21. Court / Forbidden

21. Court / Forbidden

“Welcome,” Mila said, gesturing to the room behind her, “to the Court of Miracles. Where dreams come true if you fear them hard enough.”

“Oh, haha,” he replied, walking past her into the classroom, “very funny.”

They were early to Tuesday's English Literature class, which was a first.

Miss Greenwood was usually there before any of her students, writing on the new interactive whiteboard as the students reluctantly trudged in, but today people were greeting each other like lost brothers who hadn't seen each other since Maths class an hour ago.

“Good morning, Lin!” said Mila, sitting down next to her, “How are you?”

“I'm just peachy,” she replied, head cradled in her arms on the desk, “can't you tell?”

Stewart sank into the desk behind them, “What's wrong?”

“Life,” she sighed, “it just gets in the way of everything fun.”

Mila was clearly not satisfied with that answer, but Miss Greenwood strode in with an expression that could have petrified Medusa.

“Well, looks like someone slapped her with a bag full of lemons this morning...” whispered Mila.

“Sit, now. This is a Literature class, not the cafeteria. Johnson, Ling, why do you have hats on? It is neither cold nor raining in this classroom. Off, please. Sunglasses too, Ms Nather. Off.”

“Someone's in a bit of a mood.” Commented Stewart.

“Quiet! I am not going to tolerate anyone's insolence today. Books out, page 73.”

The class was subdued and a little bit scared of this new mood.

“Now!”

Eventually, the class was filled with the familiar white noise of people rifling through bags and turning pages and mumbled grumblings.

“Ms Hao, why are you not opening your book? This a classroom, not a youth hostel.”

Lin looked up, squinting, “Yes, Miss Greenwood?”

“Open your textbook.”

Maybe no one else noticed the pause before she said, “Yes, Miss Greenwood.”

The class went by more slowly than it ever had, rhymes grating on their ears as the teacher tried to make the understand the meaning behind each verse.

Towards the end of class, Mila leant back in her chair, Stewart plucked the note out of her hair band the moment Ms Greenwood had turned to write something apparently relevant on the whiteboard.

OH MY GOD THIS IS SO BORING. If this were any more boring we would be writing dictionaries for fun. Skip afternoon classes to go walking around the park?

He shook his head, grinning.

She picked the reply out of his shoelaces.

XD That's amazing. And it's Wednesday, idiot. No afternoon classes.

She quickly turned and stuck her tongue out at him, crossing her eyes as she did so.

He had to stifle a laugh, ducking his head down so as not to be seen.

“If you have something funny to say, Mr Peters, you are most welcome to share with the class.”

He shook his head, “Sorry, Ms Greenwood.”

She pursed her lips and gave him a curt nod, “Don't let it happen again.”

“No, Miss Greenwood.”

Just as they finished the poem, the bell rang. The unspoken joy of the students was clear in the rush as they all packed their bags much more quickly than they had unpacked them and almost launched themselves out of the classroom.

“Freedom!” came the cry, once they were out in the hall, “Wednesday afternoon freedom!”

Mila and Lin nodded to each other, so Stewart assumed, “By the bench, ten minutes?”

“As always,” said Mila, walking off towards her locker, “don't be late!”

He and Lin walked towards their own lockers together.

“So, what's the plan?” He asked, opening his locker carefully, because the books in there were prone to collapsing.

She shrugged, putting her books away, “I don't know. It's up to you guys today, I'm going to go home.”

“Why? It's Wednesday! And we don't have any tests tomorrow,” he stopped, pushing back a Chemistry book, “do we?”

She shook her head, “No. I'm not coming in tomorrow.”

“Oh, ok.”

Lin leant on her locker, head tilted to the left, “See, Mila would have asked why. You're such a boy sometimes.”

“Well yes,” he said, “unless you'd like me to start wearing dresses.”

Lin started giggling, “Oh my god, can you imagine Miss Greenwood's face is you walked in wearing last year's Halloween costume?”

Last year's Halloween costume had involved a bright-coloured, swishy dress he had borrowed from Mila's sister, who had also made him a stuffed bra and done his make-up. By the end, he had looked just like a girl. A girl with very wide shoulders.

He laughed along with her, but shook his head, “Not on your life. You know that only happened because I lost the bet.”

He slammed his locker door shut quickly, before any of his books could attempt an escape.

“I know, I know.”

They weaved their way through the crowds to the bench.

Someone bumped into Lin, hard. It turned out to be one of the big, muscly rugby players.

She stopped him, told him that his intelligence quotient was so low he thought polisemia was a sex act and, as Stewart hid his laughter behind quite obviously fake coughs, walked off with her head held high.

“You minx!”

She grinned at him, “I know.”

And there it was. Their bench.

It wasn't really a bench, any more, though it must have been once upon a time, because there were little hearts and graffiti that said “Lily + James” and “CH + RT = <3 4EVA” and other such grammatically incorrect statements.

Stewart sometimes wondered if any of the couples that carved their names into things survived. Because if they didn't, that had to be awkward.

