get along just fine. Can’t have me best mate and me bird hating one another, can I now?’ Barry said, happily.
Stephanie looked at her boyfriend and raised her eyebrows. ‘So how come this pub is open at ten o’clock in the morning then? I didn’t think pubs opened till lunchtime,’ she remarked, changing the subject. She had been ultra-polite to Wayne for Barry’s sake, but she still wasn’t sure of him.
‘Pubs open whenever you want ’em to in this neck of the woods, especially if you’re loaded like my dad is. This boozer’s owned by a famous footballer, you know,’ Barry informed her.
‘Really! Where is he?’ Stephanie asked, expecting to see the man in question serving behind the bar.
Wayne and Barry both chuckled. ‘He don’t bloody work here. He plays for Tottenham and his family run the pub for him,’ Barry explained.
‘What’s his name then?’ Stephanie enquired. She didn’t know the first thing about footballers, but was hoping it was Glenn Hoddle because she knew who he was and thought he was lush.
‘His name’s Steve Archibald. Look, I’m just gonna have a quiet word with me dad outside. Yous two will be all right for a bit on your own, won’t ya?’ Barry asked.
Glancing at one another, Wayne and Stephanie both nodded. When Barry walked away, Stephanie felt her earlier awkwardness suddenly return and, not knowing what to say, stared at her glass of cider.
Wanting to put things right between them, it was Wayne who decided to say something first. ‘Listen, I’m sorry about what happened with your sister, Steph. I swear I wouldn’t have gone out with her if I’d known her proper age. She told me she was fifteen, I swear she did.’
‘That’s OK,’ Stephanie replied, meaning it. The way she felt at the moment, she hated her bloody sister, and any trouble Angie might have got herself into was all her own doing, nobody else’s.
‘I’m also sorry about the way I spoke to you an’ all, and your mate, Tammy,’ Wayne said, honestly.
‘Don’t worry about it. We all say silly things at times, me included. I’m sorry for calling you a rapist,’ Stephanie said, feeling incredibly stupid.
Sensing that Steph felt a bit embarrassed, Wayne grinned at her. ‘Don’t worry about that either. I’ve been called a lot worse things in me time. I’ll get us another drink, shall I? What do you want, another half of cider?’
Stephanie nodded and studied Wayne as he sauntered up to the bar. His bark seemed far worse than his bite all of a sudden.
‘There you go,’ Wayne said, handing Stephanie her drink. He sat back down opposite her and raised his pint glass. ‘To new beginnings, eh?’
Stephanie smiled. ‘To new beginnings.’
Angela Crouch spent the entire maths class doodling on the cover of her exercise book. Angela loves Wayne had now been scrubbed out completely and had been replaced by Angela + Jason with a love heart surrounding it. As the bell rang for lunchtime, Angie grabbed Chloe’s arm. ‘Where do Darren and Jason go at lunchtime?’ she asked her friend.
‘I don’t think they hang about together at school. Darren goes to the tucky, I think, then goes round Gel Parker’s house. He only lives in Ridgewell Close.’
‘Well, let’s go to the tucky. I want to ask him if Jason wants to go out with me myself.’
Chloe nodded then, arm in arm, the girls walked giggling towards the tuck shop.
‘There’s Jason. Look!’ Angela squealed, excitedly. Unlike Wayne Jackman, who was blond, lean and tall, Jason O’Brien was dark-haired, stocky and short. He was quite handsome, though, and in Angela’s eyes looked a bit like George Michael.
‘Go and talk to him then,’ Chloe urged her pal.
Jason was standing on the corner of School Road, smoking a cigarette. He had two pals with him, neither of whom Angela knew.
‘I can’t go over there while he’s with his mates. You go and speak to him, Chloe. Tell him to meet me outside the tucky in five minutes and I’ll talk to him there.’
Knowing how headstrong her friend could be, Chloe knew she would never hear the last of it if she didn’t comply with Angela’s orders.
‘Wait till I’m out of sight,’ Angela hissed, as Chloe went to march straight over to the boys.
As Angie half ran towards the tuck shop, she came face to face with Tanya MacKenzie and her smarmy-faced sidekicks.
‘Excuse me, please,’ Angela said politely, as they tried to block the pavement to stop her from getting past them.
‘If you’re looking for Jacko, don’t bother, ’cause he’s got a new girlfriend now. Really pretty, ain’t she, girls?’ Tanya hollered, urging the fellow members of her four-strong gang to join in with her torment.
‘Yeah, well pretty she is, and she’s sixteen,’ piped up Sharon Jones, Tanya’s best friend.
‘I ain’t bothered. I’ve got a new boyfriend myself,’ Angela replied, determined to wipe the self-satisfied smile off Tanya MacKenzie’s face.
‘You all right, mate?’ Chloe asked, appearing by Angela’s side.
‘No, she ain’t all right. She’s off her head if she thinks we believe she’s got a new boyfriend. We know what a liar she is,’ Tanya said, laughing.
‘Well, for your information, Angie ain’t lying. She’s going out with Jason O’Brien if you must know,’ Chloe replied.
Tanya MacKenzie stood open-mouthed. For the past eight months she had been besotted with Jason O’Brien’s dazzling good looks, and had recently plucked up the courage to ask him out. Jason had said no, and Tanya was sure he had only knocked her back because she was in the year lower than his, so how could he now be going out with Angela bloody Crouch?
‘You’re lying. You’re only saying that ’cause you’ve heard that I like Jason. You keep your hands off of him, Crouchie, do you hear me?’ Tanya spat.
Seconds later, as if by magic, Jason O’Brien walked around the corner and made a beeline for Angela.
‘Do you fancy coming to the chippy with me?’ he asked, grinning at her.
Clocking the look of jealousy on Tanya’s face, Angela smirked. ‘Yes, I’d love to, Jase.’
Stephanie Crouch had had such a brilliant day out with Barry and Wayne that she felt no guilt at all about bunking off school. Unlike her sister, Steph had never played hooky before, and she knew if she forged a letter in her mum’s handwriting, none of the teachers would bat an eyelid.
‘You enjoyed yourself today, babe?’ Barry asked, as they stood on the platform at Mile End station waiting for the District Line train.
‘Yeah, I’ve had a fab day. Why did Jacko shoot off?’
‘Jacko wanted to see some old pals while he was in the manor,’ Barry replied.
He
