4: Horsemeat
The school bell chimed in its distinctive way, like a church clock back in the UK marking the hour. George, cover name George Suzuki, was used to harsh school bells that sounded like the start of a fire alarm, so the gentle chimes always felt strange to him.
"Remember, you've got exams when you get back, so don't spend the break watching TV," Mr. Sato reminded them, clipping his briefcase closed on his desk as the class started shoving pencil cases and books into their desks and bags. "Have a good New Year's and come back fresh and prepared."
"Prepared for what? Exam torture?" Natalie Baker whispered to George from the desk next to him with a smirk. She had bleached blonde hair carefully styled around her face and plenty of makeup, which instantly marked her out as different to the rows of plain-looking, dark-haired classmates around her.
George grinned at her as he zipped up his bag. "If Sato thinks I'm going to do any revision over the holiday he's almost as stupid as you," he said back, making Natalie laugh.
A handful of the do-gooders in the class were actually lining up near the front to wish Mr. Sato a happy New Year, and Natalie pretended to gag as they walked past, getting a couple of evil eyes from them.
"Losers," George coughed, making Natalie giggle again as they turned the corner out of the classroom and into the corridor. Maths had been their last-but-one class of the year, and they had lunch break before English. The day finished with after-school classes or clubs for the students who participated in hockey or astronomy or whatever, but Natalie always went straight home so George hadn't joined anything extra-curricular so he would fit in with her.
"Crisps for lunch again," Natalie said when they got to their usual lunch spot: a deep windowsill on the main staircase where you could sit and watch other students going past. Natalie's favourite game was to make fun of anyone she could as they walked by, and the only two exceptions in the entire school were her friends: George, and a girl called Charlie Summers, who actually did play hockey but didn't fit in with anyone else in the school. Charlie was waiting for them by the window, sitting cross-legged with her skirt tucked under her thighs, a pair of shorts on display underneath and a packed lunch box open on her lap.
"You can have some of mine," George shrugged. "Ewart always makes loads for me and Jemima and I'm not that hungry."
George actually knew for a fact that Natalie's mum was a nice lady who always made sure Natalie had a packed lunch each morning, but Natalie hated her and would deliberately leave it in the fridge rather than take it.
"Nice one, Suzuki," Natalie said to him, reaching out and taking a bread roll he offered. "How was science, Charlie?"
Charlie shrugged as she munched carrots. "Boring, terrible as usual," she said. George had seen Charlie's school reports and although she was a good athlete, she was dyslexic, and the high-flying international school they went to didn't make any allowances for her so she was constantly failing her exams.
"At least it's just English left, then sweet, sweet freedom," Natalie said happily, kicking her legs against the wall as she ate.
Mrs. Baker worked at the British Embassy and befriending Natalie was George's aim for the mission. He'd managed that fairly easily - Natalie was the school bully and all George had to do on the first day was rip into a weedy-looking do-gooder and boot his schoolbag into a bush, and he and Natalie had been friends ever since. Natalie and Charlie went way back and seemed to prefer hanging around someone they knew to making new friends, but George had been accepted easily enough.
"Here she comes," Natalie said nastily, breaking into a smile. "Leader of the Do-Gooders."
George looked down the stairs and spotted his adopted step-sister coming up, uniform neat, arms full of books, hair perfectly parted into two plaits. With his scruffy uniform, short hair and bad attitude, they couldn't have seemed more different.
"Hey, cat-face," Natalie called out when Jemima got close enough. "What are you doing over the holidays? Licking your own bum? Or is your cat-boyfriend doing it for you?"
George and Charlie cracked up as Jemima made a point of ignoring Natalie and walking straight past, sticking close to her boyfriend, a skinny, nerdy-looking boy called Will Swinson. Natalie had started calling Jemima cat-face on their first day, even though she looked nothing like a cat, and it had stuck.
"I can't imagine spending every day trapped in the same house as cat-face," Natalie said for the hundredth time.
"I told you, we don't really talk much," George said for the hundredth time in return, spooning yoghurt into his mouth. "She's either studying or hanging out with her loser mates."
In reality, Jemima's mission goal had been to befriend Will Swinson, whose dad also worked at the British Embassy, and since he was a straight-laced, straight-A student, Jemima matched his behaviour. They were officially dating, but since they seemed to spend their entire time studying together and George had never even seen them hold hands, he wasn't sure how much Jemima actually liked him. The difference between George and Jemima's behaviour was so complete it only made their backstory even more believable.
