Fighting Back by Cathy MacPhail Read Free Book Online Page A

girl. ‘I can handle her!’ and my jacket was released immediately. I still didn’t get a chance to stand. Tess grabbed me by the hair and pulled me along the ground. I felt the gravel bite at my knees. I gripped her hand and let my nails sink into her wrists. With a yelp she let me go. This time I was up like ashot. Moving back, away from her. Suddenly she leapt at me. Lifted her leg to kick me once again. Now, I grabbed her ankle and pulled. She fell back, her arms flailing, total surprise on her face. Then, with a crack, she hit the ground. Tess was down, and I intended her to stay down. I turned her over, jumped on top of her and grabbed her wrists, pulling them behind her. She fought like a tiger but I had my tie off and round her wrists so fast she didn’t know what was happening.
    She knew I’d won. She couldn’t take it. ‘Get her!’ she yelled.
    I knew it would never be a fair fight. Not with someone like Tess Lafferty. Her friends were almost on me. Ready to drag me off Tess, and get right into me. I wouldn’t stand a chance, not against another three. Now I was done for!
    And suddenly, I was almost lifted from Tess and pulled, dragged, almost carried away.
    ‘Come on! Run!’
    It was Ming! To the rescue. And I was never so glad to see anyone in my life.
    Tess’s mates began to chase us, until Tess herself shouted, screamed at them. ‘Get me out of this!’
    And obediently they fell back.
    That didn’t stop Ming and me. We ran so fast, we were out of breath by the time we got to our flats. We were three flights up the stairs before we stopped for breath.
    ‘Thanks,’ I managed to say. ‘Won’t they get you for helping me?’
    He shrugged as if he didn’t care. ‘No worries,’ he said. ‘Anyway, you were doing pretty well on your own. Where did you learn to do that?’
    So I told him. My classes weren’t embroidery, or sewing, or ballet. They were self-defence, and my instructor would have been proud of me tonight.
    I felt good by the time I got home. ‘Settle everything,’ Tess had said. I didn’t think we had. Tess had meant that if she battered me black and blue, that might settle things. But not me getting the better of her. She hadn’t expected that. Wouldn’t like it at all.
    Tess Lafferty had been beaten by a wimp and the daughter of a marshmallow. If I hadn’t been so afraid I might have giggled at the thought of it. But Tess wouldn’t think it was funny. I had a feeling I had only made things a lot worse.
    Now I had to decide whether to tell my mother. She could hardly fail to notice my bleeding knees, or my hair pulled all over the place. If I told her, though, I didn’t want her going to the police. That was the last thing we needed!
    In fact, I didn’t tell her, not straight away. What I found when I went home put Tess Lafferty and our fight completely out of my mind.
    I could hear her sobbing as I opened the front door.
    ‘Mum, is everything all right?’
    She was sitting on the floor in the front room, tears streaming down her face. The table was all set for our celebration tea. She had even placed candles in the middle. It looked really nice.
    ‘What kind of people are they, Kerry? What kind of people?’
    ‘What’s wrong, Mum?’ I sat down beside her and put my arms round her. ‘What is it?’
    ‘The television was delivered this afternoon … it had been raining … the men … their feet were covered in mud … I wasn’t going to let them in the house, not on the new carpet, Kerry.’
    She sobbed between each little sentence. I could almost smile. Imagining her, insisting they take off theirmuddy shoes before entering.
    ‘I told them to leave it at the door, I’d get it in myself … but the box was too heavy for me, so I thought I’d take it out of the packaging and wheel it in.’ There was another sob before she continued. ‘I went into the bedroom just to look for some scissors to cut the tape. I was only gone a few minutes. I left the door open … I