Continuing right where we left off...Stu and Erin and the boys are running from Charlie's parents...
And don't forget to drop me a line and say what you think so far. It's reaaaly important to me! )
After a few minutes, we all regrouped in the park. It was raining slightly harder now, and the sky was a severe iron grey. Charlie's cheeks were flushed.
A sharp gust of wind threatened to remove my hat, and I clapped my hand to my head. The twins were holding their hats on too.
"Wicked good run, eh?" Stuart said nonchalantly. The others agreed. The rain fell harder.
"Le's get to the room, Stu. Erin don't fancy cold rain." Said Charlie. Everyone looked at me, and I blushed. I was shiving a little, and hugging my wet coat to my sides. It was never this cold in California. I wasn't used to it. Stuart nodded.
"Alright. Le's go. Shortcut way, ok?" he queried. Everyone nodded with him.
We had been walking for a long time, (maybe an hour) sloshing through puddles and sneaking down alleys before Stuart and Charlie admitted they had forgotten the shortcut. We opted to take a trolley instead, and it was much quicker.
We were dropped off at a rainy corner somewhere deep in Crawley. Charlie prodded me in the back and pointed out a stately brick building, set back from the street and surrounded by a iron fence.
"That's the St. Wilfreds Academy for Boys. We live in one of the dormitries over there." his finger drifted the the left, pointing out a second brick building. It didn't look half as neat or classy. It was covered in windows, with towels, bicycles, sport team flags, garbage buckets and laundry piled around the balconies. Two of the windows were broken.
I grinned. This certainly looked...interesting. The boys led me under the fence, beneath the shelter of enormous trees that grew over the fence and sidewalk. Their branches were so gnarled and thick that the grass around it was completely dry. Charlie motioned for me to pull my collar up around my face. Stuart yanked my cap down around my ears for more effect. He squinted, satisfied.
"You keep by me, okay? And don' talk. No girls allow'd."
I nodded, and we broke the cover of the trees. Stuart, Charlie and the twins formed a phalanx around me, squishing me between their bony shoulders. We made our awkward way across the soggy grounds to the back of the dormitory. I could smell dogs and something burning, and my hand paused on the doorhandle.
"What is that?"
"Wot's wot?" asked a twin. I sniffed again.
"That smell!"
The twin shrugged.
"I don' smell nuffink," he said, leading me inside, "an' your supposed to be quiet."
The hall we stepped into was incredibly long and smoky, lined with narrow doors and very, very loud. It sounded like there was a radio blaring in every room. We crept down the hall and ducked into an open staircase. Behind us, a door opened and I heard someone approach.
"Stu?"
Stuart shoved me ahead of him and we ran all the way up three flights. Charlie bumped in front of me and took a key from his pocket, practically dancing in place as he fumbled with the lock of room 327.
At the top, it was a bit quieter. Some of the room doors hung open, and their occupants lay on the floor studying or watching television. The dog smell I had first noticed, weakened. I wondered if someone was keeping a kennel down there or something. It smelled like it.
The door popped open and Stuart shoved everyone inside, locking and bolting it behind him.
"What d'you think? Nice?" he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. I started, wide-eyed.
I can't describe the amount of mess and clutter that was in that room, so I will just describe the stuff that really stuck out.
The ceiling fan was hanging at an angle and had scarves drying on it. There was a couch, and the trundle bed (which was pulled out) appeared to have been used as a nest for a gigantic bird. Piles of papers and books littered the floor. An enormous, stolen-looking record player was hooked to the wall above the couch. It's speakers had been painted garish orange. The can of paint was still open. There were stacks of records balanced on it's dusty top. Ashtrays were on every surface, including the floor. There was a clay statuette of a monkey on the windowsill, missing it's head.
"It's not much, but we call it home. For now. Until we can get out of this ratty school. Which will never be soon enough." said a twin, scratching his head. I was still speechless. We all pulled off our boots and coats, piling them on the balcony which was home to a small cactus graveyard.
We rested on the couch for a while, Stuart claiming trundlebed. I was very tired and wet. Would it sound spoiled to ask for a shower? I mulled over this while they fought over the remote. Charlie won, and we began a long, melodramatic western. Nobody else was interested. Even back then, westerns weren't very popular.
"Want to see Charlie's room?" asked Stuart suddenly.
"Sure." Anything to escape that rotten western.
He opened a small door that was partially blocked by a gigantic stack of boxes and led me inside. It was far neater than the rest of the dormitory, but not perfect. There were various items of clothing scattered on the floor, mainly socks, and a badly broken lamp sitting on the desk with glass shards still hanging where the bulb was. Other than that, it was perfectly normal. He had several posters on the wall of some pop stars I didn't recognise. The bed was made, and the few books in the suitcase were neatly arranged. I smiled.
"It's nice!" I said, looking around. I noticed a large electric keyboard against one wall.
"Does Charlie play?" I asked, tapping a key. Stuart shook his head. "It's mine. He jus' let's me store it in here."
He noticed the broken lamp.
"Oh no!" He sighed, picking up a shard of glass with his long fingers. I imagined he was examining for fingerprints. He might as well have, because I already knew enough about these boys to make the prediction that none would admit their crime. I plunked another key, absentminded. Then I got an idea. I looked at Stuart again. Something seemed to click into place.
"Hey, Stu? Your last name isn't Tusspot, is it?" I asked. He looked up sharply. I felt my heart begin to race.
He reminded me a lot of someone from my time. I couldn't remember who, but the feeling of deja vu was so strong now I was perfectly facinated with him. The way he walked with his narrow shoulders jutted forwards, and his smile, and especially his blue hair.
"Wot...how'd you know?" he asked, squinting one eye. I clapped my hand to my mouth. This was THE Stuart Tusspot, better known as 2D, lead singer of Gorillaz, ten years before his band's first album!
"Oh my god! And this is Crawley...how come I didn't figure it out sooner?!!"
"Wot?!?!"
Then my excitement faded, and I felt a rock drop into my stomach. If I told him who he was in the future, then wouldn't that change his destiny somehow, or mess up his path? What if he made a mistake? I pursed my lips. Better to not spill the beans until I knew it was safe. I turned to him with a stupid grin.
"Nothing...ignore what I just said."
He rolled his eyes and fiddled with his lamp a bit more. I tried not to hyperventilate. I couldn't believe what was happening!
The rest of the evening passed in a blur as the boys showed off their prized possesions, filled me in on embarassing stories about each other (some of which were obviously made up) and lolled on the floor with the record player blaring. Charlie and Stuart competed for leadership almost the entire evening, trying to come up with better insults and ordering the twins around, who ignored them both. I practically floated around, my head buzzing with the implications of sharing a dormitory with the lead singer of Gorillaz.
That night, they put me in Charlie's room since it was cleanest, and he slept on the trundle bed. I stayed up way late, thinking about what to do, and around four AM just decided to keep my mouth shut and see how it went...
To be continued!