Tokyo Southern International School was filled with the kids of international diplomats, businesspeople and really any other foreigner who found themselves living full-time in Tokyo but didn't want their children to go to a regular Japanese school. Everyone was expected to speak English, and there were even a handful of genius Japanese kids who attended to improve their English and boost their credentials for applying for British or American universities. The school had a roll of honour board in the corridor outside the staff offices which had the names of all the students who'd gone on to Oxford, Cambridge or the Ivy League colleges. Natalie called it the roll of shame.
"My dad says he's hoping to get a promotion next year," Natalie went on, tearing the bread roll into tiny chunks which she ate one at a time. "Then I might be able to move back to England and stay with him."
"Don't abandon me," George joked. "I'll go crazy if I'm stuck here without you."
"You'll probably turn into a do-gooder," Natalie smirked. "I know you've got it in you, deep down."
When Natalie had finished her roll, she opened the jumbo bag of crisps, but didn't eat any. Instead, she just sat with them open on her lap and kept up a running commentary on the kids she could see going past, which was cruel but hilarious. George always felt bad for the other kids, since Natalie was so mean, but it was part of the mission.
"Do you want to come back to mine after school today?" Natalie asked George after the bell had rung to signal the start of the final period. "Mum's out I think."
"Can't," George said, shrugging. "One of my dad's friends is visiting and we're hanging out with his kids. We went to school together back in England."
"Oh," Natalie said, disappointed.
George had an idea. "Tell you what," he said, as Natalie pushed a younger kid out of the way in the hallway, tripping him into a crowd of his friends, "Are you still having that New Year's party at yours?"
"Yeah," Natalie said. "I lied and told my mum I'd revise for my exams if she let me have it."
"I think they'll still be here for that, so I could invite them? They're not boring," George suggested. "Would make the party more fun."
"The more the merrier," Natalie said, enthusiastically as they arrived at their classroom. "I plan for it to be totally crazy."
With a week off school and a party to look forward to, George was in a good mood as he got off the subway at the stop near their apartment. It felt bitter near the entrance and he pulled his school jacket tight around him as he climbed up the stairs to the outside world, turning the corner at the top and walking the half mile to the apartment building with his hands shoved deep into his pockets.
The apartment was empty when he got there and took off his shoes in the entrance: Ewart had texted him to say he was working late at the Embassy to clear up the mess, which George took to mean that Letty and Kimberley's operation had been successful. He lobbed his bag into his bedroom and grabbed the remaining half of a bag of crackers he'd left in the kitchen the previous evening, vaulted the sofa and picked up the PlayStation controller that was lying on the coffee table.
Two glorious hours of idle gaming later, the crackers were finished and it was starting to get dark outside. There was a clatter as someone came through the front door, and George craned his neck to look over the back of the sofa to see who it was.
"Oh, hi Ewart," George said, looking back at his game. "Busy day?"
"You could say that," Ewart said, sounding strained. "Kimberley went totally overboard with the destruction angle and managed to crack a nineteenth-century marble fireplace. The Ambassador was going berserk, screaming about how he was going to get the sack and how many earthquakes that thing had survived."
George saw the funny side. "Maybe the earthquakes weakened it?" he laughed as he unpaused the game and went back to FIFA.
"She could have restrained herself a bit," Ewart pointed out, irritably. "Worst of all, Letty says they don't think they found anything in the office they searched anyway."
"Bummer," George said, but he wasn't going to let Ewart's moaning dampen his mood. "So, what are we doing for dinner?"
"Where's Jemima? In her room?" Ewart asked, slapping his keys down on the kitchen counter.
"Don't think so," George said. "I'd guess she's out at Will's."
"I told both of you to be back here this evening," Ewart complained. "Can you text her and ask what's going on?"
"Roger," George said, pausing again and grabbing his phone. He texted Jemima saying WHERE R U EWART GOING CRAZY before picking up his controller again.
"Don't think you're just going to lie on the sofa all night," Ewart warned him. "I can't meet with Jules and the others in case it compromises my position at the Embassy so you're going out to see them instead. I wanted you to go with Jemima but if she's not here then there's not much I can do."
