But why?
He asked himself why they were going to all this trouble to pretend to be Swedish. That would mean the Head, her parents, grandmother and who knows who else was involved!
They couldn’t all be. The Head would not agree to such a plan.
What if he didn’t know?
Sally!
Sally had to know. The two girls were hardly ever apart; this had to be something she was involved in. Sally was dating Pete’s American cousin who was over in England. The four of them went on double dates all the time.
Ricky sat through the afternoon lessons, scheming and planning. He did not want to make an arse of himself, so he wasn’t about to start shouting stuff out until he knew for certain. He would have to get his facts right first.
He felt resentful of Kyle, or Kayla, as he suspected her to be, for keeping him in the dark. He though Kyle was his friend, so he felt very hurt.
Meanwhile, Kayla was also thinking along similar lines. She was intelligent enough to realise that Ricky was a threat. She had always suspected he might be, regretting not bringing him into her, confidence earlier. Yet he was such a loose cannon and unreliable, she would have been constantly afraid he’d betray her secret inadvertently. Particularly as Pete was the target for his wrath!
She sought out Sally at the end of the lesson, telling her what had happened.
“Little shit! Why can’t he just let things rest?”
“He was my friend, Sally. I think I was the only friend he had.”
“What will we do?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. If we tell him, he’ll be a liability and use me against Pete. I don’t want that.”
“I can see why. It’s getting quite serious, girl!”
“Yeah, I wonder why?” Kayla said, looking daggers at her friend.
“Hey, don’t look at me, it was bound to happen, you two are made for each other!”
“The problem is that Ricky knows me too well. We grew up together; he’s even seen me naked in the showers, for fuck’s sake!”
“Calm down, Kay, that might be the answer!”
“What is?”
“Look, when are you going in for the doctor to look at you?”
“Three weeks, why?”
“Okay, it’s half term then, so no school. If we can stall him until after half term, we should be fine. He might suspect you are Kyle, but he would never suspect it if you were seen to be a girl. I mean, a real girl!” she said looking downwards at Kayla’s groin.
“Shit Sally, I don’t know what the hell I am.”
“Stall him. Call him from Sweden or something!”
“Oh right, one-four-seven-one will tell him it’s not from Sweden.”
“Block the call. I don’t know; try something – anything! I agree, we don’t tell him, as he’s potentially dangerous!”
“He might approach you. He knows you were friendly with me before, and he’ll suspect you know something,” Kayla said.
“I’d come to that conclusion. We have to be careful; he is a sneaky little so-and-so.”
“That’s what Pete said.”
“Well, we’re all agreed on that. Shit! Sorry Kay, this is getting complicated!”
“Yeah, we knew it might.”
Kayla went home, telling Ingrid all about what had transpired.
“Oh dear, this could be a problem. I suggest you get him over and clear things up.”
Kayla frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“If he suspects and you clam up, run away and avoid things, he’ll just become more convinced. You must make friends with him and reduce his suspicions.”
“If he suspects, he’ll just see through me. This boy knows me better than anyone, we’ve grown up together!”
“Then we have a problem!”
There was a family meeting that night, as they tried to decide how best to approach the Ricky problem.
“Do you want me to do away with him?” asked Mike.
“Shut up, Mike, if you can’t be constructive, say nothing,” his father said.
Mike grinned at his sister.
“We have to persuade him that he’s wrong,” said Rebecca.
“How? He’s right!” Kayla asked.
“Give him reasons to disbelieve what he thinks he knows.”
“How?”
“One, let him see you aren’t a boy!”
“I’m not!”
“I know that, dear, but you aren’t completely female yet, either.”
“What else?”
“We need to come up with overwhelming evidence that you aren’t Kyle,” offered Mike.
“Like?”
“Documentary evidence would be effective,” said her father.
“Like a driver’s licence?”
“I was thinking more like a passport or something,” said Mike.
“Duh, how am I going to get a passport in a false name for a country I’m not entitled to?” Kayla asked.
There was silence around the table.
“Okay, let’s lower our sights,” said Jake.
“So, I can shoot him!” said Mike with a smile.
“Mike, shut up!”
Kayla was clearly becoming distressed over this issue, so Jake called the meeting to a halt.
“Right, in the absence of any good ideas, I propose to speak to Howard Granger. He might be able to suggest something, or even speak to the boy to cool him off for a while. “If we have to pull the plug, it’ll be a great shame.”
Jake went to his study to use the telephone.
Ricky was waiting for Sally at the school gates on the following morning.
“Sally?”
“What?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“What?” she asked, still walking quite quickly past him. He had to run to catch her up.
“Your Swedish friend.”
“What about her?”
“She isn’t Swedish, is she?”
“What?”
“She isn’t Swedish. I spoke to her yesterday, and for a second, she had no accent at all!”
“Don’t be silly. She’s just getting better, that’s all.”
“How did you manage it?”
“Manage what?” said Sally, sweating now. Particularly as her friend Rachel was walking past. She stopped just as Ricky said the immortal line.
“To fool the Headmaster. Kayla is Kyle Manning, isn’t she?”
Sally stopped, turned and looked him right in the eye.
“Ricky, what are you on?”
“Did I hear what I thought I heard?” Rachel said. Sally groaned inwardly.
Ricky’s nerve started to fail him. What if he was mistaken? What if he was about to turn everyone against him? Was it worth it?
“Ricky that, is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard! How could she be? She’s a girl!” said Rachel.
“Okay, so I’m stupid. You’ll see. I’ll expose your plot!” Turning he walked quickly away.
“Can you believe him?” asked Sally.
“I know. He even spread rumours about Pete and Roger being gay. He’s lost the plot!” added Rachel. “Can you imagine anyone thinking Kayla could possibly be a boy?”
“No,” lied Sally.
“I mean, Heather Simons in year nine, she shaves more than most of the upper sixth. Then, there’s Carol Hotchkiss, she’s been to bed with more girls than the first XV,” said Rachel, warming up to the game.
“Okay, Rachel, I get the picture.”
“But Kayla? She’s so obviously not a boy, the guy’s a real dork!”
“Yup, he sure is!”
Sally made for her first class, to be intercepted by the headmaster. She went with him to his study, to find Kayla already there.
A little later in the day, Ricky was late for class. He ran down the corridor feeling upset and beginning to doubt his own conclusions.
“Mr Hamley. A minute please?”