Silent Striker by Pete Kalu Read Free Book Online Page A

with geography, Sir?’
    ‘Don’t dig yourself another hole, Marcus. Watch your lip.’
    ‘Stuff you,’ he thought, ‘and stuff the football team!’ Marcus stormed off. He heard Ozone calling him back. He slammed Ozone’s door on him. He’d had enough. He wanted to destroy something. He walked along corridor after corridor. Bells rang, people pushed past him. Someone even slapped him on the back. None of it meant anything to him. In his mind was the burning injustice of what had happened. To take away from him the one thing that he loved, the one thing that made the rest of school bearable, it was like they were trying to kill him.
    Going home was useless. Mum would only be mad at him for getting in trouble at school again then she would be too busy breastfeeding Leah, worrying about Leah’s cold and puzzling why the radiator in Leah’s room didn’t work properly. His dad, if he was home, would be lost in a dream world, gargling his larynx-strengthening brews, writing headlines in his warped imagination:
    EXCLUSIVE! THE PART-TIME POSTMAN WHO TOOK THE POP WORLD BY STORM!
    EXCLUSIVE! PART-TIME POSTIE WITH THE GOLDEN TONSILS GOES GLOBAL!
    He hated school and everyone in it. Why could they not put him on report like every other kid who misbehaved? They’d invented a punishment just for him.
    Someone made a grab for his ATC. He pushed him away. Someone else jumped into his face and laughed. Others were smiling as they chatted on their way to their next class. They didn’t know what he knew, he thought, which was that this school was a tyranny. Suddenly Leonard was in his face. ‘What’s up, Marcus?’, he said, all glee, ‘had some bad news?’ Marcus remembered how Leonard had been sneaking around on the touchline when Ozone was quarrelling with the coach. It dawned on him that Leonard had known all along this was going to happen. And hadn’t warned him. Marcus lunged for Leonard. Leonard shot into a classroom and held the door fast. Marcus struck the glass with his fist. His fist bounced off the glass. All the school glass was toughened now. Behind the glass, Leonard grinned inanely at him. ‘Calm. Be calm’, Marcus told himself. He gave up on Leonard. For now.
    He sat down in a stairwell. Tears blocked his eyes and he fought to blink them back. How could he deserve this? He had not sworn at Miss Podborsky. He had not thrown anything at her. He had simply walked out. Nobody wanted to hear his side of the story. No one wanted to know that Miss Podborsky was picking on him, and she kept doing it.
    His eyes were burning. He saw a fire exit. He ran to it, whacked the fire exit bar down so the steel doors swung open, and stepped out. The air felt good: cold and fresh. The school gates were a hundred metres away.
    The playground was empty. He saw the tarmac exit road that snagged past the car park. The school’s high iron gates were swung fully back. He knew that the CCTV would cover the gates, and he’d be suspended from school for truancy, but it didn’t matter now. The wet tarmac shimmered. He looked up at the sky then he ran. The wind scooped him up and propelled him along the tarmac, past the car park. He was about to burst through the gates, to freedom, when he heard a shout at his shoulder.
    ‘Marky! Wait!’
    It was Horse. Horse’s huge legs staggered as he ran, like they were going to buckle. Marcus stopped. Horse leaned on him while he got his breath back. His panting slowly became deep breaths.
    ‘Where. Are. You … Going?’
    ‘Out of here.’
    ‘What’s up?’
    Marcus shook his head. He knew he’d cry if he tried to talk.
    ‘C’mon, bro.’
    Marcus shook his head again.
    ‘Hey, it’s me, Horse. I got your back.’ Horse’s face was so close into his own their eyebrows almost rubbed.
    Marcus pulled away. He fought back tears. Anyway, what could Horse do? Diddly squat. He started walking again.
    ‘Don’t do it, Marky, don’t!’ Horse flung himself at him, stuck his head into Marcus’s