“Do much last night, Steph?”
“Nah, you?”
“Do I ever?” Jonathan and Stephanie sat on a bench in the school yard, same as they had done every morning for the last four and a half years.
“Hey, the Weasels in Waistcoats are going in.” Jonathan commented. Stephanie giggled – Jonathan always came up with the funniest insults for the posh school kids across the road. They could be seen every morning through the back fence, lining up quietly and filing into the school in uniform lines; quite the opposite to the school that pointed and laughed at them every morning, before pushing each other out of the way as the hoard surged towards the doors when the first bell rang.
The morning passed as it usually did – Jonathan scribbling away in his exercise book and Stephanie looking out of the window or doodling, maybe occasionally writing things down. She was clever; she just didn’t bother a lot of the time, which frustrated Jonathan. She met him outside the classroom at lunchtime, and they went to sit outside.
“It’s cold,” Stephanie commented, hugging her best friend in a mock attempt at gleaning warmth.
“Well, it is a British summer,” Jonathan joked back. They sat down on the edge of the school field.
“I didn’t see your boyfriend today, did you?” Jonathan asked.
“No, he must have stayed off,” she replied, smirking. “He took one look at this dump and ran as far as possible.”
Jonathan laughed. “Yeah.”
They sat in silence for a while, Stephanie idly pulling clumps of grass out of the field and depositing them on Jonathan’s knee.
“Jonathan?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think something might have happened to Simon?”
Jonathan looked at her inquisitively. “No, He’ll just be truanting. Why?”
“Just thinking.” She paused.
“Jonathan?”
“What?”
“Do you think,” she asked slowly, “if something did happen, the person who did it would get caught?”
Jonathan stroked her hair. “Maybe. Are you worried?”
“Mm-hm.”
They sat like that for a while longer. Jonathan sighed.
“This is so boring.” Stephanie muttered.
“Yeah.”
The silence continued.
Jonathan’s eyes suddenly widened with thought. “I just had the greatest idea. You’re going to love it.”
“What?” Stephanie replied. Jonathan jumped up and pulled her with him, over to the back fence of the school. One or two of the other school’s kids were wandering about in the yard, but they were mostly inside.
“Well, actually you’re going to hate it, but I’m going to love it!”
“Jonathan, what?” Stephanie asked, looking increasingly concerned.
He pointed to the uniformed student closest to them from the other school.
“I dare you, when school ends today, to walk straight over to him and kiss him.”
Stephanie punched him on the arm. “Why would I do that? Idiot.”
“Because then you can dare me back,” he said, “and just think of all the great stuff you could have me do.”
Stephanie considered. She looked at the boy – he was similar to Simon, but slightly shorter, and blonde rather than brown-haired. She imagined kissing him, pushing him against a wall, perhaps tying his hands behind his back and breaking his neck…
“Yeah, alright.”
YOU ARE READING
Pursuit of Perfection
Teen FictionA killer is on the loose, and the police are desperate to catch who is murdering the schoolboys. But who would suspect the pretty little blonde girl? She runs from the law with a compulsion to kill, but there are some things - some people - that are...
