Hollow Pike Read Online Free PDF Page A

departure. Was it that she really liked Delilah, or had she just been dreading lunchtime with the ‘It Girls’?
    She didn’t have time to dwell on this as eight skinny, miniskirted legs reached her position in the hall. She smiled as honestly as she could. She knew that half the girls in Year Eleven
would kill to socialise with these pedigree creatures, yet she had a tight knot in her stomach.
    ‘Hiya, you all right?’ asked Harry, slipping her arm through Lis’s own.
    ‘Come with us for lunch.’ Laura’s intonation suggested a command rather than a question.
    ‘Yeah, if that’s cool?’ Lis replied.
    ‘Totally,’ Laura replied. ‘There are some people you need to meet.’

    The weather had finally cleared up and hazy sunshine warmed the concrete outdoor areas of Fulton High, the drying buildings cracking in the heat. Lis was led through several
communal quads full of pupils nibbling on sandwiches and apples. It seemed that each plaza had become territory for a different social clique: one occupied by childlike Year Sevens, another by the
music crowd, balancing on cello cases while tuning guitars. Under a rain shelter, she spotted Delilah’s trio lurking on the outskirts of an obvious ‘geek’ group. With them, but
not with them.
    As they left the school buildings behind and started to cross the rugby pitch, heading ever further from the canteen, Lis began to fear that, much like the girls at her old school, these new,
stick-thin friends shunned any form of food during lunch break. Not wanting to say anything, Lis vowed to leave ten minutes to grab a sandwich before the end of break. ‘Where are we
going?’ she ventured.
    ‘We sit by the trees,’ Nasima stated. ‘The lads should be there by now.’
    Oh, joy! She should have known there’d be boys involved. Lis didn’t relish the idea of being ‘fresh meat’.
    ‘You can smoke in the wood, if you want,’ said Fiona. ‘Teachers sort of walk around, but they never look into the trees.’
    Looking over the crumbling boundary wall, the trees in question were actually the edge of Pike Copse which so reminded Lis of the wood in her dreams. It seemed there was to be no getting away
from her nightmare in such a small town.
    She could hear the raucous laughter of ‘the lads’ from midway across the pitch. It sounded like the island of donkeys from Pinocchio. This didn’t fill her with much
confidence, although many of her closest friends in Bangor had been male so she was willing to give them a chance. The girls sloped down an incline much to the vocal appreciation of the gang
waiting by the trees. Fiona instantly crossed to a tall, thin youth with far too much gel in his hair and launched into a tongue-filled display of affection.
    Laura sidled over to Lis and grasped her hand, pulling her down to sit on the grass embankment. ‘Make them come to us, obviously!’ she whispered in her ear.
    They didn’t have to wait long for attention. Three young men threw their rugby ball aside and jogged over to where the girls sat.
    Laura leaned further in. ‘The one with the earring is Cam. He is so right for you.’
    Lis could barely mask the look of horror on her face before the boys reached them.
    ‘Y’all right, Riggsy?’ asked the one Laura had identified as Cam. He had the broadest shoulders Lis had ever seen on a sixteen-year-old, and the dainty jewelled stud in his ear
did nothing to soften his exterior.
    Laura shot Cam her coy smirk. ‘Yeah, I’m good. What’s with the hair?’
    He smiled broadly, twisting spikes with his fingers. ‘Just somethin’ new I’m tryin’!’
    ‘It looks crap,’ Laura retorted before nodding slightly at Lis. ‘This is that new girl I texted you about, Lis.’
    He looked Lis up and down before turning back to smile at his mates. ‘She’s mine!’ he said, deliberately loud enough for her to hear. ‘Nice to meet you, Lis. You are a
very sexy lady.’
    Lis stifled a laugh. How does one respond to that?