Keeping it Real (16 page)
Authors: Annie Dalton
You’ll get yours, Shay
!
Jordie just walked off stage and would have kept walking right out of the building if Jax and Karms hadn’t forcibly grabbed on to him.
Marlon and the rest of the Vibe Tribe had been waiting to go on. Now they looked paralysed with shock.
How had she known? And if she knew, why didn’t she just tell someone, instead of exposing Shay and his brothers in public like this?
Obviously just putting him in prison wasn’t enough to satisfy her thirst for revenge at losing her friend. Shay’s brothers, and the entire community, had to be punished too.
Well, Sky had punished Park Hall big time. You could see people’s faces closing up like clams. I heard booing, and someone angrily kicked over a chair as they stormed out. You could feel the vibes dropping, first to levels more normal for Bell Meadow, and then they just went on dropping.
When you raise expectations in a place like Park Hall, then cruelly dash them, the shock to human souls makes them feel like there’s no hope left anywhere.
Killing hope is what the PODS do best.
Next comes getting others to do their dirty work. Sky’s petty act of human revenge was nothing to what the Dark Powers had planned.
My heart turned over as I saw that other darker school showing clearly now through the walls. Now it was the human school which felt unreal, as the hell vortex in the changing rooms opened to the max, releasing hideous howls and whisperings and a rush of clammy stinking wind which you could smell in the school hall.
Desperate for comfort, I was unconsciously fiddling with Reuben’s charm bracelet, going
this charm is for protection, this charm is for protection
…
Jools clutched at my hand. This was all our fault. We’d added too much light to Park Hall’s darkness, treating these troubled kids like angels in waiting.
Don’t want any humans growing wings
, Lola had joked. We’d raised them up so high, but we’d never got round to teaching them how to fly.
The darkness in the hall visibly curdled and thickened, as the first hell trash came skittering and slithering in from the foyer. Hell trash is the lowest, most fast-breeding cosmic life form; think of normal earth vermin - rats or cockroaches - hideously remixed by the PODS, and you’ll get an idea of the sheer vileness of these creatures. They were being sent in to drag the light levels down to an all-time low, so the PODS to complete the school switch.
The human audience couldn’t see the hell trash, or hear the hell sounds or the evil whiplash voices of the shadowy teachers herding their dead-eyed pupils over the bridge into the school hall. But they must have felt them, because they were suddenly completely desperate to leave.
But my friends weren’t going to let them go without a fight.
Karmen practically ran out of the wings and took the mike. She was shaking with fury. “I can’t believe you’re walking out on us!” she blazed at the astonished audience. “Did you love our show or not? YES you did! Weren’t you freaking gobsmacked that your kids could actually pull this off. YES you were! So you might at least wait to hear what we’ve got to SAY about it?”
The audience was so surprised to find themselves being told off by a tiny Asian girl with a lisp that they just stood and took it, open-mouthed.
Karmen pointed a shaking finger at Sky. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to forgive you for disrespecting all the pure love we’ve all put into this show. But you made a
big
mistake when you disrespected Melanie. Mel wasn’t about this, Sky. She wasn’t about hate or revenge. How could you call yourself a Shocking Pink and not know that?”
Now Jax came pushing up to the mike. “Say what you like about us, Sky. We’re still here to defend ourselves, yeah, but you didn’t just sabotage our show, you tried to poison that lovely girl’s memory and we can’t allow that. This show made me feel like I was part of something,” she told the audience, choking with emotion. “I never ever felt like that in my life before. I miss Mel, but these have been…” her entire face quivered as she sobbed out the last words “…the two happiest weeks of my life!”
If the audience was stunned, that was nothing to the PODS. The clammy hell winds from the annexe seemed to falter as the light levels inched up a tiny notch.
That’s all it took. Under the alarmed clicks and warbles of the hell trash, I heard the electronic hum of a wheelchair as Tariq came punting out of the wings with a determined expression. Behind him came a pale, stricken Jordie, quickly followed by the entire Vibe Tribe. Then the Hussies, Magic Boy and twenty kapoeira kids filed on from the wings, all taking their places defiantly beside Jax and Karmen. Even Mr Lupton and Miss Rowntree hurried up out of the audience to declare their support.
Karmen’s eyes widened as she looked out into the hall. “They’re coming back! Start singing, you muppets!”
The Vibe Tribe bravely launched into “Where is the Love?”
I felt the ends of my hair start to tingle. Strong new voices were joining in my fave Black Eyed Peas song. The light levels began to lift as angels came beaming down everywhere.
Among them I saw familiar faces, earth angels I’d chatted to on Hampstead Heath: the girl who worked with street kids, a boy with a rucksack, a stern business man in a beautiful suit.
All the Matilda Street angels had come - Hendrix and Tallulah, Dino and Delphine - and still new angels kept on arriving, until the hall shone and shimmered with their light.
Jools had said London had seven energy hot spots, but just then it felt like there were eight.
With so many angels crowding into one place, our grungey school hall suddenly seemed like the loveliest place on Earth.
Unless you belong to the Powers of Darkness.
The hell trash clicked and warbled their panic, tumbling over each other in their desperation to escape. The shadowy teachers and pupils were actually morphing in and out of each other as they fled, driven from the hall by the overwhelming light generated by such a massive influx of angels.
Sky had shown no trace of emotion while the kids were furiously defending the honour of their show, but now she looked panicky. She couldn’t see the angels or the mass exodus of the PODS, but she must have felt the soaring light levels. Perhaps they made her feel she was in the wrong place? Suddenly she bolted from the hall.
“Help me!” I called to Jools, “or she’s going to be sucked down that hideous thing with the hell trash!”
