Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [9]
He had to pack his suitcase to go to Magical College.
He was packing his suitcase to go to Magical College.
Not to go on holiday, he didn’t want to go on holiday, ‘a holiday in the sun, Bobbles, oh, we’ll have a wonderful time,’ but it wasn’t the sun part or the holiday part that bothered him, it was the Mum part. He could be quite happy lying on a beach, sunglasses hopefully hiding the fact that he was watching the girls in their bikinis – dreaming that any minute now they’d look back at him, and it wouldn’t be with pity or disdain for the skinny kid with pale skin and spots, it’d be with understanding as they divined that his soul was the twin of theirs, and it made them want him, need him, be desperate for him…
But he had his mum with him.
His mum who called him ‘Bobbles’, even in front of his friends, even in front of girls. His mum, who’d suddenly start rubbing sun‐tan lotion on his back while he was chilling on the sand, like he was six years old.
Who read out things from her horrible women’s magazines really loudly, so everyone could hear and know that she liked really rubbish things.
Who wore rubbish clothes and rubbish shoes and really hideous sunglasses just to embarrass him.
Who’d tell complete strangers about all the ‘funny little things’ he’d ever done, from bed‐wetting onwards.
Who’d make a fuss in restaurants by actually asking questions about the food, making him want to bury his head in shame.
Mum hadn’t thought they’d be able to afford a holiday this year, and he was so glad, because he could stay in his room all summer and listen to CDs and read books and think about how when he went down the shops he might bump into Suzie Price and they’d get talking and she’d hint that she thought he was a really great guy; which was much better than really going down the shops, because he might really bump into Suzie Price and none of the rest of it would happen, which would spoil the daydream completely.
And his mum, who did go down the shops, had won him this games thing, which only had one game with it but was really good anyway and he’d been playing it loads and was going to win the prize and he was quite happy to keep on doing that for the summer.
But then she’d won this holiday. And it didn’t say anywhere on the card if it was for one person or the whole family, but Mum said that these things were always for families so she was sure it would be OK. And he prayed that it wouldn’t be, that it’d be just for her, and she’d go off without him and miraculously decide he was old enough to be left on his own and he could be happy. But she’d asked, and said she wouldn’t go if she couldn’t take her Bobbles, and they’d said it was fine.
So he was packing his suitcase to go on holiday.
…and when he arrived at Magical College, the head sorcerer shook him by the hand and said, ‘Robert Watson! This is such an honour. I know you’re going to be naturally talented at absolutely everything. Because you’re special.’
* * *
‘Or we could go back to your mum’s, if you want,’ said the Doctor, and Rose couldn’t help thinking he sounded unenthusiastic.
‘I told her we’d be back for tea,’ she said. ‘We could do something until then. I know there’s not time to save the whole world, but if we can find something smaller that needs saving, like a village or something, we could probably manage that.’
‘So saving you from a knife‐wielding thug doesn’t count as my good deed for the day?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, I never got that,’ said Rose. ‘How Scouts and Brownies and stuff only had to do one good deed a day. I mean, if they, I don’t know, saw someone drowning, but they’d already helped an old lady across the road, would they let them sink?’
The Doctor grinned. ‘Yeah, the Scout law’s really strict on that sort of thing. “You will do exactly one good deed a day and no more.” If