15: Favours

With all of the intensive work, and especially the two hours every day with Kimberley, who lived up to her reputation as a genius and seemed to literally know everything, he found that he managed to get on top of all his work. He was even getting ahead on his A-Level revision, and after four gruelling weeks, he actually felt semi-prepared for his exams, especially since some of his mock exams were coming back with As and high Bs.

"It's not often I get to come here with good news," Rose admitted to him when she stopped to see him after dinner as usual. "But every report I've had from your teachers has been positive and by some miracle you seem to actually be learning things."

"All in a day's work," George said, pointing to a neat pile of folders on one side of his desk. "Essays written and ready to submit three days before the deadline."

"About the essays, though," Rose said, sitting down on his bed and looking severe. "Although your marks are good, Mrs. Joyers says some of your English essays are very similar to ones another Cherub submitted last year."

George tried to look mystified. "No idea what she means," he said.

"And Mr Brennan is certain he's seen your Henry VIII essay before somewhere," Rose went on. "I'm starting to think this isn't a coincidence."

"Honestly, no idea what they mean," George said, but he had a feeling he'd been rumbled.

"It's good that your friends are trying to help you, George, but you won't have them sitting next to you in an exam," Rose warned him. "I want you to promise me you're not going to copy any more essays."

"I promise," George said. "I mean, I wasn't copying before, but-"

"Drop the act," Rose said. "I'm still perfectly happy to hand out some heavy drill if you try to get clever."

George decided the best course of action was just to shut his mouth and say nothing.

"Now, I can't believe that you could possibly have been on campus for four weeks and not heard the rumour. Even I've heard it, and I actually know the truth," Rose went on. "I've spoken to Ewart and I know that you took it pretty hard when your friend on your mission took an overdose."

George didn't like to think about it very much and grimaced. "I've had better days," he said, diplomatically.

"I've also spoken to Jemima who tells me you used your instincts and without that, this girl might not be alive today," Rose said. "And this is on top of that bloke you stopped from bleeding to death last year."

"Alright, I'm not used to hearing praise from you," George said, smiling. "What's the catch?"

Rose glanced at the door, as if to make sure they weren't being overheard. "As far as I'm concerned," she said, her voice low and conspiratorial, "You should be walking around in a black shirt. There's not many Cherubs who can say they've given life-saving first aid to two people, and you should hear the Americans go on about you when they're planning missions." She put on an American accent. "Howdy, where's All-American Hero George Knight?"

George laughed. "Now I know you're making things up."

"Ewart vetoed giving you the black shirt, he thinks you still need to grow up a bit, but don't tell anyone I told you that," Rose said, quietly. "In any case, I reckon you could do with a decent birthday party, so I've called in a couple of favours. You only turn fifteen once, after all."

George broke into a big grin. "Now this sounds amazing," he said.

"We're going to go one better than the mud racing thing we did a few years ago," Rose said, getting up. "I want you to give me five names by the end of the weekend and I'll get it all sorted."

"Beautiful," George said, leaning back in his chair. "This is exactly what I've needed."

Rose smiled as she headed for the door. "Don't get complacent," she warned. "I mean it, a single suggestion that you're slacking off and Instructor Capstick will be blasting you with the firehose before you know it."

Five names meant George needed to choose five of his friends to invite, and they'd obviously only been offering to help him so they would be considered for it. Rex and Letty were guarantees; Jemima and Beatrice were possibilities but Beatrice had a habit of leading George into trouble, and Jemima had been annoying him lately, using her black shirt authority to order them all around. The other lads in his usual group of friends (Ralph, Harry and Ed) were all away on missions, although he wondered about asking Rose whether they could come back to campus just for the weekend to take part. Either way, now that the party was definitely going ahead, George realised that it wasn't worth telling anyone they were invited, because that way he could milk it for all it was worth.

"Lasagne, garlic bread, juice, and the last piece of the chocolate cake for pudding," Beatrice said, sliding the tray in front of George at dinner.

"I fancy some ketchup," George said, smiling to himself as Rex lunged in front of Beatrice and shoved her out of the way so that he could be the one to hand George the red bottle.

"I would have squirted it for you," Beatrice said, sitting down at the table now she'd fetched George's dinner.

George grabbed a fork and dug into his lasagne. "Maybe I'll let one of you get me another drink later," he said, unable to keep himself from laughing.

"Not me, I've got a LGBT meeting," Letty said to him.

"Your loss," Beatrice said. "Enjoy gay club."

Letty looked annoyed but ignored her. "A real friend wouldn't spend his time making his other friends debase themselves," she pointed out to George, gathering her things onto her tray to take to the bin and wash up.

"Letty," Rex said in a serious tone, "There's a rumour that George's party is going to be at the CHERUB hostel. The entire place just for a handful of us. Missing it is literally the worst thing that could happen to a person."

"Rex is right," George said, finishing his mouthful. "You'd never live it down."

Letty shook her head. "See you losers later," she said, then paused. "Not you, George. You're not a loser."

"Thanks, Letty. You're a good friend," George said, laughing when he saw the look on Rex and Beatrice's faces.

With one day to the deadline, George had mostly decided. As much as Jemima has been annoying him, he still liked her and it would be harsh to leave her out. Plus, she was Letty's best friend. So with Letty, Beatrice and Rex, that just left one other open slot. He considered a few of his other friends on campus: Rhonda was older than him and had her own friend group so he thought she might feel out of place. Rex would never forgive him for inviting his little sister Kimberley even though George thought she was a good laugh. Dougie was a riot but he was younger than the rest of them and he'd been lucky enough to get selected for the SAS training so he was busy preparing for it. In the end, he decided that since it was his birthday, he could make up his own mind and nobody could judge him. After dinner he took the lift all the way to the eighth floor and knocked on Bianca's door, but nobody answered.