We went hurtling after Sky.
Caught up in the invisible stampede back to the vortex, she was running crazily towards the bridge.
She never reached it.
I heard a cold voice call her name.
When Sky spun to see the youth standing in the foyer she gave a sob of relief. “Oh, Billy!” She rushed to him.
“They’re still singing in there,” he said coldly. “What went wrong?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed. “I did everything just like we planned. I don’t understand why it didn’t freaking work!” Sky tried to cling on to him, but as they left the building I saw him angrily shake her off.
I wished I could help my friend get back her self-respect, but I’d finally realised this wasn’t my job. Like Jools told me once; sometimes angels think they have to help one kid, when it’s a totally different kid who needed you all the time.
When Brice saw Jools and I walk into the Cosmic Cafe, he looked like he was too afraid to even hope.
“It’s OK,” I mouthed to him. “I
know
.”
It’s a bit unreal, meeting your killer in your neighbourhood cafe, and finally knowing that this was the same human soul who sent you zooming out of human history into a whole new career direction.
The cafe was steamy with good cooking smells. I could hear Nikos laughing in the kitchen.
For once Shay had hardly touched his meal. He was just staring emptily into space.
Jools and I sat down at his table, gently covering his hands with ours. I felt a deep tremor go through me, as Shay’s soul connected with mine, and in one shocking jolt, I saw it all.
Shay high on his joyride, then desperately trying to brake, and eventually crashing into a bollard further on. I watched him stumble off into Bell Meadow, cut and bleeding, so sick with guilt and horror that he could never tell another soul.
This was Shay Hickman’s version of our story, and though both our stories were equally true, they were as different as day from night. Shay’s version of my death was about shame and endings. Mine shimmered with jnew beginnings, a magical flight through the Universe, a scholarship to the coolest angel school in the cosmos, a joyful reunion with my soul-mate, and another really special friendship with the angel girl who was sitting with me in Nikos’ cafe, softly holding Shay’s other hand.
In that moment I felt my heart just fly open. I had everything, but Shay had nothing, and it was down to me now to set this right.
With the hum of the cafe all around, I hitched my chair closer and started talking.
Most of what I said was for Shay’s ears only. I’ll just tell you what I told him in the moments before we left. I leaned in and whispered right into his ear. “I forgive you, Shay,” I told him huskily. “You have a beautiful heart, and I’ll tell you something else. I know you feel like you’re all alone, but that’s not true. Angels are watching over you twenty-four-seven, and if you ever feel able to let us, we’d really like to help you, yeah?”
But I knew that Shay Hickman had been deep-frozen for so long that thawing out could take a long while -plus it was going to hurt big time. That’s when he’d really need his faithful guardian angel.
At the door, Jools and I turned back to give Brice an encouraging wave. I was stunned to see Shay taking out his mobile. He was shaking so badly that at first he couldn’t key in the right numbers.
“Kelsey,” he said in a choked voice. “It’s me. I’m -I’m in some pretty bad trouble, man.” He was crying. I was in tears too.
It was only now that I understood what a desperately delicate mission the Agency had entrusted to me and Brice. That angel boy had known all along that I was the one being in the Universe who could release him and Shay from their mutual ordeal; but he couldn’t tell me, because for this to be real, I had to choose to forgive Shay, from my deepest core, so he could start to live - perhaps for the very first time.
Outside the cafe, Jools saw how wobbly I was feeling and instantly hooked her arm through mine.
“So now you’ve saved your school from the evil hell vortex, angel girl, what do you want to do in your few remaining minutes!”
When the Agency is about to bring agents back home, there’s a particular vibe in the air. But I didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to my new friend just yet, so we sauntered on, chatting about what we’d do on her next trip to Heaven, as if we had all the time in the world.
Maybe my heart was still wide open from forgiving Shay, because even though this was Park Hall and not Heaven, I could see rainbow sparkles round all the passers-by.
Jools and I finally said emotional goodbyes outside the Buddhist wholefood shop, then I wistfully returned my borrowed Parka, and Jools thoughtfully lent me her rainbow scarf to keep me warm until I got back to Heaven. You see I had one last call to make.
To my surprise the lights were on in the sitting room.
My mum and step-dad were still up, poring over holiday brochures, planning their first ever holiday. I kissed each of them lovingly on the tops of their heads, then I peeped in on Jade.
My little sister was snoring softly, her fingers still gripping a red crayon. She’d fallen asleep in the middle of drawing me a picture. At the top it said:
To Mel Beeby, Angel Skool, Hevun.
The drawing showed two little stick figures facing off a huge three-headed monster.
I gave Jade exactly three smacking angel kisses, breathing in her sleepy wax-crayon smell for the last time, then I whispered, “I’ll be back soon, Fluffyhead, don’t worry, but you’re going to be fine now - all the bad monsters are gone. You’ll just have sweet dreams from now on, I promise.”
Then a whoosh of white light enfolded me, taking me home.
Annie Dalton has been shortlisted for the Carnegie medal and won the Nottingham Children’s Book Award and the Portsmouth Children’s Book Award.The twelve Angel Academy books (previously known as Agent Angel), became an international best selling series. Annie lives overlooking a Norfolk meadow with a ruined castle, in a row of cottages that were rescued from bulldozers and lovingly rebuilt by a band of hippies.
www.anniedaltonwriter.co.uk
Urban Fantasy Books
Night Maze
The Alpha Box
Naming the Dark
The Rules of Magic
Angel Academy Series
Winging it
Losing the Plot
Flying High
Calling the Shots
Fogging Over
Fighting Fit