Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ you,” he said. “Now you two,” he looked at Harry and Simon, “your job will be to sort through these newspapers, writing page-long summaries for as many articles as you can get through. Bring each to me as you finish them, so I can correct your spelling, grammar and overall style. If it is insufficient, you will do it again. Okay?”

      “That’s not okay,” said Simon dully, staring at the mountain of newspapers Hall was indicating.

      “Excellent,” said Hall cheerfully. “Now, get to it. Just take the stack into that corner and face away from the rest of the room so that the rest of these (he indicated me and Peter in particular) don’t distract you.”

      “You say it as though we’re objects, sir,” said Peter, grinning cheekily.

      “That remains to be seen,” said Hall darkly.

      Harry and Simon looked at each other, downcast, before taking the trolley of terror with them to the corner of the room. When they got there, Harry looked around at Hall and said, “Er—where do we get the paper from?”

      “Pensinger!” Hall snapped at Belinda.

      She jumped and pulled away from George, whom she had been pashing in clear view of the room. “What?” she said, looking annoyed that she’d been interrupted.

      “I want you to go down to Room 74 and bring back a box of A4 paper,” Hall answered. “If the room is locked—which it shouldn’t be—go and ask for a key from the office. If anyone asks what you’re doing, tell them Mr. Hall sent you. If they try to stop you or don’t believe you, come back here and I’ll give you a note of permission. Go now.”

      Belinda scowled, but left the room, looking back and blowing a kiss at George as she went. The moment the door had closed, Hall rounded on George, who’d been looking awkward the whole time.

      “And you, Tuck, for your cheek, can sort through these.”

      He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a large box, which he handed to George.

      “What is it?” George asked.

      “Items I have accumulated from various troublesome students over the years,” Hall told him, grinning evilly. “And from other places, I might add.”

      “What do I do with them?” asked George, taking the box.

      “Retrieve the clean items, dispose of the dirty ones. I never took notice of which was which over the years. I want a nice, clean collection when you’re finished. Anything you need, let me know,” said Hall, before he turned to Justin and Tulip. “Now, I don’t want you two anywhere near each other. Time, you sit over there, in that seat (he pointed to Harry’s usual seat) and Naval, you sit there (he pointed to a seat on the opposite side of the room). You will both be writing lines, 150 in fact, and you can leave when you have finished. I will tell you what to write shortly.”

      Not listening to the teacher, I had followed George to his seat, interested to see what was in the box. When he opened it, I saw something that made my stomach twist in revulsion. The box was full of unwrapped, twisted condoms. What had Hall said? Retrieve the clean ones? Oh God…

      “This is harassment,” said George, looking around at Hall in disgust. “You expect me to touch other guys’—”

      Hall just wiggled a finger at him. “It’s no worse than what the rest of us had to watch you doing just now, Tuck.”

      “Can I at least have a pair of rubber gloves?” George asked.

      “Gloves?” Hall repeated nastily. “Are you a man or what? Afraid to get your fingers dirty? No, I think you’ll need good, sensitive fingers to determine the state of each one.”

      George was red with rage, but Hall wasn’t done with him. “Anyone would think you’d never seen one of those, judging by your reaction; still got a way to go with Pensinger?”

      “You leave her out of this!” snapped George. He looked ready to punch Hall, and I would have been very happy to see it, whatever the consequences later.

      “It wasn’t my decision to put on that public display of affection in the middle of a detention, Tuck,” said Hall silkily. “Now, unless you wish to repeat the experience in your next detention, I suggest you get to work immediately.”

      George bit his lip, aware that he would have more detentions piled on him if he retorted. He threw Hall the dirtiest look I’d ever seen before turning back to the condoms and picking one out.

      “Interested in those, are you, Playman?” Hall snapped. I jumped. I was still watching George, unable to take my eyes off the sickly sight that was his job for the next half-hour, but now I remembered where I was.

      “No,” I said, tearing my gaze away and looking up at him.

      “That’s just as well, because I don’t have any spare boxes,” said Hall. My stomach fell; if that was the only reason, he would probably make me help George. “But since I’ve never seen you behaving the way Tuck was, I expect you wouldn’t even understand the function of those items. Perhaps you would do well to observe him.”

      My face was burning with embarrassment and rage. Normally Peter would laugh if someone (namely the twins) said something like that, but even he looked furious this time.

      “Both of you will write lines,” said Hall, turning to the blackboard and beginning to write.

      “I … will … show … respect … and … adoration … to … my … teachers … at … all … times,” Peter read as Hall wrote. “You’ve gotta be joking. ‘Adoration’?”

      “You will both write that 150 times,” said Hall cruelly. “Naval, Time, I have a different line for you two.”

      He moved across to the other side of the board and began to write. ‘I will not use knowledge gained during classes against my teachers.’

      “Now get going,” he said to them, before turning back to me and Peter, who hadn’t moved. “What are you two waiting for, someone to blow a whistle?”

      We looked at each other and moved towards the desks. As long as we were stuck here, we didn’t have anything better to do.

      “Oh no, Playman,” said Hall, stopping me in my tracks. “You sit there.” He indicated the chair next to George. “And you can sit there.” He pointed Peter towards a chair right in the middle of the room, nowhere near anyone else.

      It went quiet after that, and I began writing my lines. A few times, against my will, my eyes left the paper and went sideways. I felt sincerely sorry for George’s position; he looked as though he was going to be sick. Peter, Justin and Tulip were busy writing, barely looking up. Harry and Simon were merely reading, but within minutes they began reading and discussing the newspaper articles aloud for the rest of us to hear. It made things more interesting.

      “That will do, you two,” said Hall sharply after Harry made an amusing comment that caused the room to erupt into laughter. “Work quietly.”

      “You can’t stop us,” Harry said to Hall. “If we go quiet, you won’t know what we’re doing. And I can assure you it won’t be what you want. СКАЧАТЬ