your upcoming recruitment mission. Zara Asker (Mission Controller)
James thought about sending an e-mail to Kerry, but het sent her three since shet last replied and the only news he had was about the fight at the bowling alley, which he didnt feel like going into.
He felt too lazy to go down to the canteen, so James flicked on Sky Sports News, poured himself a bowl of cereal and got milk and orange juice from his miniature fridge. There was a knock on the door while he ate.
Rot locked,?James munched.
Kyle and Bruce came in, both dressed in shorts and trainers and holding carrier bags with a towel and a change of clothes in them.
Irent you ready??Kyle asked.
James looked at the clock on his bedside table. Torry,?he said, i never realised it was time.?
James went to the fitness training session with Kyle and Bruce every Sunday morning. Most boys preferred playing football or rugby, but after thirteen years of missing open goals, tripping in the mud and getting smacked in the face by balls that came out of nowhere, het reluctantly accepted that ball games were not his forte.
i抣l get some clothes on,?James said, as he sat on the edge of his bed and grabbed one of the crusty sports socks scattered over his floor.
Lay to go at the bowling alley last night, James,?Bruce sneered.
Hou would have been involved if you hadnt already been on punishment detail in the kitchens,?James sneered back.
Heah well,?Bruce smiled, Better spending a couple of hours down on my knees cleaning out the ovens, than a month stuck in some god-awful childrene home. Mind you, ite always a shame to miss a punch-up, whatever the consequences.?
Hou know what??James said, as he pulled on a white sock that didnt match the first one. i dont see what all this fuss is about recruitment missions. It cant be that bad being sent off to some childrene home to try and get another kid to join CHERUB.?
Kyle, whot been on five recruitment missions for his many sins, nodded. Theyte not awful. Theyte just really boring and a lot of the kids you meet in those places are complete scumbags; nicking your stuff and that. One time I got sent to this place in Newcastle. I had guys starting on me every five minutes. I was there for three weeks and I must have been in a row every day.?
Cid you recruit anyone??
Kyle nodded. Those two blonde twins with the Geordie accents. Remember I pointed them out to you? They were only seven at the time, but they had more brains than all the other kids in that dump combined.?
*
There were three gymnasiums on CHERUB campus. Fitness training was taught in the oldest of them, which was still known as the Boys?Gym, from the days when physical education was a single-sex affair. James had a soft spot for this dilapidated building, with its mahogany wall clock permanently stuck at a quarter to five, dim light bulbs suspended from long wires and shrunken floorboards that creaked underfoot. His favourite feature was the hand-painted sign hanging over the entrance:
Any boy bringing in mud or dirt on
his plimsolls will be thrashed.
P.T. Bivott (Sports Master)
Todaye teacher was Meryl Spencer, a retired Olympic sprinter, who could think of a couple of kids she wouldnt have minded thrashing if corporal punishment at CHERUB hadnt been banned more than twenty years earlier.
The gym had been laid out with forty stations. Some were as simple as a foam mat with a laminated card on it saying Push Ups. Others were more complex: traffic cones set out for shuttle runs, a chest-press machine, a chin-up bar.
The thirty kids in the class picked a station to start at. They worked it for two minutes, after which Meryl would blast her whistle and the kids would run to the next. The whole circuit took eighty minutes and the only relief from exhaustion came at the two rest stops along the way. Anyone who looked slack found Meryl or her assistant yelling in their face, calling them soft and threatening them with a good boot up the backside.
Eight boys piled into the showers when the session ended. James towelled off and put on clean jeans, then flexed his chest muscles and biceps in front of the steamed-up mirror.
Het sprouted eight centimetres in the last three months and packed on muscle since starting regular strength training.
Bruce flicked James?back with his towel. Hou little poser,?Bruce grinned. Ttop poncing about.?
James turned away and grinned as he rolled