CHERUB:::AFTERWARDS

Megan Fisher was happy with her life at the moment. She and her two brothers, Max and Jamie, had just started Faringdon School, the local high school in town, and none of them had yet been beaten up, mugged or got seriously drunk. Their mother, Lauren, seemed pretty happy with them as well. She'd always done her best for the kids – from birth the triplets had spoken Spanish and English fluently, and they all had a good level of French as well.

Their father, Carlos, had been half-Spanish and Lauren had insisted that they spoke as many languages as possible. They'd done all the activities Lauren could think of – go-karting, rock-climbing, water skiing, outdoor survival, camping, hiking, scuba diving and mountain biking, among many others. They were all black belts in karate – despite Megan's protests, her mother had kept them at it. All kids were extremely fit and well educated. When their father had died when they were two, Lauren had flung her efforts into providing for her children.

Megan had recently achieved top marks in the region on the 11+ exams to the local grammar school, but Lauren had been insistent that her children should go to the local state school, and learn the 'real values of life' as she put it. Lauren had always been incredibly careful that if anything should happen to her, her three children would be well capable to look after themselves.

Megan met up with her best friend Sash as she walked to school. She lived three kilometres away, but Lauren always made the kids walk to school. She normally went with Max and Jamie, but Jamie had a doctor's appointment so he had the morning off school and Max had already gone off with his friends. They talked and chatted as they walked to school, but Sash met her boyfriend Jed outside the gates and the two girls split up.

Megan saw Jed's best friend Charlie at the door to the school. Charlie was small for his age, but he was still much taller than Megan. He was quite a good-looking boy, with dark hair that accentuated his even darker eyes and made them glint invitingly. They'd all met two weeks ago, when they started at Faringdon. Megan and Sash were already friends, of course, and Jed had taken a liking to Sash's well-developed body and asked her out in the first week of term.

Since then, both Megan and Charlie had felt pushed aside by the two 'lovebirds', and they'd become good friends. Megan definitely wasn't the most developed girl in the year, but she was very pretty with strawberry-blonde hair that curled at the edges and sparkling blue eyes. Megan had always liked Charlie, and she was pretty sure that Charlie had some interest in her as well.

Lunch was the usual drab plasticy-meat with some gooey lumps that resembled vegetables. Megan skipped all of it and wolfed down her go-ahead bar and energy drink instead. After lunch, her class was just settling down to a geography lesson when the headmaster walked in.

"Megan Fisher," he spoke in his deep voice. "My office, please. Now." All the kids made 'oooing' noises as she collected her bag and walked outside. As they'd only been here two weeks, not many kids had been sent to see the headmaster yet, so this was quite a big deal. Megan felt nervous, but she knew it couldn't be bad because she couldn't possibly have done anything wrong. Her heart leapt when she saw Max sitting sullenly in a chair outside the headmaster's office. Now this was something serious.

"Sit down, please," said Headmaster Cromwell, motioning them into his office. He looked stern, but as he sat down opposite them his expression softened and he looked at them, concerned.

"Megan, Max," he said slowly. "There was an accident, this morning. A car crash." Megan inhaled sharply. She felt Max switch on suddenly beside her.
"I'm really, really sorry," he said slowly. "But your mother was … she was killed instantly. Your brother was taken to hospital in critical condition. I'm sorry to say he passed away before arrival." He broke off into silence, staring at the two small children in front of him and wondering how on earth he'd just managed to tell them that their mother and brother had just died.

Megan didn't say anything. She didn't think she could. She just sat there, feeling frozen in her chair. She heard Max sniffling quietly beside her. She saw the tears streaking of his young, delicate face as he began to rock, back and forth, holding his skinny legs together with his muscular arms, burying his head between his knees as if to hide from the world and never come back again. Still, she didn't move. She didn't think that she would ever feel again. She couldn't let it in – Jamie and Mami, dead. Dead. The word rang in Megan's ears though no one had said it. She realised she was yelling it; sobbing so loudly her ears would burst. Her heart was thumping so loudly that surely that would burst too. And then it did, and everything was black.