Free Bad Company by Cathy MacPhail

tell them,’ his voice was soft, so soft Miss Day would never hear him, ‘I tell them to feel sorry for you. Because you’re pathetic. Really pathetic.’
    And that’s when he really got through to me. Not with his hate, and not with his threats, but I just couldn’t, wouldn’t take his pity.
    I looked around for something handy, and there it was, that big jug of maggots. I lifted it and before he knew what was happening I had tipped the whole squirming lot over Ralph’s head.
    You could have heard him yell in California. He did a war dance and shook his head wildly. The maggots were everywhere. The whole class went wild. I was screamed at and called every horrible name under the sun. It was lucky I was in Miss born-again Christian Day’s classor I would probably have been expelled. As it was, I was sent to the headmaster and reprimanded. I didn’t care. I’d shown Ralph Aird that there was nothing pathetic about me!
    But I just had to get out of that school. I screamed that at Mum when she got home that night. ‘Why can’t I go to Adler Academy?’ I yelled.
    ‘With Diane Connell?’ J.B. said softly. He was already shaking his head. ‘The sooner she goes there the better. Get you two separated and maybe both of you will behave like human beings.’
    ‘She’s the only friend I’ve got!’ Why couldn’t they understand that? They both knew that no one spoke to me at school any more, except Diane.
    ‘That’s your fault,’ he had the nerve to say. ‘It’s up to you to prove you’re not as bad as they think.’
    That was rich coming from him. ‘Like you, I suppose.’
    He stood right in front of me, making it impossible for me not to look at him. ‘I want to tell you something, Lissa. I brought you up to think you were better than other people. I worked hard, but I wanted money and more money. So you could dress better than other people, live in a better house. Have better holidays. Materialthings, Lissa. I thought that’s what was important. I brought you up to think that too. But it’s people who matter, Lissa. I’ve tried all my life to get away from my background, from the poverty I had when I was a boy. But I’m going to tell you something you don’t know.’ He hesitated, and sat on the edge of the sofa so that his eyes were level with mine. ‘You never knew your granny, my mother. She died before you were born. But do you know what she was, Lissa? She was a cleaner in the schools. She worked really hard all her life. You should be proud of her. I should have been proud of her. Instead, I was ashamed. I wanted something better – and I didn’t care how I got it.’
    Why did he have to tell me these things now? He’d never told me this before. Why now?
    ‘You still want to go to Adler Academy?’
    Mum stepped in angrily. ‘It’s out of the question anyway! Adler Academy costs money!’
    ‘That’s OK. He can pay for it with his new job.’
    I’d caught him off guard. His face flushed red, his eyes darted to Mum’s.
    ‘What new job?’ she asked.
    ‘Didn’t tell you about that, did he? Didn’t tell you about the phone calls either, eh? Or the sneaky visits somewhere.Must be a new job … a new job with an old boss, called Magnus Pierce!’
    And I ran out of the room and upstairs and the last thing I heard before I slammed my door shut was Mum’s worried voice. ‘Jonny, not again. What’s going on?’

Chapter Thirteen
    May 29th
    I met Magnus Pierce today as I walked home from school. I’m sure he was waiting for me. His big Mercedes was parked by the kerb. I knew it was his by the registration plate. MAG 1. I would have crossed the street to avoid him but by the time I noticed his car I was too close. And anyway, suddenly he stepped from the car and held the door open so that it blocked my way. He was so tall, so broad, so threatening. Yet, anyone seeing him with me would have thought he was, perhaps, a favourite uncle .
    ‘Lissa!’ he said, as if in total surprise. The