The next morning, for the first time ever, Howard was actually excited about school. He was going to have a friend; a friend who knew about things, like how stealing chocolate makes it taste nicer and that whore is another word for kind. And the best part was, Vince was willing to teach Howard everything he knew. Howard would be popular now, he just knew it.
"Goodbye honey, have a nice day." called Howard's mum, waving madly as her son practically skipped through the school gates.
"Where you going Selleck?" asked Donny, putting an arm across Howard's chest to stop him in his tracks. Donny was shorter than Howard but managed to give the impression that he was much taller and much tougher. He was your typical school bully and his short temper was feared by the everyone. He would tear you to pieces if you so much looked at him in the wrong way. But most people were safe from Donny's sharp tongue when Howard was around, because when Howard was around all of Donny's attention was focused on tormenting the tall boy geeky boy with the moustache.
"I'm just going over here." Howard stammered, indicating an area behind him.
"I don't think so." laughed one of Donny's minions popping up right behind Howard and pushing him sharply in the back so that he stumbled awkwardly into Donny.
"I don't want any trouble." Howard said in a barely audible squeak.
"Course not, just give me your money and I'll let you go." sneered Donny. Howard nodded, nervously fumbling round in his pocket for the dinner money he'd been given that morning.
"Back off loser." came a voice from behind Howard making him jump violently. Assuming this voice was talking to him, Howard span round nervously and was surprised to see Vince. The small boy had a strange, not quite sane, look in his eye. He was glaring straight at Donny, his eyebrows knitting together furiously, as he pushed the sleeves of his jumper up his skinny arms, clearly preparing for a fight.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Donny, turning his attention to the new face.
"I'm Vince Noir."
"Vince Noir?" Donny said, his face contorting as he tried to remember why he knew that name "the geezer without any parents, yeah?"
"Yeah." Vince replied eerily calm.
"No mum to tuck you in at night. No dad to play football with you in the yard. No family at all."
"Yeah, that's me." Vince continued, seemingly unaffected by Donny's comments. "Though, there is one good thing about having no family."
"Oh?"
"No rules." Vince grinned, launching himself at the unsuspecting bully. The two boys crashed to the floor, legs and arms flying everywhere. Donny was clearly the bigger of the two boys but it was obvious to everyone watching that there was only going to be one winner. Vince had quick fists and the composure of a boy who'd gotten into a lot of fights over his time and was soon sat on Donny's chest, expertly pummelling the boy in front of him as the bully squirmed and begged for release.
"Vince." hissed Howard "The teacher's coming." at that, Vince leapt up and shoved another boy hard, so that he landed heavily on Donny, before running away dragging Howard after him. By the time the teacher arrived at the fight scene, he was convinced that the boy Vince had pushed was the one who had started the fight and refused to be told anything different.
"That was fun, wasn't it?" Vince laughed, panting heavily leaning against a wall at the far side of the school yard.
"mmm."
"Lighten up Howard. No one's going to find out it was me that punched him. You've got to learn to trust me more."
"Mmm.""What's wrong?"
"I told my mum she was a whore last night."
"You what?" chortled Vince, before regaining his composure and asking casually "What did she say?"
"She said that it's a naughty word and that if I say it again I'll be in big trouble. Then she took my saxophone off me for a week."
"Well, that's a good thing, surely?"
"I love my saxophone."
"But it sounds awful."
"How would you know?""All brass musical instruments do."
"It's a wind instrument actually."
"Whatever, you wanna listen to this." Vince said, pulling a walkman from his bag and handing it to Howard. "Good init?"
"It's making my ears hurt. What is it?"
"Cars by Gary Numan."
"It's rubbish."
"Take that back!"
"No way!"
"Take it back or I'll snap your arm off." Howard looked at the strange expression in Vince's eyes and had a horrible feeling that Vince meant it so gabbled quickly
"I take it back. Gary Numan is amazing."
"He is." agreed Vince "One day, I'm going to capture him and trap him in a cupboard. It'll be genius."
