Lena's Story Read online

  THE STREET

  Lena, Kai, Sanjay and Chelsea live on Swatton High Street.

  They are fourteen years old, and they are best friends. They’ll never let each other down…

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Hit and Run

  Chapter Two

  The Blame Game

  Chapter Three

  Runaway

  Chapter Four

  Man in the Mirror

  Chapter Five

  Haunted

  Chapter Six

  Ghostly Army

  Chapter Seven

  Stare Scare

  Chapter Eight

  Threat

  Chapter Nine

  Take Two

  Chapter Ten

  Into the Dark

  Chapter Eleven

  End Game

  Chapter Twelve

  Curtain Call

  Chapter Thirteen

  Puppy Love

  Bonus Bits!

  Chapter One

  Hit and Run

  Lena and Chelsea were out on Swatton High Street. Suddenly Lena grabbed Chelsea’s arm.

  “There’s a puppy in the road!” she cried, and pointed to a brown puppy that was racing along the street. “It might get hit by a car if we don’t catch it. It could be killed.”

  Chelsea was dropping coins into a charity collection tin for injured soldiers. The collector had been in the army with her brother, Tommy. She turned to where Lena was pointing. “It’s just racing up and down. I can’t bear to look,” she said nervously.

  Their friends Sanjay and Kai ran up behind them.

  “What’s up?” asked Kai. He looked at Lena in the way that always made her heart beat faster.

  Lena was glad he couldn’t see the effect he had on her. She turned her attention back to the puppy. “Look at that puppy. We need to do something. He could get killed!” she cried.

  “It looks a bit crazy,” said Sanjay. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled, but the puppy didn’t take any notice. It was chasing an empty drink can. It barked wildly as the can rolled towards the gutter. A car blasted its horn and swerved.

  “It can’t hear that whistle. Not with all this traffic noise,” said Chelsea. “Maybe we should…”

  But Lena didn’t stop to listen to Chelsea’s suggestion. She ran to the traffic lights and pressed the button for the crossing. The cars stopped and she stepped into the road. “Here boy, come here,” she called. “Come to me.”

  The puppy wagged his tail but ran off down the street. At the same moment, Chelsea screamed. “Lena, look behind you!”

  Kai and Sanjay were yelling too.

  “Watch out!”

  “You’re gonna get hit!”

  Lena turned.

  Two cyclists were hurtling towards her, overtaking the waiting cars. They were both wearing helmets that hid their faces. Lena could hear the one in front shouting, “Get out of the way!”

  Lena felt frozen with fear. They were coming straight at her.

  Kai and Sanjay were still yelling. Their shouts broke Lena’s trance. She leapt sideways just as the bikes raced past. “Idiots!” she called after them. Her legs felt weak as Kai grabbed her. He pulled her back to the pavement.

  Suddenly there was another yell. The four friends turned in horror. The puppy was dodging to get away from the first bike, and was right in the path of the second one. The second bike clipped the back leg of the puppy, knocking him backwards. His terrified yelps filled the air.

  “NO!” screamed Lena.

  The bikes raced away. They hadn’t even tried to swerve.

  Chapter Two

  The Blame Game

  Lena clutched the puppy tightly as she ran home. Chelsea, Kai and Sanjay ran with her. They burst in through the front door.

  “What’s all the fuss?” Lena’s dad appeared in the hallway. “I’m having a meeting with my new boss in the kitchen. We don’t need all this noise,” he said.

  “This puppy got hit by a bike,” Lena explained, and she relaxed her hold on the puppy to let Dad have a look. The puppy wriggled and jumped from her arms.

  “Hmmph, he doesn’t look hurt,” grumbled Dad.

  “Yay! I think he’s OK,” said Sanjay, grinning as the puppy sniffed at a briefcase by the stairs. Then the puppy scampered up to a pot plant and began chewing the leaves.

  “No bones broken then,” added Kai. “He’s bounding from one thing to another. Awesome.”

  Lena smiled at him. Trust Kai to be impressed by something ‘bounding’. Earlier that day she’d watched Kai train for kick-boxing and he was pretty good at bounding himself. Jumping, spinning and kicking. Watching him had given her another one of those ‘heart-beat’ moments, but she’d pushed it away. First, he lived next door. And second, there were always girls begging for his attention. Dating the boy next door was way too obvious. Anyhow, she was never going to beg for attention from any guy.

  She turned to the puppy again. “Dad, he’s so cute. Can I keep him?” Lena suddenly wanted this puppy more than anything. He’d felt so warm when she held him, and she had never had a pet. Dad always said they couldn’t afford it, but he had regular work now. Things were better than when they’d first arrived from Poland. She’d only been six then – it was eight years ago – but she still remembered how bad it had been.

  “No.” Dad shook his head. “It takes a lot of time to look after a dog. You would be better off getting a Saturday job and earning some money. Your mum said they’re advertising in The Street Café.”

  Lena pouted. Waitressing on a Saturday was not on her list of things to do.

  “I have got time for a dog,” she said. “Now that the theatre has closed and I don’t have drama lessons any more, I can take him out for walks.” Lena pouted again. She could usually get round Dad. “I’ve got a huge hole in my life that needs filling. And it won’t be filled by carrying coffee cups to strangers.”

