Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (historical books to read TXT) 📕

Dad’s hand. Dad didn’t look at it, but immediately stuffed it into his jacket pocket. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mum enter the room. She looked around for Dad. She saw him and immediately starting making her way through the crowd in Dad’s direction. Then she stopped. She’d noticed who Dad was with. Fury flashed across her face. She pushed towards them even more vigorously then. I was so busy watching Mum watching Dad that I wasn’t aware of the silence sweeping through the room until it had reached and passed me. Looking around, I saw that every eye was on something going on behind me. No-one spoke. No-one moved. I turned, wondering what could’ve happened to cause such a reaction.

Seeing her was like a boxer’s punch to my stomach. I was actually winded and breathless.

Sephy . . .

What was she doing here? Was she mad? Stillness rippled out from her, like the ripples when a stone is thrown into a pond. Sephy walked towards me, looking straight at me, but she didn’t say a word. Then her gaze swept past me, her face set as she walked on by. I turned as did everyone else to see what she was going to do. She walked up to my mum who was only a couple of steps away from my dad by now.

‘Mr and Mrs McGregor, I just wanted to come and see you to say how sorry I am about Lynette. I know what you’re going through. My mother . . . I know . . .’ Sephy’s voice trailed off. She would’ve had to have the hide of a rhino not to pick up on the atmosphere in the room. ‘I hope I’m not intruding or anything . . . I just wanted to say . . . I’m sorry . . .’

Mum was the first to recover. ‘You’re not intruding, Miss Hadley.’ She stepped forward. ‘Thank you for coming. Can I get you a drink?’

Sephy looked around at all the people staring at her, most of the faces now suspicious and hostile. ‘No, I don’t think I should stay.’

‘Nonsense. You’ve come this far, you can’t leave without a drink. Can she, Ryan?’ Mum spoke directly to Dad.

Dad was alone in the corner of the room. The two men he’d been talking to had vanished – seemingly into thin air. But it didn’t matter. Sephy had all of Dad’s attention. He was glaring at her like she was some kind of disgusting fungus he’d found growing in his navel. It was exactly like the look Mrs Hadley shot at me when I went to see Sephy after she’d been beaten up. Exactly like it.

‘Ryan?’ Mum’s stern voice had Dad raising his head to look at her.

‘Hello, Miss Hadley,’ Dad managed to spit out.

‘I’ll go.’

‘Sephy . . .’ I stepped forward but Jude got in first.

‘Yes, go!’ he said furiously. ‘Who told you to come here in the first place? You and your false sympathy aren’t wanted.’

‘Jude, that’s enough,’ Mum told him firmly.

‘If she cares so much, where was she for the last three years when Lynette was out of her head and we didn’t have two beans to rub together, never mind the money to get Lynny the help she needed? Where was this dagger when you got fired, Mum, and I had to drop out of school? Where was she when Harry over there got the boot?’ Jude pointed to a man by the door. ‘And all because she wanted to behave like a brat even though she knew it would get him into trouble.’

Sephy was staring at this guy, Harry, who was glaring right back at her. I’d never seen him before in my life. What did he have to do with Sephy?

‘Our new chauffeur told me you’d decided to quit.’ Sephy’s voice was little more than a whisper but in the stillness of the room it was enough for everyone to hear.

‘I got fired because you were left alone to face the riot at your school,’ Harry called bitterly across the room. ‘I begged you to stay in the car but you didn’t want to – remember? When your face was plastered all over the TV screen and I was nowhere to be seen, your mother kicked me out so fast I’ll have the imprint of her foot on my backside ’til the day I die.’

Whispered comments full of anger and antagonism swept around the room.

Sephy shook her head, shocked. ‘I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.’

‘Didn’t take the trouble to find out either.’ Harry turned away in disgust.

‘You and others like you have brought us nothing but grief.’ Jude pushed Sephy hard against her shoulder. Some of the others in the room gasped at his audacity. Shoving a Cross like that was just asking for trouble, but Jude was way past caring. ‘And then you have the nerve to come over here . . .’

‘Mrs McGregor, Mr McGregor . . .’ Sephy appealed to them for help.

‘Persephone, I think it’s best you should leave,’ Dad told her directly.

‘But I haven’t done anything . . .’ said Sephy, bewildered.

‘That’s right, you haven’t,’ Dad agreed, pointedly. ‘You come here in your fancy dress which cost more than I make in a year and we’re supposed to smile and cheer? Is that how it’s meant to work?’

‘No . . .’ Sephy whispered.

‘Just go away,’ Jude hissed at her. ‘Go on, get lost before I do something I’ll regret.’

Sephy looked around. Her eyes met mine. I tried to step forward but some woman behind me grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

‘Let her go. Noughts and Crosses don’t mix, boy,’ the woman whispered to me.

Sephy shook her head and darted from the room. I could see only too well the shimmer in her eyes as she ran past me. Even though the room was full to capacity, a pathway opened up for her like Angel Shaka’s parting of the Sea.

‘You had no right