Free The Girl by the Thames by Peter Boland

he said. “That was the plan, she’s failed.”
    “Are you tripping?” said Duff. “That charity box just had a load of change in it, no more than twenty quid. There’s hundreds here. Now come on give this girl a drink.”
    Mack opened the whiskey bottle and handed it to Lena like she’d just won the grand prix. She lifted it to her lips and drank until her throat burned. Then she handed it to Duff who took several gulps.
    “Damn, Lena, this is good stuff,” said Duff.
    “Is it? I just grabbed the most expensive one.”
    Everyone laughed. Lena looked around at all her new gang mates. She was in. She was one of the Niners. Around here that was the closest you got to being a celebrity. It was a sky-scraping moment for Lena. Now she would be looked at differently. People would give her respect and if they didn’t, the Niners would come visiting. She was like royalty now. Drink would be plentiful. No more bumming it off people or hassling students. She’d be able to get into any pubs or nightclubs in the neighbourhood. Fake IDs and queuing wouldn’t be needed. The gang had connections and those connections meant doors would open for her. It would be VIP areas all the way. She couldn’t wait to tell Tanya. Then she realised, Tanya wouldn’t be here for this new life of hers, this was for gang members only. Suddenly Lena really missed Tanya.
    “Duff?” Lena said. The bottle was being passed around and everyone had relaxed. Most people were gathered around Vicks. She sat on the roundabout counting out the money, arranging it in neat little piles so it could be shared out. Duff took a hit of whiskey then handed the bottle to someone else.
    “What’s up?”  
    “You know my friend Tanya?”
    “Oh yeah.”
    “Do you think she could join the Niners?”
    “Don’t see why not, if she’s as good as you.”
    “Oh yeah, she is and she’s smart too.”
    “Okay then, if she passes the initiation.”
    “Of course.”
    Gem sat on the swings away from everyone else, but he was close enough to hear their conversation. He pushed himself off the swing and moved in closer. “We shouldn’t have any more girls in the gang,” he said.
    “Oh, why not?” Duff asked.
    “Cause it’ll make us weak. We need more blokes.”
    “Why?” said Lena.
    “To fight other gangs. If we’re full of chicks we’ll get our asses kicked. And then what? We’ll lose respect on the street and we’ll be nobodies.” Gem raised his voice at the end of his little speech. He wanted everyone to hear this. The cheerful banter around the gang stopped right on cue. “We need to be strong. Another girl’s not going to be any good to us in a fight. Vicks went to open her mouth in protest, but Lena got in first.
    “I could beat you in a fight,” Lena said.
    Gem laughed, it wasn’t natural, but forced. A few of the boys smiled and shouted encouragement. Lena couldn’t tell whether it was for her or Gem, or whether they relished the thought of a girl/boy fight. They were probably thinking of all the hits they would get on Youtube if they filmed it.
    Gem suddenly became serious. “You don’t want to fight me, girl. It wouldn’t be fair.”
    “That’s all right, I’ll go easy on you.” Lena said.
    Vicks and Liz cheered.
    “Be serious,” Gem said. “I can’t have a reputation as a guy that fights girls.”
    “Chicken,” said Vicks.
    “You serious about this, Lena?” asked Duff.
    “Yeah, if I win, Tanya can join. If Gem wins, no more girls in the gang. And this stays within the gang, no-one else will hear about it.”
    “Sounds cool to me,” said Duff.
    “Hold on, what if I end up killing her,” said Gem.
    “You won’t,” said Mack.
    “We’ll step in if it gets out of hand,” said Seb.
    Duff rubbed his chin and looked at Lena and then quickly turned his gaze on Gem. “Okay, let’s do this.” Everyone screamed with delight and pulled out their phones ready to record the fight.
    “No filming,” said Gem. “This stays