Again, late update but I have to find time to update. Stupid schoolwork! If it wasn't so important I would just ignore it but alas, it is my GCSE year so…
Chapter 4- Trouble
Normal POV
James blinked a few times to allow his eyes chance to adjust to the brightness before tilting his head to the side and adopting a questioning stance.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Hey kid. I just need to check your water meter. I'm the maintenance man." A fat man with wildly curling white hair was slouched in the doorway, a giant calculator type thing hanging from his neck, resting on his chubby stomach. "Can I come in?"
James was too shocked to react for a moment. Surely this must be a joke. A maintenance man couldn't be the person interrupting their top-secret conversation. It was just too good to be true. "Uh, yeah sure, come in." James stepped aside to let the man in and shot a relieved grin over his shoulder at Kyle and Zara.
Zara breathed a sigh of relief and walked up behind James, placing her hand on his shoulder, discreetly digging her nails into the sensitive nerve by his neck just hard enough to make him tense momentarily. The message was obvious: yell about C.H.E.R.U.B again and you die. "Hello, I'm the owner of this property. What can I do for you?"
"Oh, I only want to check your water meter is measuring your water supply properly. Do you mind?" The man scratched his stubble and raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Of course not. It's up two flights of stairs and then it's directly in front of you. The gas and water meter are in the airing cupboard." Zara gestured towards the first flight of stairs.
"I'll show you." Kerry said cutely, sliding across the floor until she reached the stairs. "Follow me."
"Thanks kid." The man wheezed loudly as he mounted the first step, waddling slightly as he tried to gain speed and catch up to Kerry who was bouncing lightly up each step.
Once the man was out of hearing range Zara turned to glare at James. "Next time," she began, raising a warning finger level with James nose, "You decide to yell about CHERUB, the consequences will be severe. Understood?"
James nodded. "Yes ma'am."
"Now go do something useful. And be discreet about it!" Zara instructed, giving James a little shove.
James took the opportunity to bolt up the stairs to his room, grabbing Lauren along the way and dragging her up with him.
"What the hell?" Lauren snapped, tripping clumsily over her feet as she tried to step up the steps backwards.
"We need to talk. It'll only take a minute." James yanked Lauren down the hallway and banged open the door to his bedroom before stepping in and closing it firmly. He stared at Lauren a moment, thinking hard about how to phrase his request.
"What is up with you?" Lauren demanded, throwing her arms up into the air, her ponytail swinging indignantly. "I swear you're just jealous!"
James rolled his eyes. "Get over yourself Lauren. I just want to warn you that if they ask you to do anything stupid or try to persuade you to do something that isn't safe or seems dodgy do not do it under any circumstances."
Lauren furrowed her eyebrows together. "Why not? What do you mean?"
James swallowed. "Just listen to me. Its important."
"But I need to get into the gang. You know how important it is. Besides, if I get in tonight it should make it easier for you lot to get in_" Lauren started to smirk.
James scowled. "Can't you just put aside your stupid pride for two freakin' minutes and listen to me? I know what I'm talking about Lauren, you don't. So this time, you really should listen to someone who has more experience than yourself."
Lauren floundered momentarily, before huffing and crossing her arms. "God, fine. Whatever."
James nodded once jaw still tight. "I'll get my jacket. Tom invited me over anyway."
Lauren snorted. "What a coincidence." She snarked.
*At the Smith's mansion*
"Kate!" Lauren squealed, as she pounded up the five steps to the front door, eagerly throwing herself into Kate's awaiting arms.
"Lauren! Oh my God, you made it!" Kate grinned. "We're just waiting for Lucy to arrive and then we're meeting the others over Gareth's house. Cute hair!" Kate added, with an affectionate flick to Lauren's two ponytails swinging from the sides of her head.
"Gareth hates me." Lauren chuckled.
Kate snorted. "Gareth hates everyone who either doesn't think he's hot or just doesn't listen to him."
"Isn't that everyone?" Lauren raised an eyebrow.
Kate smirked. "Pretty much. It's pretty hilarious. You'll learn to love it after you get used to his shit." Kate scooted her eyes past Lauren to eye James curiously. "Hey. What can I do for you?"
James smiled, scratching self-consciously at his ear, enhancing his fake personality. "Hi. I'm James. Uh, your brother, Tom is expecting me?"
