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Back Stargazing for Beginners Save as PDF
Contents ( 64)
  1. A Letter from the Author
  2. ONE
  3. TWO
  4. THREE
  5. FOUR
  6. FIVE
  7. SIX
  8. SEVEN
  9. EIGHT
  10. NINE
  11. TEN
  12. ELEVEN
  13. TWELVE
  14. THIRTEEN
  15. FOURTEEN
  16. FIFTEEN
  17. SIXTEEN
  18. SEVENTEEN
  19. EIGHTEEN
  20. NINETEEN
  21. TWENTY
  22. TWENTY-ONE
  23. TWENTY-TWO
  24. TWENTY-THREE
  25. TWENTY-FOUR
  26. TWENTY-FIVE
  27. TWENTY-SIX
  28. TWENTY-SEVEN
  29. TWENTY-EIGHT
  30. TWENTY-NINE
  31. THIRTY
  32. THIRTY-ONE
  33. THIRTY-TWO
  34. THIRTY-THREE
  35. THIRTY-FOUR
  36. THIRTY-FIVE
  37. THIRTY-SIX
  38. THIRTY-SEVEN
  39. THIRTY-EIGHT
  40. THIRTY-NINE
  41. FORTY
  42. FORTY-ONE
  43. FORTY-TWO
  44. FORTY-THREE
  45. FORTY-FOUR
  46. FORTY-FIVE
  47. FORTY-SIX
  48. FORTY-SEVEN
  49. FORTY-EIGHT
  50. FORTY-NINE
  51. FIFTY
  52. FIFTY-ONE
  53. FIFTY-TWO
  54. FIFTY-THREE
  55. FIFTY-FOUR
  56. FIFTY-FIVE
  57. FIFTY-SIX
  58. FIFTY-SEVEN
  59. FIFTY-EIGHT
  60. FIFTY-NINE
  61. SIXTY
  62. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  63. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  64. ONE

‘You just take your time,’ says a voice behind me. I spin round and see Annie Demos staring at me with her pale green eyes.

‘Sorry.’ I step to one side and hold the door open. Annie sweeps past me in her wheelchair and goes to a desk at the back of the room. Annie’s got a type of cerebral palsy that affects her legs. She can walk, but often she uses crutches and other days, like today, she goes round school in a green wheelchair.

I follow her inside and Mr Curtis’s eyes light up. ‘Meg! Take a seat at the back.’

He really is getting a lot of pleasure out of this.

‘Annie, Meg is here because she was late for school, whereas you are here because you called our head teacher … What was it again?’ He makes a show of searching through the slips in front of him. ‘A massive dick.’

‘Only because he is one,’ she says with a shrug, moving from her wheelchair to a chair.

‘And yet,’ carries on Mr Curtis, ‘both of you have a break-time detention. Seems a bit unfair, doesn’t it?’

‘If you say so,’ she says.

I glance across at her. Today, her wild dark hair is pulled in a ponytail on the top of her head and she’s wearing bright pink lipstick. If she were anyone else in the school she’d have been made to wipe it off, but Annie Demos has what Mr Curtis describes as ‘an assertive personality’ – basically she doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do. If Annie Demos wants to wear pink lipstick then she’s wearing pink lipstick. She pulls a book from her bag and starts to read, her hair flopping over her face.

I turn back to Mr Curtis. ‘Um … do I just …’

‘Sit there? That’s right, Meg. You don’t even have to do any work, I just want to waste your time.’

I’m not wasting any time. I get out my English book and start doing my homework. Gradually, the room fills up. It’s quieter and warmer in here than in the library. If I wasn’t so hungry I’d actually be enjoying this detention. After twenty minutes, the bell goes. Just as we’re being dismissed, Mr Curtis asks Annie and me to stay behind.

‘A little bit of news for you, girls,’ he says, handing us each a folded piece of paper. ‘These were going to be delivered to you in your lessons, but as I have the pleasure of your company right now, I thought I’d give them to you personally.’

I take my note and stare at it, suddenly convinced that it’s something to do with Mum. Could Dawn have found out that Elsa and I were on our own last night and rung the school? I did a bit of research during IT and found out that parents have been sent to prison for going away and leaving their children home alone. With slightly shaky fingers, I pull open the note: