I arrived at the community center with Nathan who stayed round mine last night, we had tried to put our loving Simon out of our minds and focused on loving each other, if you know what I mean. Walking into the locker room, I stopped dead at the sight of an unfamiliar face in the familiar ugly jumpsuit. He turned around and smiled at us as if he couldn't tell he shouldn't be here.
"Hey." Of all the nerve. Sean walked in and Curtis immediately asked who the new guy was.
Sean turned to the new guy "What's your name again?" I rolled my eyes at how shit of a probation worker he was.
"It's Ollie."
Sean turned to introduce us "Right and these are," He seemed to strain his memory "some other young offenders." I can't believe he couldn't remember our names, how did he even get this job? "He's going to be doing his community service thing with you lot."
Nathan spat out his hoodie string as Simon walked in, later then usual "Are you saying that he's like a new member of the gang?"
Sean looked confused "Whatever." He sneered. "Look piss off and pick up some litter." He walked out of the other exit pushing past Nathan, leaving us to stare at Ollie who awkwardly bounced on the soles of his feet before smiling at us again. "Hi." I blinked at him, before turning back to my locker, opening it and getting changed quickly.
Curtis moved us all in the middle of the center and we huddled. "Whatever happens, we can't let the new guy find out about our powers." He whispered to us.
"What do we do if he does find out?" Kelly asked.
Simon was the only one not crouching in our little group "We kill him." He said seriously. "I'm joking." He smiled slightly at our horrified faces.
"Your making jokes now? Excuse us. You're creeping out of your weird little shell. I get that." Nathan put his hand on Simon's shoulder "Good for you, but let's get one thing straight." He pointed his finger at Simon before turning it to point at himself "I'm the funny guy around here." He growled.
"More like the one we like to laugh at." I muttered to Curtis, who nodded.
"He's coming." We broke our huddle as Ollie came over, nodding at us as he came through the door. "Alright."
"What did you get done for?" Kelly asked as we all walked forward casually.
Ollie walked over to us with his hands in his pockets, smiling smugly. "I was arrested for vandalising a coal-fired power station. We were protesting against CO2 emissions." Nathan let out the most uninterested groan I've ever heard, it lasted a good few seconds in which Ollie's smile disappeared. He blinked rapidly and looked away, while the rest of us chuckled.
Ollie looked around for a few seconds "Have any of you got any of these weird powers?" My eyes widened as we all immediately babbled nonsense at him. "What powers?"
He looked a bit worried for a second before his smile came back "I'm only asking because I've got one." I let out a sigh of relief before Nathan opened his big mouth. "Oh yeah, us too."
"Nathan, that's something you don't just blurt out." I whacked him in the stomach, before glaring at Ollie for making my boyfriend make an idiot out of himself. He looked up from where he was doubled over. "I don't think I was supposed to tell you that." I rolled my eyes as he straightened back up. Ollie started rubbing his ear, twisting his shitty earring around.
"What can you do?" Simon asked quietly.
"I can teleport." He shrugged casually. I waited for a demonstration, which didn't come until Kelly prompted him. He lost his stupid smile and concentrated weirdly, he strained himself and threw his head back, he squeezed his eyes shut and all of a sudden he wasn't there anymore, I thought it was really cool and moved forward to stare at where he used to be. It was really awesome until I heard an 'ahem' behind us and when I turned around there he was.
"That was shit. You could have walked there quicker." Kelly sneered.
He looked a bit offended "Sometimes I go further than that."
"Ohh." I waved my hands a bit.
"That's really impressive." Alisha sarcastically smiled at him.
Nathan looked really disappointed "I honestly thought something more exciting was going to happen." He looked to me "You win." He patted me on the back "Congratulations."
"Win what?" I asked as we turned and left Ollie to himself. I walked past a flip-flop that I realised must have been Ollie's, I snorted. That made his power all the more shit.
"You know, the whole, who has the most exciting power. Was it not obvious?" He grinned at me. Stupid boy.
I rolled my eyes "Shut up." I pushed him into the door, shoving his back to open it.
