“He doesn’t pass to me unless he has to.” It sounded a bit pathetic.
“Everyone else will pass to you.”
Perhaps it was all in my mind. Perhaps I just felt overshadowed by Wills because he was so good.
“You’ll be fine,” smiled Penny, “if I know anything about anything.”
I sat down to do my math and English homework, while Penny went off to catalog a pile of new books. I started with math to get it out of the way. The first five questions were easy, but I was stuck on question six when I saw a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned in the direction of the windows. I couldn’t see anything through them, because the lower halves had that sort of frosted glass you see in bathrooms. I stared back down at my work, but another movement made me look around again. There was nothing there.
And then a hand popped up above the frosted glass and waggled its fingers, before disappearing. I waited. A few seconds later it happened again. Jack, I thought, playing silly games. I stood up and was about to walk over to the window, when four hands popped up and waggled their fingers.
Jack and a friend? He knew I didn’t want him to tell anyone else about my hiding place. I would be livid with him if he had. The hands disappeared again. Perhaps it wasn’t Jack at all. It was probably just kids messing around. I sat down once more and tried to concentrate on question six.
A few moments passed before I was aware of another movement, but this time it was at the library door. I looked up, half expecting to see Jack after all, and ready to tell him off if he was with somebody else.
It wasn’t Jack. It was Wills’s friends. They were sneaking in and heading around the shelves in my direction, while Penny was out back unaware that anything was going on.
I thrust my math book in front of my face, praying that they hadn’t seen me. Of course they had. That’s why they were there. They sat down on the other side of the table and the ginger one pulled the book away from my face.
“Well, if it isn’t Big Willy’s little brother,” he grinned.
“Did you like our puppet show?” smirked the dark-haired one.
“Better than math homework,” said the ginger one.
I looked beyond them in the hope that Penny would appear.
“Where is Big Willy today, anyway?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “How should I know?” I muttered.
“Bit of a liability, your brother, isn’t he?” the dark-haired one smirked.
“Bit of a nut,” added the other.
“Cracks us up though,” they both cackled.
If they thought I was going to agree with them, they’d have to wait a very long time.
“Let us down badly last weekend, he did,” said the ginger one. “Had it all set up to give him a good time and what happens? He doesn’t show.”
“Maybe he had better things to do,” I muttered.
“Better than being with his friends when they’ve got such big plans for him?”
“I’m trying to work,” I said.
“Yeah, Big Willy says you’re a bit of a nerd.”
Just then Penny came out from the back room and glanced over in my direction. Wills’s friends looked at her and she came toward us.
“Friends of yours, Chris?” she said. “New customers for me?”
I didn’t know what to say, but one of Wills’s friends looked her up and down and said, “I wouldn’t mind checking books out from you, darling.”
The smile on Penny’s face snapped shut. She looked questioningly at me and I dropped my eyes in embarrassment.
“Would you like to leave my library now?” she ordered.
“We haven’t finished here yet.”
“We need to find a book on the mating habits of sea lions.”
“Yeah. No blubbering, Chris.”
They started laughing as if they had cracked the greatest joke in the world. I wanted to smack the silly grins off their faces; instead I sat there feeling useless.
“I asked you to leave,” said Penny calmly.
“What if we don’t want to?”
“Then I will call the police.”
“But we ain’t done nothing.”
“I’m not arguing,” said Penny. “Are you going to leave, or am I going to have you thrown out?”
Just then a man walked in carrying a bundle of books under his arm. He looked across at us and waved at Penny.
“Good afternoon, Penny,” he said and pointed to the books. “I’ll leave them on the counter, okay, while I choose something else?”
“Of course, Mr. Clayton,” she replied. “I’ll be with you right away.”
“Nice to see some youngsters in here,” he said. “Catch the reading habit early.”
“Nice to see some seniors in here,” smirked the ginger one. “Keep them off the streets.”
They howled with laughter again. Penny was furious. She turned in the direction of the telephone and was about to pick it up, when they both stood up.
“Nice to meet you, Penny,” the dark-haired one said. “We’ve taken up enough of your time.”
And then, as they approached the door, he continued, “Don’t worry though, we’ll be back.”
They turned and skipped out, leaping up to waggle their fingers above the frosted glass as they went. I breathed a sigh of relief, but my chest was still pounding.
“Are you all right?” Penny asked. I nodded.
“Who were they?”
“Wills’s friends.”
“I thought so,” said Penny. “Nice choice.”
She went off to serve Mr. Clayton, who observed that they weren’t her usual sort of customer, and to make a cup of tea. While she was away, I realized that my hiding place had been discovered, that I had become a problem for Penny, and that I would never be able to go there again. However much Penny reassured me that she would deal with it if Wills’s friends ever came back, I would never be able to relax, and neither would she.
Chapter Seventeen
The rest of the week was agony before the Saturday of the tournament arrived. I wandered the streets after school, rather than go home and risk being stuck on my own
