'Fuck…' I thought pulling at this awful jumpsuit I had to wear. It was awful. One, it was slightly big for me making me look fat and two, it was orange. I turned and noticed the two other girls in the locker room. They too, wore identical suits but didn't say a word. Brushing her blonde hair back several times was a girl some people at my old school would call a 'chav'. I wasn't going to judge her; I didn't even know her for Christ's sake. The other, smaller and plumper was too busy checking out her cleavage to even give us a glance. I turned and looked at myself in the mirror stained with what I think was paint. My wavy waist-length blonde hair lay past my chest in waves. I pinched a bit and twirled it within my fingers, why did I have to look so stuck up?
True, I had been raised by a rich family, but treated by going to spa's and beauty shows turned me into a doll. I applied my make up to my pale face, but not as much as the others. I added a braided, brown belt around my waist to give me more of a 'figure' but did nothing to reveal my chest. I pulled my fingers through my hair and styled it. When I had finished, I exhaled. Turning again, I soon realised that the other two girls had gone. I turned on the heel of my converse boot and started walking to meet my new 'offender friends' and my Probation officer, Toby was it?
When I got outside, I saw my Probation officer and six other kids who were obviously waiting for me.
"Where were you?" the Probation officer said to me as I stood next to a pale looking boy whose hands were clenched in his pockets. I shrugged.
"In there?" I replied gesturing to the open door. Three others smirked while the pale boy shuffled nervously on the spot. The Probation Officer exhaled, just as I had done several minutes ago, he obviously did not want to argue.
"Right, my name's Tony and I was just about to start my speech!" He said louder looking at all of us. He fiddled with several papers before he started. I took this as a quick opportunity to scan the other kids. A tall, dark boy stood furthest away chewing gum mindlessly; he was slumped in an awkward position and for some reason looked familiar. A shorter, tougher looking boy stood next to him eyeing 'Tony'. He had a snap back on to an angle and his face was decorated in scars and marks. Next to him, was another tall boy, though his face was younger and for looked weirdly confident and happy? He was looking at me and raised his eyebrows cockily; he was one to not get too close with. I turned back trying to ignore the fact that he was quite good looking. After scanning the two girls I had already seen, I looked at the pale boy stood next to me. He stared at the Probation officer too, but shuffled from one foot to the other.
"This is it…" Tony finally started. I turned my attention back to him but leant back on a railing behind me. "This is your chance to do something positive…Give something back. You can help people; you can really make a difference to people's lives…that's what community service is all about. There are people who think you're scum… " I narrowed my eyebrows at him, cheers. I too wasn't the only one when I saw the 'chav' open her mouth insulted. "You have an opportunity to show them they're wrong." Tony continued but was interrupted by the tall boy in the middle who just happened to be Irish.
"Yeah, but what if they're right?" He said while we all stared at him. "No offence, but I'm thinking some people are just born criminals." He carried on secretly gesturing to the snap back boy next to him.
"Are you looking to get stabbed?" Snapback said eyeing him up.
"You see my point there?" Irish carried on when a phone went off.
"Hey-" The girl with coffee skin said probably bored shitless.
"It doesn't matter what you've done in the past-" Tony said looking at them.
"Doing my community service-" She went on.
"Hey-" Tony said slightly annoyed.
"Boring as fuck-" she smirked, I was right.
"Excuse me? I'm still talking here." Tony confirmed. I started to twiddle my thumbs, when will this end?
"What I thought you had finished?" She said sassily her phone in her raised hand.
"If my lips are moving, I'm still talki-"
"-Yeah but you could have been yawning or…chewing." Curly interrupted. I chuckled with several others.
"End the call? Hang up!" He shouted making us all silent.
Apart from curly, he had to carry on talking. "You alright there weird kid?" he pointed at the boy next to me, he didn't look ok. "And you? Are you ok?" He asked me winking; I rolled my eyes and turned my head. He also turned around and made a sort of kissing noise towards snapback. Next thing I knew, they were fighting with Tony trying to pull snapback away and Curly pretending to box him. It was very funny; I could help but laugh with cleavage girl while the others smirked. When snapback had finally gone, the tall dark boy spoke for the first time.
