10: Spend
Dougie was as good as his word and didn't say a word to the staff about the game, so the next day, after George had spent the morning lying in bed not doing very much, Helen paid him a visit.
"Unless you know any reason why I shouldn't, I was going to go and rescue that game from Dougie," she said, keeping her voice down in case anyone overheard.
"Go ahead," George shrugged. "Just go easy on him."
"If we want to recruit him, I'll have to be extra hard on him. You should know," Helen reminded him. "Anyway, where's he hidden it?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," George said, rolling off the bed and stretching. "It'll be somewhere in his room, I expect."
"Oh wow, I would never have guessed," Helen replied sarcastically. "In that case, you'll have to do me a favour and get him out of his room for half an hour while I pretend to clean."
"No problem," George said optimistically. "Give me a fiver or something and we'll go down to the shops."
"You are such a con merchant. What happened to children being sweet and kind?" Helen asked, giving him a stern look, but she slipped a five-pound note out of her purse anyway and handed it to him.
"Back in an hour," George grinned, ignoring the look the care worker gave him as he headed out of the room to find Dougie.
It was easy to convince Dougie to abandon his reading book to go and spend money, but as they were putting on shoes, Leah appeared from the kitchen.
"Off somewhere?" she asked through a mouthful of sandwich.
George would have preferred not to tell her, but Dougie trusted her completely.
"We're going out to the shops. George said he got five pounds from the carers for helping to fix the computers."
George could tell that Leah didn't really buy this, but she just shrugged.
"Count me in if George is sharing his money out."
"I never said that," George protested, but Leah was already pulling on a pair of knock-off Converses. He realised that this was bad. Leah would instantly suspect foul play if Dougie just so happened to get into trouble just when George was unexpectedly taking him out somewhere, and it'd be impossible to properly judge Dougie's abilities with Leah hanging around being overprotective. He had two options: somehow let Helen know to abandon the plan, or plough on regardless and hope things just turned out fine. Everything suggested cancelling it and trying again, but before he could make a decision, Helen herself appeared.
"Heading out, you three?" she asked, sounding mildly interested. "Probably a good thing, we're doing the hoovering this afternoon so you'd only be disturbed anyway. Oh, and George? Thanks for the help earlier; the printer is working great now. I have no idea why teenagers are so much better with technology."
As they left, George realised that he'd just seen a master at work. Helen wasn't an ex-Cherub for nothing; in two sentences she'd managed to deflect Leah's suspicion and provided plausible explanation for why she'd be going into Dougie's room. He was still marvelling at how easy she'd made it look when they arrived at the local shopping arcade.
"Where do you want to go next?" Letty asked, stepping out of the air-conditioned clothes shop and looking up and down Oxford Street.
Vi shrugged. "You're the one who knows where all of the good shops are. Although, I could get some more shoes…"
"Shoes, no problem," Letty said, pointing left. The girls set off at a leisurely pace, being overtaken by the more determined London shoppers hurrying along the pavements.
"You know what the best part of having a bodyguard is?" Vi asked, pointing at Yasir with a thumb.
"Carries all of our bags?" Letty giggled.
"Exactly!" Vi laughed. "Normally my arms would be falling off by now and I'd have to stop at a café or something."
"I am pretty thirsty," Letty said, checking the clock on her phone. "We've been here for three hours already."
"Time flies when you're shopping," Vi said, sighing. "I'm going to spend all of my money for the trip in one day."
"Oh, trust me, we haven't even gone to Covent Garden yet. They have tons of market stalls which sell the best stuff. High street brands are great, but nothing is better than finding something vintage for half the price."
"Don't even say it," Vi said, shaking her head. "I don't get how you can basically live here and still have money you haven't spent."
Letty craned her neck to look over the crowds. "It looks like there's a cute upstairs café on the other side of the road. Want to check it out?"
Vi nodded, so they found the nearest crossing and made sure they hadn't lost Yasir. He insisted on checking the interior of the café before they went in, but he was satisfied and they ended up sipping ice cream floats while Yasir ordered an entire pot of tea for himself.
"I didn't expect you to like tea," Letty said after Yasir finished the first cup in three mouthfuls and let out a satisfied gasp.
Yasir smiled for the first time Letty had seen. "I was born in Turkey and there we drink even more tea than the British."
"More tea than England… that's hard to believe," Vi laughed. "People here can't get enough, right?"
"Look around," Yasir said, gesturing towards the other people in the cafe. "Americano, cappuccino, smoothie, ice cream. In Turkey, everyone would be drinking tea."
"I'm half-American anyway so I don't get the tea obsession," Letty shrugged. "But you learn something new every day."
Vi just laughed harder. "I love England! Everyone is so weird!"
George had only planned to be out for an hour or so, but it wasn't every day that a ten-year-old gets to spend five pounds all at once, so he'd donated it to Dougie and basked in the reflected excitement as Dougie raced around all the cheaper shops, trying to decide where best to spend it. Dougie was obviously was used to Leah being rich, but she never actually gave him the money, so his face lit up with excitement as he stood in the queue at the everything-for-£1 shop and bought two multipacks of chocolate bars. It was far too warm for chocolate and the one which Dougie insisted on eating as soon as he left the shop melted instantly, leaving Leah to help him clean his hands with a wet-wipe.
They managed to kill the majority of the afternoon letting Dougie go into whichever shops he wanted and point out all the things he wanted but couldn't afford. Leah waited outside the computer game shop while George and Dougie tried out all of the games on display until an employee told them to buy something or leave. The two of them were deep in a discussion of whether handheld consoles were really worth it when Leah chimed in.
