Hollow Pike

by James Dawson

  Her left hand made contact with her other self’s thick, dark locks, her fingers weaving into the dripping strands. Lis pleaded with her hands to stop, but they had a sinister mind of their own. Her hand tightly gripped the hair, tugging the head back.

  But she wasn’t clutching her own head any more. It was Laura Rigg’s.

  Her eyes snapped open and she found herself looking into Jack’s grinning face.

  ‘Rise and shine, sleepy he—’

  A scream and a crash from the other side of the room cut him off. Laura had also awoken with a start, throwing her entire body back, as if waking from the worst nightmare imaginable. Her chair toppled backwards and she tumbled into the table behind, dragging the CD player onto the floor with her.

  The room was stunned into silence. Lis stood as Laura lay squashed in between chairs, table legs and CD player. No one spoke for about three seconds and then Bobsy tentatively tried a laugh.

  ‘Nice one, Riggsy!’

  Mr Gray darted forwards from the group he was working with. ‘Robert, be quiet. Laura, are you OK?’

  Harry pushed herself out of the way and reached down to help her friend up.

  ‘Get off me!’ Laura screeched.

  Mr Gray pulled the table back as a dishevelled Laura clambered to her feet. ‘Laura, let me have a look at y—’

  ‘Don’t touch me!’ she snapped. ‘I’m fine!’

  ‘Laura, just let me make sure you’re OK . . .’ Mr Gray began.

  Without another word, Laura pelted out of the classroom. There was another second of silence, followed by some nasty, hushed giggles from the rest of the class, including Kitty and Jack.

  ‘That’s enough!’ Mr Gray snapped. ‘Get back to work.’

  Lis couldn’t move. She was still at her desk, her eyes fixed on the spot where the whole scene had played out. Laura had been in her dream. How? Why had the nightmare changed now? Mrs Gillespie’s words echoed in her mind: your dreams are a warning.

  ‘Child, that girl act like she on crack!’ Jack sniggered.

  Kitty could barely hide her hysterics behind her hand. ‘What the bloody hell was that all about?’

  Delilah also suppressed a grin. ‘And the award for best actress in a dramatic meltdown goes to . . .’

  Lis didn’t think it was very funny. It wasn’t very funny at all.

  Laura, Laura, Laura. That girl had filled Lis’s head from the moment she’d met her. It seemed that now she couldn’t even avoid her in her dreams.

  Another night of fractured sleep followed. Lis couldn’t even close her eyes. She lay motionless, gazing out of the French windows at the stars shining brightly in the cloudless sky. It was as if Mrs Gillespie’s bonkers message had caused real life and her nightmares to merge. There was no escaping Laura now. Lis recognised it all too well. It was Gwynedd Community College: the Sequel. This was only the beginning. Being scared – scared of Laura, scared of her bitches, scared of school. And Lis knew her lies would follow: lying to get out of school, fake illnesses, truancy. She wasn’t sure what the third stage was. That was the point at which she’d run away to Hollow Pike.

  But Lis couldn’t let it happen again. Something had to change if she was to end the pattern, refuse to be the victim this time. Maybe she’d have to take charge. It made Lis feel sick with fear, but tomorrow she was going to have to face Laura. The nightmare in class must have meant something. The way Laura had freaked out, it was almost as if they’d had the same dream. No, that was ridiculous, another thing for Lis’s impossible list. But after the histrionics in class, Laura did seem more human, more fallible. She’d made a total fool of herself. Whatever it was about, Lis couldn’t be scared of her any more. Confronting her had to be worth a shot.

  Perhaps that was the message from her subconscious – fight fire with fire. It was time to stand up to Laura Rigg.

  Tuesday morning and there was only one place Laura would be at 8.45: the edge of the copse, having a final fag before the school day started.

  Sure enough, Lis spotted her as she made her way across the rugby pitch. Laura was alone and smoking, almost hidden on the outskirts of the trees. She was sitting cross-legged in an armchair the lads had dragged out of the fly tip in the copse, writing in a pretty notebook covered in dainty apricot flowers.

  As Lis grew nearer, she barely recognised the girl in the chair. God, Laura looks tired! Lis thought.