"I shouldn't be here man, can I move to a different group? This isn't going to work for me…" Sounding as though he was better than the rest of us, I raised my eyebrows.
"Um, what makes you think you're better than us?" I think Chav said. I looked at her that is what she said wasn't it?
"What is that accent?" Irish spoke reading my mind.
"Is that for real?" Tall boy said raising his eyebrows as well, I noticed he had quite an athletic build; I'll call him Athlete for now.
"What are you tryna say something?" Chav carried on crossing her arms.
"It's…that's just a noise…" Curly exclaimed gesturing to his ears. "Are we supposed to be able to understand her?" It was true; even I couldn't hear a word she had said. Bored, I started twisting a lock of my hair or mane as some people described it.
"Do you understand that?" She turned giving him the finger. Irish turned to Snapback who had returned and raised his dark eyebrows. This only ended in another fight.
"Do it man, do it!" Snapback shouted while Tony pulled him away again. Chav, Athlete, Cleavage and myself couldn't stop laughing when watching curly mock him. Eventually Tony pushed him back into the building. "Well…" Curly spoke. "He was nice…" He continued looking at me, I tried to look unimpressed but it was hilarious, I ended up laughing again with the others doubling up too.
Our first way to 'help out the community' was to paint benches. Woop. I didn't know whether we had to pair up but I painted a bench with 'weird kid' whose name was Simon. I had tied my hair up in a messy bun and got to work. The others were busy talking so I tried to make conversation.
"Hi" I said not looking at him.
"Hi." He replied sounding nervous.
"I'm not going to kill you, no need to be so scared!" I scoffed and smirked but his mouth didn't move.
"I'm not scared." Was all he said, I noted this as the end of the conversation and carried on painting, so much for 'offender friends'. There was an awkward silence between us all until Snapback kicked off again.
"Oh man! There's paint on ma cap! This is bullshit!" He shouted walking away; he kicked a can of paint on his way which ended up exploding into the river.
"Oooh!" Cleavage, whose name I found out was Alisha mocked, as we watched him leave. The awkward silence returned until Curly, whose real name was Nathan spoke up.
"What about you weird kid?" He asked, I guessed he wanted to know why he was here. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything but you look like a panty sniffer!" He carried on miming someone sniffing knickers.
"I'm not a panty sniffer…" Simon defended himself. "I'm not a pervert." I eyed him warily wondering whether this was true or not, he seemed a bit weird. Nathan, obviously not satisfied with this answer make a… motion with his hand and his paint brush making noises as he went.
"I tried to burn someone's house down!" Simon shouted making Nathan stop.
"And what about you Blondie? What's your name?" He asked me pointing at me with his brush.
"Like you want to know…its Nancy by the way." I said not looking at him. I hadn't told anyone what I had done.
"Go on! I want to know what sort of feisty fox you are!" He said sitting himself down on a can of paint. I thought for a moment and sighed.
"I broke into my own house to get my belongings and my foster parents thought I was a burglar, then a couple of weeks later I was attacked and I punched the guy in the face…only to find out he was trying to help and I had broken his nose…" I said smirking. His jaw slightly dropped when he started to laugh.
"Brilliant!" He cried.
"And what about you?" I asked taking a short break from painting.
"Me? I was done for eating Pick'n'Mix!" He said. I wasn't convinced. I nodded my head.
"Right…that explains it." I said sarcastically. He nodded to and stood up when we heard thunder.
"What is going on with this weather?" He said. I stopped and looked up as a dark cloud emerged from nowhere.
"How did that happen?" We heard Tony's voice behind us, he gestured to the paint splattered when Snapback had left. "I mean, you've been here 5 minutes? It's painting benches." He carried on, speaking as though we were children. "How did you screw that up? You tell me, because I've got no idea!" Suddenly a huge snowball fell on to a car just behind him, making us all jump. 'The fuck?' I thought. The alarm was going off as we looked around.
"My car…" Tony said with disbelief. Nathan laughed.
