9: Halfway
Although they'd had to take a battered hatchback instead of one of the swanky cars, Flora agreed to let George drive the first half of the trip from campus. George pulled up in a discreet corner of a service station on the motorway so Flora could take over, and Rex went inside to grab sandwiches and drinks for them all. When George was settled in the back of the car, watching the sat nav count down the miles that were left, he started to feel his pre-mission nerves. His stomach was churning as he tried to go over all the mission details again in his head, and only the thought of what Rex would say kept him from asking Flora to go over everything again. He left most of his chicken and bacon sandwich uneaten, and sipped at a bottle of Oasis to try and calm himself down.
They got their first look at their new neighbourhood as Flora tried to navigate rows of identical-looking streets, and George briefly wondered whether a group of teenagers standing outside an off-licence would go to their new school. There wasn't much parking outside Albert Park halfway house, and eventually Flora had to park on a yellow line further up the road.
"Hopefully we won't be long," she said anxiously, looking up and down the street as the boys grabbed their bags out of the boot.
"Don't worry, parking tickets don't mean anything to CHERUB," Rex grinned, but both George and Flora glared at him.
"Oops, sorry," he said, clapping his hand over his mouth. "Mission mode, got it."
George tutted. "Amateur," he said, following Flora as she walked up the street to the halfway house, her skirt blowing around her ankles.
It was safe to say that Albert Park didn't get much love from the teenagers who lived there. Although the acrylic sign on the front door had a cartoon sun with a big smile, the first thing that hit George when they went inside was the smell of damp. The reception area had carpet which curled up at the edges and peeling wallpaper, and they all tried not to step on a large brown stain as they went to the front desk.
"Oh, don't worry about that," a woman said breezily from behind them. "It's where someone dropped their Pepsi last year, never did get the stain out." She passed them and unlocked the area behind the front desk with a key attached to her lanyard. "I'm Pauline Dawson, one of the staff here at Albert Park."
Pauline was a middle-aged woman with a saggy face, but she'd dyed her hair black with a cyan blue streak down the side. It was the look of someone desperately trying to look younger and cooler, and George noticed her Reebok trainers looked expensive too.
"I'm Flora Wilmington, we spoke on the phone?" Flora said, reaching over to shake hands with Pauline. "This is George Bartek and Rex Lowther."
George and Rex nodded to Pauline, who gave them a big smile and a double thumbs-up.
"Perfect, thank you so much for coming with them," Pauline said, pressing the button to switch on a computer monitor and jiggling the mouse to get it to wake up. "I just need to go through the registration and transfer from Wandsworth Council."
"I've got all the paperwork here," Flora said, reaching into her handbag and pulling out two envelopes. CHERUB had faked all the documents, of course, and the attention to detail extended to using old envelopes which were roughed up to make them look like they'd followed the boys around the care system for ten years.
"Perfect," Pauline repeated, taking the envelopes and eyeing George and Rex. "You two don't look much like brothers."
"We were adopted by the same family when we were four," George explained. "We've been together since."
Pauline gave him a sympathetic look. "Well, I'm sure it's all explained in here," she said, tapping the envelopes. "Let me see if I can get someone to give George and Rex a tour while we sort this out."
She picked up a desk phone and dialled a number, but after twenty seconds of waiting, nobody answered. There was an awkward pause, which was broken when a door off to one side opened and an older teenager wearing a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms emerged.
"Oh, wonderful, Sammy, can you go and see where Jack is?" Pauline asked, giving the boy another big smile.
"Why?" Sammy said, scowling and pulling his hoodie up over his head.
"George and Rex here have just arrived from down south and I need someone to show them around," Pauline replied, keeping her smile rigid.
"Whatever," Sammy said, eyeing George and Rex. "I'll text him."
Sammy didn't even get his phone out, he just went straight out through the front door without looking back.
"Sammy, you need to sign out," Pauline said loudly, but he ignored her and left anyway. She sighed and grabbed a bright red clipboard marked 'SIGN IN AND OUT', then wrote his name on it for him.
"I know what it's like," Flora said, smiling. "Teenagers can be hard work."
"They're okay really," Pauline said, trying to stay positive. "Hopefully you two will be easier," she added, looking at Rex and George again.
George knew that the envelopes she'd been given contained fake police reports of minor crimes he and Rex had committed, as well as extensive school reports branding them as troublemakers and thieves, so he wondered how long Pauline's good impression of them would last.
