Page 96 of The One Plus One
‘You don’t want to pay any attention to a little squit like that, Tanze,’ Nicky said, climbing to his feet. ‘He was just trying to put you off.’
‘Which one was it?’ Jess’s expression was flinty. ‘Tell me, Nicky.’
Yeah. Because Jess going in all guns blazing was going to be exactly the start to the competition that Tanzie needed. ‘I…um…don’t think I could recognize him. Anyway, I sorted it.’
He kind of liked the words. I sorted it.
‘But I can’t see, Mum. What am I going to do if I can’t see?’
‘Mr Nicholls is getting you some glasses. Don’t worry.’
‘But what if he doesn’t? What if he doesn’t even come back?’
I wouldn’t have done, Nicky thought, if I were him. They had totalled his nice car. And he looked about ten years older than when they had set off.
‘He’ll come back,’ Jess said.
‘Mrs Thomas. We need to start. Your daughter has thirty seconds to take her seat.’
‘Look, is there any way we can delay the start by a few minutes? We really, really need to get her some glasses. She can’t see without them.’
‘No, madam. If she’s not in her place in thirty seconds I’m afraid we’ll have to start without her.’
‘Then can I go in? I could read her the questions?’
‘But I can’t write without my glasses.’
‘Then I’ll write for you.’
‘Mum…’
Jess knew she was beaten. She looked over at Nicky and gave a vague shake of her head that said, I don’t know what to do.
Nicky crouched beside her. ‘You can do this, Tanze. You can. You can do this stuff standing on your head. Just hold the paper really, really close to your eyes and take your time.’
She was staring blindly into the hall. Beyond the door the students were shuffling into place, dragging chairs under desks, arranging pencils in front of them.
‘And as soon as Mr Nicholls gets here we’ll bring the glasses in to you.’
‘Really. Just go in and do your best and we’ll be waiting here. Norman will just be on the other side of the wall. We all will. And then we’ll go and get some lunch. Nothing to stress about.’
The woman with the clipboard walked over. ‘Are you going to take part in the competition, Costanza?’
‘Her name’s Tanzie,’ Nicky said. The woman didn’t seem to hear. Tanzie nodded mutely and allowed herself to be led to a desk. She looked so damned little.
‘You can do it, Tanzie!’ His voice burst out of him suddenly, bouncing off the walls of the hall, so that the man at the back tutted. ‘Back of the net, Titch!’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ someone muttered.
‘Back of the net!’ Nicky yelled again, so that Jess looked at him in shock.
And then a bell rang, the door closed in front of them with a solid thunk, and it was just Nicky and Jess on the other side, with a couple of hours to kill.
‘Right,’ said Jess, when she finally tore her gaze away from the door. She put her hands into her pockets, took them out again, straightened her hair and sighed. ‘Right.’
‘He will come,’ said Nicky, who was suddenly not entirely sure he would.
‘I know that.’
