to my Red Dwarf novel for the 1000th time I suppose.
Monday, March 13th
I am bored to death. I have been lying in this bed for what now seems like weeks with nothing but shitty daytime TV for company. How anyone could cope with being unemployed is beyond me. If anything good has come out of this situation it is that I am now more determined than ever to do well in this summer’s exams and stay on in the sixth form in September. That said, after the morning of drivel I have sat through I would now consider myself an expert in property development, antiques and seeking relatives of the recently deceased. Every cloud…
Sasha could not come around today as she has a load of coursework that needs finishing off, so the highlight of my day was a visit form Martin. Martin did however come armed with some pretty interesting news on the back of Saturday’s events. Todd and his clan had indeed been arrested. They all spent a night in the cells for their day’s work. Martin seemed to think that they were all charged with a variety of things. Damaging property, violent conduct, disturbing the peace and a bunch of other things I have never heard of. He had even heard from one person that Todd was being charged with ABH and was caught in possession of a deadly weapon. Now that would be nice, surely he would go down for that!
I am feeling better again today and even managed to limp downstairs for my evening meal. The bruise on my leg is an absolute beauty and it does feel like I have a dead leg whenever I try to move it. But as I wanted to go into school tomorrow and avoid finding out what another bunch of irritating sods have in their attics, I had to show my parents that I was fully recovered. Thankfully my mum and dad agreed and seemed impressed that I actually wanted to go.
Tuesday, March 14th
Other than it being a bit of a struggle getting in and out of Dad’s car and up and down stairs, today in school went pretty well. I was welcomed like a hero into my first lesson of the day. People clapping hands and pretending to bow down to me. I think the whole school has now had more than enough of Todd and his carrying on and they are just happy that someone decided to take a stand. Nice being a hero for a day, though.
I am now well and truly sick of telling the story of what happened on Saturday. It’s nice that people care and I appreciate that they want to know the exciting ins and outs, but enough is enough. I have now shortened my story to, “I was jumped, but managed to get a couple of hits in.” That seems to get the message across and prevents a fleet of overly enquiring questions.
Word around the playground today was that Todd had been released from the police station yesterday evening. And some were even saying that he has only received a caution! Now, I find that very hard to believe considering the bloody great knife he was waving around. I would be not only astonished but gutted if that is the case.
When I got home from school my dad led me into the living room and pointed at the sofa. He had laid out a whole new bunch of camping equipment. He said, “I figured you may want to give camping another bash when you feel up to it. Hopefully next time it will be a lot less traumatic.” What an absolute legend! For the first time since I was about six I gave my dad a big hug and a kiss and said, “Thank you!” and I really meant it. I put the kit away carefully in the shed and went up for an early night.
So I have a new tent, sleeping bag, torch and camping stove. Let’s just hope nobody decides to club me across the head with this one!
Wednesday, March 15th
I am healing pretty quickly, the swelling in my eye is going down, it’s a lovely rainbow colour though. My back is less bruised and my leg is feeling much less ‘dead’ than it did.
I walked past the ginger tosser and some of his friends in the Maths corridor today. I steadied myself for a bit of grief, but thankfully they gave me a bit of a wide birth. After they passed me, the ginger tosser obviously feeling a little bit braver decided to shout back down the corridor at me. “You were fucking lucky at the weekend! Todd is out now and he is gonna fucking stab you right up!”
I turned round, smiled, waved and said, “Nice!”
I have a bad feeling that this isn’t going to end well. This guy has it in for me big time and I really don’t think he will rest until he has done me some serious damage.
When Dad picked us up today he was there again. This time he was there alone and stooped down low to stare at me as we drove by dragging his finger across his neck with a weird look on his face. He really is starting to get to me now; I am beginning to get worried. Sasha and Martin did their best to make me feel better on the way home, but it is all I can think about at the moment. Saturday was a close call in many respects, but I know damn well that Todd would not be satisfied with that. I’m pretty sure he wants me dead and will not stop until that is the case.
