Youngblood

Chapter 9

Dianne's POV

The boys head off, leaving me worried. I hope Josh is ok. He doesn't deserve to have anything bad happen to him.

I walk off to form worried, and then when first period arrives, it feels weird not having all the boys in the class.

"Where's Mikey, Josh, Joe, Byron, Conor, Jack, Caspar and Oli?" Mr Lewis asks in maths.

"Probably skiving," Yasmin says.

"Probably," the teacher agrees. I want to tell them what's really going on, but I don't want to cause any trouble. I look over at Anna, who shakes her head at me, telling me to not tell the teacher. If Josh's mum hasn't phoned the school to let them know that he's in hospital, then it's not my place to say. It just feels wrong having them not here. Especially knowing that Josh isn't ok.

"So nobody knows where they are?" Mr Lewis asks, eyeing Anna.

Anna's POV

I hate having the teacher's eyes on me. Why do both my brothers have to not be here?

"Anna? They're your brothers," Mr Lewis says, like I didn't know.

"They are indeed," I say, making Chloe and Amy laugh. They in this class, but Lauren and Katya aren't.

"Stop it with the cheek," Mr Lewis says. "Surely then, you'd know where your brothers are?"

I've got to make up an excuse and fast. I look over at Dianne, who looks just as worried as I feel.

"I do know where they are," I say.

"And are you going to tell us?" Mr Lewis questions.

"I suppose so," I say, trying to keep up my confidence. "Well, you see, on the way to school we were walking through the park, but then these people came up to us. And they, er, well they started to attack Jack and Conor."

Well, this could go really wrong.

"These people?" Mr Lewis says.

"Yeah, they didn't have our school uniform on. In fact, they were just wearing normal clothes, so probably skiving themselves."

Mr Lewis doesn't look convinced, but at least he doesn't start to ask anymore questions. I just hope that the boys, especially Josh, are ok.

Joe's POV

I rush to the hospital with the boys, ordering a taxi. Luckily, the driver doesn't ask any questions, even though we're all in our school uniform but not at school. Maybe because our destination is a hospital, so someone could be hurt.

We cough up the right amount of money to pay between us, then head inside the hospital.

"Here to see Joshua Pieters," Jack says.

"I'm afraid you can't see him," the receptionist says.

"Why not?" Oli says.

"He's in Intensive Care."

Intensive Care. I feel like I could faint, but I gather myself together. I then see Josh's mum appear at the door.

"Boys," she says, and we thank the receptionist and head on over to her. "I know you should be at school, but I'm not in the mood to challenge it."

"How's Josh? What's happened?" Caspar questions. "And thank you."

"When he didn't come home, I went to look for him and found him unconscious. I rang 999 and came straight over here. He's got a bad head injury, and a possible spine injury, but they aren't too sure."

"Oh my gosh, that's terrible," Conor says.

"Yeah," Josh's mum says, her voice shaking. "I thought you boys would come, even though you're meant to be at school."

"We'd have spent the whole day worrying," Mikey says.

"Er Ms Pieters?" a doctor says. "Can you come back to ICU?"

"I'll update you when I can," Josh's mum says, and follows the doctor, leaving the rest of us worrying. What's happened to Josh? Who would do such a thing?