Chapter 11

I left Laura’s home an hour later; I had gotten dressed and she put on her dressing gown. We sat in her kitchen and we drank tea and dunked biscuits and talked about the future.

I cycled home via the park, Keren and Sara were sitting on one of the benches with some lads I did not know, I guess they were from another school. There were bottles of cheap cider being passed around and Keren and a few of the lads were smoking.

The Girls said hello as I passed them, I did not see Siobhan. I hoped that she was at home and not in the bushes with one of the lads.

The lads all gave me dirty looks, I just ignored them. There were a few of them and it would not have been wise to annoy them up. I just peddled past without looking at them.

Once I was home, I made a coffee and got my textbooks out. I studied for an hour before I started to dinner. Mom got home around half past seven. She was buzzing, she loved her new job and it seemed to suit her down to the ground.

We ate sausage, eggs and chips and watched television. Mom drank a glass of wine and I had a pint of orange squash. I had also made a banana Birds Angel delight and we had it with a crushed flake and squirty cream.

Mom asked about my day, and I asked about hers. She told me some guy had had a huge win and given all the staff a tenner. She told me that she had Wednesday off, and she was meeting Miss Elliot for dinner.

That was news to me, I had spent all day with Laura, and she had not mentioned it. At first, I panicked but then I thought that there was no way she would mention our afternoons of fun and games. Laura had put her trust in me and I had to put my trust in her. Plus, she had more to lose than I did!

And then the logical part of my brain kicked in and I figured she would be telling Mom about her leaving the school and moving to Wales to care for her ill sister.

I went to bed and read some of the Royal Navy Brochures before falling asleep.

I woke up the next morning had a shower and got dressed. Mom was eating cereal at the kitchen table.

“Good morning son,” she said as I poured rice crispies into a bowl and poured in some milk. Mom poured me a cup of tea.

“Hi Mom,” I replied, “did you sleep well?”

“I did son, how about you?” she asked.

“Like a log!” I said between mouthfuls of food.

“What are you doing at school this week?” she asked between mouthfuls of her cornflakes.

“Oh, just the normal stuff, apart from Wednesday when we have a free afternoon to do careers stuff,” I said and sipped on my tea.

“And you are still thinking of the Royal Navy?” she asked.

“Yes, I really want to join up, Mom,” I said with a smile.

The brochures I had read, had filled my head with ideas. The travel was appealing. It would be nice to see the world. Most folks in our town who had been abroad had been to Benidorm and that was as far as they travelled. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to taste different foods and meet different people.

“Then I guess we need to go to the recruitment office!” She said with a smile.

“I will see if we need to make an appointment,” I replied.

“Okay, you do that, and we can go over and see what’s what!” she said, at the same time getting up and washing her breakfast crocks. After I had eaten, I washed up my gear and got ready for school.

I walked to school as it was a nice sunny day; Siobhan was standing by the school gate with a girl I did not know. When she saw me, she broke off her conversation and came over to say hello.

“Hey how was your weekend?” she asked with a smile.

“It was good thank you,” I said, “and yours?”

“Oh, Saturday was bloody amazing!” she said and slipped her hand into mine, “on Sunday I had to go to work with Dad as my mom was not well, it was a great market, and we made a few quid.”

My head spun, so she was not in the park with Keren, Sara, and the bunch of lads. That was good news. I had feelings for Siobhan, I did not want her to waste her life or get a reputation like her mates, keren and Sara.

Rumours were going around school about those two and they were not good.

“Okay and how is your mom today?” I asked.

“Oh, she seems much better!” Siobhan said.

We walked into school hand in hand. We got some looks some of jealousy and some of amazement.

“I need to go and see the careers officer,” I told her.

“How come?” Siobhan asked.

“My Mom is off work on Wednesday and as we have a free afternoon, she was going to come with me to the Royal Navy recruitment office,” I told her as I led her down the corridor.

“Okay cool, Mom and Dad as taking me to see the hospital. There is an NHS roadshow on.” She said as we walked along.

“Oh, okay cool” I replied.

I knocked on the office door, and a voice called me in.

I chatted with the careers officer, and he said he would call them and find out, he asked me to come back after lunch.

We went to our form room; the register was called, and a few notices were read out. Then we went to classes.

Siobhan and I both had English in the same class, then we had double maths. Siobhan was in a higher set than me, so we did not see each other until lunchtime. She was walking into the canteen; I went in with her.

We both stood in line and ordered the chicken and mushroom pie and chips. Then we sat at the same table and chatted about our day. Keren and Sara soon joined us, they were chatting about their weekend.