We were geared up with garbage bags and pickers, Curtis and Simon were pushing bins that had loads of products strapped to them. Ollie was enthusiastically picking up every bit of litter he could find. "This is great." He grinned. I rolled my eyes, this was about the tenth time he said that.
"Still can't believe you turned gay." I laughed at Nathan, hearing Kelly laugh behind me.
"Hey, you were in love with him too!" He defended, poking me with his picker.
"At least he was a boy." I sang, skipping in front of him.
"Yeah well-" Nathan shut up obviously couldn't think of anything to say back to me, and ended up just poking me in the back. "Stop it!" I turned and hit him with mine, and so started the war. I startled when someone came running past us, Nathan had to dodge out of the way, while he shouted about someone being crazy. A red sports car came spinning round the corner coming to a stop just before it hit any of us.
"Do you think he was talking about this fella?" Nathan asked, referring to the other guy.
"It's a possibility." I mused, as the new person got out of the car. He stiffly walked to the front of his car, his hands clenched.
"Where's Conti?" He demanded. I raised an eyebrows, wondering what the fuck a Conti was.
"Oh, it's him." Nathan suddenly said, pointing his picker at Simon who looked horrified "He's a right Conti." The guy's head twitched to look over at Simon, I found it quite odd that he didn't show a single emotion on his face.
"Did you think I was gonna let it go?" He asked Simon, I looked in confusion, what the fuck? "I want my money."
"Give the man his money." Nathan told Simon.
"Yeah Simon." I hissed.
"I haven't got your money." Simon said, as Kelly walked forward to join us standing next to him.
The man got a slight confused look on his face "Roxy?" His face relaxed "So you're with him now?" Kelly gave us a look of confusion "I was still waiting for you at the church when the cops picked me up."
"Not being funny, mate, but you're acting like a right nutter." I nodded in agreement.
Ollie motioned to the man "Clearly he has some kind of mental illness."
"I don't think so." I tried to dissuade him from walking further forward.
"I want my money." He said in a unemotional voice.
Ollie started putting his bag and picker in one hand "Let me talk to him."
Alisha started "Don't, look, just leave it." He waved her off, saying something about 'being trained in conflict resolution' this guy was a complete twat.
"This should be entertaining" Nathan chuckled, nudging me over slightly, as Ollie walked towards the crazy man.
"What's your name?" He grinned, the crazy guy titled his head again. "It's OK." He didn't stop walking "I'm not going to hurt you." Crazy guy shot him in the head, we all recoiled violently as bits of brain and blood covered us. I was completely horrified, just because he was a prick didn't mean he deserved to die. I had dropped all of my stuff as I straightened back up, and when someone shouted 'Run' I didn't think twice as I sprinted away amidst the swearing from everyone. We separated but regrouped on the roof of the community center we lay down side by side and stayed quiet. I couldn't help but be aware of the blood and splattered brain mush that was on my face. After a few seconds of heavy breathing, Nathan crawled closer to the edge.
"He shot him, he shot the new guy!" Alisha frantically said.
Kelly spoke up "We need to go back for him." I winced knowing that he was dead.
"He was hit in the head." Curtis pointed out "He's fucked."
"Hey, no. It's OK." Nathan called from the edge "He's fine, he's over there." Curtis crawled over to join him. I turned over and held myself up on my arms, crawling over to the edge.
"I don't see him." Curtis said, I looked for Ollie but I couldn't see him either. Nathan looked a bit confused before realisation came to him.
"Oh, then that must be his ghost, which means he's not OK on account of him being dead."
"This is messed up." Curtis breathed.
Nathan made waving motions "Hey, hey, hey. New guy! Sorry you got shot man." He insensitivity commented. There was a pause before he held his middle finger up "Fuck you!"
"What was that?" Curtis asked confused.
"He just got shot and you're insulting him?" Alisha reprimanded.
Nathan looked annoyed "He made an obscene gesture. I don't care if he's dead. There's no excuse for rudeness."
"Actually I think it is." I told him.
"You should rewind time." Simon commented, that was a pretty good idea. We all looked towards Curtis. "You can save him."
"Go on then." Kelly demanded, Curtis stood up slowly, I watched as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I was disappointed when there was no change and I was still covered in blood. I rolled my eyes as his power failed. At least mine was on command.
