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Bad Company(32)

By:Cathy MacPhail


One by one, the class began to clap, slowly at first, until every one of them was applauding me. Just the way they had applauded Ralph that other day so long ago.

Even Ralph Aird was clapping. Maybe not so enthusiastically as the rest, but he was clapping just the same.

I looked around them in amazement, so sure they were winding me up but no. The smiles on their faces were genuine, so were their shouts of praise.

‘Good for you, Lissa,’ Nancy told me with a smile.

‘You did the right thing.’

Asra patted me on the back as I passed her. ‘Couldn’t have been easy. Good for you.’

I looked round at Murdo, and he seemed as surprised as I was. This wasn’t what he had expected either. But the smile on his face showed it pleased him too. And suddenly, he was applauding along with everyone else.

This will go down in history as the best day of my life.

They all spoke to me at break, Nancy and Asra, welcoming me back to their little circle. We’re all going swimming at the weekend, and I really think if I try hard enough, we can all be real friends again. Real friends, not like Diane.

It was while we were talking that Ralph Aird slouched toward me, hands in his pockets. I held my breath.

‘I’m sorry about what I did to your collage,’ I told him right away. ‘I’m really sorry.’

‘So you should be,’ he said in that surly voice of his. He hasn’t a clue how to accept an apology.

I told him too that I’d been waiting for him to do something awful back to me.

He leaned against the wall and stared at me. He was chewing gum and blowing bubbles. Trying to look cool, as usual. ‘I planned to,’ he said. ‘Don’t you worry. I kept thinking about all the rotten things I could do to get back at you. But nothing I came up with was bad enough.’

I swallowed. Wondering if he had something bad enough lined up by now.

He spat his chewing gum on the ground in front of me before he spoke again. ‘But see that day Murdo told the class about me getting commissioned, I watched your face, Lissa Blythe. And do you know what? You were jealous of me. And see, right at that minute,’ he poked his finger at me for emphasis, ‘I knew old Murdo was right. Success is the best revenge. And I decided right then I was going to design the best logo anybody’s ever seen and make you green wi’ envy.’

He laughed right into my face. ‘And see next year, I’m going in for that competition again and I’m going to make an even better collage, starting today – you see this time … I’m going to guard it wi’ my life.’

I didn’t tell him then, but I had already decided to help him. I stayed behind after school and together we pinned up the long banner that stretches right round the classroom walls. A blue banner. Blue for peace.

I even helped him pin on the first character. ‘Not blinking Harry Potter again,’ I wailed when he brought it in.

He only sneered. I don’t think we’ll ever get on, Ralph Aird and I, but I’ll tell you something strange. Something I only realised today.

Diane Connell was wrong about a lot, but she was right about one thing.

Ralph Aird is dishy.