Chapter 43: Shopping Trip

Exams began in mid-May and ran through to mid-June. We were allowed to stay home when we didn’t have an exam, but most of us used this free time to study in the school library anyway. It just made more sense to study in a group at a place that had all the relevant materials, rather than trying to study at someone’s house, especially since we were all doing different combinations of subjects and so all had exams at different times.

I’ll admit, I preferred morning exams to afternoon ones. I think I just felt fresher in the morning. Or maybe it was that I had more time to worry about the exam if it was in the afternoon.

The Late Spring Ball, held on the Friday of the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May, was a welcome distraction in the middle of the exam period. As a sign of their commitment to the community following the completion of the sale, Liddington-Phipps/WolfgangHaus sponsored the event and it was the most lavish for many years. An enormous marquee, even bigger than the school sports hall, was erected in The Recreation Ground to host it, and a popular band from London called Guilty Verdict was the headline act. The lead singer, Billy Thomas, lived up to his reputation as a great on-stage performer and, it was rumoured over the weekend, his reputation as an off-stage performer too, if you know what I mean. Certainly, Clarissa and I saw three young women trying to sneak in the stage door.

As well as the dance hall, bar and restaurant tables, a section of the marquee was transformed into a James Bond-esque casino and it was a lot of fun losing some money on the roulette wheel, throwing dice at the craps table and getting beaten by the bank at blackjack.

Clarissa stayed by my side all night. We took a walk around the lake, marvelling at the numerous circus acts that were entertaining people there. We danced on the open-air dance floor at the side of the marquee, which was illuminated by strings of brightly coloured Chinese lanterns. It truly was a magical and memorable night. One I’ll remember for the rest of my life as being the best night I ever spent with Clarissa.

Afterwards, we went back to her house and made love for over an hour before falling asleep in each other’s arms. We woke in the early hours and made love again before drifting back to dreamland. And to round things off, Clarissa gave me one of her splendid wake-up blowjobs in the morning before I reciprocated and we made love once again.

It was perfect.

After the exams, most of our friends took off around the Europe on holiday. Grace and Emily rented a villa on the Costa Del Sol. The Simms twins headed for the South of France with their parents. Kelly and some of her friends were heading for Ibiza. For those not going to university—and there were more of them than people who were going such as Kevin, Billy and Lauren—this would be their last period of freedom before entering the world of work. Lauren had a job lined up with a bank. Kevin and Billy had been taken on as apprentices at Liddington-Phipps.

Given our intention to travel for the whole of the coming year, Clarissa and I didn’t see the point of a summer holiday. Instead, we planned our trip. We decided that the European leg of our travels could be done by ear. We needed no special permissions save a valid passport to travel within the EU, so the only restriction we had was our imagination. We made a list of cities we wanted to see, experiences we wanted to have and planned a travel route based on that but left it open to change if the mood took us. Using some of the cash I got from the Liddington-Phipps sale, I traded in my trusty little super-mini for a larger, more comfortable motorway cruiser with more storage space in preparation for the trip. It might have been cheaper (and better for the planet) if we’d used public transport rather than driving, but we wanted the freedom to go places that public transport didn’t. And besides, we’d have to use public transport in America since we weren’t old enough to get a hire car.

The American part of the trip took more planning because of this. We researched train and coach timetables, hotels and attractions and planned a route across the continent and back. We had to go to the US Embassy in London to get our visas sorted out, so we made a mini-break of it and started our world tour early with an exploration of our own capital.

It really was the best time of our lives. Even the news that Del Stevens’ full bed and board stay at Her Majesty’s Pleasure had ended early couldn’t put a dampener on things. We guessed correctly that he’d want to keep a low profile and would certainly be staying out of our way.

We were young, healthy and in love and looking forward to an exciting year ahead. What more could two people ask for?

The Late Summer Ball, held on the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August, would probably be the last opportunity that our group of friends ever had to get together and really let our hair down. With me and Clarissa set to be out of the country for most of the next year, and others in the group dispersing around the country, we wanted to make it a memorable night.

It was being sponsored by Liddington-Phipps/WolfgangHaus just like the Spring Ball and being held in the same marquee at The Rec. In fact, word around town was it would be a carbon copy of the ball at the end of May, but with a different headline act. No announcement had been made, but there was a strong rumour that the Scottish pop-megababe Tina Thomson had been booked.