"Well, I didn't know him." Curtis defended "I'm not feeling it."
"Yeah, he was a bit of a twat." I tsked at Nathan's stupid comment, you can't say that about someone who had just died. No matter how much of a prick they were.
"There's something wrong with you." Kelly snapped at him.
"Come on, seriously." Nathan defended "He was never going to fit in, what with all the caring about the environment and that. Better him than me." I rolled my eyes.
"You're immortal." Simon reminded, Nathan wrinkled his eyebrows before amending his statement "Better him than one of you."
"None of us would have been stupid enough to actually talk to him." I muttered before getting up, I think the crazy guy was far away now that it was safe to leave. I brushed some strange substance away from my mouth and turned to the rest of them "We gonna get cleaned up or what?"
We were lined up in Sean's office, facing him as he spun round on his chair. He looked each of us in the eye and finally addressed us "The police want witness statements off all of you. And try not to screw it up cos I don't need them on my back. Think you can manage that?" He sneered. "Good" He nodded before turning back to his computer. I was expecting something, I don't know, more sympathetic?
"Is that it?" Kelly demanded.
"Aren't you even going to pretend to be a little bit sad?" Alisha asked exasperated.
Sean didn't even bother to look at us, before he spun back around suddenly "Do you know how much paperwork's involved when somebody gets shot during community service?" I raised my eyebrows at him, he didn't even care about Ollie. "I've got health and safety forms coming out of my arse over here."
"Are we meant to feel sorry for you?" I asked incredulously. Sean gave me a look before continuing.
"So yeah, we're all very sad. So there it is." He raised his eyebrows, before turning back round.
Nathan nudged me giving me a wink, before looking at the floor "It's a cruel, senseless waste." He held out one of his arms across me and Alisha. I could see Sean did not want Nathan to be talking, he was rubbing his eyes. "A young man taken from us in his prime, leaving us to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives, knowing that he's gone forever." If I didn't know him better I would say he was genuinely upset, but I did know him. "So, maybe we should take the rest of the week off, you know, to cry and grieve, and remember our dear friend." I had been nodding at everything he was saying, until he couldn't remember what Ollie's name was. I looked quickly from Nathan to the floor, hoping he would soon remember.
There was an awkward silence before Nathan clicked his finger at Simon, who promptly replied "Ollie."
"Ollie!" Nathan happily repeated, before going back to his sad monologue "Dear, beautiful Ollie."
"Piss off." Sean snapped, going back to his forms. "There's some walls that need painting." He muttered, telling us where to go. We grabbed supplies and wandered off under an overpass. I snagged a paintbrush from the pile that Simon was carrying and opened one of the paint cans. Dipping my brush in I started painting over a penis that had been graffitied onto the wall, people had no imagination nowadays.
"Heartless bastard." Nathan complained, moving the paint roller all over the wall.
"You nearly had him," I told him "but you forgot his name, you twat." Nathan rolled his eyes, muttering something about name's being too important in today's society.
"We should do something," Simon suddenly spoke up, pausing when none of us agreed "about the guy who shot Ollie."
Nathan stopped painting and pointed his roller at Simon "So, you're talking about stepping up and taking him down?" He moved the paint covered head closer to Simon's face, coming dangerously close, until he suddenly turned back around "I really don't see that happening."
"I agree." I piped up from where I was on the other wall. "No bad guy fighting for me." I smiled sarcastically before turning back around.
Alisha sighed "He's right." I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Since when did you want to get involved in anything like this?" Curtis asked incredulously.
"Maybe since I got someone's brains blown out all over my face." I had to concede to her point.
I stopped scrubbing as Kelly turned around "If we go up against him, it's going to be one of us with our brains blown out."
"I like my brain where it is." I rapped the side of my skull.
"We can't just pretend it didn't happen." Simon insisted.
"I do it all the time." Nathan commented. "It's like that fella in the bible - the Good Samaritan - walk on by." I slapped my hand to my forehead, what a prick he was.
"So how are you going to feel if we do nothing and then we read in the newspaper that he shot someone else?" Alisha demanded, why was she so adamant about this?