The way they talked was childish. They seemed to think they were adults because they drank in the park. I felt sorry for them truth be told.

The careers officer came into the canteen and told me I did not need to make an appointment to go and see the Royal Navy guys at the recruitment centre. That was great news.

Once I had eaten, I left the girls to chat and went out to the playing fields to join in with a few lads who were having a kick around.

The rest of the day for me was taken up with Geography and technical drawing and Siobhan had a double session of cooking as we called it, the teachers called it home economics. So, I did not see her much as she also had netball practice after school so I did not get to walk home with her.

It was a pretty boring evening for me, I did my geography homework then I cooked tea for Mom and then did my English homework before heading up to bed. A summer storm blew over us during the night, the thunder and lightning woke me up at one point.

Tuesday morning saw me catching the bus to school as it was pouring with rain. I had been on the bus for two stops when Sara got on the bus and when she saw me, she came and sat next to me.

“Morning Zak,” she smiled as she sat down.

“Hi Sara, how are you?” I asked, not really interested but making polite conversation. I may not like her that much but I was not going to be rude.

“Yea all good thanks,” she said but her face told me she had something on her mind. She was hiding something but if she did not want to talk about it then that was her choice.

The rest of the journey was done in silence, we got off at the bus stop closest to the school. there were not many people around the school gate or the playground, the rain had forced everyone inside.

Sara said goodbye and went off in search of Keren. I went to the canteen but it was packed and there was no sign of Siobhan.

I went into our form room, settled down and got my books out to start my history homework. There were two other guys in there and they nodded as I walked in.

Siobhan came in ten minutes later and sat next to me. She smiled at me and gave me a cheeky wink.

“Morning Zak,” she said, and I felt her run her hand up my leg under the table.

“Hello Siobhan,” I said with a cheeky wink, “how was your evening.”

“Yes, very good but I have some bad news,” she said.

Shit, I thought to myself, first Laura told me she was leaving for Wales and now Siobhan was about to give me bad news. Well, she could not be pregnant as we had used johnnies. Was she dumping me? had her folks found out about our sessions in her bedroom, fuck I would not want to get on the wrong side of her dad that was for sure.

“I have been picked for the netball team for a tournament in London this weekend,” she said, and I sensed the disappointment in her voice.

“Oh, okay but why is that not good news?” I asked. To me being picked to represent the school was brilliant news.

“No, I wanted another day of fun with you!”! she whispered.

To be fair I would have loved another Saturday afternoon in Siobhan’s bedroom but I was sure we had plenty more time to enjoy each other’s pleasures.

The classroom was starting to fill up, the rain driving kids indoors.

“It’s only one weekend and we have the rest of the summer to have fun,” I told her.

“That is true, the rest of the summer sounds good to me!” she smiled and looked around the room, “as long as we play safe, I don’t want to end up like Sara.”

“She was on the bus today and she didn’t seem herself,” I said.

“She had a rash and thinks she caught the clap off one of the lads in the park,” Siobhan said.

“Fuck me, that’s not good,” I said. We had had some sex education classes the year before and two of them had been around sexually transmitted diseases so I had some idea of what the clap was. It seemed to be a term that covered various diseases.

“Yes, it’s a shame, she went back to a party with one lad a couple of weekends ago and she ended up shagging two lads and one of them gave her more than a good time,” Siobhan said with a shake of her head.

“So, what is she doing about it?” I asked.

“She went to the docs, and she was told to go to the clap clinic, so she is off there later today!” Siobhan said and shook her head again.

I felt sorry for Sara but if she was handing it out to everyone in the park, she was bound to have either get pregnant, catch a dose of the clap or both.

The teacher came in and we got down to the business in hand. The register was called, and school notices were read out. After that, I had Maths, Geography and Woodwork.

Then I had lunch with Siobhan and Keren, Sara had gone for her meeting at the clap clinic with her mom. I bet she was a proud parent. I would have hated my mom to have to do the same with me.

In the afternoon I had English and then a double lesson in PE. In PE we had some cricket coaching and then played a game. I did not bother to shower after the lesson, I walked home as the rain had been replaced by the sun.

I did not see Siobhan on the way home. I got home, showered, and then did homework until Mom came home. We cooked dinner together and ate in the kitchen.

After we had eaten and washed up, we watched television and Mom went to bed before me. I reread some of the Royal Navy brochures and the more I read the more I knew it was what I wanted. I headed up to bed and slept well, my dreams full of naughty thoughts about Siobhan.