Lewis strained his ears but could hear nothing. “Leave it, Rhona. Come on.”
On the way back in the bus, Lewis stared out of the window, memorising landmarks, noting left turns and right. It would be trickier in the dark. It was only when the bus slowed down at the entrance to the Outdoor Centre that he turned towards Rhona, who was hunched in her seat, sunk in misery.
“We’ll go back tonight. Will you be able to get out your room? If not, I can go on my own.”
Rhona’s head shot up. This time her smile was bright as the sunrise. “No way are you doing this without me!”
The bus shuddered to a halt and Mr Deacon stood up. “Right, everybody out! Check you’ve left nothing on the seats. Kyle, stop pushing. Archery next! You lucky lot!”
They unbuckled their seatbelts, joining the scramble to leave the bus.
Rhona stopped on the gravel drive. “Are you sure about this, Lewis? You’re not scared?”
“Me? Scared of people with guns? What do you think?”
“I think you’d be daft not to be scared, and I shouldn’t even have asked such a dumb question.”
“Right in one.”
“What time will we go?”
“I reckon midnight would be best. Everyone should be asleep by then. It won’t take us too long to walk there. We’ll look around then get back well before light.”
“That sounds OK to me. Maybe half twelve, just to be sure. I’ll bring my torch, but the batteries are a bit dodgy.”
“I’ll bring mine instead. We’re sticking together, whatever happens, so we won’t need two.”
Rhona laughed, and pushed him towards the door.
“Aye, I’ll stick with you till the shooting starts. Then you’re on your own, pal. My torch is comin’ wi’ me.”
That evening, as soon as dinner was over, everyone rushed off to get ready for the disco. Lewis’s mum had packed his black jeans and a white shirt, and he’d told her that she was wasting her time, because there was no way he was going to any lame disco, but Tariq’s comment had rattled him.
Why do you always want to ruin things for everyone?
He didn’t want to be the sort of person who spoiled everything.
When he was ready, he checked himself out in the long mirror screwed to the dormitory door. Behind him, Derek was carrying on, doing a terrible impersonation of Miss James, while wearing a pair of pants on his head.
“Now, boys and girls! Let me see some super sitting! Oh, my goodness, boys and girls, look at Derek! What a star! Let’s make him Pupil of the Week!”
Lewis’s reflection grinned, and he blinked in surprise. A couple of days of being outdoors had given his skin a healthy glow, and the smile transformed his face. Under his wire glasses, his eyes sparkled. His newly washed hair was glossy. In his fitted white shirt, he looked, he thought smugly, not too bad at all. He felt like a different person, the new, improved Lewis James Zheng Robertson: quite possibly the only boy in the world who’d seen a unicorn.
By the time Lewis strolled into the common room, the party had started. The room had been decked out with bunting and flashing lights. Some of the girls were dancing, and most of the boys were slouched against the walls, drinking Coke and spluttering with laughter at jokes they weren’t sharing with him. He felt his confidence begin to seep away. Maybe he was the joke. Maybe they were laughing at him.
As he stood there, adjusting his glasses, it dawned on him he’d been wrong. Nothing had changed. He was still the same person, the guy who hated parties, loud noise, lots of people. He was still the outsider, the freak. His head started to throb and he began to back out the door he’d just come in.
“Hi, pal. I got you a Coke!” shouted Rhona, heading over to him carrying two cans, her cloud of frizzy red hair bouncing as she walked. She was wearing a green dress made of silky, floaty material, totally impractical for trekking across a moor.
“Thanks. Nice dress. Is it new?”
Rhona raised her eyes to the ceiling. “Good one, Lewis. Zero out of ten for observation. I picked this dress up in the Dalmarnock Road Oxfam shop for the school Christmas party, and wore it to the Easter show.”
“Well, it’s still nice. Can we get out of here? The noise and the lights are giving me a migraine.”
“Did you take one of your painkillers? Take it now, before the migraine takes hold. I’ll come outside with you for a bit, but I’m coming straight back. Kayleigh and me have dared each other to get Mr Deacon up to dance!”
She followed him into the deserted corridor, but he could sense her reluctance and felt mean that he’d even asked. His headache wasn’t her problem.
