Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: Hillbraith Ltd.
Type: Fiction
Pages: 80
Copyright: Oct 19, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780986592300
Having a good family friend as your headmaster might sound ideal, but Luke Brownlow soon finds that it just makes his life even more complicated.
Luke is in with the wrong crowd at school and his work is suffering. His parents take drastic action: banning him from seeing his friends and deciding to make him change schools. Luke falls out with his family completely and escapes by forming an acquaintance with his neighbour, Ned Kelly.
Luke plans to get expelled from his new school, but has to reassess the situation when he discovers that his new headmaster is the neighbour he has been getting to know over the summer. An antagonistic fellow student and the arrival of a runaway teenage girl make it harder to avoid confrontations with Ned than Luke had hoped. By the end of the school year he is in imminent danger of expulsion and is sure that he has lost the respect of the man he most admires.
Excerpt
"I take it that this is your handiwork?" Mr Wilmot hissed in Luke's ear.
In front of them, fixed over the usual photo of the headmaster, was the Wanted poster which Jay had produced, publicly declaring that Mr Kelly was guilty of crimes against fashion and cruelty to children and offering a £500,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
"Er," said Luke, trying to think of a response that would not incriminate them but finding his sleep-deprived brain slow to respond. Jay's was clearly not functioning properly either, because he blurted out "How did that get there?" which landed them well and truly in the frame.
"We didn't put it there, sir," Luke said hurriedly, attempting to limit the damage Jay had caused. "But it is my poster, yes. Just a joke, you know." He smiled optimistically, but sensed immediately that this time they weren't going to escape as lightly as before.
"This," said Mr Wilmot, ripping down the poster, "is defacing school property." He held up the artwork and tore it in half, with a sickening look of satisfaction on his face.
Luke thought of the graffiti which had disfigured many areas of his old school and felt this verdict was a bit strong. He was also annoyed to see Jay's poster destroyed and highly irritated that they were clearly about to become the scapegoats for some Viking idiot's idea of a joke. His temper got the upper hand and he found himself replying angrily.
"Oh come on, it's not that bad. Nothing's damaged. Apart from my poster, that is."
Mr Wilmot looked coldly back at Luke. His expression suggested that he thought Luke had finally shown his true colours.
"Sir," added Luke, as an afterthought. Much too late.
Ezra's a closeted medium. She's a novelist who writes stories about seeing dead people and claims they're fiction. Her life with Grant was peaceful until a rebel ghost named Jenna entered her life who doesn't like Grant. Allie, the resident ghost, li
