He flicked his head back towards his room. ‘In here. Both of you.’ He closed the door behind us and left us standing as he went to his desk. He turned, holding up a white envelope. ‘I imagine if I handed this over to the police, they’d find that it contained grains of an illegal Class B drug called cannabis.’ He looked at me. ‘Collected from the lining of your coat, Mackay. A very serious offence, possession of cannabis.’
‘It was entirely my fault, sir. Jenny had no idea what was in the cigarette.’
His eyes flickered towards her and back again. ‘Is that the truth, Mackay?’
‘Yes, sir. It was all my idea.’
‘Not sure I believe you, sonny.’ He swivelled his eyes back to Jenny and he sighed deeply. ‘On the other hand, Miss Macfarlane here has an exemplary record. Academically bright. Destined for university. It would be a shame to spoil her future because of a moment of stupidity.’ Eyes back on me. ‘And bad judgement in her choice of boyfriend.’ He turned again to Jenny. ‘So you can go, young lady. But I want you back here in the morning with a letter from your father explaining the circumstances in which you were found in the boiler room with Jack Mackay.’
I glanced at Jenny, and saw that she had turned a ghostly shade of pale.
‘Go!’
As she turned, she caught my eye for a fleeting moment, then was gone, leaving me standing to face Willie alone. If he was going to take the tawse to me, I was determined to refuse it. He tilted his head, and the slightest of smiles crept over his lips. ‘Jack Mackay. Jack the Lad. Ye of the unexplained absences and the poor exam results. Ye of the big coat and the long hair, guitar player in a trashy pop group. Setter of such a bad example to the whole school. You think I haven’t seen you in the corridor, sonny? Doing your cock o’ the walk. Well, you cocked it up royally this time, boy.’ He paused to let that sink in for a moment. Then he waved the envelope at me. ‘If I were to report this to the police, it would be a stain on the rest of your life.’ He dropped the envelope on the desk. ‘So be grateful I’m not that vindictive.’ He let that hang for a very long moment. ‘Have you anything to say for yourself?’
I shrugged. ‘I didn’t think my hair was that long, sir.’
I saw his expression harden, like setting concrete. He strode across his room to a coat stand, where I noticed my coat hanging for the first time. He grabbed it and threw it at me. ‘Take your big furry coat, and your long hair, and go home, Mackay. And don’t come back. Ever.’
I found Luke in the art department. He was sitting on a stool at one of the high wooden benches reading the latest copy of Mad magazine. The place was deserted. He looked up and cocked an eyebrow at my big furry coat.
‘Willie’ll go ape if he sees you wearing that,’ he said.
But I suppose something in my face must have told him that all was not well.
He frowned. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I just got expelled.’
It took him a moment to realize I wasn’t joking. Then his eyes opened wide. ‘Why?’
‘Long story.’
‘Bloody hell, Jack. What are you going to tell your folks?’
‘I’m not.’ In the time it had taken me to walk from Willie’s office to the pottery room I had already decided what I was going to do. And facing my parents with the news that I’d been expelled wasn’t on the agenda. ‘I’m going to London.’
‘What?’
‘There’s nothing for me here, Luke. Might as well go and see if I can’t make something of myself in the Big Smoke.’
Luke slipped off his stool and stood up, taking me by the shoulders. ‘You’re not thinking straight, man.’ He stared at me with those big, pale green eyes of his, fair locks tumbling in golden curls over the frown on his forehead.
‘I’m thinking as straight as I’ve ever done,’ I said. ‘I’m going. And I’m going tonight.’
He gazed at me for a moment longer, and I could see the workings of his mind behind troubled eyes.
Then he said, ‘Not without me, you’re not.’
I was totally taken aback. ‘Why? Why would you want to do that? You’re the smartest of all of us.’
He turned away, and I saw him clench his fists at his sides.
‘Because I’m sick of fighting with my folks. You’ve no idea how hard it’s been, Jack. Kicking against their disapproval. Every practice, every gig, is a fight. I leave the house in a rage. And when I get back, I never know if they’ll let me in or not.’
I looked at him in astonishment. ‘Why didn’t you say? Why didn’t you tell us?’
He turned, eyes full of rage. ‘Same reason I never told anyone about the misery of all those years being presented to strangers on doorsteps, so they wouldn’t slam the door in my parents’ face. Evenings and weekends, walking the streets in all weathers, getting laughed at, or abused, physically assaulted sometimes. All in the name of Jehovah. Clutching my little Bible and smiling for those poor people who hadn’t yet seen the light. No point in telling anyone, Jack. Because nothing I said or did was going to change it.’
His unexpected burst of emotion seemed suddenly to drain him, and I saw the slump of his shoulders and the pain behind his eyes, before he recovered his spirit and drew himself up to his full height again.
‘So if you’re really going. If you really are. Then I’m going with you.’
IV
What had started as a grain of an idea in my head as I made that long, depressing walk along the corridor and upstairs to the art department began to take on a momentum of its own. And when we met up with Maurie and Dave at lunchtime, it snowballed.
They listened in wide-eyed silence to me and Luke as we told them what it was we intended to do, and why.
Then Maurie said, ‘What about the group?’
I shrugged. ‘What about it?’
‘Well, you’re going to need a singer.’
Luke said, ‘Your parents’d kill you.’
‘My parents’ll kill me, anyway. They’ve got my whole life mapped out for me. Law degree, solicitor’s practice. Doesn’t matter what I want to do. I’m coming, too.’
Quite involuntarily we looked at Dave.
A big grin spread itself across his face. ‘You’re still gonnae need me tae make the girls scream.’
And no one questioned why he might want to run away from home. We’d all seen the bruises.
That was four out of five.
Luke said, ‘What about Jeff?’
And Maurie’s face set. ‘I’m not going without him.’
The new cars at Anderson’s were all kept indoors, in the big glass-walled showroom. The second-hand cars sat out front. Two rows of them, with big price stickers on the windows. Jeff had told us that it was his job first thing each winter’s morning to start every one of them.
‘Really teaches you how to start a car,’ he’d said. ‘Any car, in any temperature.’
He seemed proud of the achievement, and it was clear it meant more to him than passing any school exam.
We found Jeff in the cinder yard behind the workshops, doing a stocktake. He was amazed to see us, then listened in astonished silence as I told him what we were planning.
‘So what do you think?’ I asked him.
‘About what?’
‘Coming with us, of course.’
He thought for a long moment. ‘What about Veronica?’
A tiny gasp of irritation caught the back of my throat. ‘What about her?’
‘She’ll not come with us.’
‘No one expects the girls tae come,’ Dave said.
He and Luke were the only ones who didn’t have girlfriends.
‘I’ll be leaving Jenny behind,’ I said. And for the first time I pictured how that would be.
‘You don’t understand,’ Jeff said earnestly. ‘It’s different with me and Veronica.’
‘Look,’ I said, losing patience. ‘You don’t have to come. It’s your choice. But if you don’t, then Maurie won’t either.’
Jeff glanced at Maurie. ‘Really?’
Maurie shrugged, embarrassed now. Jeff seemed genuinely touched. Suddenly it had become a choice between Maurie and Veronica. And there was only ever going to be one outcome.
‘The Commer’ll not make it to London,’ he said. And immediately all our plans seemed to fall away like sand beneath our feet. But Jeff just grinned. ‘That’s all you wanted me for, wasn’t it? My van.’
I shifted a little uncomfortably. Perhaps there was more than a grain of truth in that. But Jeff was oblivious.
‘It’s not a problem. I can get us something better.’