Chapter 7

Ezra carried his stuff up to his new room. It was a box room, and used to be room of his youngest half-sister, but she was now sharing with her elder sister. It was barely bigger than seven-foot square, but it was about fifty miles from Chester, and that made it perfect.

Adam helped him and put the boxes down at the foot of the bed. "It'll take you a few days to find homes for all of this," he suggested and Ezra nodded.

"Yeah. I might need to throw some stuff out."

"I know it's not as big as your room with Tara and Michael but..."

"It's fine Dad," Ezra told him and looked out of the window. They were at the end of a small cul-de-sac and his room looked out directly over the street. "Is it OK if I go for a wander."

"Explore your new surroundings?" Adam asked and Ezra chortled.

"Just to stretch my legs, been cooped up in the van for two hours."

Adam smiled. "Oh and Paula has booked us in at the local College at nine. We need to talk to them to get you enrolled on a course. If you want to stay in education, but you do right?"

Ezra nodded as he picked up his coat from the bed. "Yeah. Physics. Or Maths."

Ezra stepped out onto the street and crossed the road. He had noticed a small alleyway between two houses opposite when they arrived and wanted to see where it went. He needed to know where he lived!

Ezra turned the corner, and ducked the moment he did, instinctively. A ball sailed past his cheek and bounced against the fence behind him.

"Sorry mate," a wiry boy called out and Ezra retrieved the ball and kicked it thirty yards so it landed at the boy's feet. "Nice pass," he called out and Ezra walked over to him and his two playing companions.

"You play?" He asked sharply.

Ezra took a deep breath and grinned. "Yeah, I play. Centre midfield mostly. A Paul Ince role, hacking down opposition."

The boy dropped the ball and kicked it towards Ezra who deftly controlled it, let it bounce and flicked it towards the top corner of the goal thirty yards away, leaving the 'keeper no chance of saving it.

"Wow! Awesome hit," the boy cried appreciatively. "How d'ya do that?"

Ezra just stared at his trainers and shrugged. "Just flicked it," he murmured and the boy grinned.

"It was cool, I'm Robbie, that's Matt and the shit goalie is Nicky."

"Ezra," he introduced himself. "Just moved in at number ... well that house over there."

"Oh, Adam Strickland," Matt replied. "He did our bathroom."

"Yeah, there."

The ball sailed over their heads and Nicky grinned. "Wake up," he shouted and Ezra ran the thirty metres to fetch the ball, put it on his right foot and passed the ball to Matt who volleyed it over the bar.

"You bastards," Nicky moaned and traipsed off to retrieve the ball, now nestling in the nettles at the side of the small park. "It's your turn to go in goal," he shouted and Matt and Robbie looked at each other.

"I'll go," said Ezra and walked over. "I used to play in goal sometimes."

These guys definitely had potential to be friends, a concept he had barely experienced in Chester.

"Do you need a hand with that?" Ezra asked as he waited in the drive for his new family. The pretty girl from next door had several shopping bags of heavy files and books that she was struggling with and Ezra jumped over the three foot wall and grabbed a few.

"Cheers," she said and he helped her carry the huge bags into their front room. "It's a whole load of work I need for my course," she told him and he put them down.

"What are you doing?"

"Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths. I want to be a vet."

Ezra nodded and the girl just smiled. "Let me show you our rabbits."

Ezra hesitated and looked out of the window. "Sure, I'm waiting for my family and they are being a bit slow."

The girl smiled and introduced herself as Jenny and then showed him the rabbits in the back garden, by opening the hutched and picking up the smallest.

"This is Muffin, she is the youngest but she is so adorable." Ezra smiled and looked at the girl, she looked at least seventeen or eighteen and had a thin face with luscious long black hair. She was pretty and Ezra bit his lip. Why was he nervous? He was never normally nervous around women!

"Ezra," an exasperated voice shouted and Ezra groaned and shot out of the front door.

"Sorry. I was just helping the neighbours."

Fiona – his father's partner - smirked when she saw Jenny come to the door and wave at Ezra, who returned it.

"She's way too good for you," Fiona told him jokingly and he just grunted as he climbed into Fiona's small car. They were going to enrol at his new College, and as his dad had been called away at short notice to do an urgent job, Fiona was going to take him.

"Sorry, no places left," the Principal of the College told Ezra who sighed as Ezra's choice of A Levels was rejected.

"Right, what have you got places for then?"

Ezra rubbed his furrowed brow and Fiona shifted awkwardly. Ezra was being a little aggressive but it was his future at stake.

"We can do the Maths but not the Further Maths or Physics or Chemistry."

Ezra sighed and picked up the booklet again. "Computing?"

"Yes, we can let you do that. General Studies, obviously."

Ezra shook his head. "I don't want to do General Studies. What about Electronics?"

"Electronics is only done by pupils who have outstanding results at GCSE, it is a very tough subject. And everyone does General Studies unless they get outstanding GCSE results in which case they can do another academic course."

Ezra sighed. "Well if you let me take Electronics, I'll do General Studies," Ezra offered and the Principal looked at Fiona and then the teenager with raised eyebrows. Rarely did a student try to negotiate what the College said they could or couldn't do for A Levels. It was unheard of, some subjects they could only do if they reached a particular threshold on their GCSE's and while this boys results weren't bad, they were some way short of what he would want to see.

The Principal flashed a nervous smile. "As I said, some subjects are for exceptional students, they are very tough."

Ezra looked at the clock and groaned. "It's just we've been here for over an hour, and you want me to take a subject I don't want to, and I want to take a subject you don't want me to. Let's meet in the middle?"

The Principal scribbled a note on his paper and hummed.

"Well after four weeks, I'll happily take a test to show that I am coping with the subject. If I fail it, I'll change it," Ezra promised. "But all the other subjects I want to do are full and won't help me at all with my career."

"And that is?"

"International Spy and Explosives Expert." There was a silence as the Principal stared at Ezra open-mouthed before Ezra burst out laughing. "I want to go into engineering, electrical engineering, I think."

The Principal grinned. He had never met anyone so dogmatic in his tenure at the College, and agreed to speak to the tutors who ran the course. He promised nothing, but he guessed Ezra would be doing Electronics; and he'd put money on him to pass any tests set at the end of September.

"Maria," called her father and she poked her head from the door.

"What dad? I'm working."

"Come here, now!" Michael barked and Maria reluctantly walked downstairs. On the television was a picture of a naked young girl with her breasts out, stroking the nipples.

It was her.

She shrieked and jumped forward to stop the tape.

"Well young lady," her mother barked.

"I'm expecting a tape from a colleague who wants me to review the material and all I find is you being a slut. It's not on, Maria. Have you been sleeping with this guy?"

Maria burst into tears and her mother comforted her. "I didn't want to, but he said I had to."

"I'll kill him. I'll kill that Gareth," Michael thundered and grabbed his keys. "Where does he live?"

"Not Gareth, Ezra. Ezra told me to sleep with him. And he made the videos."

"He did what?"

"He said that if I didn't want to lose him I had to."