"Ah, here you are Jack, listen, can you take Rex and George here up to the vacant room on the third floor?" Pauline said as a man appeared from the same door Sammy had.
"Of course Pauline," the man said, smiling at her. He looked like he was in his early twenties, with a floppy hairdo and glasses which just screamed 'punch me!' He was wearing a heavy metal t-shirt and jeans covered in metal studs, which didn't fit properly.
"And show them where everything else is?" Pauline added, rooting around in a drawer and producing two room keys. "Plus they'll need some school uniform, they're starting at Easby Academy tomorrow."
"Gotcha," Jack said, taking the keys from her and staring at George and Rex. "This way."
"Be good," Flora said to them as George and Rex followed Jack in the direction of the stairs. "Remember, we'll catch up about how you're settling in on Saturday. Call me if you need anything."
George nodded, but Rex just shrugged. Jack took the stairs two at a time, making the wooden floorboards groan, and when they got to the second floor, Jack paused to hitch his trousers up to his waist.
"Third floor," he announced when they got there. "Your room is this one on the left."
George looked around the tiny landing. "Only two rooms up here?" he asked, peering through a grimy skylight at the grey clouds.
"Yes," Jack said, fumbling with one of the keys to try and unlock the room. "The floors below are much bigger, this is an attic conversion. You'll have to mind your head, it can be dangerous."
"Who lives there?" Rex said, pointing his thumb at the door opposite theirs.
"Paul and Kevin, they're brothers," Jack told them. "You'll meet them soon."
George glanced at Rex. Having the room opposite two of their mission targets was perfect.
Finally getting the door unlocked, Jack showed them into the room. In the eaves of the house, the ceilings were slanted and Rex had to stoop slightly to walk around. There were unmade bunk beds up against the taller wall, two identical sets of drawers, and in the low wall was a window which had a view of the street outside the house. George cracked the window open to try and get rid of the musty smell as Rex dumped his bag onto the bottom bunk.
"You can buy things like bean bags or a TV," Jack said. "Everything in the room except the beds and the drawers is yours." He sounded like he was reading from a script.
"Cool," George said, not really meaning it as he hoisted his bag onto the top bunk.
"I'll show you where the toilets and showers are, and then the dining room," Jack went on, hitching his jeans up again and fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt. "It's a nice place to live when you get used to it."
"Looks like a dump to me," Rex said to George under his breath as they followed Jack out of the room.
They had their first chance to speak to Paul and Kevin at dinner. Most of the inmates of Albert Park were the usual types; chavs, goths, some older boys who wore gold jewellery from Argos and had bad tattoos on their necks, one or two normal-looking kids who looked out of place, and a girl in a wheelchair who Jack went everywhere with. Paul and Kevin had close-cropped dark hair and wore tracksuits and trainers which George immediately identified as being designer, which was a price bracket above what you expected kids in care to be able to afford. They sat next to each other, avoiding the other kids as they worked their way through a Sunday dinner of beef, potatoes and veg.
"We've got the room opposite yours," Rex said once they'd introduced themselves and sat down.
"So what?" Paul said, looking defiantly at Rex. "If you make any noise, I'll batter you."
Rex snorted. "I'd like to see you try," he replied, but George defused the tension before things got any more heated.
"You go to Easby Academy? We're supposed to start there tomorrow," he asked.
Paul just glared at him, but Kevin was younger and still hadn't completely outgrown the little-kid phase of wanting to answer questions he knew the answer to.
"Yeah," Kevin said. "It's crap, though," he added defensively when Paul nudged him with his elbow.
George pushed on with the questions. "Will you show us where it is? Unless you want to bunk off, which is fine with us."
Paul glanced from Rex to George and back again. "Where did you go to school before?" he asked, suspiciously.
"Tower High School, in London," Rex answered. "We got moved up here after we got kicked out."
"More like, we got moved up here to protect those guys who ripped us off," George added, shaking his head.
"How did you get ripped off?" Kevin asked eagerly.
Rex dropped his voice low. "We sold some weed to some guys in our year at school, but they didn't pay up and ran off with the drugs."
"They thought they'd get away with it because their Dad was some big shot at the council," George grinned. "But Rex cornered one of them in the bogs at school."
"Smashed his head on the sink, knocked out six teeth," Rex said proudly, relaying the details they'd gone over in mission preparation. "Blood everywhere. We got kicked out of school, but it was worth it."
