Plan B

Chapter Twenty-three

Aaron’s prediction proved true the very next day.  Fran had barely managed to step out of the boarding house before she was besieged by screaming girls.

“It’s Frankie!”

“Oh my God, look, it’s Frankie!”

“Isn’t he just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”

“Frankie!  We love you!”

“Frankie, can you please give this to Brookie for me?”

Bewildered, Fran had been pushed back against the house wall and showered in gifts for both herself and Brookie before she’d even worked out what was going on.

A large box of chocolates wrapped up with a glaring pink bow was forced into her hands.  Fran stared around herself in a daze.  All the faces blurred together and she genuinely had no idea how many people were hemming her into the side of the building.  There was a fair amount of jostling going on as people at the back tried to get further to the front, and the result was squishing Fran against the wall.  Pain jarred through her hip as it bashed against a protruding brick.  She squinted, trying to see if there was a way out, but she might as well not have bothered.  It would have been a miracle if even Pythagoras had found room to move in the crowd.

Dear lord, how does Brookie stand this? she wondered in despair, ignoring the clamours for her to act as a go-between between the fans and Brookie and the flirtatious looks and comments that many of the females in the crowd were shooting her.  The only thing she could compare it to was like being an extra-juicy hunk of raw meat surrounded by ravenous, slobbering wolves who were even snap-happier than the paparazzi at a major event.

She had almost been squished as flat as a pancake by the crowd and blinded by the camera flashes before the door opened and her salvation appeared in the form of Rico.

“Oi, break it up, girls!” he bellowed, forcing a path through the crowd to Fran’s side.  He had to fight the last few metres.  “Everybody has class to get to, and those of you who are in the wrong school this morning could get done for truancy.  Leave the poor kid a bit of space.”  He managed to get close enough to grab Fran’s wrist.  The two girls nearest immediately clawed at his arm, trying to make him let go.  Rico impatiently batted them away and drew Fran close to him.  Fran was too dazed by what had happened and the number of times her head had cracked against the wall to complain.

“Scram, pronto, or I’ll call security!” Rico yelled loudly as more girls, with a couple of fan boys in their midst, surged forward, trying to separate him and Fran.  Rico dug his phone out of his pocket and held it up above his head, out of the way of anybody who might try to snatch it.  “Ten!  Nine—!”

The pressure from the crowd began to ease up, but Rico had still reached two before it was safe for him and Fran to move again.

“One!” he shouted, dialling in a number.  Seeing how serious he was, the girls reluctantly backed off.

Rico kept the phone aloft as he steered Fran out of their midst, a clear warning not to even attempt following.

“Right,” he said once they had crossed the courtyard in front of the boys’ boarding house and entered the archway that let through to the main school.  “Where do you need to go?”  He lowered his arm and tucked his phone into a pocket.

Fran just looked at him, running her tongue over a swollen bottom lip.  Fans were dangerous.  Rico came to a halt and let go of her arm.

“You look like a total wreck,” he told her, “and this is only your first day.  How do you plan to cope with this?”