SOMEONE DIFFERENT Read Online Free Page B

so Martin saw us both.
    ‘I need to ensure you both understand the conditions of your orders,’ he said. ‘Firstly, you must attend twenty five hours of education a week.’
    ‘What?’ Me and Billy nearly choked.
    ‘It doesn’t all have to be in school. I’ve spoken to your Head of Year, and we’ve agreed on a programme; two full days in school and three days on a vocational placement.’
    ‘What’s that mean?’ I asked.
    ‘It’s somewhere away from school where you learn practical skills instead of studying academic subjects. Other young people on these kinds of programmes learn about construction, mechanics, catering, things like that.’
    Mmm, that didn’t sound too bad, but twenty five hours?
    Martin looked at some notes he’d written down in a folder. ‘Your seven PM until seven AM curfews continue for another six months. It’s vital you stick to these, lads, if you don’t it’ll mean you get breached. Then you’ll have to go back to court, and you heard what the judge said would happen then, didn’t you? The condition regarding you not having any contact has been dropped, because obviously you’re in the same class at school.’
    He glanced at his notes again. ‘Oh, yes; then there’s the unpaid work ... you might have heard it called Community Service in the past? He’s included it because you’re both sixteen now. It means you have to do jobs to help out in the community: litter picking, gardening, cleaning up local parks and woodland etcetera.’
    Billy spluttered. I felt exactly the same about it, but the look of complete horror on his face still made me smile.
    ‘And that’s about it,’ Martin said. ‘Oh, except you have to report here twice a week as well. We’ll sort the unpaid work out later. I think our priority is to arrange these vocational placements. Now, what would you prefer to do?’
    I let Billy go first – it didn’t really matter to me; I’d go with whatever he said.
    ‘Mechanics,’ Billy said quickly.
    ‘Yeah, me as well.’ I said.
    ‘And what about a second choice, if the mechanics’ course is full?’
    ‘Construction,’ we said together.
    He smiled. ‘OK, I’ll see what I can do. Let me make some phone calls.’
    We went to wait in reception while he did that.
    ‘Litter pickin’, what’s he on about?’ Billy flopped down into a blue plastic chair. ‘An’ when are we gonna fit it in, when we’ve got to be doin’ all that other stuff all week?’ He got his lighter out and started flicking it on and off.
    ‘Can you put that away please?’ The woman behind the desk looked over at us.
    Billy stared at her, then he lifted it up higher, flicked it on again and left the flame burning.
    She reached for the phone.
    ‘Put it away,’ I said quietly.
    He glanced at me.
    ‘I mean it; stop tryin’ to piss her off.’
    He thought about it for a second, then sighed and put the lighter back in his pocket.
    ‘Look,’ I said, leaning closer to him. ‘If somebody’d offered us litter pickin’ at ten o’clock this mornin’, we’d have bit their hand off, right? Think about it; remember where we’d be now if it’d gone different.’
    We sat there in silence for a couple more minutes before Martin shouted us back through.
    ‘It’s been a bit of a struggle to find you anything, boys.’ He sat in his wheely chair and spun it one way then the other with his feet. ‘It must’ve suddenly got busy after Christmas – mechanics and construction are both full, as is catering, and even horticulture. But I have managed to find somewhere that can take you both for three days a week.’
    ‘Go on?’ I said.
    ‘Don’t forget, it’s a condition of your order; it counts towards your twenty five hours of education.’
    ‘Just tell us,’ Billy snapped.
    ‘Equine studies.’
    ‘What?’ Me and Billy had got to stop doing that.
    ‘Equine studies,’ he repeated. ‘Learning how to look after