Sherry Ashworth - Something Wicked

COPYRIGHT Copyright Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Keep Reading About the Author Other Books By About the Publisher

HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks 2004

Copyright © Sherry Ashworth 2004

Sherry Ashworth asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007123353

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008208127

Version: 2016-10-20

Thanks to Andy, Dave, Dominic, Jenny, Michael and

all at Relaunch. And Robyn and Rachel, of course.

For Chris and Libby.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright COPYRIGHT Copyright Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Keep Reading About the Author Other Books By About the Publisher HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks 2004 Copyright © Sherry Ashworth 2004 Sherry Ashworth asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Source ISBN: 9780007123353 Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008208127 Version: 2016-10-20

Dedication Thanks to Andy, Dave, Dominic, Jenny, Michael and all at Relaunch. And Robyn and Rachel, of course. For Chris and Libby.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Keep Reading

About the Author

Other Books By

About the Publisher

Everything keeps going round and round in my head, so it’ll be a relief to tell you everything, just as it happened. Not because I want to claim I’m innocent – the opposite, in fact. I think I’m as much to blame as anyone – maybe even more than anyone.

But I trust you. You can decide.

So here’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

* * *

It all probably began before the day Craig Ritchie walked into our classroom, but I don’t want to bore you with all the facts about me, and what was wrong in my life. Because that falls into the category of feeling sorry for yourself, and I hate girls who do that. The drama queens. They come into school all red-eyed and you have to ask them once, twice, three times what’s wrong, and they won’t tell – they enjoy all that attention. Then finally they do and you pass the Kleenex and wait to hear all about how this boy never phoned or some similar crap.

So all you need to know is that my name is Anna Hanson and I was sixteen when it started. Just like most people, I was happy some of the time, pissed off some of the time, but bored most of the time.

I was bored that morning in English. Well, it would have been English if the English teacher was there, but she was absent. On some course. She’d set work. Making notes on the first few scenes of Macbeth . Like, who the characters are and the plot and that, who was Thane of what. As if anyone was going to bother. The teacher who was sitting with us brought in piles of marking, and as long as we were quiet, he didn’t give a toss what we did. So when I felt my phone vibrate in my blazer pocket, I took it out and read the text under the desk. It was from Karen, who was sitting at the back of the class – there was going to be this big night out on Saturday at the Ritz, I was invited. I replied by saying cheers, I’d think about it.

I didn’t want to seem too pleased, too much of a loser. I wasn’t one of the girls in the class who was always up for it, but I wasn’t a swot either. I was just me, to tell you the truth. I didn’t fit into any category. Which was why I wasn’t normally included on clubbing nights. So I began to think about whether I wanted to go or not and it was at that point the door opened and one of the deputies came in with this new boy. Everybody stopped what they were doing to have a look. I felt sorry for this lad, being stared at like that. The deputy went on about Craig Ritchie joining this English set and there was a fuss about the regular teacher not being there. The teacher sitting with us was making an empty-handed gesture, as if to say, what do you expect me to do, so the deputy grabbed a book off one of the shelves and gave it to the lad.

I watched all of that. The two teachers arguing and stressing each other out, and the boy standing there, head down, shoulders hunched. He was tall and looked more than sixteen. His head was shaved, which surprised me because at our school (St Thomas’s – Roman Catholic – very hot on morality and standards and that) boys aren’t allowed to have their heads shaved. This boy wasn’t in proper uniform either. We wear this awful shade of maroon, but he had a plain black jacket on, over a white shirt. His black trousers were a shade too short for him. He was wearing trainers too, which were also forbidden. In our school they reckon wearing trainers prevents the flow of knowledge to your brain. Only joking. But we do have to wear plain black shoes.