Schoolgirl Secrets

Chapter Six: Shock

"Jenifer?"

"Jane?"

"What on earth are you doing here?"

"What on earth are you doing here?"

"I followed Miss Brightlight,"

"I followed a starling!"

Jenifer disentangled herself from her best friend and got to her feet, helping Jane up as she did so. They both looked around warily. Jenifer felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she realised what a racket they must have made. Sure enough, the two girls could hear many people stampeding towards them from every angle behind the closed doors.

"This way!" Jenifer hissed, panic stricken. 

They hurried as quietly as they could towards the right side of the corridor and slid themselves into hiding places; Jenifer into a large crack in the wall and Jane behind a big wooden box.

Jenifer peered out. She could see people flooding out of all the doors into the damp, musty corridor. They conversed in low voices and began to pace up and down, round and round. Jenifer could see that they were all carrying huge machine guns. The fifty or so men carrying the lethal weapons were all wearing tight white suits with black belts and boots that came up to their knees. On their bald heads they wore white motorcycle helmets, complete with plastic face guard. They all had star shaped silver badges on their chests but the writing on them was too small for Jenifer to read.

She watched them poking their guns into all the nooks and crannies down and corridor, drawing ever closer. Suddenly one of them seemed to have noticed something, and Jenifer saw with a thrill of horror; that Jane's foot had slipped and was in plain sight, lying on the carpet.

One man, who was especially tall and formidable, came walking slowly towards to two cowering girls. Jane didn't seem to have noticed that her left foot was wandering. The man crouched down very slowly and sniffed. That was it for Jane. She screamed, leapt up in the air and evidentially took the man in the suit by surprise! Jane flew down the corridor and out of the door. Jenifer sprinted after her.

As they ran through the swirling junk, they could hear pounding footsteps behind them as the men gave chase.

"I hope they don't start firing at us!" said Jane in panic.

"Don't give them any ideas! We're already in a pickle!" hollered Jenifer and ran even faster.

They hurled themselves round a bend and started sprinting down a cobbled street. Jenifer was starting to recognise where she was. She had followed the starling down here. Looking quickly above her; Jenifer saw the pipe protruding from the wall that she had climbed onto.

"Quick! Up here!" Jenifer hissed. Jane did a double take and helped Jenifer up. Then Jenifer pulled Jane up by her hand. The men charged past them, turned the corner; and disappeared. 

Jenifer and Jane could have laughed out loud with relief. But at that moment the window above them opened and an angry old face appeared there, peering down upon the two girls.

"What the blazes are you two doing on my bleeding wall!" he bellowed.

"I-I'm s-sorry sir!" Jenifer stammered. "We were just finding a place to h-hide."

"Well," said the man, shaking his fist in their direction. "Bleeding hide somewhere else!"

Jenifer and Jane didn't need telling twice. They scampered down the pole as fast as they could and ran straight into the other direction.

"I know where to go from here," panted Jenifer.

"Yeah," said Jane. "Where?"

"Just follow me,"

The two girls proceeded through cobbled streets and around tight corners past plain brick houses. Eventually the smoke seemed to lessen. Square patches of grass in random places and trees fenced off by wood were appearing.

"I know where I am," said Jenifer.

Pretty soon; Honeybee close came into sight. Jenifer started counting numbers.

"There," said Jane. "Bye!"

And she scrambled into her house. As Jenifer jogged down the path she thought about the welcome she could expect when she returned to number sixteen five hours later than boundaries accepted.

Jenifer knocked three times upon the red painted door. She heard hurried footsteps, the sound of a doorknob turning and then a relieved scream.

Mary Carrick was framed in the doorway, her dressing gown on back to front. Her long hair was a mess; lying in tangles halfway down her back. She had lipstick smeared across one cheek and her flip-flops on the wrong feet.

"Where on earth have you been?!" she yelled, flinging herself upon her daughter. "It's almost three o'clock in the morning! Miriam's been in bed for hours! Your father's called the police and he's out searching for you and that wretched dog hasn't stopped whining since you left for school!"

Jenifer stepped over the threshold without saying a word and walked glumly into the sitting room. She tossed herself down into an armchair and reached for the television remote. Mary knocked it out of her hand.  

"Explain yourself!" she exploded, her petrified face suddenly turning to a furious look of incandescent rage.

"I got lost," lied Jenifer. It sounded very lame, even coming out of her own mouth.

Her mother snorted and tossed her hair like a charging elephant.

"Lost!" she said scornfully. "Oh yes! Because it's so easy to get lost in this tiny little village! The school bus stop is a five minute walk round the corner from here! Honeybee close is made up of fifty houses and an A&E building. It's huge! Simply gigantic!" Now she was sounding sarcastic. "Oh. Of course. You were out at the shops! As if. So where were you." She snapped back to anger.   

 Jenifer took one, deep breath, trying to look as if she had to confess, whilst really she was desperately thinking up a convincing cover story.

"Ok," sighed Jenifer, looking resigned. "Ok." She took several breaths and then said;

"I was at George's house,"

Mary looked agog at her daughter.

"George's house?" she asked, confused. "Why were you round there?"

"He asked me to dinner," said Jenifer, blushing despite herself. Mary obviously took this as embarrassment but Jenifer knew it was because her tale was so stupid.

"Your first boyfriend!" squealed Mary, flinging her arms around Jenifer's neck and shaking her side to side. "We must have him to dinner tomorrow!"

Jenifer, panic-stricken, cried out;

"No!" wildly.

"What do you mean no?" said Mary in confusion.

"He-he said his parents didn't want him to leave the house," said Jenifer uncomfortably. "I already asked him. I can see him at school though."

Mary didn't look remotely put-out. On the contrary; she beamed and said,

"You little joker Jenny!" and she pinched Jenifer's cheek hard!

 Jenifer groaned both with pain and exasperation.

"Mum he can't come over!" she said, raising her voice a little.

"Oh alright then," said Mary, beaming and cuffing Jenifer hard around the head. "But he can't evade us forever!"