‘OK . . . Here goes . . .’ I muttered to myself.
I drew back the bolt and opened the cubicle door. I was just stepping out of the cubicle when it happened. Lola, Joanne and Dionne from Mrs Watson’s class in the year above mine, pushed me back into the cubicle and crowded in after me.
‘We want to have a word with you,’ Lola began.
‘And it has to be in here, does it?’ I asked.
Joanne shoved me so hard, I had to put out my hand to stop myself from toppling over.
‘We heard about what you did yesterday . . .’ Joanne said.
‘I did a lot of things yesterday.’ My heart began to thump in my chest, but I wasn’t about to give these three the satisfaction of knowing I was scared.
‘In the food hall,’ Joanne continued. ‘You sat on the blankers table.’
‘What’s it to you?’ I asked.
Lola slapped my face. Shocked, my hand flew to my stinging cheek. It wasn’t that she’d slapped me particularly hard, it was just that no-one had ever hit me before. Not even Minerva, my sister.
‘I don’t care if your dad is God Almighty himself,’ Lola told me. ‘Stick to your own kind. If you sit with the blankers again, everyone in this school will treat you like one of them.’
‘You need to wake up and check which side you’re on,’ added Joanne.
‘Why d’you want to be around them anyway?’ Dionne piped up. ‘They smell funny and they eat peculiar foods and everyone knows that none of them are keen to make friends with soap and water.’
‘What a load of rubbish!’ The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. ‘Callum has a wash every day and he doesn’t smell. None of them do.’
Dionne, Jo and Lola all looked at each other.
Lola pushed me down so I ended up sitting down on the toilet lid looking up at them.
Any second now the door will open and someone will come in . . . Callum will come in and stop them. He’ll pull them off me and sort them out. Any second now . . .
I tried to get to my feet but Lola pushed me down again and kept her hand on my shoulder, her fingers biting into my skin.
‘We’re only going to say this once,’ Lola told me icily. ‘Choose who your friends are very carefully. If you don’t stay away from those blankers, you’ll find you don’t have a single friend left in this school.’
‘Why d’you hate them so much?’ I asked, bewildered. ‘I bet none of you has even spoken to a nought before.’
‘Of course we have,’ Joanne piped up. ‘I’ve spoken to blankers lots of times – when they serve us in shops and restaurants . . .’
‘And there are some working in our own food hall . . .’
‘Yeah, that’s right. And besides we don’t need to speak to them. We see them on the news practically every other day. Everyone knows they all belong to the Liberation Militia and all they do is cause trouble and commit crimes and stuff like that . . .’
I stared at them, astounded. They can’t really be serious, I thought. But they could obviously read what I was thinking all over my face.
‘The news doesn’t lie,’ Lola told me huffily.
‘The news lies all the time. They tell us what they think we want to hear,’ I said. Callum had told me that and at the time I didn’t fully understand what he meant. But I did now.
‘Who told you that?’ Joanne’s eyes narrowed. ‘Your dad?’
‘I bet it was one of her blanker friends,’ Lola said with scorn. ‘They’re blank by name and blank by nature.’
‘What d’you mean?’ I asked.
‘Blank, white faces with not a hint of colour in them. Blank minds which can’t hold a single original thought. Blank, blank, blank,’ Lola recited. ‘That’s why they serve us and not the other way around.’
‘You ought to sell that horse manure worldwide. It’s quality stuff. You’d make a fortune!’ I sprung up. ‘Noughts are people, just like us. You’re the ones who are stupid and ignorant and . . .’
Lola gave me another slap around my face for that, but this time I was ready for it. Win or lose they weren’t going to get away with it. I made a fist, drew it back and punched Lola in the stomach. She doubled over with an ‘Oof!’ I struck out with my elbows and my fists and my feet all at the same time, trying to make as many of my blows count before they could react. I had the element of surprise on my side, but not for long. Joanne and Lola each grabbed a flailing arm whilst Dionne straightened up to glare down at me. Dionne was the best fighter in her year and everyone knew it. But if she was expecting me to beg or cry, she’d have a long wait. She gave me a slow smile of satisfaction.
‘Blanker-lover . . . You’ve had this coming for a long time,’ she said softly.
And then she let me have it.
THE TURNING
sixteen. Callum
‘Callum, wait.’
It was the end of another lousy school day where the most obvious lesson I’d learnt was how much the Crosses despised and resented us. I tried to tell myself that only a few Crosses had bashed into me; it wasn’t all of them by any means, but that didn’t help much. I mean, it wasn’t exactly as if any of the other Crosses had tried to stop it either.
‘Callum, hold on. WAIT!’
I turned and watched Shania race
