JASON STEED Absolutely Nothing (6 page)

And he couldn’t tell the truth. He was never allowed to tell anyone what had really happened, apart from Scott of course.

It had been nearly two years since he had started St Joseph's. He had used his Martial Arts skills just once in his first year when some older boys were trying to put a fellow first-year boy's head down a toilet. Jason intervened and saved Scott Turner. Since that day, Scott had been his best friend they were almost like brothers.

As time passed however, memories had faded. More and more boys had purposely bumped into Jason in a corridor. One boy made a remark about Scott and Jason being a little too close for just friends. Each time, Jason had turned the other cheek, but his frustration with school life was causing his patience to run thin.

This morning was a Wednesday, which meant gym class. The boys all had to go and play soccer. All the boys that was, except for Jason. He took an extra language class. The school agreed that he could count his karate and Judo lessons he did outside of school as his physical education. As lunchtime rolled around, Jason met up with Scott in the canteen.

“You look frozen,” Jason said.

“It was bloody cold out on the pitch today. I hate football. It’s not fair you get to miss it.” Scott shivered.

“I do enough sports. You have to do something, Scott; you can’t just exercise your brain. Your body needs to work out as well.”

“Work out? I was so blue with cold when I came in and went to take a shower, when I looked in the mirror I saw a Smurf looking back at me!”

Jason roared with laughter. He had trouble keeping the food in his mouth. A bread roll hit him on the back of the head he turned and looked. Malcolm Vango was grinning at him, his group of friends laughed as well.

Vango had been tormenting Scott for some time and had been getting more brazen regarding pushing Jason. Most people avoided Vango. His father was a wealthy man. Rumours circulated that his father was a crook. He never worked but had a large home, always had new cars, and when he paid for Malcolm’s school fees, he brought cash in a briefcase.

Vango was well built, with a turned-up nose and black, slightly greasy hair that hung down to his collar. He made a point of ensuring his tie was never straight and slouched around with his hands in his pockets and an attitude that warned everyone, even staff, to keep his distance. There was arrogance to him that Jason and Scott could feel a hundred feet away. The fact that Jason wasn’t scared of him only angered him all the more.

“What are you staring at, Steed? Fancy me, do ya? Getting tired of your boyfriend?” Vango joked.

Jason turned away and faced his food again.

“See I told you he’s yella. I bet he don’t really know karate and Judo. He’s a wimp just like his nerd boyfriend. Just look at Steed's hair, what boy has their hair that long in the front you can’t see his eyes half the time? I bet he wears a dress at home.” Vango laughed.

“Come on Jason, let’s go. I’m not hungry. He’s not worth it,” Scott said. He could tell that Vango was getting to his friend. Jason had gone quiet. He was worried what Jason would do to the kid.

Jason looked up though his long blond bangs at Scott. “Yeah, your right,” Jason said quietly. Both he and Scott got up and started to leave.

“Brawk, buk, buk, buk, buk,” Vango crowed like a chicken. Scott was about to put his tray back, but instead he turned and walked over to Vango. To everyone’s surprise, he smashed Vango across the face with it.

Jason watched open mouthed. He had never seen Scott so much as hurt a fly before, and now he had just smashed a tray over the schools biggest loud mouth and bully in front of the entire school.

The blow knocked Vango of his chair, his lunch spilling over him. A few laughed at the incident, more just gasped. Vango leapt to his feet, cursing at the top of his voice. Scott ran to Jason for protection. The usual chatter and hum of so many voices that normally echoed all around went silent.

“That was awesome.” Jason laughed. “Way to go, Scott. You do have some guts in you. Now what’s your plan? Vango and three of his goons are coming.”

Scott was turning white and visibly shaking. “Um. Jase mate, help me out here,” Scott stuttered, trying to hide behind his friend.

Jason stepped forward, still laughing. That made matters worse. Vango stood a foot away from Jason and pointed at Scott.

“That little nerd is going down, and if you don’t move I’ll go through you,” Vango growled at Jason.

Jason slightly raised himself on the soles of his feet. He twisted his body at an angle to reduce his size as a target.

Don’t hurt them. They’re just schoolboys,
Jason told himself.

“And what do we have here? Fighting is it?” Mr. Griffiths, the headmaster, bellowed from down the corridor. “Vango, Steed my office
now
.”

Jason sulked on his way home. The sun was already dipping behind his home, but daylight still lingered in the air as if accidently left behind. As he slammed the large black iron gates hard enough that they bounced open again. Jason hesitated, debating whether to go back and close them, then gave up on the idea. As he walked up the long gravel drive towards his stately white house surround by acres of grass and mature Oaks he grew angry. He knew he would be in trouble with his father.

Jason was always in a bad mood unless Scott was with him, but today was much worse. His father normally put it down to his age and expected it may get a little worse when he became a teenager. Today, he was so angry he was physically shaking. It would be the first time his father had heard his son curse.

The front door slammed shut behind him. The usual pattern of throwing his school bag across the floor and kicking his shoes off in all directions was followed up with a loud sigh.

“Hi Jason, how was school?” his father asked.

Jason marched up to his father and pulled out a letter from his pocket and threw it at is father. “I have been suspended from that dump for a week.” He cursed.

Ray was surprised by Jason’s language. He knew Jason disliked school, but wasn't going to let him get away with cursing.

“What did you say?”

“Read the note.” He cursed again.

“Get to your room,” Ray shouted.

