Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ fun than what I was doing,” said Peter. “Even if it did hurt.”

      “What were you doing, exactly?” Felicity asked him, frowning.

      “Summarising newspaper article after newspaper article with Harry and Simon. He was running out of ideas for lines to give me.”

      We sat in our room and talked some more. I told them about the stunner and how suspicious it was that I could use it, and I also shared the news about the Light Crystal with the three girls. But for much of the conversation my mind was on Lena, Natalie and Stella, and I was completely lost. How on earth could I get through this without hurting any of them?

      Chapter 6: Powers of Persuasion

      The following school day passed without any great incident. James and I told Peter what we’d overheard between the girls (he was impressed, but I thought I could also detect some jealousy in his expression). I had to pretend not to know that Natalie had even been over until after dinner when Charlie asked how the group cramming session had gone.

      I saw Natalie as much over the next day as I would normally do. I’d thought that perhaps having been denied the chance to talk to me would cause her to lose her nerve, but I wasn’t sure about that anymore, because she made a point of joining any conversation I was having. No matter who it was with or what it was about. She also started asking me uncomfortable questions about all sorts of things I would normally share only with James and Peter. I answered her as best I could, doing fairly well not to crack like I might have a few weeks earlier. But true to their word, James and Peter were giving Natalie no opportunity to talk to me privately, and I could tell that Nicole, Jessica, Felicity and Lisa were getting increasingly annoyed with them for blocking her. Under normal circumstances, I would have been, too.

      Marc sent us a group SMS on Thursday night, giving us the date, time and location of Stella’s birthday party. It was to be on Saturday night, from 8 o’clock until late into the night, and was to be held at a secret location within the stretch. He also mentioned in the text that a meeting would take place at 6 o’clock that evening for preparation purposes. He didn’t go into the details about that, but it sounded ominous.

      Between now and then, however, we were left with a challenge that we wished we hadn’t put off this long. We had to convince our families to let us go out to the party. I had no reason to expect that Mum or Marge would be at all flexible, so I didn’t understand why Peter was so nervous; what was to be nervous about if we already knew the result? I just hoped there would be no shouting…

      We decided that we should start with Dad and Charlie, because if we could get them on our side first, then it might help us convince our mothers. If they disagreed, on the other hand, then there was really no point asking anyone else, and we would have to resort to magic to get them on our side. Amelia had provided her phone number at the first meeting, just in case, and we knew she would be open to helping us if our parents caused problems. She had made it clear that she would help anyone from the group get to the party if they needed it. Stella wanted us there, and it was our responsibility as her friends to go to support her.

      We got our chance that night, when Dad and Charlie were in the Playman study, which was opposite our room. They were having the time of their lives as they attempted to show their fathers how to use the Internet. They weren’t really getting anywhere; William was fascinated by the way he could type a line of text in a document and the words wouldn’t run off the page, while Carl marvelled at the way the arrow moved around the screen when he wiggled the mouse.

      “Simply ingenious,” said William as he had a turn at wiggling the mouse. “It’s as though the optical hand can sense every little movement. How you can afford to have technology like this in the home—”

      “It’s called a mouse,” said Peter helpfully, and the four of them jumped.

      “Oh, hello boys,” said Charlie, looking around.

      This particular task had been delegated to Peter and me only. The two of us had spent some time discussing how we would go about telling them, and come to the conclusion that we couldn’t just tell them straight; we had to be tactical. I hoped this would work.

      “We’ve got a bit of a problem,” I said bluntly.

      “Oh dear,” said Dad, his face falling comically. “Well, pull up a chair and tell us what’s on your minds.”

      William and Carl looked around at us, their faces amused. “If this is the talk about the birds and the bees then perhaps we should get out,” said William, making to stand up.

      “Or in their case, the talk about the Google and the Wahoo,” chuckled Carl.

      “You mean Yahoo,” laughed Dad.

      “It’s not,” said Peter quickly, going red. “Although…” He looked at me, but I shook my head frantically. The idea of telling either of my parents about my problems with Natalie, Stella and Lena was almost laughable; and yet, it really wasn’t a bad idea. I would never have considered it before now. Perhaps Dad or Charlie could give me some advice what wouldn’t make my stomach churn…

      “Actually, it’s to do with the Hammersons,” I said, sobering them up at once.

      “Oh dear,” said Charlie, his face falling. “Well in that case, you’d better close the door in case your mother hears.”

      “This hasn’t got anything to do with your friend Marc, has it?” asked Dad when Peter had sat back down.

      “Not really,” said Peter. “It’s actually about—er—Stella.”

      Dad and Charlie glanced at each other, but neither interrupted. Great help, you two, I thought dully.

      “Well, she’s been hanging around us lately,” I said, “’cause she was put in the same group as us on camp last week.”

      “And was she friendly?” Dad asked, looking carefully at us. I was pleased to see it, because it looked less like a parent and more like someone with a far greater picture in mind. Perhaps this was going to work after all.

      “Well actually, I’ve never known her not to be friendly,” I said truthfully. “We always just assumed she was like her father.”

      “Well we must expect her to have some of her father’s traits,” said William. “I don’t think there’s any way to know who she’s most like unless we investigate who her mother could be.”

      This was enlightening; I knew nothing at all about Stella’s mother. Stella had never made any passing reference to her.

      “How do you two find her?” asked Charlie.

      “She’s been really good,” said Peter. “She really helped us against Moran, and she gave us loads of good information about the crystals, which Fewul confirmed. She was always happy to get involved in whatever else we were talking about. Plus, she didn’t mind doing magic for us on camp.”

      Fewul was the ‘Beast of Magic’, a being of pure magic which only existed when it was called, either by the Sorcerers or by Marc. He had called it forth the previous week when we had needed a bit of information about how to find the Sien-Leoard Crystal, and it had helped us in the fight against Moran that had followed.

      “Not surprising, really,” СКАЧАТЬ