Children Of The Crucible

Blair

Blair's PoV

I turned and walked away from the girl, heading over to my best mate Tommy's house. It's great having a pal who literally stays round the corner from you. I approached the door and let myself in- I scarcely bother to knock anymore since I'm here practically every other day and everyone in the house knows who I am. At this point, I should have my own set of keys. It's hardly likely though. I mean, I don't even have keys to my own house thanks to my extremely untrusting parents.

"Hey." I shouted up the stairs

"Hi Blair."

I took my shoes off and walked across the spotless white fur rug. Tommy's family aren't exactly posh, despite the money they have, but they do like to keep everything neat as a pin. His dad is a lawyer and his mum is a secretary somewhere.

I walked up the stairs towards Tommy's room and put my head round the door. As usual, he was sprawled across his bed playing his Xbox, his school bag abandoned in the corner of the room.

"Hey, what's up?"

He put his controller down and turned to face me. "Nothing much, sick of school. I have two biology assignments to be finished for next week. I'm so bored of that class. I only picked it because I thought it would be a bit of a skive."

"Well it is a science- why would you ever think it could be a skive? I guess it is one of the easier sciences, but if you wanted a subject where you didn't have to work why didn't you just pick P.E.?"

"You've got a point, but P.E. is just the same thing every time. Match after match of football, and no one even plays properly."

"Fair enough. Why don't you make a start on the assignments now? I've got some work to do as well."

"Man, you're such a swot sometimes. Have you ever actually not done your homework on time?" Tommy groaned. "Well I haven't got anything better to do so I might as well make a start."

He said it jokingly but I still blushed. I'm not a teachers pet or anything, just one of the few people who actually care about my education. I wish people wouldn't make such a big deal about it. I'm just trying to get good grades.

"Ok."

We sat for about an hour, each doing our separate work. I did maths while Tommy did his biology assignments.

I actually quite enjoy maths homework. It's so satisfying when you get the right answer. To be honest, I like doing work for most of my subjects, apart from maybe English essays. My brain always goes completely blank and I can't think of a single thing to write.

With a flourish, I finished the last question of the homework. Just in time- at that moment Tommy threw down his books and declared he was bored.

"What do you want to do?" I asked, hoping he would say we should go out somewhere. I'm getting bored of playing the same games all the time on his Xbox. He had just opened his mouth to reply when my phone rang in my pocket.

I opened the case and saw it was my mum calling. Crap. I hadn't remembered to tell her I was coming here today. She should have been able to figure it out, though. It's not as if I actually go anywhere else. But of course, she had to call. Like I said earlier, my parents don't trust me.

I pressed answer and brought it up to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Ah Blair, it's just me. Where are you? School finished an hour ago." There was a hint of suspicion in her voice.

Resigned, I ignored it and told her I was at Tommy's house.

"You're there all the time. I can't believe you aren't sick of each other."

I think she meant it as a joke. She wonders how I can spend so much time with someone without getting bored of them. When she was younger, she had a massive group of friends so she always had lots of different people to talk to.

Despite the gloriously unfunny joke I laughed and told her that we had just been doing some homework and I would be home in 10 minutes. Satisfied with this, she said bye and hung up.

"What was she wanting?"

Tommy wasn't ever the biggest fan of my mum. I think it's because my mum is so different from his. My mum basically tracks wherever I go and always insists I study hard so I get good grades. Tommy's mum is the opposite: super laid back, never bothered about where he goes or who he's with, just as long as he's home before dark.

"She was just wondering where I was, and says I've got to go home for dinner now."

It wasn't exactly a lie, but I couldn't be arsed with the Xbox. I was really bad at it anyway.

"Ok, see you."

"See you tomorrow."

I headed for the door, picking up my bag on the way, and went down the stairs. The dog, Rex, came bounding up to me when I reached the bottom. He is a Yorkshire terrier and is the friendliest thing in the world. Giving him a pat, I shouted bye again and walked out the door.