Kate smiled back easily enough; no suspicion or hostility clouded her features so James took this as a good sign. "Oh sure. Just go to the bottom of the stairs and he should be coming down to meet you. If he doesn't, yell for him." She moved to the side and pushed the door open, allowing James enough room to squeeze through.
James scurried to the bottom of the stairs and glanced round casually. The coast was clear, and Kate didn't actually specify that he couldn't go up to the top of the stairs and yell to him from there, right? Deciding that he could worm his way out of any trouble pretty easily he jogged up the stairs, ducking low to the carpeted floor when his head started to appear over the top of the marble banister. He paused a few steps from the top and listened carefully for any noise before swinging himself round the slight curve at the top of the stairs.
The landing was carpeted the same cream colour as the stairs and there were four doors spaced out along the rich red wall. James padded silently down the corridor, staring at the picture frames decorating the walls. This family was obsessed with broadcasting everything they did.
There were about six pictures altogether in this one corridor, two large ones of the whole family were level with each other on the wall that was parallel to the banister as you ascended the stairs, and then four pictures were placed in between the gap on the wall in between each door. The first one was of Jack wielding some sort of car tool –a spanner by the shape of it- and a certificate standing along side a mustang, the second of Tom outside their school looking very proud and holding out some sort of detailed drawing of a car with descriptions of how physics tied in with the mechanics of the car- it was obviously for some sort of school science convention.
James, much to his dismay, didn't get a chance to look closely at the other two pictures because the second door along suddenly flew open and Tom staggered out, shoving a hand roughly through his thick hair and sighing contentedly. He reared back slightly when he saw James, a look of surprise widening his eyes before he smiled and shoved his bedroom door open wider. "Hey. Who sent you up? Kate? I'm surprised she paid any attention to you. No offence or anything, its just she's going out with a bunch of her mates and she always gets distracted when she's going out. World of her own, our Kate." Tom flushed, looking down to the carpet.
James bit back a smile at the boys babbling. He definitely seemed to have a mild case of social awkwardness. "Uh, well my sister seems to have palled up with your sister and I arrived with Lauren so Kate had to see me. She seems nice." James scratched at his ear again, acting awkward to match Tom's discomfort. The mission briefing specifically stated that he had to match Tom's personality and since he didn't do a good job of it this morning when he arrived at school with Kerry and Lauren he wanted to make up for it now…and stick to it in the future.
Damn, he thought, this means no flirting with girls.
However, he found it very surprising that this realization didn't bother him as much as what he thought it would.
"Yeah, Kate isn't a bad kid. She knows her stuff and she can look after herself. At least, that's what I tell myself." Tom beckoned James into the room, closing the door with a soft click when James sank onto the hastily made bed.
James cocked his head to the side. "How'd you mean?"
Tom shuffled some papers as he shrugged. "Well, I'm not exactly the most terrifying person in the world. I'm much too shy to do anything, so if anything did happen to Kate I wouldn't be much use to her. So I tell myself she can handle herself."
Of course she can handle herself, she handles drugs for God's sake, James thought, mentally rolling his eyes.
"But Kate is a pretty reliable independent girl- she never really needs any help."
Ah, James thought as he struggled to keep the smirk off his face, the truth comes out…sort of…
James nodded. "I get you. I'm not exactly the most out-going person in the world. I get all flustered and stuff. Actually," James said, tapping his fingers on his knee skittishly, "the only time I ever stand up to anyone is when it involves my sisters. This jerk tried to make a move on them this morning and I told him to sod off."
Tom smiled. "Sounds like you're a good guy to have around when things get heated."
James shrugged, grinning at Tom. "Its rather lucky that I can avoid any confrontations with people and the pol_" he stopped abruptly lowering his gaze and shooting worried glances at Tom.
Lets see what you make of that…James thought happily, pleased with the way he twisted everything to make him seem identical to Tom and revealing just enough information about what could've happened in Manchester to keep Tom intrigued in him.
And it worked. Tom sat down on the huge leather chair at his desk and stared at James. "You…you've had…the police?" he finally got out.
"What about the police?" James asked, allowing a small amount of gruffness into his voice. He didn't want to appear too open. Tom may find it too much of a liability to the gang.