Thursday, March 16th
I stayed at home today. I wasn’t feeling particularly unwell, I just felt I needed a break from it all. Yesterday’s encounter with Todd really spooked me out; and I think it may be a good idea to give school a miss for a bit, at least until after the weekend.
So today I achieved nothing apart from playing video games and watching crappy daytime TV. The highlight of the day was the cheese on toast my mum made me when she popped back home at lunchtime.
It’s just gone seven o’clock and I have been called down for dinner three times now, but I think I am just going to curl up and go to sleep.
Friday, March 17th
I stayed home from school again today. I stayed in bed until lunchtime when thankfully Sasha came around. I am that fed up at the moment that we didn’t even do some of the great stuff that we usually do when we are alone. We kind of both just sat and cuddled, staring mindlessly at the TV, I can’t even remember what we were watching. She didn’t give me a hard time or anything, just a really sweet passionate kiss when she got up to leave for school and said, “You are taking me out on a date tomorrow night. To a comedy club in Brighton. I think we both need a night out away from it.” I agreed, she blew me a kiss and was gone.
I managed to make it down for dinner this evening, Dad cooked spaghetti bolognese, which is one of my favourites. As we were finishing off dinner our atypically political conversation about whether we should have been looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq came to a shuddering halt as an almighty crash rang out from the lounge. We all sprang up out of our seats and ran the 15 or so paces into the longue to see a brick on the beige carpet surrounded by thousands of tiny shards of glass.
My dad was off like a greyhound and sprang down the corridor and out of the front door. My mum and I began sweeping up the mess and carefully bagged up the brick in a freezer bag in case the police wanted it for fingerprints.
My dad came back after 30 minutes or so and said, “The little shits were on bikes, I didn’t catch a look at them, but I bet that fucking little tosser Todd is behind this. How the hell has he got our address?” I didn’t much like the tone of his voice, it sounded as if he was almost accusing me of giving it to him.
“I don’t doubt it was him for a second, I have no idea where he has got it from though, he probably threatened to beat someone up for it, or worse knowing him.” I rang Sasha and Martin to make sure they were OK, not that I suspected either of them of revealing my address, but figured that if he really wanted to know where I lived that badly either of them might have proved a good place to start. Both were fine and neither had seen Todd all day. Sasha did tell me that Bobby was back in school today after the kicking he received from Todd and his merry men. I bet that is where he has got my address from.
Dad called the police, and to be fair to them, they were round in about five minutes. We explained the situation and who we suspected, they wrote down a few notes, took the bagged-up brick and left.
After things had calmed down a little and we had managed to cover the broken window over with an elaborate series of black bin liners I asked my dad if I could take Sasha out tomorrow to the comedy club. He agreed on the condition that he would take us and bring us back. To be fair, it seemed logical s
o I emailed Sasha and made plans to pick her up at around 7pm.
Saturday, March 18th
The window fixing company came this morning, 8:00am on a Saturday is great service, but I still resent being forced awake at that time on a weekend by relentless hammering and the steady tinkle of falling shards of glass.
After we had all finished breakfast the two guys packed up and left with our window looking as good as new. My dad wasn’t too happy as he had decided to pay for it out of his own pocket rather than put it through as an insurance claim. He said something about ‘premiums going up’ that I didn’t rightly understand, but just politely nodded along. He just kept on moaning about it all morning. “Bloody little thug, nearly £300 he has cost me. Just wait until I see him around!” We all just ignored him and his empty threats.
My date with Sasha thankfully came and went without incident. We did however have a great evening of laughing, kissing and cuddling.
It was the first time I have been to a comedy club and certainly not the last. There were three comedians and a compere, who were all absolutely brilliant. Sasha and I laughed so much that at times we had trouble breathing. Exactly the tonic we needed after what we have been through of late.
Sasha has invited