Secondary school...the end of the Affair!

By the time he was picked up, as usual by his father for the lift home, he had realised, by the reaction of the teachers, that he was in trouble and had formulated a plan so his parents need never know!  He was sure the school would want to share all the gory details, so he would stay at home for a couple of days and intercept the letter! He began working on the plan as soon as he got in the car.

“You’re quiet” his father said.

“Um I don’t feel too well!” he replied, and so the seeds were sown and by the time they arrived home he was really “poorly” and was certain to be able to stay home for a couple of days!

Of course with hindsight he would have realised that the school was too smart and either by good judgement or inefficiency did not send out a letter straight away and therefore after two days feigning illness he had an accelerated recovery and returned to school. In fact it was to be some days later when, after school, he approached his father’s car and sensed there was something wrong as his father looked like thunder and, as often the case with young children, he had forgotten the events of the last week, but the school had not!
“So tell me about the cigarettes” his father asked. He really had forgotten all about them and had thought maybe the school had decided not to write to his parents.

“What cigarettes?”

“Your mother has phoned and says we have received a letter from the school…” He didn’t hear the rest of the sentence as panic set in and he quickly tried to formulate an excuse.

“..And he says you continually lied about it”

“Yes but” he stammered.

“We are very disappointed in you”
There was nothing to be said, when you hear the words “very disappointed”  from your parents you realise you have let them down badly and that hurts more than the cane; these are the people who have brought you up, taught you right from wrong and you have let them down.

“I’m sorry” was all he could say.

It was not a good night for him as both his mother and father gave him the “disappointed” treatment! However, one of the best things about his parents was that they loved him and just wanted the best for him, so things got gradually better throughout the evening and by the next day he was even joking with his father again, as deep down his father was proud of him and even admired him for his spunk, if not his lies! The real turning point was a week or so later when things had returned to normal and everyone had forgotten the incident and he was having a bath; his mother walked in and squealed,

“Where did you get that?” Immediately, he panicked as there are too many things to which that can be the question, before he realised she was referring to his backside and the blue welts from the caning!

“Oh you poor thing, Dad come and look at this”

“Bloody hell” was all his father said, but it was enough to know he had their sympathy and the equilibrium in the family had been restored.

Secondary School cont..

On the way down, he looked around, saw that there was no one about and quickly bent down to retrieve the evidence, but it wasn’t there! His hand searched desperately, nothing; he looked underneath the lockers, again nothing; where could it be, what had happened?  With these thoughts swirling round his head, he got up and walked outside.

When he got outside, he saw his Dad waiting:

“Where have you been?” he asked as it was almost 5pm by now.

“Detention”
“What again, what did you do this time?”
“Oh, nothing really, just, you know…”

His father was used to this and seem to accept that he had been in trouble as usual, little did he know! But what had happened to the case, had he got the wrong locker, had it been knocked further underneath or had someone found it, surely not that!

As was his way, he slept well despite his concerns but, in the morning, he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach as he knew today was the day when he would get away with it or face the music, which was it to be?

The journey to school was unsurprising, neither he nor his father said much at this time of the day, each lost in their own thoughts, listening to the car radio. On arrival, he said cheerio to his dad as usual and was reminded not to be late tonight, as usual!

The day started as usual, nothing special, meeting up with mates, registration and Assembly and so into first lesson, English; so far so good maybe he had got away with it! There were lots of lessons he didn’t like but English was OK, he had started to take notice of a subject that would be his very being in years to come but, at this stage, he was not even aware of the stirrings. Part of the attraction was the teacher, as a pre-pubescent youngster he was beginning to notice older women and they had an effect on him that he was, as yet, unsure of, all he knew was that this teacher was married to an ugly chap, who taught Geography, and she deserved better and he…

He was suddenly aware of a knock at the door and the form of L coming into the room!
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but could I have a word with..?”

“Yes of course” I heard her say and realised who he had asked to see!

He walked out slowly and saw the Teacher look at him and then L, what did she know and was this it?

Stay cool, he could prove nothing!
The walk up to his study seemed to take ages, but was in fact only one flight of stairs; L was old now and walked slowly or maybe deliberately slowly for effect.

They reached his room, and went in; L went behind his desk whilst he stood in front. Nothing was said for a bit, dramatic effect again? He was feeling uncomfortable as I’m sure he knew. After what seemed a lifetime, he spoke:

“Yesterday I asked you about some cigarettes and you said you knew nothing about them, is that right?”
“Yes Sir”

“Are you sure?”
“Yes Sir”

There followed a pause, as he looked at him and then he went to his drawer and got out something, at first it was unclear, but then he put it on his desk! It was the cigarette case!

