‘Why? What I done?’ said Little Pea, mouth still grinning, but his eyes flicking from side to side.
‘You know what you done,’ Shiv said, taking another step forward. Pea darted backwards, tripping up over his feet. His fake trainers looked weirdly big for his tiny body.
‘My cousin Pats got a beating cos of you, boy!’ Shiv went on, tipping his head to one side and staring so hard at Pea he looked like he could pin him up against the fence just with his eyes.
‘Hey, no way, Shiv-man!’ Pea protested, wriggling backwards some more. ‘I wasn’t even there when it happen, bro!’
‘Ex-act-ly!’ said Shiv, spitting out each syllable. His eyes were thin black slits just like a snake, poised, ready to attack. ‘You were s’posed to be on lookout, but the minute you see trouble you ghosted yourself away, innit?’
‘No way,’ said Pea, a high click of fear in his sing-song voice now. ‘I did jus’ what you tell me, Shiv-man.’
‘Yeah?’ Shiv’s eyes widened just a fraction, the two black slits dark ovals for a moment. ‘So why you do a runner when you seed the police comin’, instead of soundin’ the warnin’?’
Pea’s face was flushed and there were little beads of sweat on his pinched cheeks. ‘I never see dem comin’, Shiv,’ he squealed. ‘They snuck up on me. I dittn’t have no time to warn you!’ His eyes were sparkling like Christmas lights and it was impossible to tell if he was lying or not.
‘Not much of a lookout who don’t see nuttin’, eh?’ Shiv snarled, taking another step forward, a swaying movement in his long black coat.
Behind him the rest of the Starfish Gang were lounging up against the swings, watching. Shiv’s right-hand man, Tad, was standing on the kiddie swing, rocking gently. ‘You need glasses?’ he called out to Little Pea. ‘Or mebbe you was too busy savin’ you own self to bother lookin’ out for nobody else?’
Pea stuttered out a few squeaky vowels, like a car engine that wouldn’t start, then spluttered into silence. Shiv was up so close to him now they were almost touching. The sound of the approaching train wailed louder on the tracks, an insistent whine cutting through the searing heat of the day.
Shiv glanced around quickly. Looking for something? Checking the coast was clear? And, as his eyes swung over the roundabout, he clocked me sitting there and his eyes narrowed. Quick as a flash, I pretended I was texting on my ‘phone’. Shiv stared at me for a moment before scanning over towards the gate.
I let out a sigh of relief and I probably should have just stopped filming then and disappeared, but I didn’t. I guess I knew I wasn’t really invisible, but I think I still thought I was safe. My mum was always going on about parallel universes. She said London was full of them, all existing side by side, but never really noticing each other. The Starfish Gang and Shiv and Little Pea belonged to one universe and I belonged to another and I thought that meant they couldn’t touch me.
Shiv’s snake eyes swung back to Little Pea.
‘I stayed right where you told me, Shiv, I swear!’ Little Pea yabbered on. His big fake Nikes jigged up and down on the ground as he spoke. He couldn’t seem to keep still. ‘Mebbe my eyes is goin’ cack. Mebbe I needs to take myself down the op-ti-cian, but I promise I don’t see nuttin’. I dittn’t see da feds comin’.’
‘You see who give my cousin Pats a beatin’ then?’ Shiv hissed.
‘No, Shiv. He was fine when I see him.’
‘Cos someone hurt him bad,’ said Shiv, eyes boring into Pea like he was the one who’d done it. ‘Someone put him in hospital and they gonna pay for it, unnerstand?’
‘Yeah, I unnerstand,’ Pea said, head nodding frantically like those toy dogs you sometimes see in car windows.
‘So, if you saw who done it, you bes’ tell me, right?’ Shiv glowered at Pea and, out of the blue, I remembered another thing I’d heard about him: that he’d smacked his own mum once, so hard he broke her jaw. I didn’t know for definite if that was true – there were as many rumours about Shiv as there were about Pea – but looking at him then it was easy to believe.
Suddenly Shiv’s hand was in his pocket and then in one swift movement it was up close to Little Pea’s face. Little Pea squirmed and wriggled like a fish in a net and for a second I couldn’t make out what was going on. And then I saw the narrow blade in Shiv’s hand, pressed up against Pea’s cheek, gleaming against the scars that ran over it.
If you watch the film, you can hear me gasp when that happens. Shiv might be named after the knife people say he cut the scars on his own face with, but I was still shocked when he pulled it out. And that was when we had the proper ‘movie magic’ moment. The little blade caught the light and sent a disc of fire flashing into my camera lens, obscuring everything in a haze of white. Then, as the viewfinder cleared, I caught sight of the New Kid.
I’d never seen him before, but I knew right away he wasn’t from Coronation Road. Not because he looked different exactly. It was just the way he kept walking, like he hadn’t noticed anything was up. Like he didn’t have a clue who the Starfish Gang were. He was walking right into the middle of a war zone and didn’t seem to realise it.
There was a perfect backdrop to the scene. The grass behind him was yellow and sparse, and beyond that there was a view over the whole of Coronation Road, over the terraces and shops and the miles of tower blocks towards the city in the distance. You could even see the giant wheel of the London Eye nestled between the skyscrapers and the white clouds. And the New Kid had the sun shining on him as he walked towards us, just like the hero in a cowboy movie.
Shiv hadn’t spotted him yet and neither had the rest of the Starfish boys, but Little Pea had, and his eyes widened in surprise. The New Kid was only about ten metres away, but he had on a massive pair of headphones and seemed lost in his own world. He had a face like chocolate sunshine, I thought. I wanted to call out to stop him, but something made me hesitate.
‘You gonna ansa me or what?’ Shiv hissed. The blade was tight against Little Pea’s neck. ‘You gonna tell me who put my cousin Pats in hospital or am I gonna do da same for you?’
‘Um . . .’ said Pea, looking desperately around him like somebody might be able to give him the right answer. Like he could phone a friend or click his heels together and go up in a puff of smoke. He glanced at me and at a couple of little kids who were playing over in the mucky sandpit.
The sun was shining directly on Pea so the mass of tiny scars on his cheeks, similar to Shiv’s, stood out clearly like chickenpox craters only more symmetrical. Even his scalp, beneath his closely shaved head, was criss-crossed with pale scar lines, like someone had drawn them on with something sharp, or splattered hot wax all over him.
The train was close by, its screech staining the air with noise. And I knew deep in my stomach that it wasn’t right to be filming this. That standing by and letting it happen was wrong. But that was when I realised that the New Kid had stopped and was staring. Shiv and the Starfish boys still hadn’t clocked him, but he’d seen them and he had this look on his face – not scared, but sort of angry, and also something else I couldn’t make out.
Little Pea started to giggle, a hiccupy, high-pitched giggle, as the train came hurtling along the track. And suddenly Shiv grabbed him and pushed him up against the railings so his massive feet