Rhona put both her hands on his shoulders. “Lewis, stop stressing. There’s no point trying to work out what to do until we know what’s happened to the you-know-what. Then we can figure out a plan, based on that info.”
She grinned and he nodded.
“Looking fine, Lewis!” Derek barged past them. “We need you on our team for the balloon game! Hurry up, man!”
Reluctantly, Lewis followed Rhona and Derek into the common room.
He wouldn’t go as far as to say he had a good time. But the migraine didn’t actually materialise, and he laughed a lot, particularly at Mr Deacon’s expense, who, it turned out, danced like a malfunctioning robot. And it didn’t go on too late. By half past nine they were back in the dorm, getting ready for bed. He and Derek even managed to squeeze in a quick chat about books. He’d had no idea Derek was a Terry Pratchett fan too.
“Have you read Johnny and the Bomb? Old, but dead good. You can borrow mine, if you like.”
“Aw, thanks, Lewis. You’re a real pal.”
Lewis squirmed.
I’m no such thing. I’ve called you horrible names. I’ve laughed at you.
“I’ve got Only You Can Save Mankind as well. It’s brilliant. I’ll lend you that one too. Goodnight, Derek.”
“Night, Lewis.”
Derek pulled his duvet over his lumpy frame and fell asleep almost right away, as did the other boys soon after, despite Derek’s gruesome snores.
Lewis lay awake, waiting, his heart thudding like hooves.
19
Lewis
Lewis shook himself out of a doze. His brain felt fuzzy, thick with tiredness. Without his phone he hadn’t been able to set an alarm, so he’d tried to stay awake, keeping an eye on his watch, listening to Kyle’s grunts and Derek’s snores, while trying create a Top 10 Best Books With a Twist and his Favourite Five Weirdest Animals: anything to stop himself thinking about all the things which could go wrong tonight.
According to the watch’s luminous green dial, it was half past twelve. It was time to go. He pulled on a hoodie over his T-shirt, then forced himself to leave the duvet’s warmth and scrabbled in the dark for his jeans and boots, strewn under the bed.
Surely, he thought as he laced up his boots, going on a unicorn hunt in the dark has to rank among the craziest things ever done by anyone in the history of the world.
It made him quite proud to feel he was making history.
As he clumped towards the door of the dormitory, it dawned on him that he should have carried his boots and put them on outside. He turned the door handle, trying to avoid making it click.
Behind him, the dormitory seemed to have gone very quiet. Spooked, Lewis turned, door half open, and realised that Derek’s snoring had stopped and he seemed to be moving. A dark shape bobbed up from under the duvet, like some strange sea creature emerging from the depths.
“You OK?” Derek sounded groggy, three-quarters asleep, but Lewis felt oddly touched by his concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Where ya goin’?”
“Toilet.”
“Right.”
Derek pulled the duvet back over his head. Lewis stood for a moment, frozen to the spot, afraid to move. Then, to his relief, the noisy snores restarted, so he tiptoed out, as quietly as his heavy boots would allow, and crept down the corridor towards the common room.
/> Rhona was already there, huddled in a plastic chair, furry hood up, looking like a ginger Inuit.
“What kept you? I thought I was going to have to enter the boggin’ boys’ dorm,” she said, her wide grin lighting up her face. “Next problem: how do we get out of here and back in without setting off the alarm?”
“I’ve figured that out, but you’re not going to like it. Forget the bogging boys’ dorm, you’re going to have to enter the Toilet of Doom. There’s a window in there, and it’s always open.”
“This window has been left open for a very good reason,” grumbled Rhona as they entered the boys’ toilet. “It smells mingin’ in here. Is that the window you meant? How do you expect me to get through that?”
It wasn’t easy. Lewis wriggled out first and then, jiggled with impatience as he waited for Rhona to squeeze through the tiny, narrow window. What if somebody came in to use the toilet and found Rhona wedged in the window frame? They’d struggle to come up with a good excuse for that one.
“See, you made it,” he whispered, shining his torch in her face as she picked herself up off the ground.
