Lord of the Ink-Erasers

CHAPTER ONE

It all started one happy morning in a distant city called Kingston. Four girls were hanging around the Bentall Centre. They were called Pfft, Red, Boo and Tut (short for Tut Tut).

Tut and Boo were both carrying shopping bags of clothes. Pfft was wearing a brand new hat; pink and black striped with a brim all the way around. She thought it was mega-cool. Everyone else thought it looked gay. Red had a bag stuffed to the brim with PS2 games, manga and lots of other random stuff...

"Let's get pizza!" said Red.

"Oh yeah!" Boo yelled.

"Nah! Lets go pasta place!" Pfft snapped.

"I don't care...." Tut added, frowning at the pile of clothes that had just fallen out of her bag, which was stuffed with crap, into a puddle. (Oops, not crap I meant clothes)

"Actually...no! It's my dad's birthday today!" Red glanced at her watch and yelled in shock, making Tut drop her clothes in the muddy puddle again.

"Oi! Red! You bitch! Look at this!" Tut chucked a brand-new top at Red, who caught it, looked at it briefly then dropped it back into the puddle.

"Guys! It's five past four! Mum said that we need to be back at my place at half three! Oh fuck!" Red turned then legged it up the crowded street, Pfft and Boo running after. (Tut was still shoving the mud-stained t-shirt back into her bag.)

When Red, Pfft and Boo arrived back at Red's place, Red's mum was already yelling at them before they had even opened the front door.

"Where the hell have you all been?! It's quarter past four! FOUR!!! Do you realise how late you are? Do you realise how much trouble you lot are in? Do you realise how much your father's been looking forward to this party? Do you realise how much he's going to be hurt because you lot were all late!!!" Red's mum bellowed, waving her rolling-pin around, almost whacking Boo on the head.

Suddenly, the front door was thrown open and an exhausted Tut dashed in, her face bright red and sweaty. Her bag was wide open, and Boo noticed it was empty.

"TUT! Where have you been? Why aren't you with everyone one else? Why-!" Red's mum advanced on Tut, her rolling-pin pointing at Tut's heart.

Red dropped her bags, which made quite a loud thud, then sidled out of the hall and into the lounge. Pfft and Boo followed her, leaving Tut to be bashed in the head by a rolling-pin wielded by Red's mum.

*

Half an hour later, all four of them were lounging around in the garden. Red's family owned a large house and an even larger garden. Everyone Red's dad knew had been invited, and the grass was being severely trampled on by the masses of people at the party.

Red and Pfft were sitting on the sun-beds, Red playing on her GBA, Pfft was eating cherries and spitting the stones out. Boo was skating around on Red's skateboard, trying to skate into Tut, who was reading a magazine and shrieking loudly whenever Boo thundered past.

"Oh yes!" Pfft cheered. Her cherry stone had soared into a hedge and hadn't fallen out. "Um..what you on about now?" Tut said, not looking up from her magazine. Pfft frowned at her, popped another cherry in her mouth, then took aim and sent it flying over to Tut and watched it land neatly in her magazine.

Tut screamed, dropped the magazine and fled indoors. Pfft burst out laughing, dropping her box of cherries in her desire to get up and start jumping up and down with laughter.

Boo giggled and toppled off the skateboard, landing head first onto Red's back, making Red go flying forwards, Boo following her.

They landed on the grass. Boo rolled over, then got up on hands and knees and spat out a clod of mud. Red scrambled up and brushed the mud of her trousers, muttering swear words under her breath.

*

"Everyone! I want to thank you for coming to my 50th birthday party! I'd like to thank my darling wife, Red's mum, for organizing this party!" Red's dad announced from the stage.

Everyone raised their glasses, except Red, Pfft and Boo, who hadn't had any in the first place and Tut had disappeared.

Red's dad placed his glass on the table, spilling a little of the wine. He looked up and smiled at everyone.

"Everyone, I have something to say. I feel that this is the time for me to go, so I'm going to leave you now and never return again!" Red's dad said.

"Dead dramatic!" hissed Pfft. Red frowned.

Red's dad took a small pen from his coat pocket, took the lid off and started scrawling on his hand with it. Gradually, the hand began to fade slightly. The harder Red's dad rubbed, the more the hand disappeared.

When his entire left arm had 'disappeared', the audience, which had been in a trance, leapt up, screamed and began to run.

Boo, Pfft and Red dashed into The Hole. This was a thick and very, very large bush (more like a gigantic hedge, but oblong shape) that Red had hollowed out so they could just about fit in it.

Boo peered out. She could just see the stage where Red's dad was. His entire upper body had disappeared and his legs were fading too. Boo turned to face Pfft and Red.

"What the hell's going on? How come dad's arm just.." Red paused, trying to think of a word.

"Disappeared?" Pfft suggested. She glanced at Boo, whose eyes were round and staring. She looks like she's stoned thought Pfft, who chuckled and immediately received a scowl from Red.

"It looked like your dad was rubbing himself out with a weird pen.." said Boo thoughtfully. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and peered out the Hole.

No one was in the garden. It was practically deserted. Red's dad had 'vanished' and all the guests had fled indoors. Boo could hear engines starting up, as the guests hurtled themselves into their cars and rammed down on the accelerator, clearly desperate to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the party.

Boo sighed and turned back to Red and Pfft. Pfft was wrestling with some branches, which had tangled themselves in her hair. Red had committed the fairly large oversight, by making the Hole in a holly bush, which, apart from pricking you a lot of times, also tangled itself in your hair. Not one 'meeting' went by in the Hole, without Pfft complaining that they should move to another bush. Likewise, not one meeting went by without Boo having to tangle her hair out of a branch and whining about it. Red looked close to tears. Her eyes were brimming over, red and watery. Pfft passed her a tissue, which Red dabbed her eyes on.

Boo scrambled out the Hole and looked around the garden. Suddenly, a pink and blue avalanche descended on her, screaming at the top of her voice. Tut had heard what the commotion was about, ran into the garden and flung herself on Boo, who yelled and struck out, without knowing it was Tut.

Tut groaned, then keeled over and landed with a thud on the grass.

Red and Pfft toppled out the Hole and ran over to Boo, who was staring at Tut on the garden, looking as if she had killed someone.

"What the hell did you do?" Pfft snapped. She yanked Tut to her feet, where she stood, swaying on the spot.

"Um.I kinda punched Tut in the face," Boo blushed. She started down at her feet, thinking what fascinating things her laces were.

Pfft raised her eyebrows at her, but burst out laughing as Tut lost her balance and fell onto the grass again, her eyes unfocused.

Red let out a snigger. She and Pfft pulled Tut up, and walked up the garden, supporting her under the arms. Boo followed, laughing to herself.