“What have you got to say?”
Now, he knows he’s not considered bright by the Staff, but even so he knew when he was done!
“Nothing”
“Nothing!”
“You lied to me constantly yesterday, you wasted my time and you say nothing?”
“Sorry, Sir”

“It’s a bit late for sorry…”

Now L always talked quietly, but not on this occasion as his voiced raised and the words came tumbling out it was obvious he was rather cross!! This went on for quite a bit and he realised he was in trouble and wished he had taken some precautions against what was surely the inevitable!

“.. And what about your parents, what will they think?”

He wasn’t thinking about them at the moment but rather what was going to happen to him! Then it came, the inevitable was going to happen, and they both knew it.

“I’m going to cane you, not for the cigarettes, but for the lies and deceit; bend over”

This was not the first time he had been caned, it was for him, a fairly regular occurrence, but this was special! Two, three surely not many more, five, just one more, then six, he began to straighten up.

“I haven’t finished yet, bend over” Has he lost count, six is it isn’t it?
Thwack, as the seventh stroke hit the back of his legs he really felt it and winced.

“Get up”

As he slowly straightened, he could really feel the pain for the first time and desperately wanted to cry but was determined not to; whatever it took, he was not going to let L see he had won.

“I hope that is a lesson to you, now go back to your class”
As he left the room and closed the door, he stopped and almost cried, the pain was really strong and he found it difficult to move. As he walked, slowly back to his lesson, he passed the locker where he had hid the case only a day before and where a Cleaner had found it, just his luck. He approached the door to his classroom, knocked, walked gingerly in, all eyes were on him, he mustn’t break down, he wouldn’t.

“Disgusting”

What, his trance like state had been broken by the Teacher:
“Disgusting” she said.

Now he knew he had broken a rule, maybe stretched the truth, but he had been found out and punished, hardly disgusting. Very carefully he sat down.

 He still thought about her occasionally but things were never going to be the same between them again...

Secondary School

 The trouble was his Uncle and IG had gone to the same school before him so there were expectations on M! He arrived, was allocated to the lowest stream and began his fight for academic recognition, a fight that would not be won at school!

Soon after he arrived he, like so many others, was picked on as the younger brother but, and for the only time in his life, IG was there to the rescue and belted the Bully! What a great feeling to have your brother looking out for you but as I mentioned it was to be short lived; now don’t get me wrong IG was always there for him, if he was asked, and maybe that was the problem, asking.

Anyway, M soon made friends amongst his own age and continued where he’d left off at his previous school, getting into occasional scrapes, enjoying sporting activities and getting by, just, with school work. The advantages of having an elder brother at the same school have already been demonstrated, the disadvantages were there too, especially as IG was clever and M was not, at least in the eyes of the Teachers. You can go one of two ways if you’re told you’re not as clever as your brother, you can fight it or accept it; throughout his school years M accepted it. What was the point, it was true wasn’t it, IG was in the clever group, M was in the thicky’s set; IG passed exams, M struggled and IG was a good pupil and M wasn’t!

Despite this handicap he was happy at school most of the time, he made good friends, especially AC who was a little older and taller, he enjoyed rugby for the first time and he began to smoke and steal; what more could any young boy need?! His two best mates at this time were, as already mentioned AC, and the other was CM and whilst AC was tall and shaved before anyone else, CM was small, cheeky and streetwise making these two the ideal friends for M as he sought to breakaway from his brother’s influence and reputation and establish himself is his own niche.

His days were spent in short periods of great happiness playing with his friends, revelling in sports activities and free time contrasting with long periods of boredom and frustration as he was penned in lessons that he didn’t enjoy, was not good at and with Teachers who, by and large, he did not connect with.

He enjoyed the playground, bouncing a golf ball at head height from one end of the yard to the other, until it was stopped, following complaints from those in the middle; he enjoyed paying rugby and found some success for the first time in a team; he enjoyed hiding and smoking and bragging about things he hadn’t done! Most of all he just enjoyed being one of the boys and was in a small and exclusive band of brothers that were respected or avoided depending on your viewpoint. His only unhappiness was the constant detentions that he accumulated for petty misdemeanours such as talking, not doing work or not doing work of the required standard, when he would have to sit still at a desk with all the other miscreants after school for forty-five minutes of absolute silent hell. Something that did not please his father either, as he was forced to wait outside, to take him home.