"Are you two nerds finished yet? I'm bored," she whined.
"Games aren't for nerds," Dougie replied, but he took Leah's hand and the two of them headed for the tube station with George following. He checked his watch and was pleased to see that they'd easily given Helen enough time. Despite filling up on junk food (they'd lunched at KFC), he was also starting to get hungry. The food in the care home was nice enough, but he missed the chef-prepared meals they got on campus and especially the microwave in his room with popcorn and burritos available 24/7. He silently prayed that Dougie would pass the test and make it onto campus so he could leave sooner rather than later.
George tried to act innocent when they got back to the house and Helen was waiting.
"Dougie? Can you come with me?" she said, her voice angry. Dougie, confused, looked at Leah for support, but when she started to follow him Helen held up a hand.
"Not you, Leah, it doesn't concern you," she said, leading Dougie towards her office. Leah gave George a confused look but he just shrugged, trying to appear clueless.
"What do you think that's all about?" Leah asked as they climbed the stairs after taking their shoes off.
"Maybe someone's visited and wants to adopt him?" George lied.
Leah shook her head. "Helen is usually happy when that happens."
"No idea, then," George said, heading for his room. "Anyway, I'm gonna pass the time before dinner watching TV or something."
"It's always for the little kids before dinner," Leah replied. "I'll be in my room when you get bored."
George gave her a parting wave as she climbed the next flight of stairs to her own room, then pushed open his bedroom door. He had been expecting to see Kev lying on the bed listening to some metal album for the billionth time, but instead he almost walked straight into an older teenager. Bouncing off the guy's sweaty t-shirt, George let out a slight noise of revulsion when he saw that that the teen was really fat, and George actually had a damp spot on his face where he'd made contact.
"This the kid?" a voice said, but when George craned his neck to see what was going on, the fat guy blocked his view and pushed him towards the door.
"No entry today for little kids," he said, trying to reach round and pull the door shut. George, however, was too interested in what was going on inside and squirmed under a fat arm, pushing the door back open with a hard kick and heading for his bed, acting annoyed.
"It's my room, I can come in if I want," he said loudly, taking in his surroundings. Kev was
sat on the bed on the far side, looking scared, while another older teenager with a tattoo on his neck and about ten piercings in his ear leant over him with a nasty expression. George wondered how they'd managed to get in, but his more immediate concern was avoiding being grabbed by the sweaty one.
"Smack him, Lewis," the one with the piercings said, pointing to George. "He's the one."
George ducked under Lewis' clumsy punch and sized up his opponent. His bulk was blocking most angles of attack in the small room, but when he stepped forwards to try and trap George against the wall, George took his chance and burst forwards, executing a karate move he'd drilled hundreds of times on campus. He grabbed Lewis' outstretched arm and wrenched it towards him, using the extra momentum to kick his leg away and send him sprawling forwards. Lewis' chin hit the wall awkwardly and he howled in pain.
"You want a go now?" George asked the other teenager in a cocky voice. "I'll take you out too." It had originally looked as if they were threatening Kev, but based on Kev's angry expression, he now thought that they were all friends.
"Who are you, baby Jackie Chan?" the teenager asked, turning and dropping into a combat pose. "Probably been to kiddie judo, right?"
George just shrugged. "I'm a blue belt in taekwondo, actually."
Fighting an overconfident opponent was always easier, and George waited for the guy to lash out with a clumsy roundhouse kick before taking his chance. He blocked it carefully, making sure to look scared, but then closed in and delivered a vicious kick to the kidneys that had him doubled over on the floor, making quiet sobbing noises.
"So, ready to tell me what's going on here?" George said to Kev, making sure that fat Lewis was still cradling his head and wasn't making a sneak attack. He was expecting a lot of remorse and begging for mercy, so when Kev replied with spite he was surprised.
"Don't act innocent; I know it's you who's been nicking my money," Kev said, standing up and bunching his fists in George's face.
"Woah! I've never touched your money," George said, giving Kev a hard shove so he fell back onto the bed. "Why would I steal from you?"
"Everyone steals from everyone," Kev replied, getting up again and moving towards George. "I heard from Leah that you'd been kicked out of your last home or something, so I know it's you. Who else could it be?"
"I don't know, but it's definitely not me," George said defiantly, dodging away from Kev. "You were gonna get these guys to beat me up?"
Kev nodded, looking angrier than ever. "I figured that paying them was cheaper than letting you steal it all."
"I haven't stolen anything," George said again, shaking his head. "But let me tell you, if you even think about trying to hurt me again, I'll spend an hour bouncing your head off the walls before cleaning it in the toilet, understand?"
Kev just stood there, red in the face, not saying anything, and George felt sorry for him. He got the impression that Kev got bullied a lot at school and wished they'd got off on a better foot to begin with.
"Anyway, your friends had better leave; if they get caught in here the staff will punish you," George said, holding out a hand. "Truce?"
Kev ignored him, so George just sighed. He grabbed the nearest guy by the wrist and pulled him into a painful armlock before dragging him towards the door. He was shocked to find the handle of a serrated kitchen knife sticking out of Lewis' giant trousers, and worse, Lewis woozily getting back on his feet. Facing a situation and feeling sorry for Kev, he confiscated the knife with a quick move and held it under Lewis' nose.
"You and the other guy better leave right now or I'll give you something other than your weight to worry about," George said in a nasty tone, satisfied to see a look of fear pass over his face. "Don't come back, either. I'll sleep with this under my pillow."