CHERUB: First Blood

The Canteen

Liang led the two brothers out of the junior block and into the spacious canteen, which was filling up with cherubs. Ollie paused, taking in the surroundings, but was herded by Liang to a table close to a massive plasma screen. Cutlery was neatly laid out, and Ollie planted his bum into a comfortable chair. Jack huddled up close to him; loud places weren't a favourite of his.

"My mates'll be round in a second. I'll introduce you." Liang told Ollie, before standing up and gesturing for him to follow. They walked to the serving stations, where dinner ladies dished out Chinese, Italian and Mexican. Ollie went with a friendly-looking lasagna, but Liang managed to convince the staff to give him nachos, chicken balls, heaps upon heaps of pasta, and several kilograms of rice.

"What the hell is that?" Ollie asked. Liang could barely see over his piled-up plate.

"It's fine. My metabolism will deal with it soon enough." Liang unconvincingly explained.

"Mhm." Ollie followed Liang back to the table, and nearly as soon as they sat down a grey-shirted blonde girl lowered herself opposite Liang and gave a nod of recognition.

"Who's this?" she asked.

"He can speak, you know. He's my new roommate, and he arrived today. " Liang replied.

"My name's Ollie. I -" Jack popped up, smashing the top of his head against Ollie's chin. He had been hiding under the table, and chose precisely the wrong time to resurface.

"OOOOW! What was that for?" Ollie yelled. Jack smirked.

"Awww. He's sooo cute. Hey, little guy, what's your name?" the girl baby-talked to Jack.

"I'm not a baby! My name's Jack, and I'm nearly eight years old." Jack was annoyed at the obvious patronisation, but couldn't help be happy about the attention from older kids going his way. Ollie, on the other hand, wasn't exactly pleased at his train-wreck of an introduction. 

Liang, seeing the annoyed look on Ollie's face, burst out laughing, and continued to do so until he spied another blonde coming round the corner.

"Alex! This is your recruit, right?" he shouted from afar, pointing at Ollie.

Alex strolled over. "Hey, Ollie. How's CHERUB?"

"Seems nice." Ollie said, his chin burning.

"Just wait until basic. You'll probably be partners with Liang, which is okay until he breaks his arm halfway through."

Liang frowned. "I fractured my wrist. Funny of you to be talking about injuries, considering what happened at the hostel."

"What happened at the hostel stays at the hostel."

"What hostel?" Ollie whispered to Liang.

"We go to one during the summer. They won't tell us where though. Don't ask me why. Anyway, Alex was trying to show off to all the girls, so he jumped off a balcony. He misjudged it and landed balls-first on a fence. He started crying; it was really funny. For us, at least. Not so much for him." Liang whispered back. 

Ollie was about to reply, but saw out of the corner of his eye Sophie sitting alone on a table. Standing up, he walked over to her. She turned, and Ollie could see the remnants of tears down her cheeks.

"Are you okay?" Ollie asked her, surprised.

"Do I look okay? This place is so... complicated. There's so much of everything, and it doesn't feel right. Like something's wrong. Did you get a roommate?"

Ollie nodded.

"You see the girl sitting on your table? It's her, and she's a total bitch. Started talking about my family. I don't know how she found out, but she was talking about my dead mum. She was like 'how's SUSAN?' and stuff. If the first other person I meet is like this, I can't do this. I'm thinking about going back to that Ewart guy and telling him I've changed my mind - I don't think we were shown what it's really like. I think they wanted us to join before we found out."

Ollie was quite enjoying the glimpses of CHERUB he had seen. The people seemed okay, and the facilities were stupidly high-quality. Basic training sounded daunting, but more than worth it. Now, he could see that others didn't always immerse themselves into new places as well as he did.

"What's her name?" Ollie asked. He'd probably talk to her at some point, if the two girls' relationship didn't thaw out.

"Emma. Look, if you say anything it'll only get worse. Leave it; I'll figure it out." Sophie answered. Ollie wasn't completely sure about this, but left it in the back of his mind as he went back to the table.