Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 01 - Cocoa and Chanel Read Online Free Page B

his stick. Was it legal for him to use that thing on me? I was going to have to read my information pack.
    ‘Pants and sensible shoes.’
    ‘Aye aye Sergeant.’ I gave him one of my friendliest smile.
    He didn’t return it. Instead, one of his eyes twitched a few times as he scowled at me and his face started to turn red.
    A vast amount of experience has taught me that when people’s faces go red they’re normally about to start screaming at me. I tried to think of a way to stop the imminent onslaught but there was nowhere to go from my aye aye comment. So instead I braced, as if in a gale force wind, and waited. He let out a low growl, his moustache bristling with the movement of his mouth, and I noticed something yellow – egg yolk? – matted into the hair.
    I know I wouldn’t want to walk around all day with food on my face and everybody sniggering behind my back so I said, ‘You’ve got some food in your moustache.’ I pointed to the left side of my mouth hoping he would realise I meant his right not his left. That can get pretty confusing.
    His eye twitched harder as his lips worked around words that didn’t make it out of his mouth. I was starting to wonder if he was having an epileptic episode when he snarled, ‘Get to class Miss Smith.’ He had an impressive ability to make my name sound like a rude word.
    The rest of the day passed uneventfully apart from when I fell asleep after lunch during a documentary on the history of the Police Force, and the trainer humiliated me in front of the group. I mean seriously, I defy anyone to stay awake through an hour of that drivel, especially with a full stomach.
    The next day I wore black pants and flat shoes. Sergeant Moores made some snide comments about the shoes but the boys, who seemed to have two left feet, preoccupied most of his wrath with their inability to stay in step during marching practice.
    After lunch we had physical education. I wasn’t looking forward to it at all, but at least I wasn’t dreading it like Susie. Nastacia was stretching when we showed up at the gym. I watched her for a while and then started to copy her, hoping I looked like I knew what I was doing. Susie joined me, leaning as far forwards as her stomach would allow, stretching her fingers optimistically towards the ground.
    Nastacia looked over and rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering,’ she said.
    ‘I don’t want to pull a muscle,’ Susie replied.
    ‘The only muscle you’re ever going to pull is your tongue.’
    I walked over to her and said, ‘That’s not very nice.’
    ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering either,’ she said, eyeing me up and down. ‘Why don’t you just go home and look pretty.’
    ‘Pardon? What’s that supposed to mean?’
    ‘It’s obvious all you care about is how you look.’
    ‘That’s not true at all,’ I said. It wasn’t. I cared about a lot of things: my Mum, Cocoa, world peace.
    ‘So why do you want to be a police officer?’
    ‘To make the world a better place.’ I’d said it so many times I was almost starting to believe it.
    Nastacia obviously didn’t buy it. She snorted and turned her back on me and continued her stretching.
    ‘All right Miss Smarty Pants,’ I said, ‘why do you want to be a police officer?’
    She stopped and looked at me with steel grey eyes. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’
    ‘Try me,’ I said, instead of my preferable alternative of ‘bite me’.
    ‘My father was a police officer, as was his father, and his father before that.’
    ‘So…. it’s a family tradition?’
    ‘I knew you wouldn’t understand.’
    ‘What’s there to understand? You’re trying to make them proud of you. I don’t see how that is any better than our reasons for being here.’
    She shot me a venomous look, but before she could retort someone called us into the gym. That someone was riot squad Rick. Hmmm , maybe this physical education wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
    An hour later I