Hacker by Malorie Blackman Page A

are you doing here now then?’
    And that question wiped the smile right off our faces.

Chapter Seven

    ‘THIS IS VICKY and I’m Gib,’ Gib said quickly.
    I could have kicked him. What on earth was he doing giving Mr Guy our names? Trying to get us both expelled?
    ‘So what are you doing here then?’ asked Mr Guy again, picking up his killer dog.
    ‘Our mum is doing an evening class here and we said we’d meet her,’ Gib replied.
    I held my breath as I watched Mr Guy. I was going to keep well out of this one. The caretaker frowned and glanced down at his watch, almost tipping Jaws out of his arms.
    ‘But evening classes don’t finish for another hour and a bit yet,’ he said.
    ‘Yeah, we know,’ Gib smiled. ‘Maybe you could tell us where we can find her. What classroom is the computing course going on in?’
    ‘Science block. Room Twenty-four,’ Mr Guy said.
    ‘Can you come with us?’ Gib asked.
    I gasped, then quickly tried to conceal it with a weak smile. Have you lost your mind? I thought, forcing myself not to glare at Gib. I looked up at Mr Guy, trying to keep the panic off my face.
    ‘You must be bloomin’ joking. Do I look like I’ve got nothing better to do than traipse around the school after you two?’ frowned Mr Guy. ‘You know where the science block is as well as I do. Now shift.’
    Gib grabbed me and pulled me along to the science block.
    ‘What on earth did you do that for?’ I hissed. ‘Are you crazy? Suppose he’d decided to come with us?’
    ‘I knew he wouldn’t.’ Gib shrugged calmly. ‘The only reason he’d come with us was if he thought we didn’t want him to.’
    I shook my head at Gib, impressed and yet horrified at his nerve.
    ‘One of these days that mouth of yours isn’t going to be quite so quick and it’s going to get you into a lot of trouble,’ I said.
    ‘Or it’s going to be too quick and it’ll be the same result,’ Gib said dryly.
    ‘The way you can lie without batting an eyelid! How do you do it? Practice?’
    ‘You’re being snotty again!’ Gib sniffed. ‘Besides I don’t usually tell lies unless it’s for a good reason. And this is the best.’
    ‘And what happens if Mr Guy tells one of our teachers that we were here tonight?’ I asked.
    ‘You worry too much.’ Gib shrugged. ‘We’ll just say we were here to meet our mum like we told Mr Guy. No big deal.’
    ‘Hmm!’ I still wasn’t convinced.
    We entered the science block and walked up to the second floor to get to Room 24. We peered though the glass panel in the door. A tall, skinny black woman wearing a dark-blue trouser-suit was the only one in the room. She was bustling around from table to table.
    ‘Here goes.’ Gib said what I was thinking.
    I knocked on the door and Gib and I walked into the classroom. The woman straightened up when she saw us.
    ‘Hi,’ she said.
    ‘Hi,’ Gib replied.
    I just smiled.
    Silence.
    ‘I’m Rosa, the tutor,’ she said when it was obvious we weren’t about to carry on. ‘Can I help you?’
    ‘We come to this school during the day,’ I said, for want of something better to say.
    ‘Is that so?’
    ‘I … that is … we …’ I stammered.
    ‘Can we ask you for a favour?’ Gib said. He managed to sound both keen and desperate at the same time.
    ‘What’s that then?’ Rosa smiled encouragingly.
    ‘Well … we’re doing a computing project together.’ Gib cast a thumb in my direction, not taking his eyes off the tutor. ‘And it has to be in by Monday and … we haven’t finished it yet. And this is our last chance. If we don’t finish it today then we’ll lose thirty marks from our final assessment for the year.’
    I stared at Gib, absolutely amazed. I shouldn’t have been at all surprised, I know. I’d seen him in action often enough. He didn’t fib all the time but when he was in trouble he was very, very good at it.
    ‘So we were hoping that you’d let us use a PC at the back of the class maybe – if no one else is