  She felt her eyes sting with tears, and she didn’t wipe them away. It was good for Dad to see how much this mattered.

  Dad looked from Lena to the puppy, and she could see he was thinking about the idea. “We’ll talk about it later, when Mum finishes her shift at the hospital,” he said.

  Sanjay was still trying to catch the puppy, but the puppy scampered away into the kitchen.

  “Please, Dad…”

  At that moment there was a shout from the kitchen. “No! No! Let go!” There was a yelp and the puppy shot back into the hall again. Dad, Lena and her friends rushed to see what had happened.

  Dad’s boss, Mr Bukoski, was standing by the kitchen table. He held out one arm for them all to see. “That dog jumped up and tore my sleeve. This is a new jacket.” Mr Bukoski looked furious.

  “I’m so sorry,” Dad looked furious too. He turned to Lena’s friends. “It’s time for you to leave. And take that… animal with you.”

  “I’ll catch him,” said Chelsea.

  Lena watched her friends hurry away. They called goodbye as they left the house.

  Lena knew there would be no chance of her keeping the puppy now. But what would happen to him? Sanjay couldn’t keep him in his family’s Curry House restaurant. Chelsea’s mum ran The Crown pub, and wouldn’t even let dogs in the garden. Kai’s mum had a new baby. None of them would cope with a pet.

  “Make Mr Bukoski a coffee. Strong and black, the way he likes it,” said Dad. “We all need to sit down and calm down.”

  Mr Bukoski shook his head. “I don’t want coffee.” He still sounded angry. “I have other workers to talk to. I’ll be in touch if I need you,” he said, turning to Dad.

  “I’ll show you out.” Dad gave Lena another angry look. She felt sick. If Dad lost this work because of her, then they would be poor again. Mum would
have to do extra shifts. Her parents would be tired and stressed all the time.

  Dad led Mr Bukoski into the hall. She heard them talking by the front door. A moment later, there was a shout.

  Dad strode back into the kitchen. “One of your friends has taken Mr Bukoski’s wallet. It is not in his briefcase. You had better find out which one of them did it or he will tell the police.”

  Chapter Three

  Runaway

  Lena slammed out of the house. She was very angry. She raced past the kebab shop and then crossed the street by The Crown pub. Chelsea’s mum was cleaning the windows.

  Chelsea’s mum waved, but Lena was too upset to wave back. She didn’t want to speak to anyone. Most of all she couldn’t face seeing her friends. There was no way she was going to tell them that Dad and his boss thought they were thieves. How dare Dad say that about them! Stupid Mr Bukoski. He probably lost his wallet before he even got to their house.

  She slowed down once she was past The Curry House and stopped as she got near to the old Jester theatre. It was so sad to see it boarded up. She’d been in loads of shows there.

  Dad said the drama club was worth paying out for. Lena had heard him tell a workmate that learning lines was a good way to practise her English. Dad said speaking good English was important for the future, but she had not been given many lines to learn. Once she was cast as a squawking penguin. Dad was not impressed. He thought it was a waste of time. Lena scowled at the thought of Dad. She hoped he wouldn’t come looking for her.

  She turned down the road that led to the back of the theatre. It was boarded up round there too. There was a ‘KEEP OUT’ sign on the back door.

  The building was probably dangerous. The walls might crumble. The roof might fall in.

  Lena didn’t care. She needed somewhere to shelter. She was never going home again, not now Dad had been so horrible about her friends. And if he did lose his job because of her, she’d be in endless trouble anyway.

  Lena pushed at the door. It opened easily. Too easily. Almost as if someone had been there before her. But still Lena didn’t care. It was probably some homeless people hanging out there at night. She knew the theatre really well. There were plenty of places she could hide. No one would find her.

  Chapter Four

  Man in the Mirror

  The theatre was dusty and dark. Lena crept past the props room and along the corridor. She went past the rows of faded velvet seats that faced the stage. She had sat there lots of times, sometimes watching the rest of her drama club rehearse, sometimes just being in the audience. She kept moving, going towards the dressing rooms. Lena knew her way around. She could have walked it blindfolded. She felt a thrill as she reached the first dressing room. This was the star’s room. She’d never been in it before. She turned the door handle. The door opened with a creak.

  The dressing room was dark but a pale sun shone through the dirty window. Its rays were reflected in the cracked mirror.

  Lena could see shabby costumes hanging from a rail. She went over and touched them. There were dresses and cloaks, and a row of old soldiers’ uniforms. “I remember these uniforms,” she murmured to herself. “They were worn in a play I saw with my school. It was about the First World War.”

  She remembered more of her own costumes. One year, she’d been a fairy. She’d had to creep up a narrow, secret staircase behind the stage with all the other fairies. They had fluttered around the balcony seats, and all the mums and dads had said how cute they looked.

  Her own dad had thought that too. Now, he was thinking she hung around with a bunch of criminals.

  A movement in the mirror caught her eye. Lena got a glimpse of a pale, thin figure dressed in a soldier’s uniform. She spun around to check, but there was no one there. Her heart thudded as she turned back to the mirror. The reflection was gone.

