Billy Bobbins Pt 4

Previous parts: click HERE

“Want to join RBT, huh?” The scary girl was up on her feet again. She never seemed to sit still. “What’s in it for us?” She yawned exaggeratedly and held out her hand as if expecting a bribe.
Billy stared, terrified, and not at all sure how to react. Was she serious?
One of the two girls leaning on the table laughed.
“How gutsy is that? I like him!”
The other chimed in, a shiny piercing sparkling on her upper lip. “Yeah and he’s cute. He can have Patrick’s spot.”
General laughter filled the room, filling Billy’s already swirling head and giving him a sudden rush of dizziness. Were they really offering him a spot, just like that?
“Excuse me?!” The tall lanky boy – apparently Patrick – was outraged. “You can’t just replace someone. Especially not a Redback President. He can have Amy’s spot.”
“Hey!” the small girl on the stage looked up, equally outraged. “Why pick me?”
“Why not?” Patrick laughed – and then ducked as another pencilcase whistled across the room.
“Shut up, Patrick, if anyone gets replaced it should be you.” The taller girl on the stage stuck up for her friend.
"Hey if we're replacing Pat, what about the polystyrene box?" A dark-haired girl looked up from her notebook with an odd grin.
“And besides, you’re not the Redback President anymore anyway” spoke up the black-jumper girl, “I am.”
“Sorry Stacey,” Patrick apoogised with utter insincerity, “I meant ex-President. I was the first ever President, might I remind everyone.”
“You mean ‘worst ever’ President”
Laughter again burst across the room.
"Ha-hah! Cop THAT!"
"Good one, Em!" Amy high-fived her friend, from whom the snappy retort had come. Patrick’s cheeks turned a shade pinker, but he ostentatiously maintained his dignity.
“I was NOT the worst-ever President, thank you very much.” He sniffed haughtily, then grinned and muttered almost under his breath: “You forgot Kat.”
“HEY!” The blonde girl erupted, as did the rest of the room once more. “Don’t bring me into this, MISTER.” She turned to the girl whose comment had started it all. “I agree with you, let’s replace Pat!”
Pandemonium threatened to ensue. Shouting and laughter filled the room in equal measures, and Billy, standing by the door, had been quite forgotten. Several of the group members were literally rolling on the floor laughing.

The teacher, sensing chaos about to break loose once again, quickly took control of the situation.”Settle down, settle down. You know that’s not how Redback works.”
“Yes, exactly what I was saying.” Patrick said smugly, sitting down as the uproar slowly subsided. “When I was President I made sure we did things by the rules. I never let things get out of control like Stacey.”
Stacey bit. “When you were President everyone was too bored to get out of control!”
“SETTLE DOWN” The teacher was standing now, and the laughter stopped abruptly. “Like I said, this is not how Redback works.”
Patrick smirked self-righteously at Stacey.
The teacher continued: “We do everything by vote.”
The room was quiet now, as his gaze swept across the students. He looked very serious, as he sat carefully back down.
“All those in favour of replacing Patrick with this kid?”
The room exploded once more. Patrick leapt to his feet, outraged, as the other members roared in unison: “AYE!”
"Then it's unanimous." announced the teacher over the din.
"Ha, no it's not!" retorted Patrick, "There's me...and Adele doesn't have her hand up either, so HA!"
Adele looked up with the same grin. "I vote for the box."
The entire room, including the teacher, had erupted into uncontrollable laughter. Patrick, cheeks bright red now, stormed back and forth as if in a rage, and not knowing who to blame – but laughing at himself at the same time.

Confused and bewildered, Billy wasn’t sure what was happening. Was the vote real? Was he a member now? Surely not. The way they were laughing, they can’t possibly have been serious.
Noticing the puzzlement on his face, Stacey turned to the teacher.
“Sir, that was cruel.”
The teacher turned to her, his eyes twinkling. “Ah, Pat deserved it.” He laughed.
She laughed too, “No, not Pat…” she turned serious again, and flicked her head towards Billy, “I mean the kid.”
Following her nod, the teacher looked at Billy, and instantly his face softened.
“Oh yeah, you’re right.” Ignoring the pandemonium still raging in the room, he turned to face the boy, and looked him directly in the eye. Billy was struck by how kind and honest his gaze was.
“Sorry about that, kid - “
“Billy.” Billy interrupted, and instantly regretted it. But the teacher just smiled.
“Sorry about that… Billy. Paying out on Pat is just too hard to resist.”
Billy smiled nervously, to show that he understood – although he didn’t really. The teacher continued:
“Now the thing is, it’s great that you want to join Redback, and we’re always keen to have new members…”
Billy’s heart leapt.
“But…”
And dropped again. Like a stone. ‘But’ was not good.
“But… there are rules about how we take new members. You can’t just join, you have to be invited, by the members.”
Billy looked around hopefully, but the only one of the members who were even looking in his direction was Stacey, and her expression was one of pity.
She joined in, “We keep an eye out for people who seem to be really into drama…”
He wanted to shout, ‘I AM into drama’, to make them understand how much he wanted this, but his confidence seemed to have fled.
“People who try out for the production, and stuff like that.” She explained.
The teacher nodded. “People who we notice that are committed and serious –“ he paused and looked around at the teenagers still rolling in laughter. “Well serious about acting anyway.”
Billy nodded, and tried to look like he understood, but inside he felt his stomach twisting, and his throat tightening.
“So unfortunately,” the teacher continued, “That means that we don’t really invite year sevens, because we haven’t had time to see what they’re capable of yet.”
Billy tried to say something, but it came out as a strangled croak. He felt tears welling up and suddenly all he wanted to be was somewhere else, and quickly. The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of them like a stupid little baby.
“But you know,” Stacey tried to perk him up “Try out for the production in September, get involved…get yourself noticed…”

He appreciated her efforts, but he knew that she was only trying to cheer him up. He knew that after this humiliation he could never gather the courage to try out for the school production. Even now, he could no longer bring himself to look her in the eye, he realised. His gaze was fixed at the ‘V’ of her jumper neck, on the little red-and-black spider badge she had pinned there. A little red-and-black spider badge that he had never coveted more, and yet had never felt so far from getting. A badge that symbolised simultaneously everything he wanted and could never have.

As if in a fog, he realised that both the teacher and Stacey had fallen silent. He looked up to see them looking at him, and the pity in their eyes told him that they could see everything.
His cheeks burned, and the tears could no longer be held back.
He had to get out of here.
He had to get out of here now.
He mumbled something - not a goodbye, maybe not even a word, he didn’t know what – and almost ran for the door and out into the corridor.
Tears left a grubby trail down his face
The laughter that had filled the room, and his heart, faded with every step, replaced with a burning shame and numbness.