Free Crawlers by Sam Enthoven Page B

asking.’
    Ben frowned. ‘And all
I’m
asking,’ he said, ‘is to have a go on the cameras. Why are you being such a knob about this?’
    Josh’s smile vanished. His lips tightened into a hard white line. ‘All right,’ he told Ben slowly. ‘I’ve given you your warning. Now all bets are off. From now on, I’m
watching you
.’
    â€˜Really,’ said Ben.
    â€˜You’re a bad apple, Freeman,’ said Josh. ‘By crossing me, you put the whole group in danger. So, cross me again? You’ll be history.’
    â€˜Let me get this straight,’ said Ben. ‘You’re
not
going to let me use the cameras?’
    â€˜Get out of here,’ said Josh. ‘Before I lose my temper.’
    â€˜Oh, we wouldn’t want that,’ said Ben, pushing past him. ‘Knob.’
9:39 PM.
    Ben emerged from the monitor room with his face feeling hot and red. He was annoyed with Josh, sure, but he was also annoyed at himself. Why couldn’t he keep his cool with him? Whenever Ben spoke to Josh he got a twisting feeling in his stomach and then all of a sudden the conversation would beout of control. He hadn’t meant to call Josh a knob. Well all right, he
had
meant to – Josh unquestionably was one, after all. But the sensible thing in the circumstances would’ve been to try reasoning with him some more, before reaching for the insults.
    Yeah
, he told himself bitterly,
like that would’ve worked
.
    They just hated each other. That was all there was to it. Or rather, he hated Josh; most of the time Josh probably didn’t even think about him. Josh was too busy being top of the school heap, giving orders and having everybody do as he said.
    He looked up. Despite being stuck together for the best part of two hours now, the group had spectacularly failed to mix. Robert and Ben himself were on the side of the room nearest the monitor-room door. The girls – Jasmine, Samantha, Lauren and the mousey-haired one, Ben couldn’t think of her name for a moment . . .
Lisa
– were all sitting on chairs or the floor on the opposite side of the room. The room was divided down the middle, by both school and gender.
    Deliberately not pausing to think about it too much – but feeling a flare of nerves anyway – Ben walked over and sat down on the floor next to Jasmine.
    â€˜Hi,’ he said.
    Jasmine stopped prodding at the dead crawlers. Setting the notice board and its grisly contents down beside her, she looked at him.
    â€˜Anything happening on the screens?’ she asked, all business.
    â€˜Er . . . no,’ said Ben, surprised.
    He thought of saying something about the argument with Josh and Hugo, but hesitated: he might have sounded like he was telling tales, and – annoyingly – there was something of Josh’s words about ‘pulling together’ in his thoughts too. Ben felt powerfully attracted to Jasmine: she seemed the only other person in this mad situation who was making any effort to find out what was really happening and, yes, she was gorgeous. But he wasn’t quite ready to say what he thought of Josh just yet. Also, by the time he realized that this was what he was feeling, the moment had gone.
    â€˜Oh well,’ said Jasmine. ‘Then I guess we really do just have to sit and wait.’
    â€˜I’m Ben,’ Ben blurted.
    Jasmine gave him a quizzical look. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I know.’
    â€˜You’re Jasmine – right?’ said Ben. But Jasmine’s expression did not change. In fact, from the silence of the room around him Ben imagined that everybody else was looking at him now too. He hoped his face wasn’t still red, but he reckoned it probably was.
    â€˜It’s just . . . nobody’s talking,’ he plunged on when Jasmine didn’t answer.
Brilliant
, he thought.
What’s that,three obvious things in a row?
‘We’re all just