Dark Days at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

‘I hope that ubbhead Rod Williams killed Rex.’

  Tucker’s harsh words caused Ash and Hew to turn their heads to him wide-eyed.

  ‘Nah, you don’t mean that, bro,’ Ash said.

  All three of them sat by the gates, awaiting Hew’s bus.

  ‘I do mean it. He’s caused me nothing but trouble since coming to this school.’

  ‘Oh, don’t start with all that crap again. He tries to give you a fair chance and then you blow it, so he starts hassling you again.’

  ‘If it wasn’t for him going and getting himself assaulted and abducted, the goddess would be here at school today.’

  ‘What?’ scoffed Hew. ‘Is that what this is all about? You’re pissed because Vanessa stayed home and you’re blaming it on him?’

  ‘Well why else would she stay home? She never gets sick. Anyway, I heard Holly and Mav talking. Apparently, she was just too distraught to come to school. Man, it really pisses me off the way she goes so stupid over Rex ubbing Cassidy. Why can’t it be me she goes stupid over?’

  Hew smirked. ‘Because you are so stupid?’

  ‘Urrrrrrbbarrrrrr! Watch it, Hew. Anyway, it’s not just that I don’t get to see her stunningly gorgeous and ubbery face today, it’s also because I have to go to detention for smoking and he gets out of it.’

  ‘He’s been abducted, you egg!’ Ash scowled. ‘How’s he expected to attend detention when he’s not even at bloody school?’

  ‘That’s no excuse. He was smoking at the incinerator as well, you know? Both of us were!’

  ‘Ah no. He wasn’t,’ Hew corrected him. ‘It was you, me and Ash. Rex wasn’t there.’

  ‘It’s beside the point! He better be making up for it when he gets back.’

  ‘Well even if he was here, why should he turn up, bro?’ Ash asked. ‘He doesn’t smoke.’

  ‘He never goes to any ubbing detentions!’

  ‘What I find amazing is that the Reaper actually believed all that bullshit you told him. Surely Rex would have denied being there with you?’

  ‘Mr Reaper knows that I’m a man of honour. He knows that I wouldn’t lie.’

  ‘But you’re not a man of honour and you did lie!’

  ‘And you’re a long way from becoming a man,’ Hew added.

  ‘Mr Reaper doesn’t know all that though, does he? Fact is, he believed me, and Cassidy got in the shit.’

  ‘Yeah, but so did you,’ Hew sniggered. ‘And who reported you? That’s what I’d like to know. Who saw us smoking? I certainly didn’t see anyone around, but there must have been someone.’

  ‘Probably ubbing Rex Cassidy.’

  ‘Nark off. If Rex wanted you punished for smoking, he would have done it himself.’

  ‘It could have been anyone,’ Ash said. ‘You’re an egg, bro. The Reaper’s probably worked out that you were feeding him a load of crock. If you’re going to try and get Rex Cassidy into trouble, you’re going to have to try a lot harder. You need to come up with a good plan, not a stink one. You need to stop reading the Tony Robinson Book of Cunning Plans and start reading something a little more useful.’

  ‘Well what can we do? What plan can we come up with to get Rex into trouble?’

  ‘None,’ Hew said. ‘You’d be a lot better off if you just left well enough alone. Just accept the fact that Rex is a superior human being to you and learn to live with it.’

  ‘If you’re gonna do something bro, it’s going to have to be something really big. I’m talking maybe even illegally big. It’s a known fact that his parents pay the school a grant. More of a bribe I reckon.’

  ‘To stop him from being expelled,’ Hew added.

  ‘That’s about the gist of things. It means Rex can get away with most things other kids can’t.’

  Hew nodded. ‘He knows how far to push the system. He knows just what he can get away with.’

  Tucker snorted. ‘So he can never get expelled then. They’ve tried before, but failed.’

  ‘Not necessarily,’ Ash said. ‘If it was a big enough offence, they wouldn’t be able to justify keeping him here, no matter how much they stood to lose.’

  ‘But that type of offence would be something so serious that the police might even have to get involved,’ Hew said.

  ‘Well, I guess that’s true. Not that it matters. Why would we want to get him into that sort of trouble anyway?’

  ‘I would,’ Tucker growled. ‘I owe him big time.’

  ‘Give it a rest, Tucker. Rex isn’t such a bad guy.’

  Tucker glared at Hew with contempt. To hear one of his best friends make such an offensive comment sickened him. It was equal to insulting his family honour. ‘Cassidy’s the biggest ubbhead in the entire school! He humiliates me every chance he gets and not only that but he has stolen my one true love, the goddess. She should rightfully be mind, because I’m the Emissary.’

  ‘You stopped being the Emissary last term, remember? You gave up all that Church of the Goddess crap because everyone was demanding their money back that you screwed them over.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Ash said. ‘And Vanessa hates your guts anyway, bro. She was never your girl and she never will be.’

  ‘Urrrrrrrrbbarrrrrrr!’ Tucker snarled. ‘She will be mine, you just wait and see. Especially if Rod Williams has done the right thing and finished Cassidy off. Then I can move in and charm the fishnet stockings off the lovely goddess. Mmmmmm, she looks so good in fishnets. Did you see her at the school dance at the end of last term?’

  ‘Of course we did,’ Ash said. ‘We were there, remember? We were actually dancing with girls, while you sat around all evening eating and drinking, but yeah, she looked even more divine than ever, with that short skirt and those stockings. Wow!’

  ‘I’ll say,’ Hew said. ‘She looks like a supermodel in her school uniform, but in that little number. All I can say is... UUUUUBBAAAA!’

  Tucker snorted. ‘There is no way that someone as undeserving as Rex Cassidy should be entitled to such perfection and class. No way at all. Especially seeing as how he tries to make our lives a misery.’

  ‘Your life a misery,’ Ash corrected him. ‘But then your life was pretty stink anyway, bro.’

  ‘As long as he’s at this school, it means that I’m not kingpin. He has to go. I want to be the man in charge again, just like I was before he came along. So if he stays missing, this is gonna be great for me.’

  ‘And what about if he returns? What will you do then?’ Hew asked. ‘Just remember that if you do try something and it backfires, it could be you getting expelled, not Rex.’

  ‘That won’t happen,’ Tucker smirked. ‘With my genius, it will be a fool proof plan.’

  ‘So what’s the plan?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet, but you can guarantee that if Rex is alive and he comes back here, he’s really going down. That’s a promise.’ He paused to peer over at two students standing by the main gates. ‘Isn’t that Pete Cook and Melissa Mason?’

  ‘Yeah, so what?’ Ash asked.

  ‘I thought she hated his guts?’

  ‘So?’

  ‘Look at her. She’s smiling and laughing with him. They were pretty friendly in detention too.’

  ‘What’s it to you?’

  ‘I’m just saying.’ He watched as Melissa waved to Pete and they split up. She walked over in their direction, a smile on her face. She went to pass by, but Tucker just couldn’t help but pry. ‘Hey, Melissa!’

  ‘What?’ Melissa said in an irritated tone. She paused when she reached them.

  ‘Since when did you like Pete Cook?’

  Melissa burst out laughing. ‘Like him? Are you crazy? Of course, I don’t like him. He’s a total idiot. It’s not him I’m interested in. The guy I want is Rex. Pete just happens to be a convenient way of getting to him.’