  Despite a valiant effort with hair and make-up, dark circles surrounded Laura’s eyes and her cheeks were hollow. It was strange seeing her without her band of cronies, too. She seemed frail. The freak-out in class must have really shaken her up. Lis approached with caution.

  As soon as Laura spotted Lis she threw her journal down, a look of bitter distaste on her face. ‘Look who it is, the Skanky Bike of Hollow Pike.’

  ‘Give it a rest, Laura,’ Lis said calmly. ‘I only came to talk to you and to see how you are after what happened yesterday.’

  ‘Relax, Lis. It was hardly an event. I had the PMT from hell, so what?’

  ‘So . . . I wanted to make sure you were OK. After that email thing I—’

  Laura shook her head, a grim smile carved into her face. ‘Oh, is that what this is about? Well done, Lis, revenge is yours; I made a tit of myself in front of the class. Now could you please piss off? Your face offends my eyes.’

  Lis sighed. ‘Look, I just wanted to say, I know how you feel and I hope we can at least co-exist at Fulton High. I’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine. I don’t want to fight any more.’

  Laura sprang off her threadbare throne. ‘Oh, get over yourself. You don’t know anything about how I feel. You really think I give a tiny rat’s ass about what happened yesterday? This is me we’re talking about, not you. Every girl in the school wants to be me and every guy wants to do me. I think I’ll survive. You, on the other hand, might not. I told you I’d make your life hell. Well, nothing’s changed. You’re still just the weird new girl, and I’m still queen of this place!’

  Lis folded her arms, not budging an inch. She had to reclaim her place in this school. ‘Then what’s wrong? You look like a wreck.’

  ‘Thanks. As if I’d tell you, loser.’

  Anger bubbled inside Lis. Take a deep breath and count to ten. ‘Laura, believe it or not, I’m actually trying to be nice and sort stuff out. I don’t even know what I did to upset you. Is it about what happened with Danny at the party, because if it is—’

  Laura interrupted, a hint of desperation creeping into her voice. ‘I’m warning you, stay away from Danny.’

  ‘Oh, come on! How am I meant to avoid him? That’s insane!’ Lis snapped.

  ‘Screw you! You only turned up like a month ago – you don’t know what it’s like here and you don’t know me! I bet you think my life is pretty sweet, right? Nice house, nice clothes, nice friends? Well, guess what? It’s all crap! And sometimes I want to run away and never come back to this stinking town,’ Laura paused for breath and Lis actually found herself starting to feel sorry for her. ‘Danny and I were fine until you showed up,’ Laura continued. ‘We even talked about leaving Hollow Pike together.’

  Lis’s lips parted in surprise. ‘Really? But I didn’t think Danny fancied—’ she broke off, realising that what she’d been about to say would have just sounded bitchy. But it was too late.

  Laura laughed cruelly. ‘What? And you think he fancies you? As if! He told me he thought you were a freak, just like Kitty and Delilah. If you think Danny Marriott would ever touch you, you’re even more deluded than you look.’

  ‘That’s not true!’ Lis gasped.

  ‘You go anywhere near Danny and I’ll mess you up. That’s a promise.’

  A thought occurred to Lis. ‘If Danny isn’t interested in me, then why do I have to stay away from him?’ she asked coolly.

  Laura finally boiled over. ‘Because you’re a slut!’ she screamed.

  Lis’s sympathy burst like the most delicate of bubbles. ‘You know what? I almost felt sor
ry for you, but now I think you deserve everything you get.’

  Lis turned away.

  Laura was stunned for a moment and then shrieked, ‘You’re a dead girl walking, Lis London!’

  A cold, searing wind rolled across the rugby pitch and the branches of Pike Copse dipped and swayed, reaching down towards Laura like gnarled hands as Lis walked away across the field.

  Revenge

  Frustration churned away in Lis’s stomach well into first-period English. Twisting her pencil around and around, she let Mrs Osborne’s monotone ramblings about Abigail in The Crucible drift straight over her head. She saw Delilah taking detailed notes and banked on her friend sharing them with her.

  How had her meeting with Laura gone so wrong? They were supposed to be peace talks. Lis wasn’t sure if her desire to make peace was born out of pure human kindness or if it was just the ultimate way to beat Laura in their turf war; to show Laura that despite everything, she was the bigger person. Either way, she’d failed on an epic scale.

