Page 30 of From Now On

Duke

‘Nina?’ Duke calls after his sister as she stomps down the stairs but she doesn’t answer, doesn’t even turn around, and then she is gone, slamming the front door behind her.

It is his very first day at school today, ever, and terrified is too small a word but he doesn’t know a bigger one.

His blazer doesn’t fit him properly, the sleeves covering his hands. He pushes them up as he runs to the toilet and hunches over the bowl for the third time, thinking he might be sick.

Aunt Violet taps on the door. ‘Time to go, Duke.’

‘I don’t feel well. Can I go tomorrow instead?’

‘You’ll still feel like this. I know this isn’t easy and that isn’t your fault – God knows what that sister of mine was thinking teaching you at home, letting you run wild – but you have to go to school. It’s important to get some qualifications.’

‘But I’d have taken my GCSEs anyway.’ If he were running wild, he’d be an animal with sharp teeth and claws and he’d scratch and bite anybody who tried to make him do something he didn’t want to do like go to school. ‘I told you the home-ed group—’

‘Duke, I can’t home-school you—’

‘But you could; I could help you—’

‘It’s a complete change of lifestyle and this is hard enough for me. I’ve already taken two weeks of annual leave to look after you and I… I’ve missed my job. I don’t want to leave it. Now you and Nina are both living here we can all try and move forward.’ She doesn’t say this unkindly. ‘And I really do want what’s best for you—’

‘You don’t care,’ Duke says sadly.

‘That’s not true. If I didn’t care you wouldn’t be here. You’d be—’

‘With Charlie?’

‘No. Somewhere else. And perhaps not with Nina either. I’m doing my best to keep you both safe, together. Now dry your eyes. You’re eleven, Duke. It won’t be as bad as you think. You might even make some friends.’

A space hopper like the orange one abandoned in his garden leaps around in Duke’s stomach as they walk. He intermittently breaks into a run to keep up with Aunt Violet as she marches along. It’s all so different to those long, languid strolls with Mum where they would stop to let Billie sniff everything she wanted to, which was pretty much everything. He misses Billie so much, more than he misses Charlie. Pippa had sent him a video message that morning of Billie waving her paw and wishing him luck.

Along with his stomach feeling all fluttery, there is now a strange feeling in his chest as they arrive outside the black, wrought-iron gates. He hasn’t been here for a couple of years. Nina had begun to travel to and from school with her best friend Maeve once she had turned thirteen but before that, when he and Mum would wait for her outside,with Billie sitting patiently, her wagging tail brushing against the pavement. He hadn’t taken much notice then, but now he notices everything, making a mental list of all the reasons the other kids stare at him as he coaxes his reluctant feet through the gates:

His hair is longer than all of the other boys’.

His shoes are shinier.

Everyone else has a battered old rucksack clinging to their backs like the shells of snails; he has a faux leather satchel hanging across his body.

His uniform is neat, trousers in sharp creases, shirt buttons done up to the collar, tie pushed as high as it could go without strangling him (it still feels as though it is strangling him).

Nobody and that meansnobodyis carrying a plastic lunchbox.

Nobody and that meansnobodyis being dragged across the playground by their aunt, or is holding hands with an adult AT ALL.

He is taken to his class by the school receptionist and left in the care of his teacher, Miss Greenly – at least he hasn’t got Miss Rudd who Violet hates. She gestures him to an empty desk near the back and he scurries towards it, glad he hasn’t had to speak, but then,

‘If you want to come to the front and introduce yourself,’ she says.

Duke shakes his head.

‘Come on. We all want to know who you are.’

‘Do we?’ quips a boy from near the front.

‘Any more of that, Jayden, and I’ll be keeping the whole class in at morning break.’

Angry muttering snakes around the room. Some kids turn to glare at Duke as though the detention they haven’t actually got is all his fault.

---