"I don't read the papers." Nathan shrugged going back to painting.
"All right." Curtis turned around "so what do you two do when you find this guy and he sticks a gun to your head?" There was silence as she couldn't think of an answer "Glad you've got it all figured out. No way your getting involved." I could tell Alisha was bristling in fury.
"Since when did you tell me what I can and can't do?" I winced for Curtis, that was a major no-no. He didn't seem to realise as he continued arguing with her.
"Since I care about whether you die or not. You forgotten about that?" Alisha huffed and looked away from him, I could tell Curtis still had a few things to say to her.
"Come on guys." Nathan started "I think I speak for all of us when I say we're lazy and incompetent. We're practically handicapped." He hissed "Leave it to the police, they paid to get shot."
I looked at Nathan in wonder "I think that's the wisest thing you've ever said."
"It happens." He shrugged "Plus, I'm already doing my bit to fight crime." He went back to painting. "Bosh."
I spent the rest of the day at the shops, seeing as I had all of this money I finally decided to spend it. Nathan declined coming with me saying something about being too butch to shop for girl clothes. What a twat.
Seeing as this was a shit part of town, there wasn't really any shops that I really wanted to go into, but I made do. I found some really cute shorts that would be great for later, I swore quietly and ducked under the railings as I saw the crazy guy through the window. He was wearing the exact same clothes from the other day when he shot Ollie, I crawled around the shop until he left. I let out a sigh of relief, but looking up I saw the cashier staring at me like I was a moron.
I smiled, paid and ran out of the shop, I ran all the way home.
"Nathan!" I shouted, dumping my bag on the floor. "I saw the crazy guy again!"
Nathan's head popped out around the corner to the living room "Really?"
"Yeah." I got myself a cup of tea and plopped onto the sofa. "Scared the crap out of me."
The next day at the community centre, just after we changed, Nathan decided to try and get a free drink. He was punching and kicking it, but to no avail.
"The bloke who shot the new guy. He was on the estate again last night." Curtis started "He's looking for this Conti" Nathan stopped in his attempt.
"He think's I'm Conti." Simon worried.
"Why does he think that?" Nathan asked in genuine curiosity, I rolled my eyes as Simon glared at him.
"Because you told him I was." Nathan scrunched his eyebrows together, obviously not remembering.
"Did I? Sorry man." He didn't sound entirely sorry, and he completely ignored everyone when he turned back to the vending machine "I think they mended it." Nathan went back to shaking it before giving up, he turned at clicked his fingers under Simon's nose.
"You want me to buy you a drink?" Simon asked in disbelief.
"I have never paid for a drink from this machine before and I don't intend to start now." We stared at him incredulously, and my stare was redirected when Simon actually gave him some money. "Thank you." He sneered, getting his drink as Alisha came over. I quickly stole it from him and took the first sip.
"Well the bad news is that they've fixed the vending machine." Nathan told her and she sped walked over.
"The guy with the red car and the gun." Alisha started.
"We were just talking about him."
"Yeah, he's got Kelly." She despaired. Nathan immediately went into hysterics "Oh, Jesus. He's going to shoot her and he's going to kill her." He rounded on us "I told you he was dangerous. Right everybody calm down!" I looked at everyone's completely calm faces, and then back to Nathan. "Just think. Think and keep calm." He breathed heavily, before lunging at Simon "Do something you little freak." I rushed at them as well, pulling Nathan off Simon.
"He can't do anything if he's been strangled." I placated Nathan who was still breathing heavily. There was a noise from down the corridor that sounded like 'Conti'.
"He's here." Curtis muttered, before he started walking to where the noise was heard. I followed cautiously behind, and suddenly there was a scream.
"Kelly!" I shouted, as I ran past Simon to where I heard it, stumbling to a stop I opened the door and was pissed off to find no Kelly, and a TV instead. It was playing some sort of video game where someone was getting beaten up. Did not look like fun.
"Where's Conti?" The guy on the screen demanded. "He's screwing your mama." The other man was shot. I wondered why this game was even here. Simon picked up the case and read the back.
"He's living the game." He declared.
"I hate video games." I moaned, looking as a car chase scene came on the screen. Fuck's sake.