Jason turned and walked up to his room. He watched his father out of the corner of his eye. He knew the routine. His father would follow him up, removing his belt, and he would get spanked. Jason paused at the top of the stairs. When he looked down at his father, Ray stood at the bottom of the stairs just watching his son.

Jason gave the same look he gets from his father when he is asked a question; he raised his eyebrows and stared. It was what Scott called the ‘Steed asking a question look.’

“You know Jason, maybe you're too old to be spanked now. We seem to do much better just talking about your problems. Let’s start with the first problem. Why are you suspended from school?”

Jason sighed and sat on the top step, looking down at his father. “Okay, don’t get mad. I never so much as touched anyone, but I was suspended for fighting.”

“Who?” His father asked. He walked up the stairs and sat next to his son on the top stair.

“That idiot with the motor mouth, Malcolm Vango.”

“Vango as in Mick Vango’s boy, the mobster?” Ray asked.

“Yeah.”

“How bad did you hurt him?” Ray sighed, dreading the worst.

“I never laid a finger on him. I know better than to fight in school. It was Scott. He smashed a tray into his face. You should have seen it, it was awesome. Then he ran behind me for protection.” Jason laughed. “Just as Vango was coming to kill Scott, Taffy Griffiths came around the corner, saw us standing toe to toe, Vango’s got blood, snot, and food all over his face, and Taffy thinks we were fighting. Vango is suspended too.”

“Well why didn’t you explain that to Mr. Griffiths?”

“Derrr. Scott’s my best friend. I can’t grass him up,” Jason rudely replied. Ray attempted to smack Jason across the back of the head, but Jason instinctively and rapidly reacted and blocked it.

“Gosh, you're fast son,” Ray said. “But less of your cheek. I’m your father, not a kid from school. Don’t
derrr
me again. So because you don’t want to grass on Scott, you get suspended and a bad school record?”

“Well actually, Scott was saving me too. Vango was taunting me, throwing bread at me, calling me yellow, and saying crude stuff about mine and Scott's friendship. Scott knew it was only a matter of time before I cracked and busted Vango’s head open, so he did it with a tray. Let’s face it, if I had touched him I would get an assault charge.” Jason grinned. “I’m quite proud of Scott. He’s grown some balls at last. Before today I always thought Scott in a fight would be about as useful as a woodpecker with a rubber beak.”

Ray said nothing as he watched his son smile. He still had the same adorable cheeky grin. His white teeth glistened, and his sapphire blue eyes sparkled.

“You're not happy at school, are you son?”

“I hate it Dad. I enjoy learning the languages, chatting to Scott, but after going on missions, car chases, shooting guns and having some great fights, school just sucks. Even the last mission, I got to kick the stuffing out of some sickos. In school, I have to read huge thick books written by some guy who has been dead for a hundred years or add up x=y+2. Who cares about that stuff, well apart from Scott?”

Ray placed his arm around his son’s shoulders and kissed him on the forehead. “Do you also think you can curse at me?”

“Em. No. I’m sorry about that, Dad. I was in a bad mood,” Jason said. He flashed his eyes at his father and grinned. “Am I forgiven?”

“No.” Ray caught Jason in a headlock and tickled him until he screamed for mercy.

*

Jason watched the buildings flash by. It was a three-hour drive to the Royal Navy command headquarters in Portsmouth. Jason's father drove a fraction over the speed limit as he always did. He wore his naval uniform and had made Jason wear his Sea Cadet uniform. When Jason had asked why they were going, he simply told Jason he would find out, and it was probably something he would like.

Jason assumed his father, who was a second Lieutenant, was being promoted to Captain, like his friend Bill Giles. Jason thought that he deserved a ship of his own to command now and was proud of him. He had noticed his father had closed his office door a few times while he had been on the phone, something he had never done before.

The drive was uneventful. Jason had broken the knob on the radio. Ray Steed had switched it to Radio Two for older songs, and Jason kept switching to Radio One for pop songs and made yawning noises when Radio Two was on. In a small struggle to control the station, the knob broke off. Now the radio was stuck on a farming channel. Worse still, they couldn’t turn it off. They had to listen to two hours of how to prevent pigs from getting mange mites and how to cure a fungi problem on Elm trees.

When they stopped at the Royal Naval headquarters, an armed guard dressed in Sailors uniform approached the car.

Ray wound down his window. “Commander Raymond Steed here to see Admiral Neville Hollyingberry.”

The guard saluted and looked at Ray's ID. He looked across at Jason and passed the ID back. “Go straight in, sir.”

Ray drove through the opened gate and noticed Jason was grinning. “What’s so funny?”

“Dad, you put on your posh voice when you said that, one is here to see Admiral Neville Hollyingberry,” Jason said putting on an upper crust accent.

Ray looked annoyed, and then smiled. “Best behaviour, Jason,” Ray ordered.

“I’m gonna laugh if you talk like that again. I can’t help it.” Jason smirked. “How long are you going to be seeing him for? Can I have a look around the base?”

“No, you're coming with me.”

Jason’s smirk disappeared. He had only met a Captain before, and that was Bill and he was a family friend. Jason knew Admiral Hollyingberry was Admiral of the fleet, the head of the Royal Navy.

Chapter Six

After a brief, wait Ray and Jason were shown into a conference room. Jason took in his surroundings—large pictures of Naval ships dressed the walls, and portraits of previous Admirals, going back to Admiral Nelson, hung from one wall. Three men sat at the table, one in uniform who Jason guessed was Admiral Hollyingberry, a slim grey haired man in a suit with a smile that looked fake to Jason, and a larger man in a black suit with his back to them.