Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ business in the summaries.”

      A few minutes later, Belinda returned with a box of paper, which she dumped beside the trolley from which the twins were taking newspapers. She then made a B-line for George, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what he was doing. She stared at him and the box of condoms, several of which were now on the desk as they’d been deemed clean, then she rounded on Hall.

      “What on earth do you think you’re doing, making him do that?” she shouted. “How do you think you’ll get away with this?”

      “How do you think you’ll stop me?” Hall asked calmly. “An extra detention for you, Pensinger. Now sit in that seat beside Playman and write that (he pointed at the line he’d given Justin and Tulip) 150 times. Go on, get to it.”

      But Belinda didn’t move. She stared at him furiously for a moment, before turning back to George, who was silently begging her to do something. They looked at each other hopelessly until Hall’s voice interrupted their musings.

      “Get going, or it’ll be yet another detention for both of you. I’ll see to it that you, Pensinger, will receive an even more gruesome task than Tuck next time.”

      Finally they both shrugged and Belinda turned away sadly, going to sit with Peter. I felt hopeless for both of them. If I had more guts myself, I’d help George sort through the condoms, but if I didn’t have to touch them myself, I didn’t want to.

      My hand automatically went to my pocket and around the Light Crystal, which I carried everywhere with me. It was a manifestation of good, and a bit of goodness was due right about now. I unfolded the hankies from around it and touched the surface with a finger. It wasn’t until this point that I’d even thought about what I was doing; my mind was still full of thoughts about where those condoms had been in past years, and I just hoped that George wouldn’t throw up before the end of the detention, because I was sure that Hall would make either him or Belinda (or me) clean it up. I just wished there was something I could do to make it easier for him…

      Then I jumped. The crystal had gone warm in my hand for a moment. What had that been about? I felt it again, and it was back to normal. I quickly took my hand out of my pocket, making sure the crystal was covered by the hankies again, and continued writing my lines, sweating slightly.

      “Well this guy makes it sound as though he was right to say that,” Harry was saying to the room at large. “Which is ridiculous.”

      “Of course it is,” said Simon. “But what does he know?”

      “Well, he’s a journo—”

      “An uneducated journo,” said Simon.

      “Right,” said Harry. “Right on the money, old chap. That’s my summary of this article.”

      ‘I will show respect and adoration to my teachers at all times.’ ‘I will show respect and adoration to my teachers at all times.’ I was getting heartily sick of writing it, but I was only up to forty-seven and I still had over one hundred to go before I would be allowed to leave. Curse that bastard of a teacher! Without thinking, I glanced across at George and his box of wonders. The pile of Hall’s happy memories on the desk had grown considerably since the last time I had looked, and I noticed that George was merely picking them up, looking at them and tossing them to the side. He appeared much more comfortable now, as if he’d settled into the work and knew exactly what he was doing.

      “No dirty ones left, eh?” I hissed out of the side of my mouth so that Hall wouldn’t notice.

      “No,” he whispered mysteriously. “It looked worse than it really is. I bet they were all his and he’s just never had anyone to use them with.”

      I sniggered at the thought but broke off when I noticed that he had also snuck a few into his pockets. I looked away in disgust; as far as I was concerned, they should never be used, even if they were clean.

      “They did look bad,” I said, remembering how they had all looked in there and wondering how it could possibly…

      Then I realised! A connection had formed in my mind between the moment George had started throwing condoms aside and the moment when the Light Crystal had gone warm in my hand. I’d been thinking about what I could possibly do to help him when that had happened. Could it possibly be that the condoms had cleaned themselves through some sort of magic from the crystal? I knew nothing about what the Light Crystal did, except that it was good, so I supposed it may have been possible. I made a mental note to get on the Internet next chance I got and do some research into the Light Crystal, assuming there was any information to find.

      “Why are you taking them, though?” I asked, my stomach twisting at the thought of second-hand condoms.

      “They’ve never been used,” he said quietly. “Might as well make use of them. Saves me going and buying them. Might as well make something good of this horrible experience.”

      “Eww,” I said. “I’d never do that, all the same.”

      “Ah come on,” he said. “You might need them one of these days…”

      “Well I’d go and buy them if that was the case,” I said, looking away from the long rubbery thing he was dangling in front of my eyes, acutely uncomfortable with this conversation.

      “You sure? Freebies, ya know,” he said, pocketing another one as he tossed three more into the pile on the desk.

      I didn’t answer, but bent over my lines and started writing again. I’d written three more before George said, “You might end up using one anyway, if my sister wants to take a few of these.”

      “What?” I asked, my head snapping up.

      “My sister,” he repeated, grinning. “She’s been banging on about you ever since she got back from camp. God, the detail she went into about what she wants to do to you—”

      “What on earth…” Suddenly I realised who he was talking about. George Tuck. Lena Tuck. Why hadn’t I made the connection? I had only known Lena since about a week ago, and last Thursday, she had indicated that she had a crush on me. In fact, she had been what I considered to be abnormally overt about her feelings. It had been a little intimidating, but that wasn’t the reason why I was nervous about her.

      “She’s so totally hot for you,” he went on.

      “And what am I supposed to think of that?” I asked warily.

      “Do her a favour and screw her senseless,” he said, smirking at my awkwardness. “She’s never had one, you know. We keep telling her to get her butt into gear, ‘cause she’s had so many guys after her before, but she’s finally found someone she likes and it’d break her heart if you turn her away.”

      “Oh great,” I said dully. He’d just made my situation ten times more difficult. “I wouldn’t want to do that.”

      It was true. I appreciated how attractive Lena was, and if my heart was a little looser, I’d jump at the chance to be the envy of nearly every guy in school. But the fact remained that I was, and always had been, attracted to Natalie. I’d always considered myself no chance, which was why I’d never had a girlfriend before, and probably the reason why I had little to no confidence with girls. But I also knew that she liked me too, thanks to Sebastian stealing СКАЧАТЬ