Tom rubbed the back of his neck and frowned hard at the floor. Finally, he muttered, "You've had dealings with the police before?"
James shook his head even though Tom wouldn't have seen it. "Not really." When Tom glanced at him in confusion he quickly added, "Spent one night in prison but they couldn't really do anything 'cause it wasn't that serious." Slight alteration to the truth but it wasn't going to alter anything major so James quickly decided it didn't matter.
Tom nodded. "Your record seems pretty clean." He mused. "I, uh, well…I almost got caught by the police once."
When James cocked a questioning eyebrow he quickly explained, "I was…borrowing," at James knowing smile he sighed and amended, "Okay, I was permanently borrowing a car part and the cops literally appeared out of no where and I had to run like the mutts from hell were after me."
James chuckled. "Yeah, bit of a bitch that."
Tom grinned and threw a rolled up piece of paper at James, who caught it with ease. "It's the plans of the car I was going to show you tonight."
James eagerly unfolded the paper and gazed intently at the plans. With a low whistle he raised his eyes to stare at Tom, who was smiling back at him. "Ready to fix up a real car?"
*Time skip- an hour*
"What a beauty!" James exclaimed, straightening up from inside the car's bonnet and swiping a greasy hand over his forehead, pushing his bangs off his flushed face.
"I know right? I'm so glad we got her!" Tom's voice came out slightly muffled because he was lying under the car, tweaking the exhaust.
James peered round the side of the car, spying Tom's feet. His shins were dotted with grime. "She's gonna be awesome." James proclaimed, patting the car's roof fondly.
"If only guys flattered girls like this, eh Tess?" a playful purr sounded from the front of the garage.
Tom skidded out from under the car with such haste he rolled off the skateboard and James reared up so quickly, he banged his head on the bonnet roof.
He made a slightly disorientated side step around the car and caught himself against the workbench, while Tom leapt up off the floor, kicking the skateboard to the far side of the garage.
"Hey James." Lisa said, waggling her fingers teasingly at him.
James smiled back shyly, twining and untwining his fingers in an attempt to act utterly clueless on how to flirt around girls. The very idea made him want to snort. But he had to change his actions now that Tom was right there.
Lisa didn't seem to notice James' sudden lack of incapability to flirt and continued to smile invitingly at him. "What you up to?"
James shrugged. "Just fixing up a car."
"He's pretty good." Tom added, while he wiped his hands on a dirty rag.
Lisa smirked, and James was sure that on any other guy, it would've made them weak at the knees. Luckily, he had a little more restraint than most guys. This thought made him want to smirk to. If only Kerry and Kyle was here, he thought fondly, they'd be dying to reveal his true persona when it came to anything that walked on two legs and was of the female gender.
"I bet he is." Lisa murmured silkily, and James worked hard to form a blush at her words, more for Tom's benefit than his own. He just felt stupid, blushing at something a girl was saying to him. James Adam's doesn't blush, however he remembered slightly annoyed, James Turner does.
"Wow, sweet car!" Lauren shouted from behind Lisa, her arm looped firmly with Kate's.
Lucy was standing on the other side of Kate with her hand clinging to Kate's elbow.
The three girls were all grinning, and Lauren, James noticed, had a certain glow about her.
A glow that was very familiar to him.
One that he had experienced himself even through all his pain.
She was in the gang.
He just knew it.
He felt a sudden pang clench in his stomach and he tried to discreetly meet Lauren's eyes, begging to ask her if she was all right.
"Jack is so lucky." Kate sighed, staring longingly at the ride.
Lisa laughed, tossing her hair back over her shoulder and shooting a smile at her sister. "We'll have to get him to play chauffer sometime soon Kate," her eyes swung to James' and a suggestive gleam flashed in them, "and when he does we'll have some fun."
James grinned back, tilting his head from side to side as if contemplating agreeing.
"But unfortunately we have a physics project to do so this week is a no go." Tess sighed, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
Lisa merely shrugged.
"Yeah, Kerry said something about a physics project, she was telling me about it earlier on. She has an awesome idea." James prayed that Lauren would keep her mouth shut, because Kerry had said nothing about a physics project and James had no idea what she was doing it on.
Lisa raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "Really, what is she doing it on?"
