Fighting for Survival (The Estate, Book 3) (8 page)

‘I’m just saying.’ Claire turned back to face her. ‘She’ll go mad if we’re caught again.’

‘We won’t have to get caught then.’ Rachel looked up as the bus pulled into the kerb at the next stop and a short, squat man got on. He looked to be in his late fifties.

‘Ooh, here comes moaning Archie Meredith from Christopher Avenue,’ said Rachel.

The girls watched as he paid his fare and marched down the aisle to a seat a few rows in front of theirs. Before he sat down, he scowled at them.

‘Did you see that?’ said Rachel incredulously. ‘He looked at us as if we were shit.’ She got to her feet. ‘Come on, Claire. Let’s have some fun.’

Claire slid along the seat and followed Rachel as she sat behind Archie. He was reading a newspaper.

Rachel leaned forward. ‘What’re you doing on the bus, Archie? Is your car knackered?’

‘Mind your own business,’ he grunted.

‘What’re you reading?’ asked Claire.

‘I bet he’s only looking at the pictures,’ nodded Rachel.

Archie glanced over his shoulder and frowned at them.

‘I bet he’s staring at tits on page three.’

Claire laughed loudly.

Archie ignored them and turned over the page.

‘Tits. Tits. Tits.’

This time, Archie took the bait. He turned to Rachel. ‘Act your age, you stupid girl!’

‘Who are you calling stupid, you old fucker!’ Rachel glared back at him.

‘Why, you cheeky little cow! I suppose you’re bunking off school because you’re too stupid to see the benefit of a little education?’

As Claire giggled, Rachel glared at her.

‘What are you laughing at? He’s dissing us, you moron.’

‘I’m not a moron!’

‘You are a moron,’ said Archie. ‘You and your sister. And your brother and your mother and father. You’re all a bunch of morons.’

‘I’d watch what you’re saying or else I’ll –’

Archie roared with laughter.

‘I’m not a moron,’ Claire repeated. ‘I’m sick of you making out that I’m stupid all of the time.’ She got up and sat nearer to the front of the bus.

‘I didn’t mean anything, you stupid cow,’ Rachel cried after her. ‘Hey, wait for me.’

‘Run along, now, little girl,’ said Archie. ‘Go and annoy someone else; that’s all you’re capable of.’

Rachel stopped and turned back to him. She leaned in close, smelling old-fashioned aftershave and a fresh scent of soap. ‘I’d shut the fuck up if I were you,’ she told him.

‘Or else you’ll what?’

Rachel smiled sweetly, leaned forward and whispered in his ear. ‘I’ll tell everyone I saw you fucking Melissa Knight behind the shops on more than one occasion.’

‘You lying little bitch!’ Archie’s face began to turn the colour of a tomato. ‘I’ve never –’

‘That’s not what I heard.’

‘It’s a lie. I’d never do anything like –’

‘
I
know that,’ Rachel leaned back a touch so that she could look him in the eye, ‘but no one else does. And you know how quickly rumours spread on the Mitchell Estate. So I’d watch who you’re calling a moron, if I were you, or I’ll have that rumour doing the one hundred metres in less than ten seconds.’ She stood up abruptly. ‘Whoops, here’s my stop.’

‘Come back here, you little cow!’ Archie stood up too. But Rachel was already off the bus and hoping to make amends with Claire.

‘What the fuck have you done –’

Gina stopped Pete mid-sentence with a raised hand and an icy stare. ‘Don’t you dare say anything else,’ she muttered. ‘It was your fault I did it in the first place.’

‘Me?’ Pete stared back wide-eyed. ‘What did I do?’

‘You said I should make more of an effort, so I did.’ Gina pointed to what hair she had left on her head. ‘And this is what I ended up with.’

‘I didn’t tell you to shave your head!’

‘I haven’t shaved my head!’

‘You could have fooled me. You look like a –’

Gina flounced out of the room, eager to get away from his spiteful comments. She headed for the safety of the front room, only to find the girls sitting on the settee.

