Ellie Elmore A Life Touched by Gods & Men

Episode 1 … First Encounter First Impression-5

Then, in what seems no time at all, ‘Time’s up,’ booms the headmistress while standing in front of her pupils again. ‘Pens down, everyone, please.’ All those still writing quickly scribble down their last answers.

It doesn’t take long for the five teachers who have been helping police the exam to gather up all the pupils’ exam papers.

‘You may now leave the exam hall,’ continues the headmistress in her stern voice as her helper’s deliver all the exam papers onto her desk. ‘And I wish you all good luck in your chosen careers,’ she adds, still with that same half-smile on her face, and nearly meaning her good wishes.

Mee reclaims his guitar before joining Ellie and Johnny as they move quickly along with the rest of the pupils in a relieved dash for the exits. The mass of relieved pupils spill out of the hall and into the adjoining corridors like excited ants on the march for food, and just about everyone is buzzing because they have now finished their very last exam.

Lots of the pupils even start signing each other’s school shirts and blouses with their names, today’s date, and humorous messages, because, quite simply, this is it, the end of their school days. It doesn’t take long for Ellie’s white blouse to be covered in dark-blue ink noting friends’ names, messages of goodwill and more written all over it, as are Johnny and Mee’s school shirts.

Then, just as Ellie looks up from her blouse, ‘Hey, Elmore!’ says Danny Dunwoody, looking menacingly at Ellie. ‘You wanna keep your eyes open from now on, because my new band Hell’s Comet is gonna be doing some gigs around these parts, and you might wanna come along and learn something!’

‘Oh, I doubt there’s anything I could learn from you,’ replies Ellie, without thinking.

‘You trying to be funny again, Elmore?’ says Danny, as a small crowd starts to gather around the two teenagers as they notice what’s going on.

‘No, no,’ replies Ellie quickly.

But it’s too late because Danny moves in face to face with Ellie and rubs his forehead against hers as she tries to look down.

‘Leave it out, Danny!’ snaps Johnny, quickly pulling Ellie backwards as Johnny himself takes her place in front of Danny.

The crowd around Ellie, Johnny and Danny is now a little larger, and hostility fills the air.

‘You wanna start something, freak?’ snarls Danny, giving Johnny the same treatment he’s just given Ellie, only Johnny doesn’t budge. Instead, he returns Danny’s treatment with a bit more vigour, making some of the onlookers gasp before making comments.

‘Okay, you people, what’s going on?’ shouts a schoolteacher, pushing his way through the small crowd towards Danny and Johnny.

The two boys part a little from each other as the teacher reaches them.

‘Taking each other’s phone numbers, are we, boys?’ asks the teacher.

‘Ha! No chance,’ replies Danny. ‘One day, Johnson!’ he adds, referring to Johnny’s surname, and before turning and walking off, followed by six of his mates.

‘Okay, everyone! You can move on now!’ shouts the teacher as all the pupils start moving away while commenting about what’s just happened.

‘Wow Johnny. You okay, Ellie?’ asks Mee, looking at his two friends while holding the straps of his guitar case.

‘Wow indeed,’ says Johnny, watching Danny and his friends barge their way through lots of the other pupils.

‘I’m good,’ replies Ellie, who’s visibly shaken. ‘Come on, let’s get to the common room.’

Ellie, Johnny and Mee soon arrive at the common room, where their three closest friends, Jody, Jordan and Sam, are waiting for them.

‘Ellie, you okay?’ asks Jody, as Ellie enters the room. ‘I just saw what the bully did!’

‘Yeah, you get used to it after a few years, I suppose,’ replies Ellie. ‘Anyway, come on, Mee and I want to do those three songs we told you about.’

‘I heard that Danny and his band are going to be gigging at the “Lamplight” in town?’ says Jordan, looking at Ellie and then Mee.

‘The “Lamplight” nightclub, where they do live gigs on Friday and Saturday nights?’ asks Jody.

