Hunched doggedly over his desk, Will did his best to pretend he was searching for a page in his textbook.
"Sick of his freak of a son!" Speed shouted, in that horribly guttural yet slightly squeaky way that only someone whose voice is in the process of breaking can do.
The fury welled up inside Will. His pulse raced and his face felt hot; he hated that it would be betraying his anger. As he remained with his eyes fixed steadfastly on the absolutely meaningless page before him, he experienced, just for a fraction of a second, a moment of incredible self-doubt and guilt. Maybe Speed was right. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe he was partly to blame for his father's departure.
He dismissed the thought almost immediately, telling himself that it couldn't have been because of him. Whatever the reason, his father wouldn't have just walked out. It must have been something serious… something deadly serious.
"And totally over you mental mum!" Speed bawled on even more loudly. At this, Will heard gasps and the random giggle around him in the otherwise completely silent classroom. So it was already general knowledge about his mother…
Will gripped his textbook with such force that the cover was beginning to buckle. He still didn't look up, but he shook his head slowly. This was only going one way… He didn't want to fight, but the little creep was pushing it too far. It was a matter of pride now.
"Hey, Vanilla Ice, I'm talking to you! Are you or are you not fatherless? Are you or are you not a b—"
That did it! Will suddenly stood up, sending his chair shooting back. It scraped across the wooden floor and then toppled over. He locked eyes with Speed, who also rose from his desk, his face contorted with spiteful relish as he realized he'd hit the bull's-eye with his gibes. Simultaneously three of Speed's gang leaped excitedly out of their chairs with predatory glee.
"Has Snow White had enough?" Speed sneered, moving with a swagger between the desks toward Will, his cackling entourage in tow.
Reaching Will, Speed stood close to him, his fists clenched by his sides. Although Will wanted to take a step back, he knew he had to stand his ground.
Speed pushed his face even closer, so that it was inches away from Will's, then arched his back like a second-rate boxer. "Well… have… you?" he said, emphasizing each word with a finger jab at Will's chest.
"Leave him alone. We've all had enough of you." Chester 's imposing bulk suddenly moved into view as he positioned himself behind Will.
Speed glanced uneasily at him, then back at Will.
Aware the whole class was watching him, and that he was expected to make the next move, Speed could only think of hissing dismissively through his teeth. It was a lame attempt to save his pride, and everyone knew it.
Fortunately at that very moment the teacher entered and, realizing what was afoot, cleared his throat loudly to let them know he was in the room. It did nothing to deflate the standoff between Will, Chester, and Speed, and he had to march over and order them in no uncertain terms to sit down.
Will and Chester took their places and, after a few seconds, Speed and his followers skulked back to their desks, too. Will leaned back in his chair and smiled at Chester. Chester was a true friend.
Returning from school later that day, Will stole into the house, taking pains not to alert his sister that he was home. Before he opened the cellar door, he paused in the hallway to listen. He heard the strains of "You Are My Sunshine": Rebecca was singing to herself as she did the housework upstairs. He quickly descended into the cellar and unbolted the door to the garden, where Chester was waiting.
"Are you sure it's all right for me to be here?" he asked. "Feels sort of… well… wrong."
"Don't be stupid, course it is," Will insisted. "Now, let's see what we can find in here."
They searched through everything stored on the shelves and then in the archive boxes that Will had already made a start on the last time. Their efforts were fruitless.
"Well, that was a complete waste of time," Will said despondently.
"So where d'you think the dirt came from?" Chester asked, going over to the wheelbarrow to examine it more closely.
"Haven't figured that out yet. I suppose we could search the Common. See if he was up to something there."
"Big area," Chester said, unconvinced. "Anyway, why would he bring that dirt down here?"
"Don't know," Will replied as he happened to run his eyes over the bookshelves one last time. He frowned as he noticed something at the side of one of the units.
"Hang on a minute… that's odd," he said as Chester ambled over.
"What is?"
"Well, there's a plug in a socket down here, but I can't see where the cord goes." He flipped the switch next to the outlet and they both looked around; it didn't appear to have had any effect.
"What's it for, then?" Chester said.
"It's definitely not an outside light."
"Why's that?" Chester asked.
"Because we don't have any," Will replied as he went to the other end of the shelves, peering into the dark corner between the two units, then stepping back and regarding them thoughtfully. "Funny. The cord doesn't seem to come out again on this side."
Taking the stepladder from beside the garden door, he set it up in front of the bookshelves and climbed up to inspect the top of the unit.
"No sign of it here, either," he said. "This just doesn't make sense." He was about to climb down when he stopped and ran his hand over the top of the shelves.
"Anything?" Chester asked.
"Lots of brick dust," Will replied. He hopped down from the ladder and immediately tried to pull the end of the shelf unit away from the wall.
"There's definitely a bit of give. Come on, lend me a hand," he said.
"Maybe it's just badly attached," Chester suggested.
"Badly attached?" Will said indignantly. "I helped put these up."
They both pulled together with all their strength and, although a thin sliver opened at the rear of the unit, the shelves appeared to be firmly secured at the top.
"Let me check something," Will said as he mounted the stepladder again. "There seems to be a loose nail lodged in this bracket." He yanked it out and let it fall onto the concrete floor by Chester 's feet. "We used screws to secure this to the wall, not nails," he said, looking down at Chester with a bewildered expression.
Will leaped down from the ladder, and they both pulled on the unit again. This time, shuddering and creaking, it swung out from the wall to reveal that it was hinged on one side.
"So, that's what the cord's for!" Will exclaimed as both of them stared at the rough-hewn opening in the bottom half of the wall. The bricks had been removed to form a hole approximately three feet square. Inside, a passage was visible, illuminated by a motley array of old neon strip lights burning along its length.
"Wow!" Chester gasped, his face a picture of surprise. "A secret passage!"
Will smiled at Chester. "Let's check this out." Before Chester had time to say anything, Will ducked into the passage and was crawling along it at a steady pace. "There's a bend here," came his muffled voice.
As Chester watched, Will started to go around the corner and then, very slowly, came back into view again. He sat back and turned his head to Chester, his face disconsolate in the glow of the strip lights. "What is it?" Chester asked.
"The tunnel's blocked. It's caved in," Will said.
Will slowly crawled back out into the passage, then clambered through the hole in the wall and into the cellar again. He straightened up and sloughed off his school blazer, dropping it where he stood. It was only then that he noticed his friend's grim expression.