Ogg Read online

  Chapter 15

  The next day Antonia went to school, and tried to concentrate on her lessons. Her A levels were coming up and this wasn’t the time to let small things like the end of the world divert her from her purpose. O.K. she admitted that, while before all this stuff with Ogg blew up, the A level results were the most important thing in her life, but now they were only possibly the most important. But, all the same, in spite of Ogg’s lack of progress, the end of world was by no means certain either. So she buckled down to thinking about the causes of the Second World War, differential equations and the use of the subjunctive form of the verb in French. Whenever her mind started to wander, she reminded herself how awful it would be if the world was saved and then she didn’t get the points she needed for University. In this way she managed to keep her mind more or less on what the teachers were droning on about for the whole day. Though heaven knows how much of it she would remember!

  When she came out of the last lesson, she was vaguely aware of one of her classmates talking to her, but, frankly, the annoying idea that neither Ogg nor Perg had been touch all day was bumping around inside her brain and she really only heard snatches of what the person – oh, it was the spotty boy who was always second to her in Maths - was saying. She caught ‘... and I really don’t understand it’, but that was all. She had no idea what he didn’t understand. And, frankly, it was embarrassing. She didn’t dislike the boy, but he was a bit pompous and it usually gave her a bit of guilty pleasure to help him out with the more difficult bits of the course. And now she didn’t know what he was talking about. God, but she was going to look stupid! Then, thankfully, her mobile phone went off. She looked quickly – it was Perg.

  “Sorry, urgent message. Talk to you tomorrow!” And she ran off, reading the message as she went. ‘Urgent. Meet me in MacDonalds’, it said.

  No way was she going to met him in MacDonalds. She’d got away with it yesterday, but right now it was just after school! Everyone would be there. And who did he think he was, ordering her about like that? She dialed his number.

  “It’s me”, she said. “What’s all this about?”

  “Ogg needs to talk to us. Come down to MacDonald’s right away!”

  “If Ogg wanted to speak to me, why didn’t he do it in the usual way? When did he appoint you as his messenger?”

  “Don’t get angry with me, Ant! I’m only passing on the message. You know Ogg moves in mysterious ways.”

  She found herself wondering why she was so short-tempered with him. She didn’t mean to be. He wasn’t a bad guy. Maybe it was the stress. How often does someone have to cope with the end of the world and A-levels at the same time? Her quick temper was entirely excusable, in her opinion. All the same, she ought to try to be nice.

  “Look, I’m sorry. I’ll come. But not to MacDonalds! I’ll meet you in the coffee shop across the road.” Being nice was all very well, but there were limits. Her crowd almost never went to the coffee shop. Probably nobody would see them.

  “I don’t suppose you’ve had your hair cut –or at least washed ?” she asked him.

  “What are you talking about?” he replied, bemused.

  She didn’t know what she would do with him.

  “Well at least wear a clean t-shirt.” she commanded, and switched of the phone.