‘Yeah, that’s the place, and that’s what I heard too,’ adds Sam. ‘but I think it’s all just a rumour put around by Danny himself. At least that’s what most of our friends are saying around the school. It’s not even Danny’s band. “Norm the Storm” started that band up about a year ago.’

‘Do you mean Norman Storm?’ asks Jody.

‘Yeah, and Norm’s only sixteen years old, so I doubt they’d let him play in a nightclub,’ says Jordan.

‘Norm’s almost seventeen, and I suppose if Danny is trying to get their band into nightclubs to do gigs, I’ll bet it’ll be in the foreseeable future. What with his four elder brothers’ influences and contacts around town and all!’ adds Ellie, who knows Norm because he’s the lead singer of Hell’s Comets.

‘Should be exciting times all round then, as far as I can see!’ says Mee.

‘And it looks like you have some local competition with Danny’s band on the horizon if that’s what’s going to happen,’ adds Johnny. ‘It’ll be interesting to see what that creep comes up with next!’

‘Yeah, fascinating,’ adds Ellie in a sarcastic voice.

‘Anyway,’ says Mee, ‘let’s forget about Danny and his cohorts and play you some real music.’ He looks around at Jody, Jordan and Sam as he lifts his guitar case off his back.

‘Too right!’ agrees Jody, rubbing her hands together. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this all day.’

Ellie and Mee had arranged this special treat for their three closest school friends some weeks back as a little celebration for leaving school for good.

‘Right! We’ll do the three tracks one after the other while we have this room to ourselves,’ says Ellie, looking around the common room.

‘Right!’ says Mee, settling himself and his acoustic guitar as his three friends all look on excitedly.

Mee starts to play, and Ellie soon joins in with her vocals, and they make gorgeous sounds float out around the common room, as their three friends, along with Johnny, all watch and enjoy as each of them feel a tingle of emotion at different points in the music. Ellie and Mee continue until the last note is finished, and then their audience bursts into spontaneous applause because they all loved the music.

‘Thank you, good people, thank you,’ says Ellie, dropping her head slightly towards her admiring audience as they ask for more.

‘We’d love to do more, but we need to go and see someone,’ says Mee, flashing a look towards Ellie.

‘Yeah, sorry, but we will tell you about our first big gig when it happens,’ she explains as Mee packs away his guitar.

After all the excitement dies down, Ellie and the boys arrange to meet up in a week or so with their friends; then they head for the payphone in the school’s reception area. After Ellie’s short phone conversation, all three teenagers leave their now old school for their walk home.

‘You know! I’m glad our exams are over,’ says Ellie, kicking a couple of stones over the dusty ground as they walk into her local park.

‘Yeah,’ agrees Mee, ‘we’ll have more time for our music now.’

‘And I’ll have more time to work on our website,’ adds Johnny, rubbing his hands briskly together.

The guys carry on chatting about the end of one era – their school days – and the start of another – their futures. Then they split up to head for their separate homes to see their parents, eat, and change out of their school uniforms.

***

After being home for only a couple of hours, Ellie leaves to go meet the boys at their usual meeting place for their visit to Madge’s house.

‘I’ve been thinking?’ says Johnny toward Ellie as they meet up again, ‘we’re in the real now.’

Just then, an unwelcome school colleague turns up.

‘Well, well, well. Look who’s here then,’ says Danny Dunwoody, the now ex-school bully, as he barges into Johnny from behind, then continues past him to stop in front of Ellie and Mee with three of his mates.

‘Little Johnny, the friend of the freaks, and the two purple freaks themselves, if I’m not mistaken,’ continues Danny, in a menacing growl.

‘Leave it out, Danny,’ says Ellie. ‘We’re not bothering you.’

‘Leave it out, Danny,’ repeats Danny in a high-pitched girlie voice, as he pokes fun at Ellie while staring deep into her eyes. ‘You think you’re so smart don’t you Elmore. Just because you sing in the school choir, and guitar boy here plugs away with his wooden box. Well, I’m involved with a real band now, and we’re gonna make it to the big time. So keep your eyes and ears open for Hell’s Comet, because we play some real music, and people love it.’ He thumps Ellie hard on her right shoulder, making her stagger backwards into Johnny.