As much as George fancied staying in the nice warm apartment with the PlayStation, Ewart was obviously in a bad mood and getting away from him sounded good. He exited the game and switched it off, standing up and stretching. "I'll text Jemima and get her to meet us there," he suggested. "I'll go out as soon as I change out of my uniform."
"Good man," Ewart said, popping open his briefcase on the kitchen counter and extracting a pile of paperwork. "By the time I've waded through this lot, it'll probably be midnight anyway."
Jemima texted him back when he was halfway back to the subway.
SRY 4GOT, I AM WILL'S
George smiled and texted her the location of where they were meeting with Letty, Kimberley and Jules.
U DODGED A BULLET ANYWAY, EWART IS IN A BAD MOOD ️
They met up at a place in Shinjuku which did Japanese pancakes. It looked run-down from the outside but Jemima and Jules seemed enthusiastic and when they got inside, it was buzzing with people.
Jemima had a quick conversation with a gruff-looking bloke who looked like the owner and he led them over to a booth towards the back, handing out laminated menus and putting disposable chopsticks in front of each of them. The booth was really designed for four, so Kimberley and Jemima had to squeeze up together with Letty while Jules and George sat on the other side.
"So, you really trashed the place?" George grinned, looking at Kimberley and Letty. "Ewart is furious."
"I only damaged one measly little fireplace," Kimberley said, defensively. "How was I to know it was an antique or anything?"
Jules laughed. "They more or less kicked me out immediately when they realised what was going on, but you should have seen the staff. Full freak-out mode."
"We didn't get anything useful at all from the office we were searching," Letty added. "Total waste of time."
"Yeah, Ewart mentioned that," George told her. "Sounds like you've caused him a massive headache for nothing."
Jules shrugged. "We always knew it might lead to nothing. If Ewart's annoyed about that, he shouldn't be."
George had always liked Jules, going right back to their first mission together. Ewart was a hot-head and thought he looked cool with his baggy jeans and bleached hair, but even now Jules was wearing a boring suit and somehow managed to look ten times cooler than Ewart. Plus he had a much better attitude.
"Anyway," George went on, when the owner had been back to give them a jug of water and some plastic glasses. "You're staying here until the New Year, right?"
Letty nodded. "We're flying back on New Year's Day."
"My friend Natalie is having a party on New Year's Eve," George told them. "I've got you both an invite if you want."
Jemima rolled her eyes. "Obviously Natalie is partying," she said. "I've invited Will over that day to revise for our English exam."
"Well, cancel it, I can get you in too," George told her. "You can lighten up for one day. Bring Will if you want."
"Come on Jem, we're only here for this," Letty told her. "You might be out here for months more and it'd be more fun to party than sightsee with Jules."
Jules looked affronted. "Hey, I'm not that boring," he protested, but the owner came back with a notepad to take their orders. George's Japanese wasn't good enough to decipher the little characters yet, so he just ordered whatever Jemima recommended.
"Sorry, Jules, but I don't care how interesting a garden is, it's just a garden," Kimberley said.
Jules had the good grace to smile. "Point taken," he conceded. "In any case, I'd rather the two of you were hanging out with our mission targets while you're here instead of being tourists."
"Plus," George said, smirking at Letty. "You can have a crack at Natalie. She's fit."
Jemima made a big point of acting exasperated. "George, I don't know what's going on in your weird little head, but Natalie is not gay."
"I've been hanging out with her for months and she hasn't shown any interest in a guy even once," George countered.
"You may think you're irresistible, but maybe she just has actual taste in guys and doesn't go for the type with nasty whiteheads all over their back," Jemima said, acting disgusted.
"Me and Jemima have argued about this a million times," George said to everyone else, ignoring her. "We've got a hundred quid riding on it and there's only one way to settle it."
"George, I am not getting off with someone just to settle your bet," Letty said, looking annoyed. "You're such a pig."
"That is definitely crossing a line," Kimberley added, and Jemima tutted at him.
"Hey, you were in on this too," George pointed out to Jemima, but Jules cut in.
"Okay, enough," he said firmly. "We're not spending the evening having an argument."
"Anyway," Jemima said, giggling. "I've ordered George the horsemeat pancake, so we'll see who's laughing in the end."