"Classic!" But another ball fell behind him soaking us. "Ok so I'm a little bit freaked out?" He cried. What was going on? God, we've been here for a couple of minutes and already I had a feeling we would die but this wasn't the method. We all looked up at the cloud which had darkened and was cracking with lightning, it didn't look good. Then another ball fell behind me, into a skip with erupted with objects, me and Simon were both on the floor by this time.
"Right everyone inside! Move!" He shouted when Simon had pulled me up. We all started running, running for our lives. The snowballs kept falling missing us by an inch. I screamed as several bricks nearly hit me from the building above us. 'Shit!' I thought. A nearby telephone box smashed into shards of glass, one slicing my hand as we sprinted past it.
When we finally got to the door, it was locked.
"It's locked open it!" Athlete shouted at the probation officer who fumbled with his keys.
"Come on!"
"Open the fucking door!" Alisha screamed.
"Don't speak to me like that!" Tony screamed anger raging in his eyes.
Boom. A jolt of pain circled my body. I felt light but at the same time I felt myself plunging into darkness. My eyes scanned the area around me but it was black. I tried to open my eyes as we all smacked the ground. When I finally did, I saw the others lying like me on their backs groaning in pain. My whole body tingled, it buzzed in a way. I rubbed my head looking for a cut of some sort.
"Pretty" Alisha said noticing the small tattoo on the inside of my wrist it was a Chinese symbol for 'hope'. But I hadn't found any yet.
"Now's not really the time Alisha!" Kelly (Chav) scoffed. "I feel really weird…" She stuttered as remaining snowballs hit the ground around us. I leant up in agony and noticed Tony was lying on his back too.
"That'll be the lightning." Kurtis replied to Kelly's statement. Lightning? Shouldn't we be dead? My neighbour was killed by lightning.
"We should be dead." Simon said looking around at all of us. I nodded slightly accidently elbowing Nathan in the rib.
"Sorry…" I muttered while he rubbed it slightly.
"A little reassurance might be nice you know, you're fine or looking good!" Nathan scoffed looking directly at Tony.
"Wanker…" He whispered though we all head him. I tilted my head slightly. Did he say that?
"Did he just call me a wanker?" Nathan replied turning to me. I noticed his hand was too close to my breast. I slapped it away while he smirked.
"I think so!" I said amusement in my voice. He looked at me confused then turned back to the probation officer.
"Is everyone alright?" He asked, but he himself looked awful.
"We could of died you dick!" Alisha scoffed, that wasn't exactly helping.
"Are you alright?" Kelly asked before Alisha could carry on. "You're acting like a freak." I studied him, she was right he looked weird, not ill but…weird.
"Maybe we should call it a day…" Tony stuttered leaning up straighter.
We all headed back to the locker rooms to get our belongings. To be honest, I had nothing better to do. I lived in an apartment but there was nothing fun to do. My 'roommate' wouldn't be there as usual but at least she carried on paying rent. I changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a floral top; it looked nice as though I hadn't just be struck by lightning. Kelly was brushing her hair back as usual and Alisha was grabbing things from her locker.
"What did you say?" Kelly suddenly snapped looking at Alisha. We both looked at each other confused.
"I didn't say anything." Alisha replied clearly. I sighed and turned back to the mirror. 'Weird…' I thought. I saw in the reflection of the mirror Kelly looking at me as though she had heard my thoughts, she turned back to face the mirror.
"What?" Kelly snapped again facing Alisha.
"What?" Alisha asked.
"What?!" Kelly shouted. I narrowed my eyebrows at them both. I shut my locker and walked out of the room followed by Alisha. We walked to the entrance where Kurtis, Simon and Nathan were already there.
"Do we just go then? Where's the probation officer?" Kurtis said as me and Alisha walked into the room, Nathan eyed my top hopefully but I crossed my arms over my chest as if I hadn't noticed.
"I think there's something wrong with him, It's like he was having a spasm." Simon said looking around at us. I nodded, he was messed up.
"He was probably just faking it to get compensation. Cheap bastard." Nathan said, of course he wasn't.
"I don't think he was faking it, he was acting strange." I said narrowing my eyebrows. Simon nodded and looked down at his phone.
"Are we waiting for something?" Alisha said as though she hadn't heard the conversation we just had. She was probably texting, as usual.
"Probation worker?" Kurtis said.
