The Youngest Booth

Chapter 31

Jay's P.O.V.

"Men hide your ladies they might just want this absolute snack," I shouted. Loads of people were looking and laughing.

"Or even ladies hide your gents. This sexy bugger could pull them all," I said as I carried on strutting around. I was walking to my lesson when some year 7 came over to me.

"Are you gay?" he asked and all his little mates started laughing.

"No but even if I was, what's it to you?" I asked him. He laughed harder and I pushed him to get past.

"Gay boy," he shouted after me.

"Talk to me when your voice has broken and you don't look like a shrunken elf," I told him. Kiaan was dying with laughter.

A few days later we all had an assembly. I knew what it was going to be about. The whole school new. Miss Oakes had been fired for sleeping with Cory. I felt so bad for him. Cory looked heart broken. Some guy Ken Weaver or something got up on stage.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances Miss Oakes will no longer be with us," he explained. Thank god! I didn't like her; she was too much like a robot.

~the weekend~

Me, mum and Hayley went to the Paracha's house. Apparently mum had something she wanted to tell us.

"I just wanted to talk today because we've got to make a decision as to what to do with our Missy, here. Can't keep her with me forever, can I?" Mum said.

"We could take her up cemetery bit by bit," Razia suggested.

"Like in the Great Escape. They're digging a tunnel, and they put the dirt down their trousers in bags, and then they walk about and let dirt go down their trouser legs and then they stamp it in the ground so the Germans don't notice," Saleem said. I sniggered.

"No. Shut up. You're not doing that," Mrs Paracha said, "We should find somewhere that she really like to be. You know somewhere where she were happy."

"The skip up the road?" Raz suggested.

"The sentiment's nice, Razia, but sooner or later that skip will go to landfill. It's not really an appropriate place," Mr Hyatt told her.

"Nasreen? You've been quiet. What do you think?" Mum asked Nas. 

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Erm, count me in. Why not?" Nas said. Everyone looked at her, confused.

"Sorry. Sorry. Erm I've been trying to think about the name of the part of the brain that starts with 'th'. I can't," Nas said.

"Thalamus?" Mr Hyatt said.

"I need to go and revise this stuff," Nas said and she walked out the room. 

"She got enough going in her brain as it is," Mrs Paracha said. 

"Why?" I asked.

"Exams," Mr Hyatt told me.

"Oh of course," I said.

"Are you nervous for your exams?" Mr Hyatt asked me.

"Exams? Oh right GCSEs. Yeah um I'm sure I'll be fine," I said. I had been so busy with everything I had sort of forgotten about them.

"When are they again?" I asked.

"This week," Mrs Paracha told me.

"This week?" I asked. 

The exam week went pretty well. I understood some of it so hopefully I didn't completely fail. We all went into town to celebrate the end of our exams. Pretty much every year 11 went. We had a sick time and I managed to stagger home, completely smashed, at 2 a.m. I collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep. 

~next day~

There was a knock on the door. I went to open it and it was Raz. 

"Mum's gone missing," she said.

"You what?" I asked.

"She went to Lidl this morning and she hasn't come back," Razia told me. Me, Hayley and Mum followed her next door. Mr Hyatt was so worried he ended up calling the police. Luckily, Mrs Paracha came home just as he was on the phone. 

"What's bloody happened now?" Mrs Paracha asked.

"You disappeared," Nas told her.

"Where have you been?" Hayley asked.

"We've been worried," Raz told her. 

"Oh I knew where I was," Mrs Paracha told us.

"Thought you was only going to Lidl," Raz said.

"Cuppa tea, Kaneez?" Mum asked.

"Oh yeah," Mrs Paracha replied.

"Mum, where have you been?" asked Nas.

"Oxford."

"Lidl in Oxford?" Saleem asked.

"No Oxford University, Oxford," she told him. Nas gave her a confused look.

"I went to talk about you," Mrs Paracha told Nas.

"Why?"

"Because I thought you deserve a chance," Mrs Paracha explained.

"What? Mum. No, no, no. You had no right to do that."

"I don't care. I'm your mother and I will go anywhere, see anybody, and say anything to see you happy. Us lot, we been through a lot this year. We lost Missy. She was an energy that were part of us all. And I think something go out all of us when Missy died. And it make us wonder what's the bloody point? It confuse me. Made me scared. So I had to go and do something. You know, to take control again," Mrs Paracha said.

"There's no point. It's too late," Nas told her.

"No, love. They listened to me, and they give me your place back," Mrs Paracha told her. We were all shocked and happy. Except for Nas. She did not seem happy.

"No, no, no, no Mum. Naveed needs me in Manchester and Sam..." Nas said but Mrs Paracha interrupted.

"Shut up thinking about other bloody people. Why you always looking for excuse? First Missy, now Naveed. No this is about you. And you need to go," Mrs Paracha told her. 

The school year was almost over. It had been a very messed up one but that's life in Ackley I suppose. I had prom and we had a great night. No alcohol so I didn't need to be on drunk Kiaan patrol. It was a great night. Probably the last one we would all be together. Oliver was going to college and so were quite a few others.