 However, as might have been anticipated, he was soon to fall foul of authority and ciggies would be his downfall. He was walking up to lunch with his mates and flashed a cigarette case, this was his Uncle’s case originally, how ironic. The reason why he did it escapes him, maybe to share a ciggie with his friends or maybe just to show off, the reason doesn’t matter, the fact is that one of the pupils was the son of a teacher and as M clocked him he thought that he might tell, but then dismissed the thought and went to lunch and thought little of it.     Sure enough, last lesson he was called to go and see the Head, so ever mindful, on the way up he slipped the cigarette case under a set of lockers and knocked on the door.

“Come” was the command, so in he went and, after some preliminaries L asked:

“Where are they?”

Now, give M his due, he stayed cool.

“Where’s what?”

“Don’t play with me, the cigarettes?”
“What cigarettes?”
“The ones you had in a case at lunchtime”

“I didn’t”
“Yes, you did”
This continued back & forth, both certain of their ground until L said:

“I’m going to search you if you don’t tell me the truth, so I’ll ask you again, have you got a cigarette case?”
Certain, for once he was telling the truth M Replied:
“No Sir”, a nice touch.

So, L searched him and naturally found nothing but his frustration was palpable as he knew his informant was trustworthy and sure of his facts and yet he could prove nothing so, reluctantly, he let M go with the final statement:
“I know you had them, but as I have your word that there must be a mistake, I will have to leave it at that”.

With a combination of smugness, contriteness and relief M left his room and headed downstairs to retrieve the evidence and meet his father who, as it was now well past the end of the school day, would be waiting for an explanation of his lateness!

Boarding School...

School is school for some people but for M each one held a unique fascination and appeal as well as other less desirable emotions. The next school was only a mile or two from his Primary school but this was “Big school” in every sense, it was the first school that held what he understood as proper lessons where you were expected to work and do homework; sport was properly organised into games lessons and he boarded and thus would be away from home for the first time.  This was to prove an experience that would, in many ways, shape his life as he found, unlike his brother who constantly ran away, that he quiet enjoyed the time away from home with his friends – although if he was honest I suspect he was safe in the knowledge that he would go home at times and his mother and father were always there should he need them!

It was in many ways a traditional boy’s school and yet was quiet modern too and this combination suited M down to the ground; it seemed to him the best of both worlds for him to develop as there was some freedom to enable him to flourish and yet the security of discipline to rein in anything too extreme. He loved the smell of the wood panelled walls, the fact that it was not too large and that he could be himself without the restrictions of a sibling’s reputation or indeed presence; something that all younger offspring usually take advantage of and enjoy. The teachers were, by and large, good and he seemed to flourish under their care. He enjoyed the rituals of the marbles matches, that he longed to, but rarely did, win; but most of all he loved football and was in the team above his age group, mainly through endeavour rather than skill. The first stirring that he might be good at something had taken root and it was here that they would begin to blossom. He found that he loved the rough and tumble of team sport and the accolade of doing well at individual sports. So he played football, usually in a mid-field attacking role, he competed in the Athletics, sprints and jumps and began a love / hate relationship with cricket.

Work still posed a problem for M, he believed he tried, but how much effort besides attending could be called into question; in reality he lacked concentration and got quickly bored and as his mind wandered the thoughts that replaced academic thoughts were not always pure or honest! He had begun at first school to get into minor scuffs and this would continue throughout his school career and here was no exception! He began to barter his possessions and kick against authority, another trend that would colour his life. One of the things that the boys had to do was learn to dance, which seemed fair enough to him, but not with other boys! So shortly after beginning these lessons he found himself bending over and receiving the slipper for being disrespectfully rude to the dance teacher which really consisted of no more than having a laugh and fooling about, but as was his want, a little too loudly,  and therefore being picked on and sent out!  He never mastered the Fred Astaire’s after that set-back!

The school was situated on a hill and commanded lovely views over the surrounding area, an area that was covered in heather and through which he went each week on the Sunday walk, a pleasant experience most of the time as it gave a chance to let off steam and have a good natter with his friends. He remembers also going out on these moors to do nature study, another subject like dance that promised so much but delivered little, as it was confined, much to his dismay, to the local fauna.

Again, change was on the horizon as he reached his ninth birthday and after two relatively happy years, he was about to change school again and go to secondary school in Liverpool.