"Umm, okay." Howard said, a little freaked out by this announcement.
Just then the school bell rang.
"So, Howard what d'you fancy doing?""What are you talking about? That was the bell we have to go to lessons."
"We don't have to go, the school bell is more of a suggestion. Let's go to the zoo instead."
"But…"
"Come on. I love animals."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I can talk to em."
"Really?" Howard said sceptically. He didn't know whether or not to trust Vince after the whole 'whore' fiasco.
"Yeah, come on. I'll show you." Vince grinned pulling at Howard's arm. "We'll cut across this field, I recon we'll be there in no time." Howard looked guiltily at the school and then at the face of his new found friend, those seemingly innocent blue eyes gazing up at him.
"Okay then," agreed Howard "Let's go to the zoo."
"Nice one Howard!" exclaimed Vince, clambering through a small hole in the fence and taking off across the field. It took Howard a little longer to get through the gap but eventually he was chasing after the small boy, the wind rushing past his ears, the smell of grass wafting up his nose, the adrenline pounding through him, he'd never felt so alive. Vince was a lot quicker that Howard (who had no co-ordination when it came to exercise) and so would hopping about impatiently every time they reached a corner, to wait for Howard to catch up, shouting things like
"Come on slow coach!" Then as Howard got near he'd tear off again; up a hill or down a back alley or over a bridge leaving Howard sprinting to keep up. Eventually they arrived.
"You got any money?" hissed Vince, looking at the prices on a board.
"I've" -pant- "got" -pant- "two" -pant- "pounds"
"That's not enough, no worries. We'll have to sneak in." Vince looked around carefully biting his lip with concentration. "Oh perfect." he beamed, as a middle aged couple walked up to the counter. "Follow my lead." and with that Vince skipped off to stand by the couple. Howard followed obediently and stood next to Vince wondering what this estranged boy was up to.
"Good morning." said the girl behind the counter, "Four of you, is it?"
"Four?!" exclaimed the husband "No just two."
"Well what about them?" the girl laughed indicating Vince and Howard.
"I don't know who they are." the man said.
"Oh daddy, you're so funny." beamed Vince.
"Daddy!?" the man cried "I'm not your daddy I don't know who you are."
"B-b-but daddy." Vince began to sob, producing tears that were rolling down his cheeks. "You promised we could go to the zoo, you promised."
"I'm not your dad." the man said, he was shuffling embarrassedly now as Vince's display began to draw the attention of the rest of the queue.
"You promised! Just like last week you promised to take us to the… umm." Vince stopped, he couldn't think of a place, he looked at Howard, urging him to step in.
"Jazz museum!" Howard blurted out. Vince visibly groaned, but quickly returned to crying and stamping his feet shouting.
"But, you promised. You promised!" Everyone was starting to stare by now and many of them were tutting and saying things like 'it's terrible that parent's can do that to their kids'.
Minutes later, Vince and Howard were wandering happily around the zoo.
"I can't believe you did that." said Howard in a way that suggested he was half disgusted and half admiring.
"It worked didn't it." laughed Vince licking a lolly he'd swiped from the café by the entrance.
"Well, yes b-"
"So stop complaining. Oh look Howard." Vince laughed, pointing at a fluorescent pink sign "there's a porpoise derby in ten minutes. Can we go?"
"Yeah, definitely." Howard said excitedly, "I've never seen a porpoise derby."
--
"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, please give it up for the porpoise derby" the rusted tannoy sounded. Vince cheered and jumped up and down. Howard just clapped, like everyone else. "Please welcome to the pool; Joey Moose and his porpoise Mr Jefferson"
Loud cheers rang out.
"Robert Fossil and his porpoise Babyblueblanketbaby."
Clapping and shouting.
"Naboo the enigma and his porpoise Kitkat."
A particularly loud cheer rang out and Vince said "I like him, look at his turban. He looks like a puma in a wig."
"And finally, please welcome Tommy and his porpoise Cheese."
