Summer's Edge | Ch 1-4 preview

2. The Dog & Duck

Fake student ID cost five quid and a passport photo, and you got it from some guy called Ricardo at the local sixth form college. Back in those days, you could still smile in your passport photo.

"We should get into the Dog & Duck before closing," Jules said. "There's going to be a lock in."

Their good resolutions had lasted less than a week. By Friday they had decided they needed to relax and let off some steam. Staying home and studying could wait for another week.

Turning eighteen should have meant they no longer needed the fake student cards. But so many bars seemed to have over 21 nights these days. The cards did their trick and the doorman waved them through.

Such a throng of people. That was the problem with popular places, they were always packed. You could never get to the bar, never get a table.

Alice started looking around for people they knew. She recognised some people she didn't know but whom they often saw in the same venues. She also saw some people she half knew. People you could nod and say hi to, but not strike up a conversation with.

There was no one else from their school anyway. Alice tried to elbow her way to the bar to order drinks.

"Oh my god!" Becky was shrieking. "That guy over there, it's the new cricket coach."

"From school? Are you sure?"

"Yes, it's definitely him." Alice looked over to where Becky was pointing, and saw him from the side. Outside of the school setting he seemed even more handsome.

"Does that mean other teachers are here?" Jules looked around. She didn't want to be caught out on the town with fake ID.

"No, he's with a group of guys. I don't recognise any of them."

Jules studied them. "I think some of them are county cricketers. That red-haired guy looks familiar, I think he's a bowler." Her father was into cricket and sometimes dragged her to matches. "We should go and introduce ourselves." Jules was always the bold one.

"We can't do that! What would he think, seeing us in here? He might report us," Becky was the least adventurous of the three.

"I doubt he'd recognise us. It's only a week since term started and it's not like any of us play cricket," Jules said.

"If he doesn't know who we are, we can hardly introduce ourselves then."

But Jules was already pushing through the crowd towards the group. The cricketers had also scored one of the few booth tables which increased their appeal. At the Dog & Duck a booth was the next best thing to a VIP lounge.

Alice had seen the new coach around school a few times over the past week and had developed a bit of a crush on him. She was far from the only one who found him attractive. Coming from Australia he was tanned and healthy looking while everyone else was still winter-pale. She saw Jules had worked her charm with the red-headed guy and was now waving them over to join her. Alice fought her way through following Becky, trying not to spill the three drinks she was carrying.

A bald man stepped back and bumped into her nearly sending her flying, and then turned round to give her an angry glare because some drink had splashed on him. It's your fault, Alice wanted to say, but didn't dare. Any hint of a fight and they'd all be thrown out.

A couple of the guys stood up so the girls could sit round the table and Alice found herself seated next to the school cricket coach. There was one other man about his age, early thirties she guessed, sitting on the other side of him. The rest of the group looked younger. She noticed Becky was already making eyes at one of them.