"George?" Kimberley asked, opening the door next to Bianca's. "What's up?"

"Looking for Bianca," George said. "Is she out somewhere?"

"Dojo," Kimberley explained. "She's doing the advanced combat course this week."

"I did wonder why I hadn't seen her around," George said, the penny dropping. "Thanks, I'll walk over and see her."

It was drizzling when George got back down to the ground floor and looked out of the doors. He didn't have a coat with him and it was a fair walk across campus to the dojo, but he spotted the new bin with umbrellas in it next to the door, implemented after a suggestion by one of the staff. He grabbed one and put it up as he walked outside, strolling up the wet path.

"Evening, George," someone shouted at him and George looked around to see who it was. Leaving the athletics track was Mission Controller Flora Johnson, who said a quick word to Jules, who she was with, before Jules set off towards the Main Building, giving George a quick wave as Flora jogged over to him.

"What are you two lovebirds up to?" George asked, grinning knowingly.

Flora rolled her eyes, the soft rain making her blonde hair, tied up in a bun, damp, and it shone under the lights along the side of the path. "Very funny George. Just a bit of after-dinner exercise," she said.

"I should've guessed from the outfit," George said, looking down at Flora's running shoes and tracksuit.

"You're off to your party on Saturday?" Flora asked, putting her hand over her eyes to stop the rain hitting her eyelashes.

"Should be," George said. "I'm pretty excited."

"Rose asked me to call in a favour for you so I hope you enjoy it," Flora said, smiling. "It sounds incredible."

"It seems like everyone but me knows what's going to happen," George joked. "Is it really at the summer hostel?"

Flora just shrugged. "You'll have to wait and see," she said. "By the way, congrats on the mission performance. Zara is very impressed with you at the moment."

"That makes sense, since I'm the best there ever was," George said, acting modest.

Flora stepped a little closer and kept her voice down. "I feel like you ought to know: this is the second time Rose has put you forward for a black shirt and both times it's been blocked. I don't know what's going on but a few people are getting pretty unhappy about it."

"What do you mean?" George asked, confused.

"Mission Controllers are supposed to be able to decide on who gets what shirt, then we recommend it to the chairwoman who usually just signs it off," Flora explained. "For some reason Zara has been turning you down."

"Rose told me Ewart was blocking it," George said, annoyed. "I don't know why."

"That's interesting," Flora said, looking thoughtful. "Don't worry too much about it. It'll work out eventually."

George nodded. "Thanks. Maybe I'll finally get one a month before I leave."

Flora laughed. "Well, enjoy the party and don't go too wild," she said, before turning and disappearing off into the rain after Jules.

The dojo was still lit up and George pushed inside, shaking off his umbrella and leaving it by the entrance.

"If there's so much as a splash of water on my floor you'll be scrubbing it, Knight," Ms. Takada barked at him, surprising him as she came from the girls' changing rooms.

Panicked, George looked down at his feet, but the floor was completely dry. He carefully wiped his feet again just in case.

"All good," George said, giving her a thumbs up, but she still looked stern. "Is Bianca Wright here?"

"The group is just finishing up," Takada said, beckoning him over to the main door to the dojo. "Wait until they're done, don't interrupt."

George followed her into the dojo and watched a group of Cherubs sparring on a line of five mats, set up side by side. A black shirt assistant was standing by one side with a whistle, and every two minutes, she blew a sharp blast and all the Cherubs on one side of the mats broke off their sparring matches and shifted one mat to the left. George remembered this from his own Advanced Combat Course; you had only a few seconds to adapt to the different fighting style of your new opponent, and all the shifting around tired you out.

The whistle blew again and there was another shift. "Final bout, five minutes!" Takada yelled. Bianca was easy to spot: she'd tied her hair into a long braid and was sparring with a taller boy George didn't recognise. She kept trying to hit him low and hard to trip him up, but he'd obviously spent a long time compensating for his higher centre of gravity and knew how to block her attempts. After five minutes, they were locked in a stalemate, and a final blast on the whistle ended it.

"Bow!" Takada shouted, and the Cherubs lined up opposite each other and exchanged bows.

"Very good. See you tomorrow," Takada said, clapping her hands once to dismiss everyone. Bianca looked tired and went straight over to her kit bag to grab a long drink from a sports bottle.

"Nice sparring," George said as he walked over.

Bianca smiled and swallowed water. "Thanks," she said, her face flushed from the exercise. "I didn't do much martial arts on my long mission so I feel like I'm always playing catch up."

"The advanced course is brutal no matter how good you are," George said. "You're exhausted after day one but Takada keeps at it for the entire week."

Bianca nodded. "One day left for me, hopefully I can make it," she said, making a fist. "Although when I wake up in the morning, my legs have gone stiff and feel like they're made of wood."

"Listen, there's an invite going for my birthday party this weekend," George told her. "You want to come?"

Bianca looked at him for a second. "You want me to go?" she asked, pointing a thumb at herself.

"Yeah, it's been fun hanging out the past few weeks," George explained. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

There was a pause and Bianca broke into a big smile. "Yeah, I'd love to come," she said, seeming touched. "Sounds awesome, anyway. It's at the summer hostel, right?"

"I don't know where that rumour came from but Rose isn't denying it," George said, raising his eyebrows.

"I'll be there," Bianca said, meeting his eyes for a second. "Count me in."