‘What the fuck have you done to your hair?’ said Rachel, eyes as wide as her father’s.

By this time, Gina was close to tears. ‘Don’t you have a go as well,’ she snapped, storming past them to run upstairs. In her bedroom, she slammed the door shut and threw herself onto the bed. Damn that Tracy Tanner. It should have been a simple haircut to get right: a short, inverted bob with a block fringe. But Tracy couldn’t get both sides to an equal length, and in a fit of frustration as she watched her hair getting shorter and shorter, Gina had snatched the scissors and snipped away angrily. Tracy could then only make a bad job of a terrible mess – short back and sides with a round face was not the trendy and sexy look she had envisaged.

 What was wrong with her? Gina sobbed – couldn’t she get anything right? Tracy was cheap and all she could afford. Damn her mother for getting on to her this morning. Damn Pete for catching her watching the makeover show. And damn that fucking Caren. If she hadn’t moved in across the street, there wouldn’t be a need to make herself feel attractive.

There was a knock on the door. ‘Can we come in?’ asked Claire.

‘Not if you’re going to take the piss.’

‘We’re not,’ said Rachel. Both girls sat down on the bed beside their mother.

Gina sat up so they could check out her hair. Immediately she saw the look in their eyes, she began to cry again. ‘You see?’ she sobbed. ‘I look like a bloke.’

Neither of them said that she didn’t but Claire gave her a hug. ‘You might have known, asking Tracy to do it. I heard she got a slapping last month when she butchered Mandy Flannigan’s hair. Didn’t you hear about it?’

Gina shook her head.

‘She wanted to go blonde. Even I know you can’t put a blonde hair dye straight onto dark hair. She ended up green, it was awful. Tracy got a bloody nose for it – and Mandy paid over a hundred quid to put it right and made Tracy cough up for it. I’m surprised she hasn’t stopped; I’d never use her.’

‘Thanks for telling me now,’ sniffed Gina.

Claire raced through to the bathroom and came back with a handful of toilet roll. She gave it to Gina before sitting down again.

‘Maybe we could help you do something with it?’ she proposed.

Gina huffed as she wiped her face. ‘What on earth could you do with this? I’ll have to wear a hat for months until it’s grown back.’

‘That’s a great idea.’ Rachel nudged her and grinned. ‘How about I lift you a pink baseball cap when we next go into the town?’

‘You’ll do no such thing,’ Gina admonished. ‘If you get caught again, you’ll end up in real trouble; not just from me and your father.’

‘Mum, I was kidding, right?’

‘It doesn’t look that bad,’ added Claire. ‘And you can pretty it up with a hair band or some sparkly clips.’

‘And it’ll grow again,’ said Rachel.

Gina gave them a weak smile. It would get better in time – or by downing a bottle of whisky in the interim.

 ‘I think I need a drink.’ Gina looked at them both before shuffling to sit at the edge of the bed. ‘If you can sneak the bottle past your dad, I’ll let you off about why you weren’t at school this afternoon.’

Claire and Rachel shared a look: how did she know?

‘I saw you running for the bus.’

‘I’ll get the bottle.’ Rachel got up quickly, followed by her sister, just as eager not to be told off.

With a huge sigh, Gina dared to face the mirror. She stared at herself for a moment before starting to tug at the short strands. They were far too short for the shape of her face: she did look like a tomato, an overripe one at that. Tracy had cut a fringe into the so-called style and her ears were on show. She tried to smile and look on the bright side; at least she could wear earrings now.

But the smile faded as quickly as it had arrived. All she’d wanted to do was to look a little smarter, make an effort for a change but she’d got it wrong again. Maybe it wasn’t worth the effort anyway, she mused. Maybe she
was
destined to be fat and ugly with a man’s hairstyle for the rest of her days. Maybe in a cruel twist of fate her hair would never grow again and she’d have to change her name to Gerry.

‘Here.’ Rachel passed Claire a small bottle.

Claire sniffed. ‘Mum’s whisky! How did you manage that?’ she asked before taking a sip.