Johnny steps forward to stand face to face with Danny for the second time today, resulting in Danny’s three mates also moving forward. Johnny’s eyes flick over the four teenagers in front of him in a semi-circle. Then Mee grabs Johnny’s left arm, tugging him back slightly, resulting in Johnny taking a step backwards.

‘Come on, Johnny. We’ve got someone to see. Remember?’ adds Mee quickly.

‘Yeah? Well that makes it your lucky day, friend of the freaks because so have I,’ says Danny with a threat in his voice and still looking at Johnny. ‘Someone owes me money, so I’m going to collect it, ain’t we, boys?’

‘Too right!’ replies one of Danny’s mates, looking as menacingly as he can at Johnny.

‘I’m your demon, Elmore,’ snarls Danny right in front of Ellie’s face, while distorting his own, then screwing his hands up like the claws of a vulture getting ready to rip open raw flesh. ‘I’m your worst nightmare, FREAKS!’ shouts Danny walking off with his mates, then laughing as they all turn back to look at Ellie and the boys.

‘I thought we’d seen the last of those four now we’ve left school,’ says Mee, watching Danny and his mate’s as they continue to walk off.

‘That creep does my head in,’ says Ellie, now with her head down as tears flood the corners of her eyes and she rubs her painful shoulder. Then she feels several cold shudders run right between her shoulder blades, making her shake a little.

‘At least we won’t have to see him or his mates every day from now on,’ adds Mee, trying to cheer Ellie up as she raises her head.

‘Yeah!’ agrees Johnny. ‘He’s a creep all right, just like his brothers and his dad. Like father like son.’ He nods slowly towards the four bullies as they walk off into the distance. ‘Danny and his mates have just started hanging around with two of Danny’s older brothers. They race cars around the grounds of the old car factory late at night, doing time trials and stuff. The police are after some of them.’

Danny Dunwoody is the local area’s biggest bully, who, along with three of closest mates, has made Ellie, Johnny and Mee’s school life a misery on more than one occasion over the last several years. Especially Ellie’s, because she sings in the school choir and because she has a purple tuft of hair. Danny also gives Mee the same treatment solely because he has musical talent and has played in the school band for years.

Danny’s also tried to make Johnny’s life a misery because he thinks he’s a geek for his love of all things technical, especially computers, tablets and mobile phones, and also because Johnny won a big prize along with four other schoolmates on completing a school website design project.

Johnny Johnson isn’t as tall as Danny just yet, and Danny carries a lot more weight, which he likes to throw around, especially at school, where he’s bullied many of the boys and girls who are smaller or lighter than he is. Johnny’s often said that one of these days he’s going to put ‘Danny in his place’, and he will, one day.

Ellie’s dislike for Danny extends way past their school days because he’s appeared on a regular basis in her reoccurring nightmares over the last four years or so, and that’s just one of the reasons why she dislikes him so much.

‘Now, what was I saying before those four … erm … gentlemen turned up,’ says Johnny, turning back to smile at his friends.

‘We’re in the real world,’ replies Ellie, while thinking about Danny’s comment concerning him being in a band.

‘Oh, yeah. We’re in the real world now,’ repeats Johnny.

‘Yeah, and don’t I know it,’ agrees Mee. ‘While we were eating this evening, my mum and dad kept on talking about work, and when was I gonna start looking for a job?’

‘Mine too,’ says Johnny. ‘That’s what I was gonna say.’

‘I’ve been thinking about what we can do to Madge’s old shed,’ says Ellie, taking her mind off Danny and not having the same parental pressures as the boys.

All three carry on chatting about their ideas for the shed all the way to Madge’s house, and as they arrive, Madge is ready and waiting for them on her front doorstep.