Dare Game Read online

  I jumped out the car and waved goodbye to them and then I stared at the door and put my finger on the bell like I was actually pressing it. I heard the car drive off behind me. I stayed standing still with my finger hovering above the bell until my entire arm went numb. I rehearsed again and again in my head the things I was going to say. They all sounded stupid. I decided I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t face seeing Cam because I was sure she’d push me away and tell me to clear off. I would if she’d treated me the way I’d treated her.

  I couldn’t go back to my own mum. But I didn’t have to wander the streets or crouch on cardboard furniture in our empty house. I knew the social services emergency number. I could summon Elaine within the hour and she’d be able to find me a bed for the night and get cracking on my case in the morning. Social workers don’t ever give up on you. She’d grit her bunny teeth and do her level best to find me a new home.

  But I didn’t want a new home. I knew what I wanted even though it was too late. My finger suddenly stabbed all by itself and the bell rang and rang and rang. Then I heard footsteps running and the door flew open and there was Cam, her hair sticking up and her eyes red and her cardie on all the wrong buttons and yet she suddenly looked the most wonderful woman in the whole world.

  ‘Cam!’

  ‘Tracy!’

  I leapt up at her and threw my arms round her neck and she hugged me tighter than tight and we held each other as if we could never ever bear to let go. I was dimly aware that Jane and Liz came out into the hall and joined in the hug for a moment and then they patted Cam on the back and ruffled my hair and then let themselves out the door, leaving Cam and me on our own. Hugging and sniffing and snuggling. There was a little damp patch seeping through my curls.

  ‘Your tears are dripping on my head!’ I mumbled.

  ‘Yours are making my shoulder all soggy,’ Cam sniffed.

  ‘I’m not crying. It’s hay fever,’ I insisted.

  ‘Idiot!’ said Cam, hugging me harder.

  ‘I thought you’d be really really cross with me.’

  ‘I am really really cross,’ Cam said fondly. ‘Where have you been? Elaine and I have been going frantic ever since your mum rang to say you’d done a bunk. The police are out looking for you, I hope you realize.’

  ‘Wow! What about telling the telly people? I hope I’m on the news. Can we video it?’

  ‘I’d better phone everyone in a minute to say you’re safe. So what happened, Tracy? Your mum said she thought everything was fine. She’s very upset.’

  ‘She couldn’t wait to get shot of me!’

  ‘That’s not true. She really cares about you. You know she does. Look at all the presents.’

  ‘Yeah. The presents. The doll and the chocolates and all that other stuff I didn’t want.’

  ‘It looks like you got some seriously cool combat trousers from her,’ said Cam, holding me at arm’s length and admiring my legs.

  ‘I know. I like the clothes OK. And she was fun some of the time. She dressed me up in her stuff and it was great. But then she got fed up. She got fed up with me. She left me on my own while she went out drinking.’

  ‘She shouldn’t have done that,’ said Cam, cuddling me close again. ‘Was that when you ran away?’

  ‘No, I cleared off this morning. She couldn’t wait to get rid of me, Cam, really. So I thought I’d do her a favour and push off out of it.’

  ‘And worry us all silly. Where did you go?’

  ‘I got the train back.’

  ‘Yes, OK, but where have you been all day? I’ve been round and round the town looking for you in the shops and McDonald’s and everywhere I could think of. I even went to the school.’

  ‘Are you crazy? As if I’d ever go there!’

  ‘Well, where did you go then?’ Cam put her hand under my chin so that I had to look up at her. ‘Tell me, Tracy.’

  I suddenly wanted to tell her. ‘There’s this house I go to. I’ve been there lots of times. When I should be at school, only don’t get mad at me. I see some people there.’

  All sorts of expressions were flickering across Cam’s face as if she was a human kaleidoscope. ‘Which house? Which people?’ she said, struggling to sound casual, though her fingers were digging right into my shoulders.

  ‘It’s an empty house. No-one lives there. But these boys sometimes go there too. Alexander and Football. They’re OK. They’re my mates. Hey, they both want to be my boyfriend!’

  ‘You’re a bit young for boyfriends, aren’t you, Tracy?’

  ‘If you could see Alexander you wouldn’t worry about him! And I can manage Football OK. Easy-peasy.’

  ‘Do they go to your school?’

  ‘Nope. Football’s older – and Alexander goes to this posh all-boys place.’

  ‘But they bunk off too?’

  ‘Well, Football’s excluded, so he can’t go to school even if he wants. And Alexander’s going to go back to his school now because he’s decided he needs to do well in his exams.’

  ‘Good for Alexander! So what are you going to do, Tracy? Get yourself excluded from school altogether or go back and try hard?’

  ‘It’s not like I’ve got a real choice. Alexander’s an old brainy box, top of everything.’

  ‘You’ve got a brainbox inside here too, you know,’ said Cam, gently tapping me on the top of my head with her fist.

  ‘Oh sure – and Mrs Vomit Bagley’s going to make me her little teacher’s pet and all the kids will want me to be their best friend?’ I said sarcastically.

  ‘You won’t be in Mrs Bagley’s class for ever. And it sounds as if you’ve got the knack of making friends now. But if you really hate this school we’ll try again to get you in somewhere else. Liz says she might be able to get you into her school.’

  ‘I bet she wouldn’t half boss me about if she was my teacher.’

  ‘You need bossing about. You’re the naughtiest kid I know.’

  ‘But you still want me back?’

  ‘You know I do.’

  ‘Even after all the stuff I said?’

  ‘I said stuff too. But that’s OK. People who love each other are allowed to have quarrels.’

  ‘Love?’ I said, my heart going thump thump thump.

  ‘I love you,’ said Cam.

  My heart shone scarlet like a Valentine. ‘No-one’s ever loved me before.’

  ‘Your mum loves you too,’ said Cam. ‘Maybe she’s changed her mind about having you back on a permanent basis, but I’m sure she’ll want to keep in touch.’

  ‘Or maybe she’ll wait another five years,’ I said. ‘We’ll see. I don’t care. I’ll be OK with you, Cam. If that’s what you really want.’

  ‘Is it what you want, Tracy?’

  ‘You know it is.’

  I looked all round me. We were still in the hall. I looked down at the dingy bare floorboards and up at the grubby ceiling and around at the tattered posters on the walls. ‘Though we could get this old dump smartened up a bit,’ I said. ‘Seeing as it’s my home too. We could get a proper carpet for a start.’

  ‘Maybe a rug,’ said Cam. ‘We could make one together, you and me.’

  ‘And paint the walls something bright. Red!’

  ‘Something subtle. Claret? Burgundy? Let’s have a drink to celebrate your homecoming. Red wine for me, Coke for you, right?’ Cam put her arm round my shoulders and we walked towards the kitchen.

  ‘We could have new posters. You could choose. Bright ones,’ Cam offered, resticking a tattered corner to the wall with a blutack blob.

  I concentrated on the picture. There was a great big beach with a piano stuck on the sand with a little girl sitting on top, and a woman in a long dress and bonnet by her side.

  ‘Why have they got a piano on the sand?’

  ‘It’s from a film. My favourite. About this mother and daughter. I’ve got it on video. Do you want to watch it?’

  So we watch it together.

  And the next day we got to watch