Obsidian Pebble (27 page)

The next morning, Oz stayed in his bedroom as long as he could before going down to breakfast. He hoped that his mother had calmed down after a night's sleep, but she had her back to him and didn't turn around immediately as he walked into the kitchen. The calendar still showed the head of a roughly drawn black dog. Oz felt his heart sink in his chest and decided that another apology was probably the best way to start things off.

“Mum,” Oz began, “about last night…”

She wheeled around and threw him a withering glance. “I don't want to talk about it. I've made my decision. Live with it.”

But her words were unnecessary. Any thought Oz had about trying to get her to change her mind about Sunday football, or Ellie and Ruff, had evaporated with that glance. She looked ragged, her eyes red-rimmed and raw, and he knew she'd been crying. Oz went through the motions of breakfast, the cereal tasting like cardboard, his mind like a clogged drain. He hardly spoke to anyone all the way to school and tried his best to put on as brave a face as he could when he met up with Ellie and Ruff, who were, as expected, in an exuberant mood.

“Look at them,” Ruff said gleefully as Oz joined them in registration. Ruff pointed at Jenks and Skinner, who were sitting with their backs to the class, huddled with their cronies, intent on ignoring everything that was going on around them.

“They're pathetic,” Ellie said. “In the bus bay, I heard Skinner trying to wriggle out of the fact that we'd beaten them by saying that if you added up the scores from both weeks, they were still four-nil up.

Ruff chuckled and then said loudly, “Read the papers, Skinner. A W is a W.”

Skinner, unable to ignore the taunt, spun around in his chair and glared at them, much to Ruff's delight.

But Oz could barely muster a smile.

“What's up with you?” Ellie said, finally noticing Oz's reluctance to join in.

“It's my mum. We had a bit of a bust-up last night,” Oz said hollowly.

He started to explain, and had got as far as the police wanting to know what they'd bought, when Miss Arkwright breezed through the door. In a way, Oz was relieved, because he was dreading telling them that they were banned. It was all so unfair; his mother's still-raw wounds over his dad were nothing to do with Ellie or Ruff. Why they had to suffer because of… Oz's melancholic thoughts were interrupted by Miss Arkwright banging on the desk.

“Some important announcements this morning that concern all of you. Mr. Broughton says that the toilet block near the changing rooms is still out of order. Oh, and Marcus, Mr. Broughton also says that he will try and get your football boot down off the roof today. And,” she paused dramatically, “the date for the lower school Christmas party has been set for Friday, the 18th of December, at seven. So make sure it's in your diaries.”

A buzz of eager conversation skittered across the room, mainly from the girls. Ellie turned to Tracy Roper, who was asking everyone if they knew what they were going to wear yet. But Oz couldn't concentrate on anything. Even first lesson with Badger Breath couldn't take his mind off worrying about what Ellie and Ruff were going to say when they learned that he couldn't play for them anymore.

Maths these days was very different for Oz. Since the second maths test, Oz actually understood what Badger Breath was talking about, even if the way Boggs actually taught the subject seemed boring and rigid. Today was no exception, as he announced to the class at the beginning of the lesson: “End of term exams will be on Monday, the 7th of December. That will give me enough time to mark your papers and return them before the start of the Christmas holidays. Those of you who fail will re-sit at the beginning of January.” He smiled unpleasantly. “Give you all enough time to revise over Christmas.”

The whole class groaned, but Badger Breath scanned the pupils with the smile fixed on his face like a death's head mask, lingering an extra leering few seconds on Oz.

“Before you ask, the exam will be on everything we will have done this term. Today, we begin transformation and congruent shapes.”

Badger Breath had taken to monitoring Oz's behaviour in class very carefully, often picking up his work and studying it. More often than not, he would tut at Oz's workings, but he never actually said anything. Oz had taken to not reacting, simply sitting and staring straight ahead until Badger Breath put his book back on the desk, at which point Oz would simply get on with it.

But today, Badger Breath was merely an irritating fly, barely buzzing at the edge of Oz's awareness. The gut-churning anxiety over what he was going to say to Ellie and Ruff was far more bothersome. It stayed with him throughout the morning and he even forgot the name Madame Chang had given him in French.