  Lena frowned. Did the theatre have a ghost lurking about?

  She moved away, stepping over a scattering of old shoes that lay on the floor.

  Suddenly, one of the shoes moved on its own.

  Lena screamed.

  Chapter Five

  Haunted

  Lena watched, horrified, as the moving shoe scrambled onto a pile of old curtains. The shoe had a long, thin tail.

  A rat! Lena wasn’t sure if rats were worse than ghosts, but she wasn’t going to hang about any longer.

  She ran back out towards the seats.

  This was her ‘happy place’. Nothing bad would happen here. She could still remember the way the theatre had been when it was packed. Upstairs the balcony area was in shadow, but she remembered sitting there with Chelsea on the school trip. It had been great sitting up so high. She’d felt a bit dizzy too. They had both freaked out, imagining what it would be like to fall over the safety railings.

  Lena looked up at the domed ceiling. There were a few cracks in the gold patterns, but it all looked solid.

  Lena didn’t think it was about to fall down onto her head. She liked being out by the stage, with space around her. There wasn’t really a ghost in the dressing room. It was probably just one of the costumes reflected in the mirror. As for the rat – well, so what? Rats had to live somewhere, and they liked corners they could tuck into. It wouldn’t come after her out here.

  She sat in the front row, in one of the faded velvet seats. “I danced here once, on that stage,” she said out loud. “People watched me. People clapped.”

  Her voice echoed through the empty theatre. Lena looked at the stage that no one would ever dance on again.

  Then the idea came to her.

  She would dance on it one last time.

  She would sing too. Maybe the rats would even come out to watch.

  She giggled as she stood up. “Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Lena Kowlaski, the star of this show. I promise you singing, dancing and absolutely no squawking penguins. Not even the squeak of one.”

  She walked towards the stage, still smiling. But then the smile froze on her face. Someone was already there. He was watching her.

  His face was pale and thin.

  He wore a soldier’s uniform.

  “I’m so glad you’ve decided to join me up here,” he said. His voice was whispery. Half words, half moan. “I’ve been so lonely, for sooo long.”

  Lena gave a moan of her own, only hers was a moan of true terror.

  Chapter Six

  Ghostly Army

  Lena ran down the aisle. She turned to look, terrified that the ghost would be behind her, about to grab her.

  But he was still on the stage. Still watching her.

  Lena was shaking so hard that her teeth chattered.

  She wanted to get home. She would get that job in The Street Café and pay Mr Bukoski whatever he wanted. She would learn dressmaking and fix his jacket. She would be a perfect daughter who never did anything wrong.

  She raced along the corridor, stumbling past the props room. An old mop loomed like a sneering witch. Something fluttered up to the ceiling.

  She could hear small, desperate sobs echoing around her – and then realised the sobs were hers. “Please, let me get out. Let me get out.”

  But as she reached the back door, the ghost appeared in front of her. It stood swaying, pale and terrible. “Hello, lovely Lena. I hope you’re not leaving. I’m still waiting to see your show.”

  “H-how did you get here?” Lena backed away from the door, crashing into the mop. It clattered onto the floor.

  “Lena… Lena.” The ghost’s voice was still whispery. It seemed to drift around her like smoke. Lena felt as if everything were spinning. She felt giddy with fear. There were other voices now, all calling her name.

  “Lena.”

  “Lena.”

  How many ghosts were there? Ten? A hundred? Her mind was full of the ghosts. Lena stumbled backwards over the fallen mop and fell to the floor.

  Chapter Seven

  Stare Scare

  A ghost was attacking Lena. It was chewing her arm and licking h
er face. Even though Lena was still dazed from the fall, she knew the idea of a chewing, licking ghost was crazy.

  She opened her eyes. Chelsea, Kai and Sanjay all stared down at her.

  The puppy bounced around her and licked her face again.

  “You?” Lena sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. “I thought it was a ghost.” She tried to push the puppy away. “Hey, you. I’m not a tasty snack,” she said.

  She turned back to her friends. “How did you know I was here?”

  “Your dad rang my mum,” said Chelsea.

  “He said you’d run off because of a misunderstanding. He was worried about you. Mum had seen you heading this way, so she texted me. She said you looked upset.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Lena felt herself blush as she remembered what Dad had said about her friends. She hoped he hadn’t told them about the missing wallet.

  Sanjay helped Lena to her feet. Kai picked the puppy up and put him to one side. The puppy jumped up on his hind legs and stuck his nose in Kai’s back pocket. “Hey, get off my bum,” Kai laughed. “Look, he’s nicked my house-key this time.”

  “He keeps taking stuff,” Chelsea said. “Then he runs off and buries it. We’ve called him Robbie. Robbie the robber-dog.”

  They all watched as Robbie tried to bury Kai’s keys under a pile of old theatre programmes.

  Lena rested her head on Kai’s shoulder. “It’s so good to see you all,” she sighed.

  “It’s good to see you too,” said Chelsea. She hugged Lena.

  “But what was it you were saying about a ghost?” asked Sanjay. “When we turned up we only saw you, just tangled up with a mop on the floor.”