Free Sins of the Father: MANTEQUERO BOOK 3 by Jenny Twist Page B

autistic.
    But the girl, now, she was new. She’d started at Graystones last year because her previous school didn’t have a sixth form. She was clearly intelligent, perhaps even a match for Rupert, who was verging on genius in her opinion. If only he’d loosen up a bit!
     
    It seemed forever until the end of the class and when it came Rupert grabbed his books and began to stuff them into his bag. He was in such a hurry that he let one slither out of his grasp and it clattered onto the floor. He bent down to pick it up and found himself looking straight into Samantha Parkin’s face. For a moment he was locked there, staring into her eyes, which he had thought were blue but now he could see were a mixture of blues, greys and greens, with maybe just a touch of hazel. She, too, seemed to freeze for a moment, and then she said, “Here you are,” and passed him the offending book. He was so surprised he very nearly dropped it again.
    “I thought you were great,” she whispered and they both stood up at the same moment, almost – but not quite – brushing their bodies against each other.
    “Um, well, er . . .” Rupert found himself totally unable to say anything even remotely sane.
     
    “Haven’t you two got homes to go to?” Mrs Winton said. “Because I’ve got a staff meeting to attend and I’m already late.”
    “Sorry, Auntie – er – Mrs Winton,” Rupert mumbled and stumbled out of the room. Samantha hurried to catch up. “Sorry, Mrs Winton,” she said over her shoulder.
     
    Alison Winton watched them leave the room. Jones the Geek and Miss Piggy. He was tall and thin – at that gangly stage when he seemed to be growing faster than he could cope with. She was short and very fat. He had to bend down to talk to her. They ought to have looked comical but they didn’t somehow. Somehow they looked right together. A meeting of minds, she supposed and the thought was quickly followed by, Please God, don’t let him take after his father!
     
    ****
     
    “Is Mrs Winton really your Auntie?” Samantha looked up at him from under her lashes. He had a sudden urge to drop his bag, take her face in both his hands and kiss her. He stuck his hands firmly in his pockets.
    “No, she’s just a really close family friend. I’ve known her all my life. I’ve always called her Auntie.”
    “Oh, right.” Samantha subsided into silence. “Where did you get all that stuff about Dickens? I thought I’d read all the stuff on the Cervantes versus Dickens thing but some of that was totally new.”
    “Oh, um, well, it’s just what I think, you know.” Rupert stared up at the sky, which was blue and bright and made him realise that summer was on the way.
    “But what about that joke about the raven? Where did you get that from?”
“I read the book, Barnaby Rudge . It’s about the Gordon Riots. Edgar Allan Poe really liked it but he thought the raven wasn’t serious enough. Some people think it was the inspiration for his famous poem. You know, ‘ quoth the raven nevermore’ .”
    Samantha stopped and studied him for a moment. “ God, you’ve read loads of stuff. How did you find out about that?”
    Rupert looked uncomfortable. “ I can’t remember. I just pick things up, you know. I’m a fund of useless information.” He paused. “I like Dickens a lot. I think he’s got a really dry wit. You should read The Uncommercial Traveller . It’s a hoot.”
Samantha was looking at him narrowly. “You really are a geek, aren’t you?”
    “Am I?” He looked surprised. “I thought a geek was supposed to be good at science.”
    “Well, aren’t you?”
    “Yes, I am actually. But what I meant was, I thought it specifically meant science stuff. I’ll have to look it up when I get home.”
    “Where is home?”
    He turned and smiled at he r for the first time. He really was very good-looking and when he smiled he was verging on gorgeous.
    “You see that park over there?” He pointed to a green area behind