“Oz, are you all right?” Ellie asked with a frown of disbelief as he trudged back to his desk after having been made to write “Marcel” ten times on the board, which was Madame Chang's way of ensuring he wouldn't forget it again.

“Fine,” he mumbled.

“You're not ill or anything, are you?”

“No,” Oz said, but he knew it didn't sound convincing, because he did feel a bit sick. And it was with a stone in his heart that he trudged after the other two to the refectory at break time. Ruff found a seat and began pointing animatedly out of the window, where Jenks and Skinner loitered in a thin drizzle. It was clear that the thought of having to face Ruff's leg-pulling this break was not something they were prepared to contemplate.

“Look at them,” Ruff jeered, “like two lost, damp strings of—”

“Stop gloating, Ruff,” Ellie said, but it was a half-hearted protest. She was grinning, too, at the sight of the two class jokers having the tables turned upon them.

“But I am the Gloatmaster,” Ruff said loudly, standing up and giving Jenks a one-nil gesture with his fingers and sounding like a cheap voiceover merchant. Jenks sent back a very rude gesture with a face purple from suppressed rage, much to Ruff's obvious delight. It was hilarious, but Oz just couldn't bring himself to respond.

“Come on, Oz, the row with your mum couldn't have been that bad, could it?” asked Ruff, seeing the look on Oz's face

But as far as Oz was concerned, it was. He told them exactly what had happened after he'd got back from the match. Ellie and Ruff listened in stunned silence, but their horrified expressions spoke volumes. When he finished with describing how he'd picked up the shattered pieces of the trinket box, he looked up at them, knowing exactly how a guilty man in the dock must feel as he waited for sentencing. Ellie and Ruff exchanged a wordless glance, but it was Ellie who finally whispered in an awed voice, “Sugar. Are you saying that you've actually found the obsidian pebble?”

It was such a totally unforeseen question that Oz could only stare at her and nod. He'd been expecting her to say something about his being banned and no football. But she seemed much more interested in his find.

“That is so cool,” she said, grinning.

“Yeah, buzzard,” Ruff agreed, his eyes alight.

“But,” Oz protested, “didn't you hear the rest of it? I'm grounded and Mum's banned you from coming over.”

“That's not going to stop us talking, is it?” Ellie said with a shrug.

“And there's Skype and texting,” Ruff added.

“But what about Sunday soccer?” Oz said miserably. “She says I'm not to play.”

“League's finished 'til after Christmas now, anyway,” Ruff said. “Cup matches. Different teams for that. We usually don't bother.” He shrugged and Ellie nodded.

Staring at them as his brain tried to absorb this new information, Oz mumbled weakly, “But I thought…”

“Thought what?” Ellie asked.

“I thought that you would…that the two of you might say…” his voice trailed off.

“Say what, Oz?”

He forced the words out in a rush, eyes averted. “That me letting the Lions down and you not being able to come over… I thought that the two of you might not be bothered to hang about with me anymore.”

There was a moment of hanging silence as Ellie and Ruff regarded Oz with crumpled, bewildered faces.

“Are you stark raving bonkers?” Ellie said finally, with a little shake of her head.

“We can still practise football here at school,” Ruff reasoned. “And you can still practise goalie stuff at home, can't you?”

“Yeah,” Oz admitted grudgingly.

“Why would your mum grounding you make any difference to us?” Ellie said with another shrug. “My mum's always flying off the handle. They get over it.”

Oz sat back. It was as if a huge dam of relief had burst inside him, leaving him completely drained. But Ellie wasn't finished.

“The three of us, we're mates, Oz,” she said with a slightly cross, quizzical look. “And anyway, we've got two of Morsman's artefacts. Two! We can't give up on that now. I'm doing loads of research on Puffers, and the cipher is driving Ruff mad.”

“I'll crack it. You wait,” Ruff said, his eyes narrowing.

Oz stared at them both, blinking rapidly. He pushed himself up from where he had hunched forward on the refectory table, utterly flabbergasted. He had dreaded telling them, and yet they seemed to be taking it all in their stride. He beamed at them both and they looked back at him with slightly puzzled, wary looks.