‘It was easy; I took it into our room before giving it to her.’ Rachel snatched the bottle back from Claire. ‘She won’t notice that some of it’s missing.’

The girls were on their way to the shops to meet up with the rest of the gang. Rachel was looking forward to it immensely. Tonight they had another initiation test. Leanne Bailey wanted to join the Mitchell Mob and Rachel had lined her up with something special, providing her timing went to plan.

‘I bet Mum’s still pissed off,’ said Claire. ‘Her hair looks a mess, doesn’t it?’

Rachel nodded, throwing the now empty bottle over the hedge of a garden they were walking past. ‘She should be taught a lesson, that Tracy. Maybe there’s something we can do to get her back.’

‘Like what?’

‘I’m not sure; we’ll have to think about it. But first, some fun.’ Rachel turned to Claire. ‘Let’s do over Archie Meredith.’

Claire stopped. ‘No, Rach, you can’t do anything to him. We’ll be in big trouble if we –’

Rachel sighed. ‘You’re whining again, Claire.’

‘No, I’m not, I’m just saying –’

‘We won’t be doing anything – Leanne will – so chill out!’

‘What will she have to do?’

‘That depends. If Archie comes to the shops like he usually does, then she can wreck his car.’

Despite her misgivings, Claire felt her insides do an excited somersault.

‘If he doesn’t come to the shops, then we’re gonna go to his house.’

‘And do what?’

‘We’re gonna throw a brick through his front window.’

‘Now who’s being stupid,’ said Claire.

‘What do you mean?’

‘All Mitchell Housing Association’s properties have UPVC windows.’

Rachel sighed impatiently. ‘So?’

‘So, they’re all fitted with double-glazing. The brick might break one glass pane but it probably won’t go through two.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Danny told me. Completely fooled him once; he thought it would go right through. Problem was, he was trying to smash his way out of the factory he was nicking from so he got caught by the pigs.’

Rachel snarled before walking on. ‘I didn’t know that!’

‘But at least you know now! And it’ll stop us looking like idiots.’ Claire ran to catch her up.

They were nearing the shops now. Rachel could see the gang up ahead waiting for them to arrive. It was going dark; even so the car park on the square was fully lit. CCTV cameras were in operation but there were certain places that they couldn’t reach. Many a time, Rachel and Claire had been questioned about some crime or other that they’d been seen nearby, before or after. They were the queens of keeping quiet and, so far, age had been on their side. Claire had been concerned about this once they’d turned sixteen but Rachel said they would continue to get away with things if they kept their mouths shut. No one would crack the Bradley girls, she was fond of saying.   

Just like clockwork, Archie Meredith turned up as he did every night at nine. He parked his car, scowled at them all as he walked past, and headed into Shop&Save. The moment he was out of sight, Rachel pulled up her hood and nudged Leanne.

‘Now!’ she cried.

Leanne picked up a large brick from the side of the car park and ran over to Archie’s car. First, she smashed it into the right headlight and then the left. Next she twisted back both of the windscreen wipers. Then she took out her front door key and ran it along the whole length of the nearside, across the boot lid and right along the passenger side. When she saw another car pulling in, she legged it back to the gang who then split up in a regimented manner. Louise went with Rachel and Claire and ran across Davy Road, down the steps into Roland Avenue. Leanne, Shell and Hayley headed for the site where the White Lion pub had been until it was burned down the previous year. Charlie and Ashley stayed near the shops as advised.

‘I wish we’d stayed at the shops now,’ sighed Rachel as she bent over to catch her breath. ‘It would have been fun to watch Archie when he sees his car trashed.’

After twenty minutes, they sauntered back. Archie was standing by his car, a policeman taking down his details.

‘What’s up, Archie?’ Rachel shouted as she walked past them. ‘Someone do you over?’

‘Mind your own business!’ Archie shouted back.

‘Looks like you’ve upset someone. I wonder who that could be.’

Archie frowned then his face began to contort. ‘Why, you little bitch! It was you!’ He turned to the policeman standing next to him. ‘It was her and that bloody gang of girls she hangs around with.’