"I'm not hanging around for that dickhead." Alisha replied and walked out of the door. I shrugged and followed her, what use was the worker to us?
I got home pretty quickly and looked around my apartment. Just the way I left it. I picked up my laptop to see several emails from my ex Freddie. He was hot, yes but a total dick and a player. I deleted them and closed my laptop. For several hours I texted my friends until I found myself starving, I whipped up a quick pizza and ate it in front of the TV.
This wasn't like most nights. I invited my friends round several times a week but they seemed busy. Many people wondered how I had managed to buy such a big apartment with no job. My parents was the answer. Useless, they left all their money to me in hope that I'll 'use it well' but they don't know I'm doing community service do they? I had several foster parents but they only couple that lasted was the Watsons. Filthy rich, snobby and the sort of people I know my new friends would hate. I disliked them from the start but they were the only people that treated me as a daughter. They treated me if I got good marks, they bought me clothes, make up. But after a while they seemed to drift away, leaving me on my own for cruises and holidays, I taught myself how to cook and eventually left. I went back to their house to claim a necklace of mine; it was a plain teardrop with an emerald placed gently in it.
I sighed and twisted the necklace between my fingers. I looked around to see the vintage clock read half twelve. I sighed again and changed into my pyjamas, wonder what we'll do tomorrow.
The next morning came with a flash. I wacked my nearby alarm clock at 7 and got dressed. I put on a simple dress; I wouldn't be wearing it for long. I ran quickly into my bathroom and washed my face. My foster-dad always used to laugh whenever I walked out with face wash still on my face. He would say:
"You're not going out like that! People would think you've been painting a house!"
I sighed thinking about my family or families. Frantically, I grabbed the cream hand towel nearby and dried my face. I leant up to examine my now clean face. Shit.
I looked at my reflection, it was my foster-dad…I was my foster-dad! I looked down at my hands; instead of being skinny and pale like mine usually were they were thick, scratch and raw. My long, blonde hair was now short and grey. I looked in the mirror once again; I was back to my usual self. 'Oh god?' I thought preparing to leave. I shook it off and grabbed my bag. Another day.
When I arrived, I saw the words 'I WILL KILL YOU' sprayed on to the wall. I looked at it as I walked towards the others.
"Good morning!"I cried sarcastically waving to the others. "Slightly more upbeat than I was expecting!" I continued gesturing towards the graffiti.
"This is a joke? Did one of you do this?" Kurtis scoffed.
"Don't look at me cos I didn't do it!" Kelly snapped back, I didn't even look at her.
"I'll tell you who did it, that Banksy prick." Nathan confirmed he started going on about a 'hidden meaning' but to be honest, I think it was just some idiots thinking it was funny. We waited impatiently until he had finished but he was interrupted by another voice.
"Right come on you lot, get changed." Tony said walking towards us completely oblivious to the message on the wall.
"Have you seen this? Someone's taking the piss." Kurtis carried on. Alisha's phone suddenly rang making us all jump. To out misfortune, Tony demanded we all give him our phones I gave him mine reluctantly. We all walked away eyeing him before entering the building. I was a bit annoyed, when we were on break I found it nice to text some old friends, because I had moved around so much I had found many friends though most I hadn't seen in a while.
"It's alright sweetcheeks! We'll get them back!" Nathan said throwing an arm around my shoulder in the most unsympathetic way.
When we had all changed and had been shouted at again for being 'disrespectful and too slow' we were finally made to scrub the 'I WILL KILL YOU' off the wall.
"What's the point?" I said wiping the red paint off my hands. "Someone will probably just write on it again?" I put my brush down and leant against a pillar. None of the others said a word, if anything they agreed with me. I noticed Nathan make slight glances at me but when I looked back he turned around obviously nervous. Kelly too looked confused for some reason but before I could ask she had already spoke.
"You know after the storm? Did any of yous feel like dead weird?" I decided not to mention the little incident and waited for someone else to reply first.
"Yeah I had a strange tingling sensation in my anus." Nathan answered ruining an actual peaceful moment. I kicked him lightly on the back of his leg, it had to be him.
"What did you feel weird?" Kelly said looking at Simon.
