Like Father by Nick Gifford Page A

Danny’s failings.
    He went out to the kitchen. Best to get any trouble over with as soon as possible.
    She was at the sink, clutching a glass under the running cold tap. She turned. “Danny,” she said. “Okay?”
    He nodded, and sat at the table.
    Val drank, then stood with her hands on the edge of the draining board and sink, breathing deeply.
    “Are you okay?” said Danny, uncertain how to interpret her mood.
    She turned and stood, leaning against the sink edge with her arms wrapped around herself. “Me? I’ll survive,” she said.
    “Oma said Rick was here.”
    Val’s embrace tightened. She nodded.
    “I saw him earlier. In the Hall.”
    “Oh?”
    She didn’t seem interested. They couldn’t have discussed Rick finding Danny at the computer. Best to leave it, perhaps.
    “Night.”
    She looked at him, and nodded. “Hmm,” she said. “G’night.”
    ~
    At lunchtime the next day, he was with Won’t and Scott Davies and a couple of the others, down where the science building backed onto the playing fields. Won’t and Davies were arguing about something. Danny wasn’t sure what: it had started over football teams and had moved onto who was the sexiest girl in their history group. Won’t never agreed with anybody on anything. That seemed to be a goal he set himself every day.
    Danny tried to ignore them. His mind kept returning to the events of the previous evening. He couldn’t make sense of it at all. He was even beginning to doubt that it had happened as he remembered – it all seemed so weird.
    Someone batted him on the arm and he looked up, puzzled.
    “I said, what about Mr Cool?” said Won’t. “What do you reckon, Danny?”
    “About...?”
    “Biggsy and Becky Taylor. I reckon they are. Davies says Biggsy’s just daydreaming.”
    Danny shrugged. “Does it matter?”
    “Hey, why d’you call him Mr Cool?” asked one of the others, someone Danny didn’t know.
    Won’t said, “You can say what you like to our Danny, but he won’t lose it. Will you, Danny? He’s Mr Cool. You’d have more chance with Becky Taylor than you would of rattling Mr Cool.”
    Then he grinned, and added, “Except, of course, when Cassie Lomax is around.”
    Danny stared at him, but he didn’t lose control. The sudden burst of rage he felt at Won’t’s digging and teasing never reached the surface. He sensed it, trapped it, squashed it.
    He didn’t lose his cool.
    He didn’t dare.
    Won’t was right. Cassie was the one person who got all the way through his barriers. She was the flaw in his defences, and suddenly that scared him. Things had started to go wrong since he’d got to know Cassie – since he’d let her weaken his guard.
    Later, he left Won’t and the others. He walked up under what they called the Bridge, where A and C blocks joined, heading for the top gate.
    Cassie was there, with Jo Lee and Sally Gupta.
    She looked pale and tired.
    As soon as she saw him, she opened her mouth to speak, but then she must have sensed something about his mood and she stopped.
    Sally and Jo laughed at something, and Danny strode past, avoiding Cassie’s look.
    Not now.
    He had to be alone.
    ~
    Wlk hom 2gtha? ...C
    He didn’t answer, but she was waiting at the gates, even so.
    “You okay?”
    He nodded.
    “You going to ask if I’m okay?”
    He shrugged.
    They walked. Danny heard Won’t and Tim talking loudly somewhere behind them as they headed along Morses Lane. He glanced back, gave them the finger, carried on.
    “You scared?”
    “I don’t know,” he told her. “I don’t know what I am.”
    “So what have you found out?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “What are you like , Danny Schmidt?” She shook her head as she walked. “You mean you haven’t tried to find out what’s happening? You’ve done nothing ?”
    She jerked her bag up by the strap and started to rummage through its contents. A short time later she waved a sheet of A4 at him. “Here,” she said. “Have a look at this. Have you