Crap, James thought, scrambling blindly for a satisfying answer. He ended up shrugging. "I forgot. Something about cars? (I hope) I was in a rush to get over here so I wasn't really listening. Besides, I have my own homework to think about." He smiled, hoping it looked normal.
Lisa clucked her tongue. "Do you think she'd mind if I asked her about it? I'm stuck for ideas and Mr Lewis did say we could work in pairs if we wanted to."
Tess looked surprised at this. "I'll work with you_"
"You're tutoring Danny though. He'll freak if you don't get him to pass physics."
Tess closed her mouth, looking slightly put out. "I suppose." She muttered after a few tense seconds.
Lisa twisted round, her flat stomach tensing provocatively as she did so. Her diamond belly bar glittered in the evening sunlight. "Don't worry Tessie, you're still my fave girl." as if to prove the point Lisa moved forward and looped her arm through the crook of Tessa's elbow and towed the girl towards the exit of the garage. "See you around James. Bye Lauren."
"See ya."
"Well we better be off to Lau." James shrugged his jacket on, trying to get as little grease as possible on it while he walked over to Tom. "Thanks for showing me the car. I'll see you in school tomorrow?"
"See you. Maybe you can come over again soon and we can finish it off?"
"Absolutely." James smacked Tom on the shoulder, in a friendly way of course, before turning to face Lauren who was hugging Kate like her life depended on it.
Girls, James sighed mentally.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Lauren grinned, "Can't wait to see Gareth."
Kate gave Lauren a squeeze before letting her go, blowing her breath out to blow her wildly curling hair from her face. "Its gonna be good that's for sure."
"Are you kidding?" Lucy demanded excitedly. "It's going to be way better than 'good'! Try freakin' awesome!"
The trio laughed for a good five minutes before Lauren finally recalled James existence and nodded her way towards the driveway. "Lets go."
"As you command." James said sarcastically.
"Ass." Kate retorted playfully.
"I know right?" Lauren sighed dramatically. "And I live with it." The horror in her voice was extremely convincing, even to James.
Tom burst out laughing, and James shot him the finger before waving and dragging Lauren down the driveway.
James quickened his pace when they were out of sight from the garage, and Lauren dawdled behind him, still laughing too hard to do anything more than stagger down the gravel driveway. Her cheeks were flushed, her blonde ponytails slightly mused and her eyes were glittering with excitement.
If anyone was too see her they'd think she's high, James thought fondly.
He was just about to make his way onto the main pavement in the street when a weird growling sound broke the warm evening air that was slowly lulling James into a blissful mood. He pause his steps and glanced round, immediately searching for any danger.
Oh hell, he sighed, they have a giant dog that is never fed and is just waiting to pounce on me and chew my tongue out my head.
But when James turned to glance over his right shoulder he choked on his own breath and involuntarily took a huge step away from the hedge lining the driveway on his right side.
Pressed against the hedge was Jack, and pressed against Jack was a guy.
They were both clinging to each other, Jack's eyes were closed and he was weaving his fingers into the other guy's black wavy hair to pull his face closer.
The other guy shoved his hips roughly against Jack's slowly grinding them together.
Well that explains the growling, James thought weakly.
Jack twisted his head to the side, and James swore he could see a tongue dart out and trace the curve of the other guy's jaw.
Bloody hell! James spun around wildly, and was glad that Lauren had finally caught up to him. He seized her wrist, put a finger roughly to her lips in a warning and tugged her forward hard enough to make her lunge to catch her footing. They ran out onto the street and James kept pulling her forward until they had run a block over from the Smith's house.
"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Lauren gasped, as she crouched over to try and soothe the stitch that was stabbing dully at her side.
James shook his head. "I actually can't talk about it right now. Lets just get back to the house so we can talk about you."
"But_" Lauren whined.
But James was already stalking down the street, and Lauren had no option but to roll her eyes and follow him.
*Next Morning*
James groaned and rolled over in his bed, kicking his feet around to try and free them from the tangle of sheets while simultaneously hunting for the snooze button on his alarm clock. Finally, he clicked the button and silence once again enveloped the room and James snuggled back down in his bed, not quite ready to face the world yet. Or more importantly: Kyle.