“Switch that off, ya bampot, before somebody sees it. Save your battery like I am!” She patted her pocket. “I hope the rest of your plan’s more carefully thought out,” she grumbled, brushing flecks of paint from her jacket.
“What plan?”
“Very funny. Let’s get going. It’s freezing out here. Wish I’d brought my gloves.”
They walked on the grass so their boots didn’t crunch on the gravel. As they left the safety of the Outdoor Centre, Lewis felt a twinge of fear. It was happening. They were putting their lives in danger for an animal that they weren’t certain even existed: the fifteenth unicorn.
A full moon hung in the night sky. Stars glittered like frost. It was light enough to see the road’s dark surface, the rough grass verges and, in the distance, the looming mountains, fringed with silver moonlight. They weren’t going to get lost. Lewis stuffed his torch back in his pocket.
Without the torch to hold, though, his hands fidgeted, zipping and unzipping his jacket, picking at his fingernails. Every snapped twig, every scurrying mouse, made him jump.
“We could sing, if you like,” Rhona suggested. “Nobody would hear us out here, ’cept maybe the owls and the badgers and whatever other animals come out at night.”
“No, let’s not. We wouldn’t want to scare the badgers. And the word you were searching for is ‘nocturnal’.”
Rhona blew a raspberry and sang tunelessly, just to spite him, then tucked her arm through his.
“We can do this, you know. We’re a team.” She did a weird war dance, waving her arms and legs in all directions. “I’ll be Ninja Girl, the midnight warrior. You can be my loyal sidekick.”
“Um, no, I’m sick of being the sidekick. I’ll be Wolf Boy, rescuer of unicorns in distress.”
They walked along in the middle of the road, keeping step, their breath forming smoky clouds. Rhona chatted away, telling him all the news from the girls’ dorm.
“Flora’s no’ speakin’ to Nasreen… Ellie greets every night because she misses her cat…”
Lewis hardly listened.
What if we run into Ailsa? Or what if the Laird is watching through his windows? What if…
“…Kayleigh and me think Mr Deacon fancies Miss James, but she doesn’t fancy him back… Well, who would? He’s worn that mingin’ cord jacket for all the years I’ve been at school.”
She laughed, the sound loud in the dark.
“Do you remember your first day at Eastgate? Remember how you marched into the playground in that wee green cap and blazer?” She slowed her pace, turned towards him. “Why did you come to Eastgate, Lewis? Were you expelled from your posh school or something? Did you set fire to the bins or smash a window? Were you a mini ned?”
“No, don’t be daft.” He stopped, unsure if he wanted to share stuff he’d kept to himself for so long. And why was she asking now, when she’d never asked before? But somehow, it seemed safer to share secrets in the dark.
“Mum and I had to leave our house. My dad… He was basically a good guy, but he had… issues. And one night he lost it.”
“What do you mean?”
Lewis sighed, and tried to explain. “He’d been drinking too much for weeks. Mum was getting more and more upset and angry. They were bickering non-stop. And then he just exploded. He was ranting and raving like a crazy person, punching the walls, throwing furniture around. It was horrific…” His voice tailed away.
That time had been horrible, the worst of his life. After the Night Dad Lost It, Mum had whisked Lewis away. He’d had to leave his comfortable home, a big detached house in one of Glasgow’s leafy suburbs. He’d had no say at all.
He took a big, gulping breath and carried on.
The Night Dad Lost It, Lewis had cowered under his bed, clutching Carrot, his much loved stuffed rabbit, while Mum chucked random stuff into binbags and Dad’s crazed shouts ricocheted off the walls. When Mum had scooped Lewis up and fled outside to her car, he had dropped Carrot somewhere between his bedroom and the driveway.
“Oh, Lewis. You must have been terrified,” said Rhona.
He tried to make a joke, lighten the atmosphere. “Dropping Carrot is the thing I remember being most gutted about. Though losing him was probably for the best – imagine the kicking I’d have got if I’d brought a soft toy to Eastgate Primary.”
“They’re not as tough as they make out, Lewis.” Rhona strode on, hands stuffed in her pockets, hood up against the chill night wind. “Kyle brought Green Ted to school for years and nobody blinked. He’s probably got him in his rucksack at the Centre. So what happened after you left home?”
