Music and Lies (George and Finn Book 1)

For Alex and Zack,

who understand the value of a good book

Chapter One

GEORGE

Why were the lights on? My dad’s house was supposed to be empty.

I stopped and squinted through the dusk. It couldn’t be Dad or Janice, because their car wasn’t here. They might have left a light on to keep burglars away but it wasn’t likely. Mum worried about that kind of stuff but not Dad.

I pushed the rucksack further up my shoulders. The lights I could see were upstairs, so no use looking through the windows at the front. The kitchen was at the back and maybe there would be someone in there? I crept around the side of the house, keeping off the gravel. What was going on?

It had taken me hours to get here on the stupid bus, not to mention all the planning so Mum didn’t suspect.

There was a light on in the kitchen but the window was too high to see much. I put down the rucksack and climbed onto the bottom of a drainpipe.

There were two people inside, but neither of them were Dad or Janice. They were making themselves at home, one of them reaching for mugs from a cupboard. This was totally weird. I pulled myself up higher, to get a better look. And lost my footing, slithering to the ground with a crash.

I turned my ankle and swore at the pain, but worse than that, they had heard me. I just wanted to grab the rucksack and run, but before I had chance the back door had banged open and a man came barrelling out.

‘Hey! What’s going on? What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’ He was thickset with a shaven head. His voice made me shiver. He didn’t look like he would take kindly to being told this was
my
house and why the hell was he here?

I grabbed my pack, but before I could run a girl said, ‘Shit, it’s Georgina. George, what on earth are
you
doing here?’

I stopped. It was my sister – step-sister – Becky.

At least, it sounded like her voice but I didn’t recognise her in the gloom. I hadn’t seen her for years. I thought her and her mum weren’t even on speaking terms.

As she came closer I got a better look. Her appearance was completely bizarre. She had about ten piercings in each ear, one in her nose and one at the centre of her bottom lip. Her eyes were ringed with so much dark stuff she could have been punched. But oddest of all was her hair. It hung past her shoulders in long twisted dreadlocks. I’d never seen them on a girl before.

‘Why were you looking through the window?’ she said. ‘In fact, why are you here at all? Jeez, this is all we need. Didn’t you know your dad and my mum are away for a fortnight?’

Of course I knew that, it was the reason I was here! Someone else being here wasn’t part of my plan though.

I picked up the rucksack by one strap and followed them inside.

Becky insisted on making me a hot drink and we all stood around in the kitchen while she did it. She kept shooting glances at the man that made me nervous. He didn’t say anything. I was quiet, too, trying to work out my story.

‘Okay, tell me what’s going on,’ said Becky as she led the way through to the sitting room.

She looked
so
weird. I remembered her mum saying she had gone ‘a bit hippie’. As far as I was concerned it was more than that. She used to be so pretty. Now I wasn’t sure what she was, but she was definitely eye-catching.

‘Who is she, anyway?’ said the man. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me since I appeared. I sat as far away from him as I could.

‘She’s my step-sister,’ said Becky, as though this was obvious. ‘My step-dad’s daughter.’

‘Oh, Alexander the bloody great.’ He laughed as though he’d made a joke.

He hadn’t. I glared at him. My dad might be a total pain but it wasn’t up to this guy to criticise him. And Dad wasn’t nearly as bad as my mum, which I suppose made him not a total pain, just half way there.

‘Does your mum know you’re here?’ asked Becky. Her voice was still posh private school, and it didn’t go with her appearance at all.

‘Yes, of course,’ I said.

‘Aren’t you a bit young to be here on your own? What are you now, fourteen?’

‘Fifteen,’ I said. ‘Almost sixteen.’ Well, I would be in a few months’ time.

‘Still too young to be left on your own,’ she said. ‘What on earth are you doing here? Mum and Alexander are away.’

Of course I knew that. And of course Mum
didn’t
know. She’d never have let me come here for the holidays if she had. I’d played it pretty brilliantly, telling her I’d make all the arrangements with Dad myself. She thought this was a sign of me growing up. She’d been glad to leave it to me; my little sisters kept her busy enough.

I said airily, ‘Look, Mum knows I’m here. I’ve got mock GCSEs straight after the holidays and I’m going to spend the time studying. It’ll be really peaceful.’ And I was planning to do some studying. Definitely. I just hadn’t expected to find two weirdos camped out in the house.

Becky was frowning. ‘Your mum doesn’t know you’ll be here
on your own
, right? God, George, you’re just a child, you can’t stay here alone.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ I said. Honestly, why did she have to interfere?

‘You need to phone your mum and tell her there’s been a mistake and you’ll come back home.’

I played my trump card. ‘I can’t. Mum and Steve and the kids have gone to Lanzarote. So if I went back, there’d be no one to look after me there either. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine here.’

