Hiding From Seagulls Page 2

  An Almost Normal Day

  So as I was telling Geoff I started to believe in the impossible at around the age most people stop believing. Last spring at the age of thirteen and four months. My story is about a bus journey on a bus that took me somewhere where things were different. A place where I felt like an outsider.

  I should point out that before any of this I was not a big believer in make believe. The world seemed pretty black and white to me. Like the beginning of the film The Wizard Of OZ that my mum made us watch every Christmas.

  Actually while we are on the subject I never did get the point of that film. The good witch used Dorothy to kill her evil sisters, then chose to tell her that after all her effort she could have gone home any time she wanted. I don't think I would have been quite as thrilled to hear that news. I'm digressing from the point here. What I want to make clear is that I didn't believe in OZ or Neverland or anything like that. It all seemed like a load of nonsense. I have to tell you this now so you don't think I'm crazy when I get to telling you about Raheam Akbar and his bus and Lilly The Duchess Of Disapproval or any of the others. Now I can't begin to tell you that story without filling you in on some details.

  So hello there, my name is Thomas, but my friends call me Tommy. I don't know why it's not much shorter but I like the sound of it. I guess my story doesn't start on a bus. It starts the way everyday starts, with breakfast. I remember spreading peanut butter thickly along plain white bread while my mother cackled on. She went through checking I had everything I needed for my school trip. Right now she was reading out each item one by one for me to check.

  “Do you have your toothbrush? And your pyjamas?” She asked.

  I could not see why she did this as she already knew I had everything. She should have known as she packed it all for me. And checked. And double and triple checked. I was sure they hadn't gone anywhere in the previous few minutes but checked again just to humour her.

  “Have you got the bus ticket the school gave you ready to show the driver?” my mum asked.

  “Yeah Mum,” I replied for what felt like the five hundredth time that morning.

  “Stay with the group, make sure you leave straight after school, and comb your hair again sweetie it's all stuck up at the back.”

  I sighed and bit into my peanut buttered toast. The school had chosen a few of us to go on a bus trip as a reward for good behaviour. Or more likely to bribe the worst of us into that good behaviour. It was not the usual thing I got selected for. The odd thing was the ticket did not say where we were going and none of the teachers had cared to mention. I had assumed a theme park or the seaside. It was to last one night so perhaps to an observatory? We were due to be back at school for the start of tomorrow's lessons so who knew? Knowing my luck the bus would be filled with people I didn't know from the years above. Or worse bullies that had been bribed into sitting still for ten minutes with a trip out. It's fair to say I wasn't overly excited.

  The day before the trip was pretty uneventful apart from break time. I had brought a bar of chocolate from home. The school had a rule about not eating unless it was at dinner time and then only in the cafeteria. I don't break many rules and certainty wouldn't have broken this rule on purpose. I talked to Dave on the way to school and had forgotten to eat the chocolate before entering the gates. The bell sounded signalling the end of break and the beginning of the second lesson and as I had done many times before I lined up outside the door chatting to Dave.

  “Did you get one of these ticket things?” I asked him holding my breath a little in hope that he had.

  “No I didn't get one. I hear that Madeline in the second year did though. They say she is a bit how do you put it? Eccentric.”

  Great my best friend doesn’t get a ticket and I know one of the others who did is not only a whole year above but also supposedly a bit mad.

  Simon was manning the door. Simon was in my class and yet he had already been made a prefect. One of the youngest to make prefect and with a bad reputation to go with the achievement. So bad everyone knew him as Simon the snitch. As Dave and I were walking through his door I took my hands out of my pockets and out dropped my chocolate bar perfectly on to Simon the snitches shoe.

  Simon looked at me through big blue eyes. His hair was a bright shade of orange and he was tilting his head waiting for me to speak. Dave spoke before me.

  “Let it slip Si,” he said.

  The snitch Simon shook his head.

  “Tommy you know the rules. You can't bring food into a classroom. I shall have to report it.”

  He took out a little notebook which would mean a detention for sure. My mother would have been so angry if I got a detention and missed this trip. I was out of options so I tried to bargain with him.

  “Take it,” I offered quickly.

  “Take the bar it's yours.”

  Simon's frown dropped slightly as he thought about it.

  “We could forget about this,” he said taking the bar from the floor and opening the silver foiled packaging.

  “Nice one,” Dave said grabbing Simon's shoulder then he looked puzzled as Simon opened his notebook again.

  “What are you doing,” I asked.

  “That's bringing food into the building and trying to bribe a prefect.” Simon muttered through a mouthful of my chocolate as he scribbled into the book.

  “But you took the bribe,” I argued.

  Simon looked at me again with my chocolate running down his chin. Then he said both calmly and slowly.

  “Who will they believe Tommy? I'm a prefect.”

  We walked on past.

  “I don't like him,” Dave said hanging his coat up in the cloakroom.

  We both looked at Simon stopping the next cluster of people, looking over them for anything he could find, happy in his Prefect power.

  “One day that boy will get his come comeuppance,” Dave said waving his finger.

  I hoped he was right.

  I didn't get a detention in the end just a stern telling off. Dave had stood up for me. I should have wondered then why the teacher had not mentioned the bus trip. Why had he not at least threatened to take it away from me like teachers usually do with things like that.

  Dave was a good friend, one of my best even, and it was a shame that he wasn't chosen for the mystery bus that night.

  I remember the end of the day coming too soon. Usually I would find Dave and begin the long walk home and for a moment I was about to do just that. Then I remembered and felt in my pocket for the bus ticket. Oddly the ticket had instructions on how to get to the bus stop. Every other school trip I had been on had picked us up from the main gates.

  There was still a little warmth in the sun as I left the school in search of the bus stop. Not enough sun to take the full chill from the air but enough to make it jacket-less weather.

  Nothing could have prepared me for the next few hours. They were hours made from minutes that would change me forever. I found the right stop and saw right away I wasn't the first one there. Dave was right. Madeline had a ticket and she was already waiting. From my first glance I knew she was likely even more eccentric than people said she was.