From far away Forest Rec looks green but when you're walking on it it looks all muddy and bare, and the closer you look the less green it looks, it's just all these separate small bits like hairs and in between them is mud. We walk towards the middle of it and Sam is whining at Jase.

             –  Where's the zoot?

             He's so small, little roundheaded 11-year-old fucker, but he's always the one who wants the next zoot, light the zoot, where's the zoot Jase, and Jase is ignoring him so Sam grabs Jase's North Face even though he's that much smaller, and Jase lamps Sam on the side of the head then grabs him in a headlock. I just stand there watching the two of them fight. When they're done Jase lights the zoot and still doesn't say shit to either of us, just takes four, five tokes before he passes the zoot to Sam. I'm wondering if he's thinking about the thing with Aaron Green and the sword but there's no point asking about it because I know there's nothing we can say about it.

             Still I'm thinking I'm glad it wasn't me. Glad I don't live in Sherwood where Aaron Green lives. Jase and Sam had been just standing on the corner of the alley by the shop, near the bins, and Aaron Green comes straight up to them, gets them to walk around the back of the bins with him, unzips his hoody and he takes out a fucking sword and shows it to them dead proud, it's one of those Japanese ones, slightly curved and black with a strapped up handle, shows them this sword and looks at Jase and Sam who are fucking paranoid at this point. They're saying sick, sick, thinking maybe Aaron Green wants them to admire his sword because he's proud of it, and he says lads, boys, watch this for me, yeah? Seen lads. Watch this for me while I go check something, yeah? I'll be back in five. And he stashes the sword behind the bins and makes Jase and Sam go back to the end of the alley where they were before and tells them watch this for me while I go check something and don't fucking move.

             So now when Aaron Green says five minutes Jase knows it's not going to be five but there's nothing he can do, Aaron Green told them to watch his sword where he stashed it so Jase and Sam smoke a zoot and argue about stuff and of course Aaron Green is gone for fucking ages and ages, so long that Jase almost forgets about the sword until he sees the long lanky black body of Aaron Green coming along the road, and he comes straight at them, seen lads, nice one, and past them into the alley and Jase gets a weird feeling so he looks around the bins and watches Aaron Green fucking about with the cardboard boxes, throwing shit around in the doorway of the fire escape, and then he's straight back towards them looking mad. Where's my fucking shit? Where's my fucking shit? You robbed my shit, you fucking robbed it, where is it? Eh? Eh? What the fuck you mean you did nothing it's fucking gone mate, where's it gone? I told you to watch it, and Aaron Green's right in Jase's face fucking screaming at him, butting his head like he's going to smack him up, then he starts kicking the metal bins like boom, boom, and Jase and Sam can't say anything so they just stand there and Aaron Green starts saying that was a hundred quid, you owe me a hundred quid, what you got on you? Aaron Green starts rustling up Jase's pockets, takes the fiver he's got, holds it up, you still owe me ninety-five yeah, and he's off down the road again.

             When Jase told me this we both know that that alley with the bins by the shop has a back way in. We know that Aaron Green has come back in while Sam and Jase were arguing and smoking, has come back in quiet and taken the sword he showed them and then just pretended someone else robbed it so he can say they took it and act like they owe him. We know that but I don't say it and Jase doesn't say it and Sam doesn't say it because it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what any of us know because it's started now and Jase is a target, even if he somehow gets the rest of the money by taking it from his mum or something, Aaron Green has a reason now and can just keep on him for other stuff, always coming back, and we know he will because that's how it works. So I don't say anything about it and I take the joint from Sam and take a toke, and then I see the emos.

             Somehow from a distance you can always tell if a girl's fit, and so even though this girl is way off I can see she's fit. They're emos, all back clothes and pale skin. The man she's with has got a long black coat on and they're just walking slowly about on the muddy grass of the Rec. right out in the middle of the open field as we walk across it toward them passing the zoot. Sam is whining to Jase for the zoot but me and Jase don't say anything to each other, just start going straighter in that direction.

             I don't mind getting near them because it means I get to look at the girl but I never want to talk to girls when I'm zooted. Jase is different though, has both his hands down the front of his joggers holding his dick, and he says to the girl

             – What you saying?

             to the girl who looks at his hands down his joggers and says

             – Nothing

             and he says

             – You should come with us

             – Why the fuck would I want to go anywhere with you?

             The two of them start walking away and Jase has got a mad look on his face.

             – Fucking ugly slag

             and he starts to come with me and Sam away from the emos but he's muttering some shit. We come to the slope near the edge and on this slope is all these rocks like broken up tarmac or something, and Jase bends down and picks up one of these rocks.

             You can see the black rock dark against the grey and green as it flies. Me and Sam watch the rock fly through the air and land near the two emos, and Jase has already picked up another rock before it lands. Sam runs down the slope laughing and bending down grabbing a rock and he chucks one at the emos too.

             One jaggy rock smacks the man in the long coat on the back of his leg. He turns around all confused and sees Jase and Sam coming forwards picking up rocks and chucking them, and me walking behind them. Weird thing is that he doesn't say or shout anything but just walks backwards for a few seconds watching us.

             At first I'm thinking Sam and Jase are going to run out of rocks to chuck but they don't because the emos keep walking in a straight line and so Jase and Sam just start picking up rocks they've already chucked. Fuck me they lamp the man with a few, but he keeps walking. Jase gets right in my face and tells me to fucking chuck one, and he's so fucking hyped up and I'm so para from the zoot that I pick one up and I chuck it, miss.

             I swear down though the weirdest thing is that the emos never run. We follow them all the across the open bit of Forest Rec, then along the little path by the kids’ playground, and they never run, they just walk and take the fucking hits until they get to the road and cross between the traffic and duck into the hotel that's across the road, like for sanctuary.

             Jase and Sam are laughing like twats and I'm quiet. They've forgotten about Aaron Green for now but I haven't and I'm wondering if he's going to come after me too. And I see their faces so strange and brother-like and hyped and I feel far away from them like the first time I ever smoked a zoot but it's not good, I feel like I'm on Forest Rec in the big open ground in the wind alone. They're fucking jolly, proper laughing, saying did you see that, did you see that, and I'm nodding and saying nothing. Did I see that? Yeah I saw that and I'm fucking glad it wasn't me. And while Sam and Jase are laughing and jumping about talking about how they hit the emos with the rocks as we walk back onto the muddy green which isn't green at all, and I think about how glad I am it wasn't me that got rocks chucked at me, but I can't feel glad about it really because in some way I feel like it was me, like it's all me, like everything bad that happens happens to me too, and I look down at the muddy not-green green and watch my feet crush the last hairs of grass into the wet brown.