Timothy`s boarding school

Chapter 6 - The Bad Dealer

Its Saturday morning, the day everyone has been waiting for, visit. I'm woken by Jack and Nick arguing on who is playing next on Fifa. Martin and Peter are holding the joysticks and by looks of the display on their laptop, it seems the game was only left with 10 minutes which is about 45 seconds in real time.

"Could you guys just quiet down, I'm trying to sleep here." I shout at them in my sheets.

"It's almost waking up time anyway. Michael will be here any minute. So you might as way just get of bed." Nick says holding half of a joystick whilst Jack is holding the other.

"You are going to break it! You fools. Let go, both of you" Peter says over a high pitched voice, moving towards them. Jack and Nick both let go of the joystick and it drops to the tiled floor shattering into a million pieces.

"Now look at what you have done." Peter is furious "You better make sure your parents leave money for me to buy new ones."

Jack and Nick look at Peter. Both say "You are the one who told us to let go".

"This is not what I meant you fools. I just want my joystick" Peter says storming out of the room.

We hear the morning bell. Nick quickly picks the pieces of the joystick and hides them as gaming controls were not allowed.

After the whole morning routine everyone is in their number 1s, ready to go for breakfast. In the Dining hall both the boys and girls superintended go over the rules, about all boarders not being allowed to leave the gate; they won't be offering anyone a pass today and that parents were not allowed at the hostels among other things. The one for parents not allowed at hostels was usual broken as they would be no one enforcing it anyway.

There is always study from 8:00 to 10:00 every Saturday morning and today is no exception. People will be allowed to go to the grounds and pavilion after the study to see their parents. After the closing prayer I stand up to head out of the dining hall, suddenly Kimberly stops me. "Hey, look for me at the grounds after study" she says and gives me a smile as she leaves. We obediently go for study after breakfast, although our minds were definitely elsewhere.

Sitting beside Valle, I can't stop and wonder what that was all about with Kimberly. Valentine shakes me out of my contemplation. "Is your mom coming today?" I nod.

"What about you?" I ask.

"Well my parents are not around and my sister said she is busy. Therefore there are going to send money. I think I will have to get a pass to go to town." He says.

"But you heard what Mr Stevens said right? About not handing out any passes today" I say.

"He was bluffing. What does he expect me to do? Will you accompany me to him? You are like his favorite." Valentine says with his eyes teary.

"Okay okay you don't have to cry on me dude, but don't have too much hope. He might turn us down." I say.

"Thanks dude I knew you would come through" he says with a broad smile.

I don't know why I even agreed to help him. On visiting days looking for Mr Stevens was like looking for needle in a hay stack. He clearly avoided both students and parents for obvious reasons. Now I have to fit Valle's request in my schedule, I just hope I don't mess up my meeting with Kimberly.

Towards the end of study the head boy and Michael come in "Hello boys" said the head boy definitely in a cheeky mood. "Where is Tim?" asks Michael clearly not seeing me right in front of him. He spots me and laughs "You were right here all along, follow me and carry your books with you".

Today I was definitely not in the mood for his bullshit. I get my books and follow him. In the corridor outside the class I immediately ask him what he wants.

"Well Tim is that the way to speak to your senior? I need help with something." He says. Today he looks a bit shady. He is avoiding face contact and his eyes are all over the place not to forget his over the top nice mood. He is usually just solemn and inscrutable but today I swear I almost know that he wants; a big favour from me and he can't force me.

"What?" I say starting to lose my patience.

"You see, I ........arrr......I sort of have a crush on this girl in your stream" he says still avoiding eye contact. "If you help me in getting this girl, I promise I will be your secret friend, I will allow you to use my phone in my room, I will get you all the nice food we get as prefects and you will never get punished again as long I'm here."

It will be nice not to get punished ever again and the food off the prefects' table will be great, I had heard they get dessert every day and bacon for breakfast. I ponder all my options in silence.

"Why this girl?" I ask "Don't you have girls in your stream, plus she is probably way younger than you. Isn't that abuse in some way."

"Come on, she will be probably just two years younger at most. Most married couples have a similar gap" I ponder over his statement and after some time I agree.

