CHERUB: Knight

9: Christmas

For George, Christmas usually involved getting up at seven, tearing into his presents while his mum drank strong coffee and then entertaining himself until lunchtime. Instead of turkey and trimmings they had scampi and chips with lemon meringue pie for dessert, because those were his favourites, then they watched TV and played board games for the rest of the day. It didn't seem like much but it was George's favourite day of the year, because he usually had to go to school on his birthday.

Christmas on CHERUB campus was a different matter entirely. The festivities started with football on the muddy football pitch next to the lake, which was basically George's dream. Rex wasn't so keen, and while George spent his time making full-on sliding tackles through the puddles, Rex stood near the goal and shivered. The entire population of red-shirts took on the staff, who found themselves hopelessly outnumbered. Whenever the staff used their speed or size to get the ball, they found eight or nine kids hanging onto their arms and legs, and more than once a training instructor was toppled face-first into the mud.

Muddy and happy, George led the charge to the showers and spent the rest of the evening cheering on the sidelines and generally enjoying the atmosphere. His enthusiasm was catching so even though Rex didn't much fancy standing in the cold, he eventually got into it, especially once he'd downed three hot dogs. The highlight of the night was the black shirts versus the navy shirts, which was settled by a rocket from the halfway line by one of the biggest black shirts, resulting in a giant pile-on with the goalscorer at the bottom.

Since they'd only arrived a few weeks earlier, George and Rex weren't in the junior nativity play. They sat in the audience and made the most of it, especially since their seats were next to a group of black-shirts who appeared to have had a sneaky drink and yelled all the way through, even when the staff told them to be quiet. George constantly found himself in stitches listening to them, and when they broke into a chorus of 'Why Are We Waiting' during Jesus' birth, George fell off his chair and had to be rescued by a couple of black-shirts who thought that this was the funniest thing ever.

After this was the main event, present-opening on Christmas morning. The junior block seemed to wake up at about five o'clock and made as much noise as possible, waking George and Rex. There was no way to sleep with about twenty seven-year-olds screaming in the corridors.

"Might as well go over," Rex said, yawning. "See what we're getting."

George wanted to act cool and collected, like Christmas was no big deal, but he still felt the familiar excitement of getting presents. He couldn't keep the excitement out of how quickly he dressed, and noticed that Rex was much the same.

"Do you know how this whole thing works?" George asked as he laced his trainers up. "Like, what we're getting?"

"Not really. Some of the younger kids were saying that everyone gets the same amount," Rex replied. "Don't know how much that is, though."

They braved the littler kids running around and made their way down with everyone else to the gymnasium where the presents were to be opened. The carers were forcing everyone back from the doors, but George and Rex managed to push into a decent position.

"Okay, once the doors open remember that the presents are in alphabetical order. Yours will be in the middle of the room," Miss Darcie said firmly to all of the red-shirts. "It's your surname, not your first name."

George noticed some of the older kids on campus waiting behind them, laughing at the hyperactivity of the red-shirts, and he felt a little embarrassed, like he was too old to be excited, but once the final countdown started he forgot about it and ran into the hall like everyone else.

His presents were under 'K' for Knight, and the pile was huge. Since he'd lived with his mum and they hadn't had any family, the only things he'd had to open on Christmas day were a few presents from her plus a few bottles of wine that his mum got from her work colleagues. This year, though, there was a big stack, and they were definitely all for him. With a grin, he tore into the top one, revealing a bag of chocolate coins. He didn't pause to open them, moving straight onto the next one. The best things he got were a QPR home shirt, something he'd been wanting for years but his mum had always said was too expensive, an iPhone and a huge box of chocolate bars. When he thought he'd unwrapped everything, already wearing his brand new shirt, he spotted a little parcel wrapped in a different design of wrapping paper to all the ones he'd seen. Curious, he pulled it open and discovered the Gladys Knight CD that he'd seen in Zara's office. There was a handwritten note taped to the front.