Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ watch. It was now just after 5 o’clock; I really had dozed off.

      “What were you doing, anyway?” he asked, sitting down on my bed and looking at me.

      “Just finished homework,” I said. “That maths. Used the crystal to get me through it (Peter and I had filled him in about the crystal the previous afternoon) and I was just listening to the girls, but they’re not talking about anything interesting.”

      “Must have been boring if it was enough to send you to sleep,” said James, sniggering.

      “I don’t know,” I said reasonably. “The stuff in chick flicks is normally pretty juicy and I’m pretty good at sleeping through that too. Besides, I was really tired. I had a—er—unusual detention.”

      “Yeah? What did Hall make you do?” he asked nervously.

      “Long story,” I said. “Explain when Pete gets back.”

      “Fair enough,” he said. “Unplug those headphones; I want to hear too.”

      “It’s only homework,” I said. But I unplugged them anyway, so that Nicole’s voice was suddenly coming from the speakers. “Where’ve you been anyway? With Erica again?”

      “Yeah, around her place,” he said. “She seemed to think it was high time I met her parents.”

      “You’ve been with her for two days,” I said scornfully. “At this rate, you’ll be engaged by this time next week.”

      James laughed. “I see your point, but I think it’s felt like a lot longer for her after—you know—the last couple of weeks. She’d told them all about me anyway, and they were pretty cool, considering they’re city people.”

      I sniggered. The general consensus in Chopville was that people from the city took much for granted while us country folk appreciated the simpler things in life.

      “When’re you going to bring her round here to meet the parents?” I asked.

      “Well, she’s already met them once,” he said. “But I suppose we should give her a proper introduction now that we’re on. How does 2017 sound to you?”

      I laughed, but didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing. James seemed to be expecting me to tease him about finally having the guts to get a girlfriend, but my mind was a long way from doing that, so instead we listened briefly to the girls’ voices, still coming from the computer.

      “No, listen,” Lisa was saying. “I’ve read about all this. They’re known as itchicans.”

      “Or some sort of chickens anyway,” said Nicole, and all but Lisa burst out laughing.

      “Why itchicans?” asked Jessica finally once they’d settled down. “Surely they could have come up with something more sensible; itch-seers or something.”

      “I have no idea,” said Lisa. “All I know about them is that they see red marks on a person’s skin where that person may be feeling itchy, and the itchier, the redder. But I can’t find any known cases of it; they’re not recorded.”

      “Well just say that then,” said Natalie, who sounded like she was heartily sick of talking about it.

      “Oh come on, Nat,” said Lisa, exasperated. “How’s that going to look in the project? ‘I’m sorry teachers, but I don’t know if itchicans really exist because I can’t find any record of one admitting it. We only go by the Sorcerers’ word, but they could well be lying.’”

      “You don’t have to word it like that,” said Felicity. “Just say that no record of itchicans exists.”

      “Which came first,” asked Nicole, “the egg or the itchican?”

      They all burst out laughing again, even Lisa this time. Trust Nicole to crack jokes when the rest of them were trying to concentrate; that was such a Playman thing to do.

      “You ever heard of itchicans?” I asked James.

      He shook his head. “No, but Lisa was telling us the other day about people who’ve been cursed to see things differently. I suppose this is just another one of those.”

      “Come on,” said Lisa finally, sounding stern again. “Let’s just get this last bit done, then we can call it a day.”

      “Thank god, ‘cause I’m starving,” said Nicole. “But not for chicken.”

      “I wish they’d talk about something interesting,” I said.

      “Hang on, they might in a minute once they’ve finished,” James was saying, but I’d stopped paying attention. The Light Crystal was still in my hand in my pocket, and as I had spoken, it had suddenly gone warm again.

      “How’s this,” suggested Jessica. “’Itchicans are believed to be people who can see red marks on people’s skin where they feel itchy, the state of the redness depending on the’—er—‘intensity of the itchiness.’ Is that a word, itchiness?”

      “Sounds good enough to me,” said Nicole.

      “’But today, no records of itchicans exist, so no one knows if this enchantment is the same as other birth-made enchantments.’”

      “Perfect,” said Natalie. “Get that, Lis?”

      “Hang on,” said Lisa, and we heard rustling of paper. “Just say all that again Jess, and slowly.”

      Jessica did her best to repeat what she had said as Lisa copied it down.

      “Thank the blessed heavens that’s over,” said Nicole with a great sigh. “I don’t reckon I’ll be able to eat chicken for a week after all that.”

      “Told you,” said James, grinning at me. I grinned back, knowing that he had no idea what I’d just done.

      There was a bit of a pause as the girls packed their work away. Then Nicole said, as though the heavens were awake to what James and I wanted them to talk about, “Do you reckon, with this party on the weekend, that we’re supposed to take dates?”

      James and I looked at each other, grinning. “Here we go,” he said eagerly.

      “No idea,” said Felicity. “Hardly matters, does it?”

      “If there’s dancing, it might,” said Jessica.

      “But you can just pick up someone on the night,” Felicity answered.

      “Oh yeah, fantastic,” said Lisa sarcastically. “Tell me, who’s likely to be the better mover, Hignat or Wilwog?”

      A few of them laughed, and Felicity said, “Not those two; only go with the ones you know. There’ll be a few guys there you know, from the Young Army. A bit of a dance with them wouldn’t hurt.”

      “You could bring Michael, Jess,” said Natalie, and they all giggled, bar Jessica.

      “Who СКАЧАТЬ