25: Normal
One week later
George's Saturday was going well. He'd skipped early morning physical training on account of his injury, which was healing well but still needed weeks of rest, and had a lie-in. After a leisurely breakfast, he'd endured a couple of hours of morning lessons and then, grabbing two chocolate muffins for lunch instead of sitting down in the cafeteria, sauntered over to the technical department to see what was going on in the afternoon.
"Hi Terry," George said as he walked through the open garage door and spotted the white-haired man standing under a car examining the chassis.
"Afternoon George," Terry replied, tearing his eyes away from whatever was interesting him.
"Anything fun going on today?" the Cherub asked, putting his muffins down on a clean-looking toolbox.
Terry pulled a hammer off his tool belt and tapped at something, causing a shower of rust to cascade down. "Not a great deal," he admitted, brushing flecks of rust off his overalls. "I'm expecting Lucy some time this afternoon, she's supposed to be taking a couple of grey shirts out for some driving course stuff."
"Not seen Lucy for ages," George said. He'd been on a mission with her a couple of years ago, which had been fun, but she was five years older than him and they mixed with different crowds these days.
"You can say hi when she finally gets here," Terry said, pulling on a pair of goggles to continue his work.
"Anything I can help with?" Normally George avoided extra work wherever he could, but he loved doing stuff in the workshops and Terry was usually willing to teach him about whatever he was working on, which ranged from routine maintenance of the wide variety of vehicles CHERUB used, to fitting bulletproof armour plates or turbocharged engines.
"You could run some checks on the Ford at the back there. That's the one they're taking out," Terry replied, reaching into his pocket and throwing a set of keys in George's direction. The throw was hopeless and they landed nowhere near, skidding across the concrete floor, so George had to scramble after them.
"No problem," he said, picking them up.
Terry stopped hammering for a second and pulled off his goggles. "Actually, you've never met Mason, have you?"
George shook his head, pressing the plipper to unlock the car. "I don't think so."
"He usually helps me out here on Mondays and Tuesdays when you're in lessons, but he happens to be in the main office for some reason. Let me give 'em a call, he'll appreciate meeting you," Terry said, cryptically. He slid his hammer back onto his belt and walked over to the knackered corded phone in the corner, pressing something on the speed dial while George hopped into his assigned car and started the engine, grinning to himself as it burst into life with a magnified noise in the enclosed garage.
George had expected Mason to be some older agent or staff member, so he was surprised when a frail-looking old man turned up ten minutes later, knocking with surprising force on the metal door, which made a booming noise.
"Bonjour, Terry," he said in a French accent. "You wanted to see me?"
George kept his distance as Terry emerged from under the car again and patted the pensioner on the shoulder.
"How're the lungs holding up?" he asked, and the old dude just shrugged.
"So-so," he replied, laughing in a wheezy kind of way.
Terry turned and waved George over. "Mason, this is George Knight, our latest apprentice. George, this is Mason LeConte, an ex-Cherub and former motor car racer."
George wasn't totally sure how long CHERUB had been around but Mason looked as if he'd been there since the start. Reaching out, he shook Mason's hand and smiled.
"Mason was active in the Second World War and around the time CHERUB was founded," Terry explained, but Mason waved him away, took a couple of steps and sat down heavily in the tatty chair by the door.
"He won't want to hear about all that," Mason said, shaking his head. "So, interested in cars, George?"
George took a seat on the chair next to him, feeling awkward just standing there. "Yeah. I just wish they let me drive them more often."
Mason laughed and wheezed again. "Your time will come," he said, leaning forward as Terry got back to work.
"So what kind of cars did you race in?" George asked, visualising something ancient.
"Oh, a variety," Mason said. "Lots of 50s- and 60s-era Formula One cars."
"Formula One?" George repeated, his eyes widening. "You raced in a Grand Prix?"
Chuckling, Mason nodded. "I was never quite good enough to win anything though."
"Holy shi- I mean, wow," George said, getting a look from Terry. "I'd love to be a racing driver."
"It's not unknown for Cherubs to go into it after they leave," Mason said. "There's usually two or three in the industry at any given time. It's probably the thrill and the danger."
"Did you know anyone famous?" George asked, bouncing a little on his chair.
"Oh, yeah, lots," Mason continued. "I once punched Stirling Moss in a pub."
George laughed out loud in shock. "Really?"
"Oui. He was trying to chat up a girl I was interested in," Mason said, grinning in a way which belied his age. "I never liked him much, but do you know Jim Clark?"
"Never heard of him," George said truthfully.
"Here we go," Terry interrupted, smiling as he pulled a section of pipe away from the underside of the car. "Now you've got him onto his favourite subject."
Mason shrugged again and turned back to George. "Young man, let me tell you about the late, great Jim Clark," he said, looking nostalgic. "I first met him just after I joined the motor racing circuit…"
Dinner was lively, with everyone on campus looking forward to a relaxed evening and a lie-in on Sunday morning. To make matters worse, George, Rex, Letty, Beatrice, Ed, Ralph and Jemima were planning to get a minibus into the local town and go to the bowling alley, since Ed was due to leave on a mission midway through the next week. The only one missing from the gang from basic training was Harry, who was away on a mission, so they were all in high spirits as they made their way down to the car park, dressed in civilian clothes. They'd naturally split into a group of boys and a group of girls, with the girls taking the lead and gossiping in loud voices and the boys following and mucking around, playing a game which involved smacking each other on the back of the neck as hard as possible when they were unprepared.
The girls had dressed up a bit for their evening out and although George had only been back on campus a couple of weeks, he was starting to get fed up of combat trousers everywhere and appreciated the skirts the girls were wearing.
