Nancy was smiling as I approached. ‘Hi, Lissa. Asra and I were wondering,’ she pulled Asra towards her for support. She wasn’t smiling. I suppose she thought I’d snubbed her enough in the past. Nancy never gave up trying. ‘Asra and I were wondering if you’d come to the Christmas disco with us. It’ll be great fun.’
She knew about J.B. too. Both of them did. And they were feeling sorry for poor little Lissa. Well, no one was ever going to feel sorry for me.
‘With you two?’ I sneered. ‘How could that possibly be fun?’
Nancy’s face flushed. She swallowed. For a split second I regretted it. I wanted to go so much. Asra pulled Nancy on.
‘Come on, Nancy. I told you it wouldn’t do any good.’
I had a lump in my throat as I watched them go. In that second I would have shouted after them, but right then Ralph Aird yelled across the playground at me.
‘I hear the Godfather’s coming out on parole.’ He couldn’t ever leave it alone. I hated Ralph Aird, almost as much as he hated me. He was always chewing gum and trying to look cool. Scruffy was the word I’d use to describe him, with his baseball cap always turned back to front and his jeans that looked too big for him. He came from one of the worst areas of the town. His father had spent most of his adult life in one prison or another. Finally, ending up in the same one as J.B.
I ignored Ralph Aird. Dirt beneath my feet. I swept past him with my nose in the air. But Ralph didn’t know how to keep his big mouth shut.
‘I don’t know how you can still be such a stuck-up wee snob, Lissa Blythe. Not when your daddy’s slopping out in the same cell as mine.’
‘He is not! He’s got a cell to himself and a job in the library.’ I had always insisted on that, even though I knew it was a lie. I was always telling lies about him.
‘The governor knows he’s innocent and he’ll be out soon,’ I used to tell everyone, believing that at least.
But of course, he wasn’t. The papers screamed his guilt on the front pages, and he had confessed, quietly to Mum and me. I had believed in him. Made a right fool of myself sticking up for him, and he had let me down.
Ralph swaggered into step beside me. ‘Know why I call him the Godfather?’ He aimed that at his friends who followed along behind him. He always had a group of idiots, as scruffy as himself, who hung on his every word. I wanted to tell him to buzz off, but I knew he wouldn’t. He never did. ‘Because I remember our wee Lissa here telling me he was a big gangland boss. Head of the Underworld. The Godfather, see?’
I blushed to remember that I had. When I’d finally admitted to myself J.B. was guilty, I decided at least he could be a leader, in charge, top man. Well, I’d only been eleven then. I was bound to say something stupid. And anyway, at that point I was sure I’d be going on to Adler Academy, the private school on the outskirts of the town. I would never see Ralph Aird or his like again. So I could tell them anything. They’d never find out the truth. But Adler Academy cost money, Mum had told me, and money was something we just didn’t have any more. So, after all my stupid lies, I was forced to go on to the same grotty High School as Ralph Aird. My stupid lies were found out and my torment got even worse.
Ralph was still rattling on. ‘You even threatened to have me terminated, didn’t you, Lissa?’
‘Terminated? No. I would have had you put down, Ralph. That’s what you do to animals.’
Ralph ignored that. ‘Some gangland boss. He ended up taking the blame for everything. My dad says that’s called a “patsy”. Too frightened to blow the whistle on his Big Boss. My dad says he’s a laughing stock in that jail.’
That was it! I’d had enough of Ralph. I swung at him with my bag and caught him off balance. He staggered back and only saved himself from falling by landing on a couple of his friends.
‘You’ve had it, Blythe.’ He made a run at me, but I lifted my rucksack and swung it again at him. This time he did fall and, grabbing my rucksack, he pulled me down with him.
‘Punch her, Ralphie!’ someone shouted. So much for chivalry in this school.
‘Shut that big mouth of hers.’
They were all against me. I didn’t have a friend left in the whole school. Everyone had turned on me when it came out that my father was a crook. Not a master criminal. I could have lived with that. But the one who was caught. The stupid one who had refused to tell on anyone even though that would have meant a lighter sentence. Maybe none at all. No wonder they laughed at him in prison. No wonder I hated him.
I was ready to give Ralph another swipe with my bag, but just at that moment we were both dragged to our feet by Mr Murdoch, Murdo, our English teacher.