When James and Lauren finally got back home last night he had to listen to Lauren's occurrences with only half his brain focussing on what she was saying. He managed to concentrate enough to find out that she wasn't asked to do anything dangerous but after that he was a goner.
His thoughts became filled with Kyle.
And it was all Jack's and his stupid boyfriend's fault.
James didn't want to admit it but when he saw Jack making out with that guy it made him think of Kyle.
Kyle and himself in a similar situation.
Which was completely ridiculous because James was not gay!
But this so called fact didn't explain why his stomach got all hot and fluttery when he pictured Kyle, nor did it explain why he was even picturing Kyle to begin with!
James hid his face in his pillow, trying to find a safer topic to think about. A topic that didn't involve bloody Kyle!
Lauren.
She said her initiation into the gang didn't involve anything dangerous. All she had to do was pledge loyalty and recite some sort of oath. Apparently, she has to be initiated into the gang by Jack since he was the most important guy involve in Rambo 2010 besides his Father.
Does his Father know that Jack is gay? Does anyone know Jack spends his evenings doing that? What would people say if Kyle and me were doing that? Why the hell am I thinking this?
James threw back the covers and practically ran out of his still cluttered bedroom. He hadn't really bothered to finish unpacking yet.
He bumped into Kerry in the kitchen, and seizing the opportunity to take his mind off Kyle and kissing and gangs and kissing Kyle, and just Kyle in general, he started blabbering about Lisa. "She said she wants to work on your physic project with you."
"What? I haven't even planned my stupid physics project yet!" Kerry yelled. "Why does she think I've done it?"
James gulped. "Well, I kind of told her that you had an idea about cars and she found it interesting so…"
Kerry threw up her hands in annoyance. "How do you even know about my project? Why did you say cars? Why did you have to say anything?" She stormed past him to get dressed, cursing his stupidity until she disappeared on the stairs and her angry snarl faded to nothing.
James sagged against the table and sighed. What was up with Kerry? Was she PMSing? Did something happen in school that she wasn't telling anyone?
"Mornin' James. You need to hurry up and get dressed or we're gonna be_"
James spun round in horror and glared at Kyle, which was ridiculous…as if it was Kyle's fault James was having stupid thoughts about him.
"Wow, who shat in cereal?" Kyle asked, turning on the tap and filling a glass full of water.
But James was already racing up the stairs refusing to acknowledge the fact that Kyle looked very nice this morning. A little too nice for James' comfort.
*At School*
"What the hell?" Lauren shrieked, bouncing up in her leather seat to press her face against the window and stare out intently, a mixture of shock and eagerness tinting her features.
Kerry glanced up from her notebook where she was hurriedly trying to plan a draft for her physics project. "What are you screaming…No bloody way!" the last three words were a shriek and James leant across Kerry to see out her window.
"What? What is it?" He asked excitedly, pleased for a distraction.
"It appears to be some sort of fight…" Lauren grinned, throwing the door open barely allowing the car time to stop before she was leaping out and running over to Kate.
"A fight? Awesome!" James punched the air and clambered out the car, straightening his shirt as she eyed the people.
"Remember James, you're not supposed to get into any fights willingly, and you have to be provoked before you even retaliate!" The slamming of the car door drowned Kyle's voice out.
James sauntered over to Lauren and Kate, who were both bouncing on the balls of their feet, talking animatedly. "Oh my God, no way!" Lauren was squealing.
James opened his mouth to ask what exactly was going on when a hard jab to his back had him falling forward.
He spun around, desperately fighting the glare that wanted to screw up his face. Shy…shy…shy…James chanted the mantra in his head while he seized up the guy in front of him.
"Get out of the way." The guy, who was easily 6 ft snarled at James.
James raised his hands in surrender. "Wow, sorry mate, didn't see you there."
"Are you trying to be funny?" the guy demanded.
James frowned, quickly thinking back to what he just said and he felt like kicking himself. "No, I just_"
"Bloody punks. The lot of you!" And the guy swung his fist towards James face.
Oh shit, James thought as he spied Kyle in the crowd, looking worried and extremely angry.
End chapter. So what do you think? Satisfying? I reached 4000 words plus which is good right? Kind of? Anyway, please review. Sorry for the crap cliffhanger last chapter but *shrugs* I couldn't resist.