"He didn't say anything?" I said confused. Kelly looked at me for a moment but the silence didn't last long.
"What you don't want to hear about my anus?" Nathan whined like a kid.
"Do you really need to ask the question?" Kurtis butted in obviously not checking out Alisha's tits anymore.
"Something happened." Simon said ignoring Nathan and Kurtis. Kelly and I both turned to him, he didn't look any different just even more nervous than usual.
"What's that? Squeak up?" Nathan said. I glared at him, why did he have to be so horrid to Simon? What did Simon do to him?
"Something happened to me." Simon continued looking directly at Kelly. Nathan started taking the mick out of Simon claiming he had 'popped his cherry'. I kicked him again suddenly quite angry for him treating Simon like this.
"Stop being a dick…" I muttered picking my brush up again. I started scrubbing again until I felt two large hands on my hips.
"God you're so hot when you're angry" Nathan whispered into my ear. I felt the hairs on the back of my head sticking up, I cursed myself annoyed at how horny he made me. I shook my head instantly back to normal, I pulled his hands off me and watched him wink at me. I rolled my eyes and ignored him not hearing Kelly's and Simon's conversation.
After we had finished, or given up we noticed that Kelly wasn't with us.
"Probably already inside?" I said to Alisha. She nodded as we made our way to the vending machine. When we had what we wanted, Alisha disappeared, probably gone to text or read a magazine. I decided to look for Kelly but without realizing I walked past the room where Nathan, Simon and Kurtis were playing football. I held my breath and listened in behind a wall.
"You see boys! There's one for each of us! Perfect!" Nathan cried.
"There was four of us…" I heard Simon say. Snapback, where had he gone?
"I'm talking about getting laid! So how are we going to do this man?" Nathan carried on ignoring Simon.
"Do what?" Kurtis's deep voice spoke; I sensed a hint of disgust in his words.
"The one with the frizzy hair, I don't see me and her getting it on." Nathan went on, again. I found myself exhaling slightly as if relieved. Was I? Kurtis laughed probably knowing he had got her anyway.
"Because she's beautiful?" He asked. Aww.
"No because she'd be way too much effort! She looks seriously high maintenance! You'd have to treat her really well?! " I thought for a moment, not really knowing whether I wanted to hear anymore, but I found myself glued to the floor when he continued.
"But that other one… "
"Kelly?" Simon asks.
"No! Not the chav! Blondie, feisty, gorgeous?" He started to snap his fingers trying to guess my name. For some reason I felt well…flattered but at the same time repulsed.
"Nancy?" Kurtis asked.
"That's it!" He cried pointing at him. "I tell you what, she is a feisty fox. But I like a girl who can take after herself; she may even be on top!" Nathan carried on. I chuckled which was weird when they were talking about shagging, which I wouldn't be doing. I decided to step out of the shadows; I couldn't wait to see his face.
"I might be on top?" I asked hands on my hips. They all turned to look at me but I tried my hardest to keep a straight face.
"Yeah, and do the girls like do they have a say in this?" Kurtis asked smirking.
"Of course we don't!" I cried. "Nathan has already repulsed me and I haven't even had a proper conversation with him?" That sounded desperate as if I wanted to, I did but still. Luckily Kurtis laughed at my expression. I looked at Nathan teasing him like he had to me earlier. I leant against the wall frame and licked my lips staring at him with lust. I watched him trying to loosen his jumpsuit around his neck and shuffle around just like Simon had done. I laughed and walked away leaving him all horned up, serves him right.
Later on we found ourselves with nothing to do. Tony had disappeared and so had Kelly and Gary. I lay down on a blue sofa opposite Alisha and leaned my head on the palm of my hand, bored. I closed my eyes as Nathan started attacking the vending machine. I had offered Simon a seat but he decided to sit on the floor, poor kid. Luckily, after a while a slight dropping sound made it clear that Nathan's mission had succeeded as he sat on me swigging his can.
"Get off!" I muttered my eyes still shut.
"Nope, but I must say, you are very uncomfortable!" He replied wriggling around.