Becky shook her head and looked unhappy, fiddling with one of the bright loops in her ear.

I said, ‘Anyway, I won’t be on my own, will I, if you’re here?’

‘We’re not staying here long,’ said Becky, glancing at the man.

‘Just tonight,’ said the man. ‘I’m Dex, by the way. And tomorrow we’re heading off to the Keilty Forest Festival.’ He leaned forward. He had a tattoo that ran down his neck and under his shirt. It was red and black but I couldn’t make out what the picture was. He kept his eyes on me. ‘Tell you what.’ He paused, looking me up and down again in a way that was
really
creepy. ‘If you don’t want to stay here on your own, why don’t you come with us?’

Well, maybe he wasn’t so bad after all! The Keilty Music Festival! Being at home alone, able to do anything I wanted, when I wanted – that would have been cool enough. But a chance to go to a real, music festival? Yes!

Becky was fidgeting again, twirling her hair around her fingers. ‘I don’t know …’

‘We can’t leave her here, can we?’ said Dex. ‘You just said. So she’ll have to come.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Becky again. ‘Isn’t there anyone else you can go and stay with?’

‘No one,’ I said quickly. I wasn’t going to miss a chance like this. And when I did a quick mental check of my friends I realised it was true, which was lucky. I’m not much good at lying.

‘What about, er, Amanda? And what was your other friend called? Sophie?’

I was surprised and impressed she remembered, but said truthfully, ‘They’re both away. Sophie’s family are into skiing and Manda’s gone to her gran’s.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course I’m sure.’

‘Shit.’ Becky frowned, chewing on a long dark lock. ‘Well, I s’pose … We could take you. Maybe.’

‘That’s right.’ Dex grinned, showing big, uneven teeth. ‘Come with us. We’ll look after you.’

The guy was a bit unsettling, but I could put up with him for a chance like this. They were offering to take me to something I’d been hearing about for months. I was thinking,
me? go to the Forest Festival?
It was unbelievable. The festival was famous – or infamous. It had a reputation of being really wild. It had been running for years, set in the depths of a different forest each time. This year it was in Keilty, just over the border in Scotland, the first time it had been anywhere near us. I’d been desperate to go, but Mum wouldn’t hear of it. She said only irresponsible parents let their kids go to things like that.

‘Well, if you’re sure …’ I said, as if I wasn’t absolutely desperate to go.

Chapter Two

GEORGE

Later I went up to my room, but I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. I was quite pleased when Becky appeared. I’d found it hard to talk to her with Dex around. Now I could ask her all the things I wanted to know, like when did the festival start and what were Dex and her going to do there and why couldn’t we head off
right now
?

She sat down on the edge of my bed and said, ‘Look, are you sure about this? Coming with us, I mean. Isn’t there someone you’d rather go and stay with?’

‘Er, not really,’ I said, trying to be offhand. ‘Like I said, Manda and Sophie are both away and I’m not good friends with anyone else.’

‘So how’s Roly Poly Mandy Pandy these days?’ She smiled ever so briefly.

‘Not so roly poly anymore. She’s grown or lost weight or something.’

‘Is she still top of the class?’

‘Always. She says she can’t help it.’ It was almost like old times, chatting to Becky about my friends. ‘But at least she’s got a boyfriend now.’

‘And you? Got any boys in tow?’

‘Not at the moment,’ I said. I’d thought I had a thing going with Philip Bailey, but apparently he was a cheating little shit. Manda had seen him snogging Janey Winters when I was away at Dad’s, so that was the end of that.

But I didn’t want to talk about him so I asked, ‘How long have you and Dex been going out? And is his name really Dex?’

‘Short for Derek. We’ve been together for … a while.’

‘How did you meet him?’

She shrugged and didn’t answer. ‘I know Mum doesn’t like him but he’s all right. He looks after me.’

It seemed an odd thing to say. And if he was looking after her, he wasn’t doing it very well. What I’d taken for heavy make-up was at least partly shadows under her eyes, which were also bloodshot. Maybe she was just tired.

‘Do you go to lots of festivals?’

‘Yeah, didn’t I say? That’s how Dex makes his money. He, like, looks after security and stuff.’ She must have noticed me looking puzzled. Dex didn’t look capable of organising anything, especially not security for a massive festival. ‘The festivals we go to aren’t that big, you know, not like
T in the Park
or something. We’re more into, you know, the alternative ones. The Forest Festivals are always awesome. You don’t get so much
hassle
there.’

I’d always thought Becky was pretty laid back, but now she seemed completely spaced out. I couldn’t help wondering what kind of hassle she was referring to. Drugs sprang to mind.

‘Well, if you’re sure you want to come,’ she said, pushing herself to her feet as though it was an enormous effort.

‘Yes, definitely.’