"Keep it down," their driver, a black shirt George didn't recognise, complained when they got to the minibus.
George was the last man onto the bus and let out a whooping cheer as he slid the door closed behind him. The other three lads had piled into the back seats, leaving him with the awkward choice of sitting on his own near them, or sitting with the girls. One look at Letty and Beatrice comparing their nail varnish and he headed to the back, grabbing a seat just as Rex caught Ed unawares and smacked his neck without a resounding crack, making all the boys roar with laughter.
The minibus pulled out of the parking space and the black shirt hit the brakes hard, making everyone jolt.
"Seatbelts," he shouted over his shoulder as he pulled towards the front gates. "You know the rules."
Despite it being a Saturday night in the school holidays, the bowling alley wasn't especially busy and they had no problem getting a lane. Since George's rib was still healing, he wasn't allowed to actually do any bowling, so he was the only one wearing his normal shoes when they walked over to lane seven and started setting up the game. Rex took control, typing everyone's names in, but he got too engrossed and left himself open to Ralph whipping him on the neck with his hand. George could actually feel his cracked rib hurting as he doubled over laughing.
"You boys are so immature," Letty complained, the setup abandoned as Rex chased Ralph around the seating area.
An older teenage girl who was horrendously overweight came over to give them all drinks, which George sipped at as he settled into a bench, scanning the alley. Most of the people there were older lads who'd come to play pool or young adults taking it all seriously, but he spied another group of teenagers who looked roughly their age further down the lanes and craned his neck to see if there were any nice-looking girls with them.
None of them were any good at bowling and by the halfway point, nobody had managed to get a strike yet. George was enjoying the ultra-competitive atmosphere of boys v girls, listening to the slanging matches getting more severe as the overall scores stayed close.
"Hey," Rex said to him, a little out of breath after taking his turn and thundering both balls down the lane at top speed, scoring only two points in the process. "Fancy going over there and chatting those girls up?"
If George was honest with himself, he wasn't totally over Leah yet, and thinking about other girls made him wonder how she was doing in the home now he and Dougie were gone. However, he didn't want to be a wet blanket so he gave Rex a double thumbs-up.
"Let's do it," he said, getting up and making sure he knew which drink was his before he left it. As he followed Rex he watched Letty taking her go, the ball going dead straight and looking promising before it veered late on and only knocked down five pins. He was about to say something to her when someone slapped his neck, only getting a partial hit but still enough to sting and make him spin round.
"Ralph you arsehole," he said, rubbing his neck, but he saw the funny side as Ed and Ralph practically wet themselves. He carried on following Rex, looking down to make sure his t-shirt wasn't crumpled and his hair wasn't messed up or anything.
As they got nearer, George realised that the other group were a year or two older than them and he started to feel out of his depth, especially when some of the lads there started staring at them suspiciously.
"Hi, just wondering if anyone here fancied a drink?" Rex said, sounding smooth. "We've got a couple spare over at our lane."
A few of the girls looked at him, but his floppy hairstyle made him look young and they didn't seem interested.
"I think we're all good mate, thanks," one of the lads said in a posh accent, "but there are some girls over there who are more your age?"
He pointed at the soft play area and all his mates sniggered, but one of the girls grabbed his arm and said, "Leave them alone, they're only kids."
George wanted to come up with a funny comeback, but he couldn't think of anything and just stood there dumbly.
"No problem, just thought we'd ask," Rex said, holding his hands up defensively and retreating. George followed, feeling like an idiot.
"Could've said something," Rex moaned, sounding annoyed. "Standing there quietly never got any girls, ever."
George didn't want to get into a fight so he didn't take the bait. "I thought you had it handled, sorry."
As they got back to their own lane, everyone had been watching their progress.
"Welcome back," Ed said triumphantly, drumming his hands on the ball he was holding. "Here we see two prize studs making complete tits out of themselves."
"Didn't help that George literally stood there and said nothing," Rex said, seeing his favoured ball come out of the machine and lunging forward to grab it.
"The perfect ladies' man," Ralph said, grinning.
"Don't say that," Letty said, putting her glass down. "I heard that George found himself a girlfriend while he was away."
Everyone stared at him, stunned. This was new information and usually even the most boring bit of romantic information had been round campus three times within an hour of happening.
"You what?" Rex said incredulously, mouth hanging open. "George?"
"Yeah. The red shirt he recruited is in my maths class, and he says he saw them going on a date," Letty explained. "Her name was Leah, apparently. Zara brought it up in our meeting."
George shook his head. "We were just friends!" he protested, but he sounded unconvincing and he knew his cheeks were burning.
"Aww, look at him, Georgie's first love!" Beatrice said happily, jumping up and down on the spot.
"Oh wow, Georgina!" Ralph chimed in, using a stupid voice.
"Georgina and Leah, the perfect couple," Ed added, unable to keep himself from laughing. "This is too good."
George glared at Letty. "Thanks for nothing," he said, sitting down on the bench again and trying to ignore all his friends' giggling.
"They were gonna find out sometime," Letty shrugged.
"Did you kiss?" Jemima asked, sitting down next to him and putting her arm around him. "Do you looooove her?"
George just fake-laughed. "Alright, funny, great, let's move on," he said, looking down at his feet.
"Is Georgina crying?" Rex asked, sounding surprised.
"He did have to leave his girlfriend…" Letty said, totally unhelpfully.
Thankfully for George, before they could say anything else, Beatrice let out an inhuman screech from the lane.
"STRIIIIIIIIIKE!" she screamed, punching the air and giving everyone the finger with both hands. "Suck on that, losers!"