"And you are very heavy, off!" I said leaning up and hugging my knees instead. He shrugged and placed himself in a wheelchair and pulled himself round to face me. I leant into to him and quickly turned him around before he could say anything. I exhaled when I saw there were brakes I could control.
"When I was in sixth form, you came to my school; you gave this big talk about athletics and all your medals and that." Alisha spoke to Kurtis whose expression had changed immensely.
"So I'm guessing you're not going to the Olympics?" Nathan had to make a comment.
"Funny!" Kurtis and I spoke at the same time; he looked at me as I looked at Nathan struggle to move him not knowing why.
"I head you was dealing crack?" I asked curiously, I saw Alisha grin as we all looked at him.
"What? I wasn't dealing crack." He said pissed off.
"No, no, no the papers said it was steroids!" Nathan said looking at me with great difficulty.
"That stuff will shrivel your dick." Alisha claimed lying down.
"It wasn't steroids, I'm not a cheat." Kurtis confirmed ignoring the comment on the 'shrivelled dick'. I tilted my head recognising a slight plead in his voice. "That stuff in the papers was bullshit."
"So what was it then?" I asked getting more curious.
"Someone's a bit nosy?" Nathan muttered wriggling his eyebrows. I tutted and looked at Kurtis again.
"I got caught with a little bit of coke, alright?" Kurtis finished. I nodded and rested my head again guessing that was all we would get out of him. "I messed up one time."
"No one gets community service for possession." Alisha said, she would know. I nodded slightly and covered my face with my hands. I was starting to get slightly bored with this conversation. My thoughts were interrupted by a banging noise. I looked up to see Nathan wriggling in the wheelchair. I laughed and leant forwards to turn the brakes off; he eyed me suspiciously and then to my surprise, laughed too. That was the first time I had seen him properly laugh, but he made it discreet in front of the others. After we had finished, we listened to the last of Kurtis's speech.
"You let yourself down." Nathan said confidently. I giggled uncertain.
"Nathan…"
"You let the kids down" He carried on as Alisha cackled. "You let your parents down!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Kurtis shouted. "All I ever did was train! You know nothing!" He said grabbing Nathan by his jumpsuit. "I shouldn't even fucking be here!" Me and Alisha glanced at each other confused at the action.
"You can't hit someone in a wheelchair." Nathan squeaked breathless. I chuckled and relaxed as Kurtis let go of his grip on Nathan.
"Do you want to know what I got done for?" Alisha eyed us. I didn't really. I stood up and made my way to the locker rooms. I felt their eyes on my back.
"Not really." I heard an Irish voice and the squeaking of shoes behind me. I turned and rolled my eyes.
"Following me?" I asked when we had reached the locker rooms.
"Maybe, so Nancy, when is it our fuck fest?" He replied cheekily. I walked up to him and slapped him. It felt good but at the same time I felt bad for doing it. "Ow! The fuck was that for?" He cried rubbing his cheek.
"You know, you're not very romantic are you?" I asked sarcastically looking in my locker.
"No, but you sure don't mind?" He asked slapping my ass. I turned and glared at him making my way back to the others. "Come on? What?" He shouted sounding slightly desperate.
"Do you just think I'm a common slut?" I shouted pushing open a door.
"No! I never said that to be honest but still we're on right?" He asked sounding hopeful. I turned to him before we reached the entrance.
"If I wanted to do someone here, it wouldn't be you. You think by insulting me I will instantly fall for you? You're a fucking prick!" I shouted anger storming my chest. I noticed him tried to interrupt but I turned and sat back down anyway. Nathan walked very slowly towards the rest of us and sat next to me, the others didn't seem to notice our arrival.
"Sorry." He whispered, he didn't sound it. I glared at him but softened as I watched him look around the room nervously I nodded and patted his shoulder. He nodded back and took up his rightful place in his wheelchair. Suddenly there was a bang and a scream as Kelly literally fell inside. We watched her pull herself up and lock the door.
"He's gonna kill us! Shit!" She shouted as Nathan laughed.
"Nice entrance. Very dramatic." He cried applauding her. But she looked serious.
"What's going on?" I asked her, slightly scared.
"The probation worker has gone mental! He tried to attack me!" She cried flustered. "Something really weird is happening!"