“Heya!”

Mila was always enthusiastic, no matter what time or what day it was. It could get annoying, but it was usually infectious. Her smile was like that too.

“Hola!” He replied.
“I'm going home.” Said Lin as she hugged her.

Mila stopped mid-hug, “What?”

“I'm going home,” she repeated, “I just don't feel up to anything much this afternoon. And I won't be in tomorrow, either.”

“But why?”

Lin gave Stewart a look as if to say, 'See? Told you.'

“Because tomorrow's the 25^th. It's the court date. Mum said I should take the day off school.”

“Oh, Lin,” Mila hugged her even tighter, “I'm so sorry, I can't believe I forgot!”

“Yeah,” said Stewart, “Congratulations!”

“We'll have a cake waiting for you on Friday!”

Lin shook her head at them, “You guys are crazy.”

“Always.”

Mila directed them towards the buses, “Still, it's a good thing. Finally rid of it!”

“True.”

Lin got on the bus and waved at them from a window seat.

Mila and Steward waved at the bus as it left.

“I can't believe her Mum gave her the day off school. So unfair.”

Steward huffed and crossed his arms.

Mila shot him an exasperated look, “She's been studying for weeks to be able to assist a trial, it is so fair. You know how she was almost asleep in English? She probably spent the night up studying.”

“That's true, I suppose.”

They walked towards the park.

“And if they like her she'll be able to attend more. And when she becomes a famous lawyer we'll be able to say, 'See, I remember when they let her skip school to attend her first trial. So young, so innocent'.”

Stewart laughed.

The park was a big space of green where everyone went after school, but because it was so large it always appeared to be slightly deserted.

Everyone had their own corners.

The stoners were over on the top of the hill, a bit like a castle surveying everything else, so that they could see the enemy (the police) before they got to the top and they could escape.

The 'cool' kids were on the flat bit at the entrance, because it was easier to play sports on flat ground.

Stewart, Lin and Mila usually took the slope that ended with a ledge. The ledge looked out onto the rest of the city, but underneath it was a small patch of grass.

When they had first started going there, it had been just grass and a steep cliff, but now there was a railing and a big sign: Jumping off the ledge is completely forbidden. Dangerous drop.

Because they were high school students, and therefore completely prone to obeying signs that were worded in a manner that was almost too authoritative.

Mila raced him up the hill to the railing. Stewart ran after her, dropping his backpack over three-quarters of the way up and then jumping onto the railing, so that he was trying to balance on the thin metal cilinder.

“Are you crazy?” Mila shouted at him, pulling on his jumper so that he would jump backwards onto the grass, “Insane? You could have died!”

He shrugged it off, “No I wouldn't. From this drop I would have just broken something.”

She walked back to his bag and put hers down next to it, “And what would I have done?”

“Called an ambulance?” He suggested.

She made her way back to him.
He leant on the railing.

“Why did you do it?”

He shrugged again, “I just like adventures.”

“You're an adrenaline junkie,” she replied, folding herself next to him, “which could be a good thing, if it doesn't get you killed.”

There was a moment of silence as they both reflected on that.

Mila suddenly turned to him, “Oh my God, I've just remembered, did you hear about Allison?”

“What about her?”

“She's applying for a fashion degree. I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't have been more surprised if she had popped out of a stripper cake wearing nothing but bin-bags and oak leaves whilst singing the Polish national anthem!”

Stewart laughed, “Really?”

Mila was serious, “Really.”

“What about Jen's skirt? I almost saw her underwear it was so short.”

“I know, right? I her skirt had been any shorter it would have been a particularly thin ribbon.”

He shook his head at her smiling, “Have you got a lot of those?”

“Oh, millions.”

“Let's have lunch,” he said, distracting her, “I brought cheese and ham sandwiches and some grapes.”

Lunch was nothing special, but on Wednesdays the three of them shared what they had. Apart from today, of course. Usually it was a great meal because Lin's parents, in an effort to be as stereotypical as possible, had opened a Chinese restaurant when they had moved to the country, and her Mum was an amazing cook. So they shared whatever Chinese food had been left over at the restaurant the previous night, the sandwiches Stewart had made for himself that morning and whatever Mila had cooked for herself and her Dad the night before.

“I have leftover Thai food, Dad got a promotion so he decided to splash out which means amazing food, and some chocolate digestives.”

“Excellent. Dig in!”

It was nice to have lunch in the park, in the sun, with his best friend whilst watching the other people who were around and making very entertaining, if rude, comments.

That afternoon's winner was one of Mila's.

“Wow, is that Nat? I heard her and Jason started dating.”

Boys don't like to say so, but gossiping is fun. Stewart didn't know where Mila got all the rumours from, but they were always fun to listen to.
“No! Nat? The one with the IQ of basically two hundred? And Jason, with someone who can count to more than ten?!”

“It was a startling revelation,” she nodded, “I would have been less shocked if she had told me she had decided to start a web series about the sex life of antipodean bacteria on a Pokémon pillow.”