The Rock 'N' Roll Diaries

oys as they changed. None of them were anywhere near asdefined. Burt looked up and Clipper dropped his eyes.“You played good today, Clip,” Burt shouted over the chat.“When are your trials for Charlton youth again?”“Next Thursday!” Clipper answered, unable to meet histeammate’s eye.“You play drums, don’t you?” Burt asked, strutting over toClipper and handing him a flier.Clipper read it slowly. He and Burt didn’t chat off thepitch. Burt had the LBC. Clipper hung with the footballheads. “Er … yes,” he replied before bolting out of thechanging room.The corner shop on the estate where Justin Liam Clipperlived was his safe spot; the place he visited when he neededto work stuff out. Clipper loved to surf the chocolate counterbefore checking out the magazine racks. Why was he so shyaround Burt? He couldn’t be in a band with the kid unless hegot a grip on it.The ritual was always the same: pick up football magazine,flick, put down; quick look around, pick up fashion magazine,study heavily. Clipper could easily spend an hour in thecorner shop. The shop owner didn’t mind because he wassuch a likeable lad.Clipper wondered what he would look like in some of theclothes he saw in the magazines. His eye was drawn to someof the more eccentric looks. Why didn’t he just buy one? Noone would care, would they? And even if they did, he was thehardest lad in the school; unbeaten in seven fights.15