CHERUB: Knight

22: Trouble

The party broke up at ten, although most of the older Cherubs were going to move outside or to their rooms to carry on. Michael had sold all of the alcohol and was grinning with happiness, draining most of a bottle of gin with his girlfriend Lucy. George had tried lemonade mixed with gin, but it tasted horrible and he spat it out. He didn't really see the attraction of alcohol and sitting with all of the older agents who were discussing sex and getting drunk made him feel like a little kid.

"Here's your money," Michael said as he got up, ready to clear out. He handed George a battered tenner and winked. "Don't spend it all at once."

"Cheers," George said, taking the money as a sign that he could go. He vaguely wondered what Rex was doing, but he'd been up early and the heat had tired him out, so he decided to call it quits and get to bed, or at the very least, see if there was anything fun going on back in the main block.

The seventh floor was quiet when he got back, and neither Letty or Jemima were in. As he turned to go back to his room, Beatrice's door opened and she grinned.

"We're in here," she said, waving him over.

The three girls had changed out of their party clothes and were looking at a teen magazine, so George felt awkward.

"I won't stop," he said, grinning. "Did you enjoy the wedding?"

The girls all nodded.

"You seemed to be having a good time at the disco," Letty said mischievously.

"Got some lipstick on your cheek," Beatrice said, giggling.

It seemed like a trick, but when George rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand a red smudge came off.

"I'll wash it off before I go to sleep," George said sheepishly. "How come you're all back so early?"

"Some idiot spilt soda on Jemima's dress so we came back to help her get changed out of it and didn't really feel like going back down," Letty explained. "We're gonna have a slumber party."

"Alright. I'll see you girls in the morning. Enjoy your slumber party," he said, putting on a poor impression of Letty's accent. She glared at him and he made a swift exit.

He fell asleep as soon as he'd scrubbed the lipstick off and tucked the ten-pound note into his savings box. He'd got into a bad habit of not getting undressed before bed, especially if he was tired, and tonight was no exception, although he did throw the tie out of his pocket.

Unfortunately, his sleep was disturbed about half an hour later by the phone ringing. George wasn't sure why Cherubs even had phones in their rooms any more; anyone he needed to ring he could contact on his mobile, which, he realised, hadn't been charged for several days.

"Hello?"

"Hello George. Could you please make your way to the chairwoman's office at your earliest convenience?"

George didn't recognise the voice but he guessed it was Zara's receptionist.

"Um, yeah, what's it about?"

"I don't know, but she asked if you could come straight here and not make any detours."

"Okay."

The line went dead and George panicked. It was sure to be a punishment. He scrambled around the room, finding clean CHERUB uniform and making sure none of it had streaks of mud across it. There was an outside chance of him getting an urgent mission, and he thought that if it had been a punishment, he might have been called by Zara personally. Her husband was a mission controller, so maybe it was something to do with him.