The siren signalling the end of study goes and Michael starts to head off, before he can turn the corner I shout "You forgot to tell me her name?"He shouts back "Kimberly".

Shit, does he mean my Kimberly? I look at the door and shout "wait" but he was already gone. I had given away my crush. I was the dumbest person in history I reckon.

I join my form group and head to the hostel. I brush my shoes and tidy myself in preparation to go to the grounds for visit. I go to Valentine's room and get him so that we can head to the superintended house to get him a pass. Mr Stevens' house was next to the boys' hostel just outside the fence.

We find him sitting on the porch sipping tea. We had agreed on the way that Valentine was going to do the talking and I would support him. For him to get a pass today he would have to seem quite destitute.

"Good morning sir" we say in unison to Mr Stevens.

"Morning boys, aren't you supposed to be at the grounds?"

"Yes, we are, but unfortunately our parents are not coming" Valentine takes a breather and continues "but they did send us money and we would like to ask for a pass to go to town."

"You know I'm not supposed to give anyone a pass today" he says looking me in the eye.

"Yes" I say "we thought you might make an exception as our parents are not coming."

He sighs, looks aside and calls for his daughter to bring the pass book. He reluctantly writes passes for both I and Valentine although I didn't really need one. We thank him, leave and start going back to the hostel. The whole time we are walking to the hostel, my mind is preoccupied. I can't stop thinking about Kimberly. What was I going to say to her? I thought it was going to be me and her only. Now Michael is in the picture and my future with Kimberly now looks fuzzy. What am I going to do? I'm trapped between a rock and a hard place now. Should I tell Michael the deal is off? If I do that, he will be totally pissed and he will make the remainder of his stay dedicated to making my life a living hell. I'm a mess.

"Are you okay dude?" Valentine brings me to reality.

"What, I'm fine" I say smiling, brushing the back of my head with my left hand.

"You seemed a bit lost, what were thinking about anyway. Did Michael say something when he dragged you out of study this morning?" Valentine says looking both concerned and irritated.

"Aah No, it was nothing, just reminding me of my sweeping duty" I say. I certainly didn't want Valentine to be involved in this. He played with girls a lot and sometimes he sort of got carried away, in the end reviewing some of the boys' secrets. People generally avoided telling him some stuff for this very reason.

We reach the hostel and part ways as he heads to his room, which was at the end of the corridor and mine was right on the door, I totally hated this. The cold air that would hit us during the cold winter mornings was extreme and also when Mr Stevens came to the hostel, he would start with our room. Therefore many things were confiscated from our room including Jack's phone and Peter's sneakers. I look down the corridor as Valentine heads to his room and see Ryan coming out from the showers with a towel wrapped around his waist. He smiles and waves at me. I smile back and wave, only to be greeted by the empty corridor as he had already entered his room.

I enter my room only to find it empty; it seems everyone had gone to meet their parents. I knew my mom won't come until lunch was almost ready and therefore there was no need to rush but there was the meeting with Kimberly, she will have to wait for me I guess. I open my school bag and look for test papers I totally axed, so that I could show my mother when she came. She usually wasn't that impressed by it and I think it's because since primary I was always a straight A student therefore it had become a norm for me to bring good grades.

I empty my school bag and stuff the papers with high grades in. I grab my bag, close the door and head towards the school ground. From afar I could already see the full car park and crowds of people sitting on lawns, benches and on the ridges on the sidewalks. Without a parent or someone visiting you, you would definitely feel isolated. As I make my way to the grounds I pass by some of my friends with their parents who actively ignore me as no one really wanted to introduce their friends to their parents in fear that they would start comparing them to their friend. As I was very smart having good grades, my friends definitely avoided introducing me to their parents as their marks would look rather pale compared to mine.

I reach the grounds; it seems I had missed the soccer game. We had won by a single goal, seems the soccer boys have a lot of work to do if they are planning on going for the nationals were there are way tougher teams. I sit in the pavilion, on the side directly facing the gate, just in case my mom decides to come early. I look around and spot Chido, whose sitting on the round-about directly facing the school gate with other girls. She looks rather anxious, hope her mom comes unlike last time were she stood her up. She sees me staring and waves for me to come over. But there were so many girls sitting around her, how could I go over there and talk to her calmly?