Come on, come on, two minutes to go, I really wish I didn’t clockwatch, the silence finally broken by the shrill ringing of the bell. The room erupted with the slamming of books and the screeching of chairs against the tiled floor. Another week over, I can’t wait to get out of school, I think I’ll go and get myself a McDonalds instead of going straight home, I’ve got enough money left for a juicy Big Mac, chips and a milkshake. I wonder if anyone wants to come with me, "hey Sam, are you going to town tonight?"

"No I can’t, I’m going out so I must get home," Sam replied. Oh rats, Sam’s a good laugh, who else might come?

"Jamie, fancy coming to McDonalds? I’m going to look at the new computer games shop as well."

"Sorry Dave, my Mum’s picking me up, but I know Twitcher Tate’s going to look at that new shop tonight, why don’t you go with him?!" Jamie laughed.

"Okay, cheers Jamie, see you Monday" he must be joking! Twitcher Tate was a small thin sickly-looking lad with unruly mop of blonde hair, we called him Twitcher because his right eye blinked involuntarily and every now and then his whole head jerked to the left. I know it was cruel but everyone made fun of him behind his back and there was no way I was asking him!

I decided I’d go by myself, I checked in my pocket for my bus pass and I made sure my money was still safe. I swung my bag onto my back, pulled on my hat and began to walk towards town. It was already dark and damp. My breath looked like smoke snorting out in rings against the cold night air. I started counting how many steps I was taking from one lamppost to the next, then I found myself avoiding stepping on the cracks of the pavement, God I’m sad, I thought to myself.

"Dave, Dave, wait for me," I spun around to see who it was, my heart sank as I saw Twitcher scrambling toward me. "Jamie told me you were going into town, can I come with you?" simpered Twitcher. How could I say no? Damn you Jamie, why did you have to tell him? Just then a bus sped by and Jamie and a few other friends were banging on the window laughing and pointing. I shook my head at them and mouthed ‘very funny’ by this time Twitcher had tucked himself up beside me, I quickened my pace which made Twitcher have to almost run to keep up.

We arrived at the shopping centre and pushed open the large glass door, the heat enveloped me, it was such a contrast from the night air, I pulled off my hat and stuffed it into my pocket. I looked down at Twitchers’ grinning face staring up at me, YUCK, how disgusting, his nose had a huge drip on the end which didn’t seen to fall off, no matter how much he moved his head!

What if someone were to see me with him, Sarah said she was coming into town tonight. Sarah was a girl I really liked. She was tall and willowy with dark brown, shiny hair and blue eyes which almost looked violet in the light. What if she saw me with this drippy nosed geek! I put my head down and hoped that I didn’t meet Sarah, I wasn’t watching where I was going and I tripped on something on the ground. I looked down at what it was, it was a filthy pair of boots, no laces and holes in the soles, and the boots belonged to a vagrant. He was crouched against the wall, his hair was matted, and his clothes were dirty and holey. He had a desperate look in his eyes. He had in front of him spread out on the floor a scarf onto which people had thrown money. There was also a piece of paper onto which ‘Could you spare some money for dog food?’ was written. I glanced around looking for the dog, it was snuggled in close to the vagrants side, I smiled at the dog and held out my hand, the dog stood up and sniffed at it. I patted the dog and it gave a little whimper. I recognized the dog, it had different coloured eyes and a white ear, yes it was definitely the same dog. I looked at the tramp, he avoided any eye-contact so I asked him,

"Do I know you?" He didn’t reply, he just scooped up his scarf, grabbed the string around the dogs neck and headed out of the shopping centre.

"Lets follow him" I said to Twitcher. He looked petrified and his head was twitching more than I had ever seen it before.

"No, I, I d, don’t think so Dave, come on, lets get a Big Mac."

"No, follow me Tate, I know I’ve seen that dog before, he’s on my paper round, it lives on Manor Road, you know, the huge houses?

I’d know it anywhere! Did you see its odd eyes? I bet that tramp has dog-napped him! I ran past Twitcher and grabbed at his coat, "come on, we’ll lose him!" I put my hand into my blazer and felt for my mobile phone, I would ring the police if I had to, his owners were loaded, maybe I’ll get a reward!

We followed the beggar out of the mall, down the High Street and into a large car park,

"Dave, I’m hungry. Let’s get a Maccy D’s, forget the tramp."

"SHH!"

I yanked at Tate’s shirt and pulled him behind the green recycle bin. He was still a quivering mess and he looked as if he had run a marathon. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and I felt as if my stomach had leapt out of my mouth and flown away. I nervously peered around the vast green hunk of glass and metal and, to my surprise, saw the tramp open the door of a brand new Lotus Elise convertible. I span back to the frightened puppy of a boy standing next to me and whispered to him

"He’s stealing a car!"

"What?" replied Tate.

"Look." Tate peered around the recycling bin and almost choked with amazement as he saw the tramp pull his matted hair off to reveal a well-groomed hair style. Then he took off the torn, weathered clothes and underneath he wore an Armani suit. I was watching in amazement as he revved up the car and rolled out of his parking space.

"The conman" I felt gutted. I turned to see what Twitcher was doing and to my surprise I saw him in front of the Lotus and forced him to get out. I couldn’t make out what he was saying but when he had finished he took the tramps clothes and wig and calmly placed them inside the ‘recycled clothes’ bin. I gawped at the twitching child before me. Then I smiled and said,

"Do you want to come down to town with me next Friday?"