Howard just stared. He'd never seen a man like it. Tommy had small knowing eyes, he was tall with a moustache (just like Howard's). He looked strong and impressive, like Howard imagined princes looked in fairytales. He was a true man of action; a pioneer, a maverick.
"I bet he's so wise." murmured Howard.
"What was that?" Vince asked, not taking his eyes off the starter gun.
"Nothing, who d'you think will win?"
"The bloke with the turban. He's a wizard, I recon he'll zap everyone else and storm to a wonderful victory."
"I think Tommy will win."
"What that one with the wide head?"
"His head's not that wide!" retorted Howard
"Alright, calm down." laughed Vince "He wont win anyway, his porpoise looks ill, maybe it's allergic to water."
--
Vince beamed up at Howard.
"Wizard man won."
"Yeah, I noticed." Howard scowled, still watching Tommy carefully as the man pulled himself out of the pool.
"I told you Tommy's porpoise looked ill. I didn't expect it to sneeze like that though. I didn't realise you could sneeze so hard you actually fire backwards. He was winning too and then... aitchoo" Vince faked sneezing and flying backwards.
"I know. I saw it." Howard frowned, eyes still fixed on his new hero.
"What are you looking at?"
"Nothing."
"You looking at Tommy?" Howard went red, but said nothing. "You are." Vince giggled, "I bet you fancy him."
"Get lost, he's a man! I just think he's cool."
"He's not cool. He's old."
"I'm going to go and say hi."
"Don't bother. Come on, I want to go to the penguin enclosure."
"Okay, well I'll meet you there."
"No! Come now." snapped Vince.
"I'll just be a minute." Howard said, seemingly unaware of how annoyed Vince was.
Vince watched as his friend ran (looking more enthusiastic than Vince had ever seen him) towards Tommy. He watched Howard chatting away for hours, watched the boy nod and laugh and smile as Tommy told him about life at the zoo and as a porpoise jockey; watched as Vince felt something that felt a lot like jealousy bubbling up inside him.
--
"Vince, talk to me." Howard moaned. They were on their way home from the zoo and so far Vince hadn't said a word. "Look, I'm sorry we didn't get to see the penguins, don't be upset."
"I'm not upset." Vince spat back. Howard looked surprised to find that Vince had spoken and looked down at the small boy. Vince was right, he didn't look upset he just looked wild. There was something missing in his eyes, he looked like he wasn't quite all there, as though his mind was somewhere else.
"Look, we can come back tomorrow."
"I don't think we will." Vince said in the same creepy calm way he'd spoken to Donny earlier.
"Won't we? Where we going to go tomorrow then?"
"We're not going anywhere. I don't know where I'm going yet."
"Why can't I come?"
"I only invite people who are actually going to spend time with me, not people who are going to spend there time with some wide-headed, boring, old fart."
"I'm sorry," said Howard "You should have said if you were bored."
"I did, you ignored me."
"Oh." Howard fell silent.
"I'm kinda tired, I think I'm going to go home."
"You're going home, but are you really going home?" Howard asked, beaming proudly
"What the hell was that?! Was it a dig at me because I'm a foster kid, is that it?!"
"No, no." Howard said looking horrified. "It was something Tommy taught me, maybe I didn't use it right."
"Argh!" Vince screamed storming off quickly down the road.
"Vince, Vince? Come back. I'm sorry." Howard called after him, but the smaller boy was gone and he wasn't coming back. That was the last time Howard saw Vince for a very long time and the next time they met it was under very different circumstances and Howard hardly recognised him.
Howard had gone to call for Vince the next morning so they could walk to school together, but Cheryl told him that Vince had gone back to the home. So, Howard had innocently assumed that his mother had taken him back and it wasn't until a year or two later he discovered the truth.
Okay, so it's a bit of a ridiculous long chapter - sorry - but i couldn't find a good place to stop. Also, it might take a while for me to be able to put up the next chapter cause I got SO much stuff on - ARGH! lol.
Reviews are loved by me (and tiny imps that live in sweedish mountains, apparently)
Sisi...xx