  Halfway down the rugby pitch she’d sworn a private oath never to talk to Laura Rigg ever again. She was so cruel, she dragged everything and everyone around her down. Lis had never felt like this before. Hate is a strong word, but she was pretty sure this was it. Lis hated Laura Rigg.

  There was only one person in the world she wanted to share this new bitterness with: Kitty, the only person she could think of who probably loathed Laura as much as she did.

  ‘So what do you think?’ asked Kitty. ‘Jack: straight or gay? Discuss. He’s playing it very close to his chest and we don’t wanna ask . . .’

  For the second time in two weeks Lis abandoned a lesson – this time last-session PE – at Kitty’s suggestion. Kitty assured her she hadn’t participated in PE since Year Nine and no one seemed to miss her. They drifted through the copse, walking the long way to Kitty’s house. Jack and Delilah were trapped in Science all afternoon, and it was nice to have Kitty to herself for a bit. With honey sunshine streaming through the branches and the birds twittering merrily, the copse was no longer the stuff of nightmares.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Lis replied, glad of a diversion from her worries about Laura, ‘either gay or in love with Delilah!’

  This time Kitty laughed. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right! I wish he’d hurry up and come out though. What’s he waiting for – a written invitation?’

  Lis shrugged. ‘The right time I suppose. It can’t be easy. It’s not like Hollow Pike has a thriving gay scene!’

  ‘Yeah and his mum’s a bit of a psycho.’

  Lis bit her lip to stop herself from passing comment on Kitty’s own stern father.

  ‘What’s the story with you and Delilah?’ she asked instead. ‘I haven’t been brave enough to ask.’

  Smiling wistfully, Kitty reached the fly tip in the centre of a sheer rock basin and flopped onto a busted sofa. Water from the brook trickled over the edge of the cliff, creating a fairy tale waterfall. ‘There’s not much to tell to be honest. We’ve been friends since we were about ten. Year Six was when it all changed. Delilah moved back to Hollow Pike from down south and it was so weird – straight away I knew I wanted to be her best friend. It was instant, like, boom! I don’t really know what it was that made us any different to anyone else, but people started treating us like a circus sideshow.’

  ‘Maybe it’s a puberty thing.’ Lis joined her on the damp couch.

  ‘Maybe. Who knows? Whatever it was, we just sort of clung to each other for dear life. At first emotionally, because it was so awful, and then the physical stuff sort of followed all by itself. It seemed like the logical thing to do when you really like someone.’

  ‘Well, I think you make a lovely couple.’

  ‘Thanks. I’m not sure I’d call us a couple, though. We’ve never had to clarify what we are. We both fancy boys as well as girls, and she can be a bloody nightmare. She flirts constantly, she’s never ever on time, she’s clingy – but she’s the only person who really gets me.’

  Lis shot her a sly smile. ‘Sounds like L O V E to me!’

  Kitty laughed again. ‘Quiet, you! Time will tell. I wouldn’t know what to do without her, that’s for sure. I’d be lost. We both would.’

  Lis drew a deep breath, tasting the sweet, rich, earthy aromas of the forest. Kitty had widened the boundaries of conversation and now it was her turn. ‘Kitty . . .’

  ‘Yes?’

  Lis wondered where to even begin. ‘I think I’m sort of going through something at the moment . . .’ The words tried to cling to the back of her throat.

  ‘Something? You think you might be gay, too?’ Kitty asked with a grin. ‘Is everyone in Hollow Pike gay or what?’

  ‘No, not that!’

  ‘What then?’

  ‘How do you know if you’re going mad?’ Lis sighed.

  Kitty raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘What?’

  ‘I mean it. Like mental illness.’

  Kitty frowned. ‘What makes you think you’re mentally ill?’ she asked. ‘I think you’re very brave for mentioning it, but you don’t seem crazy to me.’

  ‘A few things.’ Lis couldn’t meet Kitty’s gaze. ‘I’m having these messed-up nightmares. I haven’t slept for nights.’

  Kitty’s face wrinkled. ‘What are the nightmares about?’

