The Recruit

1. Science

Ash Ryan hated Science. It should have been test tubes, jets of gas and sparks flying all over the place, like he'd imagined when he was still at primary school. What he got was an hour propped on a stool watching Miss Adams write on an interactive whiteboard. You had to write everything down even though the photocopier got invented forty years earlier.

It was last lesson but one, raining outside and turning dark. Ash was sleepy because the lab was hot and he'd been up late playing Rainbow Six Siege the night before.

Ursula Dean sat next to him. Teachers thought Ursula was fantastic: always volunteering for stuff, neat clothes, glossed nails. She did all her diagrams with three different coloured pens and covered her exercise books in wrapping paper so they looked extra smart. But when the teachers weren't looking Ursula was a total cow. Ash hated her. She was always winding him up about his mum having breast cancer, though it wasn't terminal: "Ash's mum is so dead, they should get the coffin ready already."

Ursula's cronies laughed, same as always. Ash's mum had always been quite ill. It was a nightmare telling people about it as they always acted one way or the other. People joked or they sympathised, but the sympathisers came in minute quantities. Ash loved his mum, but he tried to find excuses when she wanted to go somewhere with him.

"I went for a five-mile jog yesterday," Ursula said. "Two laps around Ash's mum's grave and back home."

Ash looked up from his exercise book. "That's so funny, Ursula. Even funnier than the first three times you said it." Ash was one of the toughest kids in Year Seven. Any boy cussing his mum would get a punch. But what could you do when it was a girl? Next lesson he'd sit as far from Ursula as he could.

"Your mum is so ill—" Ash was sick of it. He jumped up. His stool tipped over backwards.

"What is it with you Ursula ?!" Ash shouted. The lab went quiet. Every eye turned to the action.

"What's the matter, Ash?" Ursula grinned. "Can't take
a joke?"

"Mr Ryan, pick up your seat and get on with your work,"
Miss Adams shouted.

"You say one more word, Ursula, I'll . . ." Ash was never any good at comebacks.
"I'll bloody . . ."

Ursula giggled. "What will you do, Ash? Go home
and cuddle your dead mum?"
Ash wanted to see something other than a stupid grin
on Ursula's face. He grabbed Ursula off her stool, bundled her up against the wall, then spun her around to face him. He froze in shock. Blood was running down Ursula's face. Her cheek had a long cut where it had caught on a nail sticking out of the wall.
Ash backed away, scared. Ursula cupped her hands over the blood and started bawling her head off.

"Ash Ryan, you are in extremely serious trouble!" Miss Adams shouted. Everyone in Ash's class was making some sort of noise. Ash couldn't face up to what he'd done. No one would believe it was an accident. He made a run for the door.

Miss Adams grabbed Ash's hoodie. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Get out my way," Ash shouted. He gave Miss Adams a shove. She toppled backwards, limbs flipping helplessly in the air like a beetle turned upside down.
He slammed the classroom door and ran down the corridor. The school gates were locked, but he escaped over the barrier in the teachers' car park.

Ash stormed away from school, muttering to himself, getting less angry and more scared as it dawned that he was in the deepest trouble of his life. He was twelve in a few weeks' time. He started wondering if he'd live that long. His mum was going to kill him. He'd definitely get suspended. It was probably bad enough to get expelled.
By the time Ash got to the little playground near his flats he felt sick. He looked at his watch. If he went home this early his mum would know something was up. He didn't have change for a cup of tea in the chip shop. The only thing to do was go into the playground and shelter from the drizzle in the concrete tunnel. The tunnel seemed smaller than Ash remembered. There was graffiti sprayed all over and it smelled like a dog had peed inside. Ash didn't mind. He felt he deserved to be somewhere cold that smelled of dog. He rubbed his hands to get them warm and remembered when he was little. His mum was nowhere near as ill in those days. Her face would appear in the end of the tunnel with a daft grin. She'd speak in a deep voice, "I'm coming to eat you up, Ash." It was cool, because the tunnel had a killer echo when you were sitting inside. Ash tried the echo: "I'm a total idiot." The echo agreed with him. He pulled his coat hood up and did the zip to the top so it covered half his face.

After half an hour sulking, Ash knew he had two options: stay in the tunnel for the rest of his life, or go home and get
killed. Ash stepped into the hallway of his flat and checked the mobile phone on the table under the coat rack:

12 MISSED CALLS UNIDENTIFIED NUMBER

It looked like school had been trying to get hold of his mum pretty bad, but she hadn't answered. Ash thanked god, but wondered why she hadn't picked up. Then he noticed Uncle Giovanni's jacket hanging up. Uncle Giovanni had turned up when Ash was a toddler. It was like having a loud, smelly rug in the flat. Giovanni smoked weed, drank and only went out to go to the pub. He got a job once, but it only lasted a fortnight. Ash had always thought Giovanni was an idiot and his mum had eventually agreed and kicked him out. But only after she'd married him and given birth to his daughter. Even now Ash's mum had a soft spot for Giovanni. They'd never got divorced. Giovanni turned up every few weeks, supposedly to see his daughter, Leaf. But mostly he came when Leaf was at school and he was short of a few quid. Ash walked into the living room. His mum, Delia, was spread out on a sofa. Her feet were up on the sofa, with a book in her hands and head wrapped in a scarf. Giovanni was in an armchair, feet on the coffee table, toes poking out of his socks. They were both in a light doze.

"Mum, you're not supposed to smoke with your pills," Ash said, so annoyed he forgot his problems. Giovanni straightened up and took a drag of his spliff.

"Hey Ashy boy, Daddy's home," Giovanni said, grinning. Ash and Giovanni eyed each other up.

"You're not my father, Gio," Ash said.

"No," Giovanni replied. "Your dad legged it the day he saw your ugly face." Ash didn't want to say about school in front of Giovanni, but the truth was eating at him.

"Mum, something happened at school. It was an accident."

"Wet your pants again, did you?" Giovanni giggled. Ash didn't want to take the bait.

"Listen, Ash, me darlin'," Delia said, stuttering her words. "Whatever trouble you're in this time, we'll talk later. Go and get your sister from school. I've had a few too many puffs and I'd better not drive."

"I'm sorry, Mum, it's really serious. I have to tell you . . ."

"Just get your sister, Ash," his mum said sternly. "My head is dizzy."

"Leaf is big enough to come home on her own," Ash said.

"She isn't," Giovanni interrupted. "Do what you're told. He needs my boot up his backside if you ask me."

"How much money does he want this time?" Ash asked sarcastically.

Delia waved her hand in front of her face. She was fed up with both of them. "Can't you two stay in the same room for two minutes without fighting? Ash, go to my purse, buy something for tea on the way home. I'm not cooking tonight."

"But..."

"Get out, Ashton, before I lose my temper." Ash couldn't wait until he was old enough to batter Uncle Giovanni. His mum was OK when Gio wasn't around. Ash found his mum's purse in the kitchen. A tenner was enough for his dinner, but he took two twenties. Giovanni would steal everything in the purse before he left, so Ash wouldn't get blamed. It felt nice stuffing forty quid into his tracksuit bottoms. Delia never left anything lying around that she didn't expect Ash or Giovanni to steal. She kept the big money upstairs in a safe.