“You have to admit it, Oz,” Ruff said as he bit into a pasty, “sometimes you can be a bit weird.” But a smile was visible behind the pastry crumbs, while Ellie just kept shaking her head slowly with a “what are you like” look on her face.

“Your mum must have been really ballistic to throw the box out of the window,” Ruff said, cheeks bulging.

“Not funny, Ruff,” Oz warned him, but he was smiling, himself, now.

“Anything you can do to change her mind?” Ellie asked. “I can usually get around my mum, one way or the other.”

“One or two ideas,” Oz said happily. He'd had none up to a minute ago, but the others' determination over Morsman was infectious.

Ruff turned back to the window, where Jenks and Skinner, hair plastered to their heads from the drizzle which had suddenly erupted into a downpour, glared in at them venomously. Suddenly, Ruff stood up and began chanting, “One-nil, one-nil, one-nil.”

The rest of the school turned to look and, amazingly, took up the chant, too, much to Jenks' and Skinner's horrified disgust. As they slouched away, sending off even more rude gestures than they had before, Oz doubled up in laughter. He giggled all the way through history and got a telling-off from Miss Lenon for finding the name of a fourteenth-century historian called Alanus de Cretyn hysterically funny. Of course, it was made ten times worse by Ruff, who whispered that having a name like that must have been a real bummer for the poor bloke.

* * *

The second half of the Christmas term slid busily by, as the weather turned colder and the days shorter. Oz had never had so much homework to do. The teachers had given up on the honeymoon period of the first half term, and were always on about how much work there was to get through. And what with trying to fit in research about alchemists and goalkeeping practise, Oz found that he was too tired to even dream about the grey-eyed girl anymore. But one morning in early December, Mrs. Chambers sat down at the breakfast table opposite Oz as he spooned cereal into his mouth and proffered a tired smile.

“Oz, I've been thinking. Maybe I've been a bit harsh.”

Oz stopped munching and looked up.

“I may have overreacted a little,” she added.

The cereal spoon remained halfway between the bowl and Oz's mouth. But Mrs. Chambers was quick to quash Oz's hopes.

“I'm not talking about that Morsman nonsense.” She held up a wagging finger. “I don't want hear another mention of that rubbish in this house, is that clear?”

Oz nodded slowly. Mrs. Chambers got up and crossed to the calendar, which she repositioned over the head of the black dog before turning back to sit down opposite Oz.

“But I think that it's a bit unfair of me to ground you for so long. So, and this depends on you making a real effort in your end of term exams, I think that you should go to the school party, and that Ellie and Ruff can come and stay afterwards.”

“Really?” Oz said.

“Really.”

Oz got up and kissed his mother's forehead. Instantly, her smile became the wide and generous one he was used to seeing. “Mum, we didn't mean for any of this to upset you,” Oz said with feeling.

“I know you didn't and I don't blame you entirely. Caleb should have known a lot better than to…” She hesitated, as if saying what she was about to say was suddenly unnecessary. Instead she changed tack. “So, when do your exams start?”

“In a week,” Oz said.

Mrs. Chambers nodded sympathetically and began clearing things from the table. “By the way, Lorenzo's calling sometime this week to bring some of your dad's stuff back.”

But Oz was only half-listening now. She'd just given him the best news he'd had in days. He couldn't wait to tell Ellie and Ruff. He finished off his cereal and ran upstairs to clean his teeth and check his emails. But his laptop, which had almost run out of battery power just before breakfast and which he'd plugged in to charge, was now stone dead. And there was no light in the bedroom, either. Cursing, Oz yelled down the stairwell, “Mum, electricity's off again.”

“Oh, no,” Mrs. Chambers groaned. “That's the third time this week. Right, I'm calling Tim.”

As Oz did his teeth, he wondered how they'd managed before Tim had moved in. Drains, central heating and now electrics—there wasn't anything he seemed unable to turn his hand to. By the time Oz got back down to the kitchen, Tim was there with his toolbox.

“Thank you so much,” Mrs. Chambers was crooning. “The wiring in this old place is ancient, as you know.”