I wanted to talk to her some more but she drifted out of my room. I’d got used to her not being around, but I’d still missed her. I’d always really liked Becky. She’d been cool to me when my dad and her mum got together. I’d been about eight at the time so she must have been fourteen or fifteen. It can’t have been much fun for her, having a kid sort-of-sister hanging around her in the holidays, but she had been pretty tolerant.

I’d hero-worshipped her. When she went off to uni, then dropped out, then stopped coming home at all, I’d been sorry. The girls Mum had had with Steve were cute, don’t get me wrong, but they weren’t all that interesting.

It looked like I was going to have the chance to catch up with Becky again. That would be so brilliant.

But right now, I had other things to think about. Like packing for a music festival!

I spent some time sorting through the clothes I’d brought with me, plus some of the stuff I’d left at Dad’s last time. This was a real festival and I needed to take the right things. None of my clothes were anything like what Becky wore, which were a strange mixture of Goth and ballroom. Anyway, I didn’t want to look like I was copying her. I needed to work out a style of my own.

I had a couple of pairs of skinny jeans, some shorts that looked really cool with tights, and some camis and really cute vest tops that Mum didn’t approve of at all. I think secretly she still wished she could dress me the way she dressed my two little sisters. They were one and three years old, and didn’t seem to object to her pink and white frills. Actually, they looked quite sweet in them.

Mum and I had reached a kind of compromise. I wasn’t allowed to go to school looking like a tart (her word) and she wouldn’t fund anything she disapproved of, but she didn’t actually stop me wearing stuff I’d bought with my own money. It was lucky I made quite a bit from helping with the kids. Plus Dad was pretty generous with his allowance. I think he felt it made up for him never knowing what to talk to me about.

I decided to try out a new look right now.

First I put on my favourite vest, one with tiny straps and a very low neckline. Then I began to experiment with make-up. Mum didn’t object to me wearing some, as long as I didn’t
overdo it
. She could understand I wanted to hide my freckles, she had the same red-hair and pale, fragile look herself. But she had a thing against eye-liner. Now I could really make use of the new gel liner and extreme impact mascara. Go me!

Then I moved on to my hair. Dark red and wavy, it was
so
uncool. But if I straightened it and put wax through it I could manage to get it to hang over one eye, and then really it didn’t look bad. Mum hated it like that, which had to be a plus.

I examined myself in the mirror when I’d finished: skimpy silver top, dark, dark eyes and hair hiding half my face, with the back pinned up high to make me look taller. I thought I looked pretty good. Not sexy like Becky, but at least a bit older than I normally did, and
not boring
. I didn’t even look totally flat-chested. It was amazing what those new bras could do! Mum would have had a fit, but I thought it was a pretty good investment of my hard-earned cash.

I heard someone moving around outside my door and leapt under the duvet. I’d be embarrassed if Becky came back and found me dressing up, but mostly I
really
didn’t want that guy Dex to see me like this. Perhaps, after all, I would cover up a bit more tomorrow.

Dex didn’t seem in any hurry to leave the next day, even though he’d been the one who said they were only staying here one night. He might sneer at Dad and Janice’s ‘posh’ house but he was happy enough to use the facilities. The evening before, he’d persuaded Becky to get some steaks out of the freezer and cook them for us. Then he’d polished off a bottle or two of Dad’s wine and taken a long bath in the new bathroom. When he eventually got up the following morning he had another bath.

I began to think we were never going to leave.

Becky had got up early and helped me find a tent and a sleeping bag and a wind-up lamp, but it was lunchtime now and we were still here. All my clothes, plus my books for revising, didn’t leave much space in my rucksack for the sketch pad, but I’d managed to squeeze it in. Mum said me wanting to do art was just a fad and the sooner I got over it the better. She was wrong, but I hadn’t found a way to convince her yet.

If it hadn’t taken me so long to pack it, I might have got the pad out again and had a go at doing a line drawing of Becky. She was still beautiful, in a totally odd-ball way.

We were all in the sitting room, Becky leaning on the window sill, when she gave a sudden yelp. ‘Dex! Someone’s looking at your van! Dex, come and see.’

Dex was lounging back in Dad’s leather armchair, digging into the massive brunch she had made for him. ‘Warisit?’ he said with his mouth full.

‘It’s a white car … My God, I think it’s a police car … they’re getting out … Dex! They’re looking at the van!’ Becky sounded totally panicked.

‘So what? It’s a free country, isn’t it? We can park there if we like.’

I made a move to look out of the window but Becky pulled me back. ‘Don’t let them see you.’ Jesus, she really was paranoid. ‘Anyway, they’re heading off.’

‘Told you it was nothing,’ said Dex.

I don’t know whether it was because of this scare, or the phone call that Dex took shortly after, but an hour or so later he finally got his act together. Laden with a few more bottles of Dad’s wine, and half the tins from the pantry, we set off.