Losing William: Keri Series, #1

By Jenni Francis

Keri Walker is a high- achieving all rounder who upsets her friends when she receives an award at school. Things get rapidly worse when her parents separate and she finds herself alone at a time when she really needs someone to talk to. Then, when looking after her little brother at the local shopping mall, she leaves him briefly and he disappears.

Thus begins the worst time in Keri's life. In the attempt to navigate her way through this nightmare scenario she finds out who her real friends are, and with their help she sets out in search of her missing brother.

This story is set in New Zealand, and is the first of the 'Keri' series. It is an absorbing tale of changing relationships and discovery among family and friends that offers valuable life lessons for all children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jenni Francis
• Release date: Aug 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780473294533

Jenni Francis

Jenni Francis lives in New Zealand. She lives on five acres, with an orchard, sheep and a river. She has a cat named Tui, who is very greedy, and who doesn't love children. Which is a shame, as she has twelve grandchildren.Jenni has been writing for about 20 years, and loves to write children's stories. She has six books of the 'Keri' series published so far, and is writing book seven. The main character, Keri, finds herself in difficult situations. Her friends don't always agree with what she does, but they are always there for her in the end.She also has a book of short stories for boys. Not girls.

Book preview

Chapter 1

‘Keri?’ Miss Tanner called. ‘Where are you? Oh, there you are. Mr Pritchard wants you in his office right now, please.’

I looked up in surprise. Then immediately a feeling of dread and hot and cold rolled through me. There had been two rumours doing the rounds at school. One was that some people were up for some award. Someone said there was something about it in the papers. The other was that year eight students who were not ‘performing to their potential’ were going to be given a severe talking to by the principal. This was our last term before going on to high school and the teachers wanted us to be doing our best for our reports.

I started praying that it was neither of these.

I got up off the floor where I had been working on a project with Darren and Amy and smoothed down my uniform. Thirty-one pairs of eyes were on me.

‘Oooh, you’re in trouble,’ whispered Amy.

‘What does he want me for?’ I asked.

‘I couldn’t say,’ Miss Tanner replied, ‘but you’d better not keep him waiting.’

I went slowly down the stairs. My mind was a confused jumble of thoughts. I knew I hadn’t been working well in class lately. I’d lost my drive and enthusiasm and I was unhappier than anyone knew. I just did not know what to do about it.

No one else was around but there was a rumble of voices coming from the different classrooms as I passed. One class was reciting something, I could not tell what.

My school was typical of intermediate schools. The main block was on two levels in the shape of a capital ‘I’. Eight classrooms up and down formed the stem of the ‘I’ and art, music, food technology and home-craft rooms were at either end.

Other transportable classrooms were scattered around the school. Joining the main block was the hall, library and administration block. From our classroom upstairs we had windows facing two ways, with views over the sports fields one way and the surrounding houses the other way. I often felt sorry for the people in those houses who were home during the day.

It was bad enough at morning interval and lunchtime with the noise from everyone running around, but when Mr Slater, the caretaker, had the incinerator burning in the afternoon, it would have been terrible. We were not meant to put food scraps in the paper bins, but often people did, and I hated the smell of burning orange peel. That was the smell that was enveloping the school now, and it intensified the sick feeling in my stomach.

I went down to reception. Mrs Clapham, the school secretary, asked me to wait in the hall outside the principal’s office. She scared me a bit, and I never liked being given the task of taking a message to the office.

I found two other kids waiting to see the principal. Mereana Wrightson was one, and the other was Hak Li. We sat outside in the corridor for a few minutes. A couple of teachers went past from the staff room, and looked at us curiously. My nerves started jangling.

‘What’s this for?’ I whispered to Mereana.

She shrugged. ‘No idea,’ she said. Hak Li shook his head.

‘Are you worried?’ I asked Mereana.

She shrugged again. ‘Not really.’ She sounded a little unsure, nervously twisting her hair around her finger.

Mr Pritchard came to the door and asked us to come in. I’d always been a bit nervous of him and I was shaking uncontrollably. We shuffled in and sat down.

It was a good twenty minutes later when I went back to the classroom.

People were doing the tidy up, chairs up, routine for the end of the day.

‘What did he want you for?’ Amy asked as I put my books away.

I shook my head.

‘Nothing much, just stuff,’ I replied. ‘Come on, we’ll be late for practice.’

We went down to the netball court and dumped our bags by the chain link fence. A crowd of girls was gathered around the goal post at one end of the court. As we arrived they turned to look at us. Rochelle Nichols had a nasty smile on her face.

‘Hey,’ she yelled as we got to the courts. ‘Guess who’s getting ‘Teacher’s Pet’ awards. Keri Walker and Mereana Wrightson, and that geeky kid in Mr Watson’s class!’

The other girls looked at me and laughed.

‘You? What did you do to deserve that?’ Crystal James was sneering at me. ‘Well if you must know, I got mine for art, and for sports, because I’m good at them, so stick that!’ I said hotly.

‘Excuse me, Keri,’ said Mrs Cunningham, our netball coach, as she came up behind us, ‘But showing off about it is not going to win you any friends.’

I had not meant to ‘show off’. They’d just made me angry. I heard Darlene Katipa say quietly, ‘Ha Ha, serves you right!’

I did not like Darlene. She was worse than Amy in the bitchy club. She got me so mad that during practice I made sure I had a foot in her way as she was running past me. She started to fall but recovered herself in time. As she turned to look at me I had an innocent look on my face, and I could see that she had a doubt whether I had meant to do it.

I did not enjoy practice that afternoon. Mrs. Cunningham was snippy, my team did their best not to pass the ball to me, and Darlene stuck her foot out just as I was running to intercept a pass near her. I fell over on my knee and grazed it badly. It hurt like heck, but as I had done the same to her I was determined not to show how sore it was.

Then as I was going home it started to rain and I got soaked. I walked along slowly and thought about my friend Jess. It was amazing how much I missed her. She had been my best friend for so long and her Dad had to move the whole family to America, to New York, for his work. Since she had gone I felt as if I no longer had any friends.

I do not even know what happened. Together we had been a part of the ‘in-crowd’, involved in netball, going to each other’s parties, a big gang of us and no-one messed with us. But after she left I was pushed aside. I suppose I was a bit of a goody compared with some of the others. Now I’d gone and won something, and it was making me more unpopular than ever.

Chapter 2

By the time I got home I was feeling really miserable. I took off my bag as I went in the back door and dropped it on the kitchen floor, took out the letter from Mr Pritchard and gave it to Mum.

She looked puzzled for a moment.

‘What’s this all about? I’m not sure I understand. You’re getting an award?’

‘Yeah,’ I called back as I went to my room to take off my wet clothes. ‘Mr Pritchard called us to his office today to tell us. It means I don’t have to go to Awanui College, I can go to a private school if I want,’ I finished as I came back to the kitchen with my clothes in a bundle. ‘These will need washing for tomorrow.’

‘Well, that’s great, love, but I thought you would want to be with your friends from intermediate school? Put them in the laundry and I’ll deal with them later.’

I had not told her about what was happening since Jess left. I kind of thought that it would come right after a while, but it had been two months now.

‘Actually, it would be pretty interesting to go to a school that was more, I don’t know, specialised? Is that the right word? Instead of just an ordinary school?’

‘You could be right. Your dad will be pleased. He always wanted you to do well at school, and this might make him look at things differently.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Oh, nothing Keri, just thinking aloud. Anyway, I’m very proud of you. Now, will you help me get