Timothy`s boarding school

Chapter 13 - What now?

My head hurts; it feels like a tiny needle is piercing through it. There is this ringing tearing through my ear drums. It hurts so much. I'm now groaning in pain. I open my eyes and my eye sight is not any better. I give it a few minutes and I'm staying at the ceiling in my room. It's seems like its mid-afternoon or earlier I couldn't tell but the sunlight piercing through the rugged curtains seemed to indicate that. I'm in my sheets and I can't seem to phase out this heat I'm feeling, it was definitely in the afternoon I finally figured. I throw off the sheets from my body with one hand and I immediately turn to my side to see if anyone was there. It was empty, Jack's blankets were neatly folded; as well as on the other beds. There was silence. The only sounds I could hear were of windows slamming against the walls from time to time. What day was it today, I wonder. Where was everyone? I sit on my bed and take my watch which had been placed on the window sill; the time read ten minutes past one. So people had probably gone for lunch. What had happened to me, I try to remember.

A shock runs through my body as I remember what had happened, my body turns to stone. I had let my emotions get the better of me. I hope I won't be expelled because of this and also that Michael is okay as I remember he was bleeding after he had hit the window. Where did I get so much anger? I was no longer in love with Kimberly but that anger definitely unlocked something inside me. I had to apologize to Michael. I so hope the story didn't reach Mr Stevens but that is just wishful thinking.

Suddenly I hear distant voices getting louder, people should be coming back from lunch. I had to tell my roommates what had happened, what a drag. Jack barges in through the door and sees me sitting on my bed leaning against the window sill and wall for support. He has a lunch box with food; it seems he had brought me my lunch. Immediately behind him are my fellow roommates. Peter just goes and falls on his bed, Martin sits on chair close to the door and Nick comes to sit on the desk facing my bed. I pull my knees to my chest, hug them with both of my arms and rest my head on top. Jack places the lunch box right beside me and sits on his bed looking at me. Martin locks the door and thus signalled the start of the room meeting.

I sigh and say through mumbled speech "You are all waiting for me to tell you want happened?" I release a heavy breathe and narrate my story to them. After my speech, no one says anything; everyone is just stunned, the deafening silence definitely starting to kill me until Jack roars into laughter.

"You really punched him?" he says over chopped speech. The rest of the room follow him. "I never took you for the mischievous type, that's my thing remember?" Peter says in laughter. After everyone had quieted down, I ask the question that has been troubling me.

"How is Michael?" I ask nervously quite anxious to receive the response from my poke at curiosity.

"He is fine" Martin calls out from door "but he has been suspended indefinitely and stripped of his prefect status" he chuckles. He had answered my second question without me asking, Mr Stevens knew about this small fight. What was he going to do? Was he going to suspend me as way? My skin turns pale. I can't stop thinking what my mother will do to me.

Nick sees my grim face and says "Don't worry Tim, nothing will happen to you. Those guys love you, come on you get great grades all the time. It's not like there are going to send away their best student plus Michael was the senior he was supposed to be more responsible." Yes he was right but I wasn't much convinced. "Also this is your first offense, some of us have hundreds so don't worry" Peter says switching on his laptop.

A knock on the door, catches all of our attention. Jack shouts "Who is it?" from his bed and Ryan answers. I nod at Martin to let him in. Ryan comes in holding a chocolate ice cream. How did he know I liked chocolate? s**t a thought runs through my hand, the ice cream man only came on Saturdays and it was already after one which means I had missed my first hockey match as captain and also the first game of the season. How could I? I was both their coach and captain; TK would have struggled to control that team by himself. I couldn't blame anyone for this, I had done this to myself.

Ryan hands me the ice cream, "How are you doing?" he asks, sitting on my bed just below my toes.

"Apart from the splitting head ache I'm fine" I say opening the ice cream as I didn't want it to melt.

"That's great because when I saw you yesterday on the floor, you totally gave me a fright" He says now relaxing and laying his back on top of my toes.

"So you were the one who was shaking me" I say feeling elevated "I thought I was dreaming, you know"

We talk some more as I eat my food and eventually cut it short when I go take a shower.

I come back from the shower and I notice that the hostel seems a bit eerie today. People must be studying hard for those mid-terms. Ooh well, perks of being smart, you don't have to read as much as the others. I stay in my room for the rest of the afternoon with Ryan beside me who I'm helping solve a few maths problems. We played some games here and there on my phone between breaks, I had obviously given him as continuous study was making him seem dumber.

Supper was pretty boring today. Theo couldn't keep quiet about how exciting the hockey game was. I bet he was doing this to get a reaction from me but I was quite chilled plus they had obviously lost the match without me. TK had told me earlier that the game was a mess, as the players were refusing to take orders from him. I think TK's problem was that he was a bit soft, so people generally walked over him. Kimberly did break the constant chatter on our table when she asked about the fight.

"I heard you fought with Michael, is it true?" she had asked.

"Not really, more like a quarrel." I say, not wanting to make a big fuss out of it.

"Was it about me?" she says looking me dead straight in the eyes. My heart starts racing, I swallow hard as I think of the perfect response to give her. I definitely didn't want to give her the false idea that I was still interested.

She cuts the conflict in my mind when she says "You don't have to tell me but I'm sorry for what happened to you. I hope everything works out." This is nice, she feels sorry for me and wishes me the best on my pending decision of whether I should be suspended or not. She generally mutes the conversation after her last statement as I just nod in response.

Mr Stevens did come to my table during supper and instructed me to stay behind after the meal was over. I so hope he is not going to suspend me, I can't go home just before mid-terms, he just has got to understand.

Supper finishes and I stay put on my sit. Jack wanted to stay with me but I insisted he should go. I sat as the prefects ate with the head boy continuously making fun of me through his whole meal. Didn't he know that I still had his secret and could finish his short career in an instant. I guess he was in the moment and trying to impress the girls. After a while I see the teachers coming out from their staffroom which they ate in and Mr Stevens codes for me to come over and walk with him. I reluctantly approach him and we start to walk together.

He asks me what happened and I tell him everything except the part of Michael having had slept with Kimberly. I tell him that I thought Michael was bullying Kimberly as she was younger than him and under-aged and therefore I felt obliged to protect her. He commended me for standing up for her but did not condone the use of violence; therefore I was going to get a punishment tomorrow. Just great I say to myself. Whilst others are studying for the examinations on Monday I will be working in the fields.

I go for study with renewed vigour as I knew I was not getting suspended plus I had to cover for tomorrow were I will be busy with my punishment. I try to focus during the study but the foot traffic to my desk was way too much. One after the other, people were coming to ask me questions they could not quite understand. I therefore gave up on studying and eventually just dedicated the study session to helping them.

Sunday, the day I so much dreaded now as it landed me my first punishment. I had to wash out the lime we had poured on the soccer field when we were marking out our hockey pitch. I think he carefully chose this punishment for me knowingly that I didn't play the game. Just like Theo he wanted to rub it in my face. I had the sprinklers for help at least. I managed to fade out the markings we had made by supper time; it was quite a tedious exercise. I can't believe I had missed church for this. From the fields I could hear Jolene's melodious voice serenading the congregation. Ooh how I liked to hear her sing. Her voice brought something from within me that I could not quite figure out. Maybe I was yearning for something beautiful in my life, for affection, attention or intimacy. I especially liked the way she sang the worship songs, always made me feel like I was somewhere beautiful, I would forget all my problems, block out all the faces around me that seemed so familiar but yet so distant. I loved church. Out of energy, exhausted and beaten done by the sun, I decide to bunk supper. From the fields I just went to my room; dropped myself on top of the sheets and immediately fell asleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.