  ‘You’re gonna think I’m mental – but they’re about Laura. She’s totally screwing with my head. I can’t stop thinking about her. I went to try to sort things out with her today but I just feel worse.’

  ‘Well,’ Kitty said with authority, ‘I suppose you have two options. You can approach it either like my mum or like my dad.’

  ‘OK. Go on.’

  ‘My mum’s amazing strategy is to stick her head in the sand and act like nothing’s wrong with the world. She retreats inside her head and hopes the problem will just go away.’

  ‘Does it work?’

  ‘Have you met my mum? She’s a nervous wreck.’

  ‘Well, what about your dad?’

  ‘Hit it with a stick.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ laughed Lis.

  ‘I’m serious! My dad was the head of the riot squad for years! His philosophy is that you either stand there waiting to have a bottle thrown at you, or you strike first and hit them with a stick.’

  ‘Does that work better?’

  Kitty nodded. ‘Yeah. You might upset people in the process, but at least you’re facing your problems. Actively doing something. My mum hides, but her issues don’t go away by themselves, and you can’t let Laura Rigg rule your life.’

  ‘But I did stand up to her, Kitty, and look how far that got me.’ Lis sighed. She’d run away from Wales and now she was retreating into the arms of her sister or friends when things went wrong. ‘What do you think I should do now?’

  ‘I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Kill her.’

  ‘Kitty,’ Lis pulled at a leaf on an overhanging branch, ‘that’s not helpful.’

  ‘But just think,’ Kitty said with a grin, ‘you’d be rid of her once and for all.’

  ‘Drop it.’

  Kitty laughed and made a thoughtful humming noise.

  ‘What?’ Lis demanded.

  ‘OK, how about this? We can’t kill Laura, but what if we give her a taste of her own medicine? Come up with something to get her off your back for good?’ Kitty flashed Lis a devilish smile.

  That sounded promising. A life in Hollow Pike without Laura and with her new friends and Danny. That would be paradise. ‘I could be up for that . . . what did you have in mind?’

  Kitty beamed at her. ‘Babe, you will not regret this . . .’

  Later that same evening, Lis stood outside the local Budgens in Hollow Pike, her hands shoved deep into her pockets. She tried to distance herself from a cluster of Year Nine girls who were trying to lure passers-by into buying cigarettes for them. Classy.

  Twilight had fallen early, and even though the streets were still busy, everyone was in a rush to get home before
darkness came. Lis hopped from foot to foot trying to keep warm. Right on time, Laura Rigg stepped off the bus and crossed the street to join her. She was still in her school uniform, save for the Ugg boots she’d put on her feet.

  ‘Didn’t you get the message this morning?’ Laura snarled when she was close enough.

  ‘Hi, yeah, sorry. I wanted to try to sort things out.’ Lis tried to smile sweetly at Laura, although it didn’t come naturally.

  Laura pouted for a second. ‘Go on, then. Your text said you wanted to talk about Danny. Have you said something to him? He wouldn’t return my texts today.’

  Lis noticed that Laura seemed twitchy about this fact. ‘No, I haven’t seen Danny all day. Do you wanna come back to mine? It’s freezing out here.’

  Laura shrugged. ‘Whatever. Where do you live?’

  ‘Just through the copse.’

  Laura nodded. ‘What did you wanna talk about anyway? I’ve gotta be home by nine thirty; my mum’s being a total bitch at the moment.’

  Lis led them down the urine-scented alleyway at the side of the corner shop that led to the car park. At the back of the car park was the gate into the recreation ground. There were some Fulton pupils climbing all over the swings, laughing and joking as they knocked back cheap lager.

  ‘I’m glad you came. I wanted to put the fight behind us,’ Lis said as they gave the play area a wide berth and headed towards the dark trees of Pike Copse. ‘I never meant to fall out with you and nothing happened with Danny, I promise.’

  Laura eyed her with distaste. ‘I know. Danny wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.’

  That stung, but Lis kept her cool. Laura’s reign of terror could be over forever if she could just keep up the act for another few minutes. ‘Laura, I’m trying to make things better. I liked being friends with you. You’re clearly smarter than Nasima and that lot. I thought you’d at least listen.’