Lewis stopped walking and gazed up at the star-crusted sky. “I didn’t have time to say goodbye to my friends at Bellwood Academy. That night we went to my aunt Lili’s. She lives near Edinburgh, miles away.”
“Least you were safe there.”
Lewis nodded, his stomach churning as the memories came back. He tugged up his hood and quickened his pace, the words flooding out.
For a month they’d stayed at Aunt Lili’s, but that was no fun for anyone. Mum had talked about going back to Beijing, her home before she’d come to university in Glasgow and met Dad. Lewis had been quite excited at the prospect of meeting his grandpa, or Wai Gong as Mum called him. But then Mum’s friend Maggie had offered her a job and that plan was wiped off the board.
Soon they’d moved again, into a cramped two-bedroom flat in the East End of Glasgow. That was when he’d lost Bert too, their elderly Border Terrier. Lewis had come home from school one day and Bert was gone: living the perfect dog life, his mother said, and he so hoped it was true, with a retired couple who had a house near the beach.
Lewis had been enrolled at Eastgate Primary, a few streets away from the new flat. He had vivid memories of that first day, walking into the playground in his freakishly neat Bellwood uniform to a chorus of sniggers. It had been so hard, and it hadn’t got much easier. Rhona was the only one who seemed to understand.
The truth dawned on him, clear as a Highland sunrise.
“Maybe that’s why we get on so well, because my dad and your mum… have the same kind of problems.”
Rhona stopped dead in the middle of the road.
“What d’ya mean?” Her face was tight, voice hard with anger. “Are you saying my mum’s an alkie? Take that back, or I’ll…”
Then she spun, grabbed Lewis’s arm and dragged him towards the verge.
“Quick, get down! A car’s comin’!”
Lewis’s heart banged against his ribs and his brain was spinning. For a terrible moment he’d thought Rhona was attacking him, but she’d been trying to keep him out of harm’s way. They huddled behind a stretch of drystone dyke as a battered truck rumbled past, its headlights fuzzy with muck.
When the truck had gone, they stood up and carried on in total silence. Lewis couldn’t think what to say
to make things better.
Maybe she’s in some kind of denial. Her mum has problems, either with drink or drugs. She’s never been there for Rhona, ever, all the time I’ve known her.
One thing was sure: Rhona was absolutely raging with him. How were they were going to find the missing unicorn together when they weren’t even speaking?
20
Rhona
He’s got no flamin’ business badmouthing Mum. Who does he think he is, judging us?
Angry thoughts stomped about in Rhona’s brain, kicking the furniture.
There was a tense silence. Rhona only realised she’d wandered off the road when her foot sank into mud. She swore, and Lewis got out his torch and shone it ahead. The sign for the Langcroft Estate glowed in the distance.
As they came nearer, Rhona gasped, ran forward and rattled the gates, which were firmly shut and fastened with a heavy, padlocked chain. When she looked up, she saw that they were topped with long rows of wrought-iron spikes.
She opened her mouth to talk to Lewis, and then remembered she wasn’t speaking to him, so walked over to the high wall that encircled the main grounds. The stonework was crumbling in places. If they walked far enough they might find a way in. But time was so short. In a few hours they’d have to get back, or Mr Deacon would be calling the police, the mountain rescue services, the head teacher and their mums. It didn’t bear thinking about how much trouble they’d both be in if they didn’t return before dawn, or if somebody woke in the night and found their empty beds.
She snatched the torch out of Lewis’s hand – “Hey! Use your own!” he whispered – and headed left to a huge oak tree by the wall.
That should be easy to climb, she thought. We can shoogle along that big overhanging branch and drop down into the garden. It’s doable.
She shoved Lewis’s torch in her pocket, swung herself into the tree and started pulling herself up, using the lower branches as footholds. It was only then she remembered that Lewis was terrified of heights. She balanced on a large bough, pointed the torch in his direction and saw him brush his wet fringe out of his eyes, pull back his shoulders. In the torchlight, she could see the fear in his eyes.
Guardians of the Wild Unicorns Page 9
