James nodded, finally taking his second bite.
It was as good as any burger James had ever eaten, but the background reading for the mission and the talk amongst the activists made it hard to separate the images of cruelty from the food he was putting in his mouth.
James had no intention of going vegetarian, but as he tucked into his lunch he had the uncomfortable realisation that his conscience was going to nag him every time he ate a piece of meat from now on.
18. DINNER
James didn't want to get nabbed sneaking back on to the school bus, but that left him at the mercy of a local bus service that ran once an hour and only got within four kilometres of Corbyn Copse. He walked a couple of kilometres from the adjacent village before he got lucky and was picked up by one of the elderly protestors.
Even so, it was nearly six when James came through the door and he expected a blasting from Zara. But she wasn't back from campus and instead he found Ryan and Lauren working on the evening meal in the kitchen. Ryan was telling some of his old Zebra 84 anecdotes and Lauren lapped them up as she chopped onions and dropped them into sizzling oil.
T called your mobile about six times,?Lauren said. Miss Hunter came to my class and asked if I knew why you weren't in PE.?
The truth was obvious, so James didn't even attempt a lie. My head was killing me so I bunked it.?
Tarat gonna love you. You're getting a letter home and youre got to go to the head of yeart office tomorrow.?
Mabulous,?James said wearily, as he slumped at the dining table. Mind you,