Kevin grinned. "Awesome," he said.
"Sounds like bull," Paul cut in. "A posh boy like you isn't smashing people's teeth out."
Rex shrugged. "Carry on with the 'posh boy' thing and you'll find out," he said in a menacing tone.
"What's for pudding in a place like this?" George asked, interrupting their spat.
"Nothing, unless you like fruit," Kevin told him.
George reached into his jacket pocket and dropped a Mars bar duo left over from his service station meal down on the table. "Peace offering," he said. "We don't need to make enemies round here."
Paul stared at George, but Kevin grinned and grabbed the bar, unwrapping it and stuffing his bar into his mouth in one go.
"Alright, peace," Paul conceded, snatching the other half of the bar away from his brother. "There's enough dicks in this dump anyway."
Paul didn't open up straight away, remaining suspicious of Rex and George, but the Mars bar had completely won Kevin over and he chattered away to George for the rest of the evening, telling him who the most annoying teachers were at school and how to avoid getting detention for uniform violations. The house had an Xbox, but when George investigated, there was a rota for who got to use it and it looked like you had to sign up way in advance. Two girls with pierced noses had got the TV set to a reality channel and wouldn't let anyone change it, even though they were just messing around on their phones instead of watching. George reckoned he'd seen most of the teenagers in the house now, and Kevin was clearly the youngest. Most were at least fourteen and upwards, which gave the place a nastier edge than children's homes George had lived in before. The one good thing the house had was a pool table, and although they had to wait an hour for some other kids to have a game, eventually it was their turn and the four of them grabbed the cues while Paul racked up the balls.
"How come this is in such good nick?" George asked, examining his pristine cue tip. "Usually all the tips are missing and there's only one decent cue to go around."
"Jack looks after it," Paul told him. "He's, whatever, autism about it. Totally obsessed with keeping it all clean. Even buys chalk and stuff."
"Autistic?" Rex asked, looking over at Jack, who was doing a knackered-looking puzzle with the girl in the wheelchair. "Makes sense."
Paul and Kevin were decent at pool, and George was pretty passable, but Rex was excellent and rarely missed his shots. George could see Paul getting irritated as Rex sank two balls in a single shot to take the lead, so George deliberately missed his next shot, giving Kevin two penalty shots, and he trod on Rex's foot and gave him a meaningful look. Rex picked up the message, keeping the game close but allowing Paul to sink the black ball and grin triumphantly.
"You're good, but not that good," he said to Rex happily, all traces of suspicion gone.
Rex laughed. "My first time on this table. Next time, we'll put some money on it, and then we'll see who's good."
"I'll happily take your money anytime," Paul said, putting the cues back in the rack as Jack hurried over to check everything was okay.
The ice broken, Kevin invited George back to their room to show it off. The brothers' room was the mirror image of George and Rex's, with identical bunk beds and drawers, but they'd installed a wall-mounted TV at one end with an Xbox hooked up and judging by the piles of clothes on the floor, they'd got plenty of money. Paul had used two different keys to unlock the room and George noticed two thick-looking deadbolts on the inside.
"Isn't this place safe?" he asked, pointing his thumb at the locks.
"There's guys on drugs who'll steal anything they can sell," Paul said bluntly. "Lock everything up and don't give anyone the key if you want to keep your stuff."
Kevin was keen to show George Call of Duty, and as he settled onto a beanbag, George was pleased to see a second controller and a few sports games in the pile.
"Nice computer," Rex said, admiring a gaming laptop which stuck out of the top of Paul's schoolbag.
"Internet in this place is really bad," Paul said, shaking his head. "But I've got round the school's firewall and theirs is really good."
"Are you a hacker, then?" Rex asked.
"Not really, mostly I just find tutorials on YouTube," Paul told him. "But I can pirate films, TV shows, whatever you want, just let me know."
"How come you two can afford all this?" George asked, deciding to just take the plunge. "I mean, we get a tiny allowance from social services, it'd never be enough for an Xbox and gaming laptop. Not that I'm complaining, of course."
Paul grinned. "Secret," he said. "But, if you two want to make a bit of cash, I might be able to help you out."
Rex and George exchanged looks again.
"No way I'm living in this hole without some creature comforts," Rex laughed. "I'll sell my own Granny if it gets me a TV."
