Being Me by Pete Kalu Page A

acceptable,’ is all he says.
    Eight minutes later Mrs Adenuga is in the police station office and rushing up to me. ‘Adele! What have you got yourself into?’
    I fling my arms around her, take a few deep breaths and let the only tear I shed in that police station escape. ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Adenuga,’ I mumble. It’s all I can manage.
    ‘Shh. There, there.’
    The policeman butts in. He’s restless. ‘Now, you don’t deny you stole the iPod?’
    ‘I took it out of the shop,’ I say. What I am not saying is that I lifted it. I didn’t. That was Cakes.
    ‘We can look at the footage,’ he says.
    ‘OK, I took it,’ I say. What difference does it make?
    He’s happy now. He clicks his mouse a few times, then looks up again. Adele, because it’s a first offence and you admit that you did it, I’m allowed to issue you with a youth caution. That means we keep a record and if you are ever caught shoplifting again, we can charge you. Be advised.’
    As he is talking, he’s typing. A printer whirrs somewhere under his desk.
    He ducks down and scoops up some paper. It’s got the police logo on it at the top.
    ‘Sign here,’ he says. ‘And here.’
    As I’m signing, he reads from his computer screen. ‘You may get an Acceptable Behaviour Contract and a Youth Engagement Officer may check up on how you’re doing. You are now banned from Kendals. Understand?’
    I nod.
    The cop has Mrs Adenuga sign a piece of paper. As she signs, she says, ‘David isn’t it? Are you happy with the windows here, David? Why aren’t they open? It’s tropical in this office.’
    ‘They’re all jammed. Half of them rotten as well,’ he replies.
    She gives him a card. ‘Get this to the right person. Ask them to give me a call. You’ll get a great price. None of you need to be sweating in here any longer.’
    The policeman laughs. They chat for a bit more, then he looks over to me. ‘Adele, we don’t want to see you again, understood?’
    I nod. I think he actually means it.
    ‘Thank you, Officer, it’s much appreciated,’ says Mrs Adenuga. ‘I’m so sorry about my niece.’
    I catch her eyes. She looks back at me like, don’t say a word.
    The cop weaves us through various other offices back to Reception where we sign out and they hand me the rest of my stuff back.
    On the open street, breathing free air once more, tears spill out of me. I feel Mrs Adenuga stroking my face.
    ‘I’m so ashamed,’ I say to her. Mrs Adenuga leads me the rest of the way to the car. It has a parking ticket on the windscreen. She sees it and makes sucking noises. Marcus is in the front passenger seat. My heart flips.
    Marcus makes to get out of the car but his mum is already pushing me into the rear. She rips the parking ticket off the window, stabs the key in the ignition and the car lurches off. Marcus sneaks a hand back towards me. I take it and for a minute there’s silence in the car as me and Marcus hold hands and his mum drives. The parking ticket plastic wrapper flutters on the dashboard.
    ‘I promised that nice policeman I’d drop you home into the custody of your parents,’ Mrs Adenuga says, finally breaking the spell, ‘what’s the address?’
    She stabs my post code and house number into the car’s satnav while she’s driving and drives through two traffic lights on yellow. I take my cue from Marcus and say nothing all the way. We arrive at my house.
    I hold my breath. If it’s Mum and she’s not drugged up, there’ll be wailing, tears as a show for Mrs Adenuga, then she’ll build herself a huge spliff and forget about it. If it’s Dad, he’ll probably rant then drive off.
    Mrs Adenuga gets out of the car and rings the buzzer by the gates. She’s ringing and ringing. Nobody’s in. I try ringing the house from my phone. Nobody picks up. Mrs Adenuga gets back in the car and hesitates.
    ‘You really live here?’ she asks me. She’s impressed by the size of it.
    ‘The top left one is my room,’ I say,