Reece told the teacher. At least, he asked her if he could move back off Oliver’s table. He didn’t know how to explain why.
“You want to go back to Abby’s table?” Miss Lewis said in disbelief. That was where he’d sat before. Abby’s table was a shambles; it looked like an explosion in a pencil factory.
“I’d rather just sit on my own,” he said.
“Are they not being nice to you, Reece?” she asked.
Reece glanced warily over at the three boys. He didn’t want to be a tell-tale, because that would make things even worse. “It’s not that.”
“Then give it another go. It was you who wanted to move there. I can’t have everyone changing tables every five minutes.”
So Reece slowly plodded back to Oliver’s table. And he might as well have told tales, for all the good it did him; because he was still invisible, as far as Oliver and Kai and Joel were concerned.
He tried to pretend he didn’t care. He got his head down and got on with his maths, listening to Oliver chatting with his friends.
But whenever Reece reached for the ruler or turned his page, Oliver would glance at him through half-closed eyes and say,
“Did you see something move just then?”
“Nah,” said Kai. “There’s no-one there.”
That was bad enough. Reece knew playtime would be worse. He couldn’t face going outside and being invisible in front of the whole school.
Luckily his ankle gave him an excuse. Dad had put a big elastic bandage on it; so Reece pulled faces of agony until Miss Lewis relented and told him to stay in and read a book.
“We’ll stay in with you,” offered Seth. “Won’t we, Adam?”
“No, you won’t,” Miss Lewis sharply contradicted him, somewhat to Reece’s relief.
So at least there were no dolphins swooping round the classroom with him; but it was boring, staying inside on his own.
Although he tried to read, he couldn’t concentrate. He felt slightly sick. Eventually he replaced his book in his drawer, got his lunchbox and nibbled at a sandwich to see if that would help.
It didn’t. But Mum had put a chocolate bar in there, which was some consolation. Slumped despondently against the row of pupils’ drawers, Reece was about to unwrap it when he heard footsteps just outside.
Eating in the classroom was forbidden. Quickly Reece slipped the chocolate into the nearest drawer behind his back.
However, it wasn’t Miss Lewis who entered, or any of the other teachers: it was Oliver and Kai.
They ignored him pointedly. Reece slid away as Kai rummaged in his drawer.
“Can’t find them! I must have left them at home,” he complained.
“I’ve got some.” Oliver pulled open his own drawer. He took out a pair of football gloves; and then, more slowly, Reece’s bar of chocolate.
He held it up and turned it round.
“What’s this doing in my drawer?” He looked at Reece.
“Are you talking to me?” said Reece. “I thought I wasn’t here.”
“Who put this in my drawer?”
“How should I know?”
“Was it you?” demanded Oliver.
“Me? Give you chocolate?” said Reece bitterly. He was furious that now Oliver had his bar of chocolate, on top of everything else. “I wouldn’t give you a mouldy sprout.”
“Hey, it’s probably one of the girls who fancies you,” said Kai to Oliver. “Come on! We’re missing the game.”
Oliver still looked bewildered, but he took the chocolate and ran out.
Reece felt like ripping the Highwayman right off the wall. It just wasn’t fair. He spent the rest of playtime fuming about the unfairness of it.
But at least the matter had one saving grace: it meant that it was the girls who copped for all Kai’s jokes that afternoon, not him. Although he still had to sit at their table and be invisible, Kai and Joel were more interested in solving the new mystery of Who Fancied Oliver.
“Was it you, Ruby? Hey, Lucy? Do you like Oliver? Maya, was it you?” persisted Kai.
“In your dreams,” said Maya haughtily.
But Kai wouldn’t give up.
“Lauren? Samara? Did you give Oliver a bar of chocolate?”
“No way!”
“Perhaps it was Abby,” murmured Joel.
Kai snorted with laughter, and called across the classroom. “Hey, Abby! You want to go out with Oliver?”
Abby looked up. She was small and scruffy, as if she was practising to be a scarecrow. “I might,” she said.
“Woo-hoo!” jeered Kai.
“Is Oliver any good at ping-pong?” demanded Abby.
“Ping-pong?” said Oliver.
“Archery? Scuba diving? Forget it, then. Kate might go out with you, though.”
Her friend Kate blushed and shook her head.
Joel pounced. “Kate! It was Kate.”
“It wasn’t,” said Kate, almost too quietly to hear.
“Leave it,” said Oliver. He was uncomfortable, and Reece was glad.
“I reckon it was Kate. She’s the third prettiest in the class,” said Joel approvingly. Reece thought that grading girls was an ignorant thing to do, and that anyway Kate was the prettiest, although she was also as wet as a soggy sponge.
“Leave it,” repeated Oliver, sounding tense. “It wasn’t Kate.”
“You know who it was, then? Who was it, Oli?”
Oliver just shook his head. Reece, invisible and ignored across the table, knew that Oliver was baffled.
Good. Let him be baffled. Reece liked to see him baffled.
And he began to plot how to baffle Oliver some more.
Chapter Four