A Kingdom of Our Own

Chapter Four - Sports Day

The walk back to the school took thirty minutes all in all and Dalton was relieved when he finally arrived in the front yard, keen to be off home. Had this been any ordinary, routine school day, lunchtime recess would have been drawing to a close and the playground would have been packed out, bustling with activity. Today though, it was deserted. It was rather hard to take in the desolateness about the place without feeling a certain degree of curiosity, the large open space, so empty, with not another living soul in sight. The scene was especially odd and out of place in the eyes of a character like Dalton, who was still stuck in the term time routine, despite the coming of the summer break. Having said that, the site was by no means silent. A great deal of chanting could be heard from some way off, coming from the field on the far side of the school complex. The Sports Day events were underway and that, Dalton immediately realised, meant the start of the 600 was drawing near.

Taking into account the scarce amount of time he had at his disposal in the situation, Dalton’s pace quickened, his stride lengthening in its coverage. He jogged across the rough tarmacked surface of the playground, headed towards a pair of double doors that served as the entrance to the main building of the school - a domineering, two-tiered structure.

All of a sudden, without any prior warning, the doors up ahead swung open and a figure emerged from them, with a backpack slung over their shoulder. Even from an initial glance, it seemed they were in a great rush about something. They moved with noticeable haste and looked back over their shoulder now and then anxiously, almost as if they were expecting someone to emerge from the building in their pursuit at any given moment. Regardless of their concerns, nothing of the sort happened and Dalton’s eyes widened in surprise as the realisation hit him that that the individual was in fact Harry.

“Harry! It’s me, Dalton!” he called avidly, waving to him from across the playground. Harry continued in his rapid approach and gave only the slightest of nods of recognition towards his friend, as if he wasn’t quite aware of the situation and had more important, pressing matters on his mind. This lack of a greeting didn’t go unnoticed by any means, that much is easily said. It struck Dalton as rather odd, with it being very uncustomary for Harry to act in such a retreated and shy manner, especially towards one of his closest friends.

“What are you doing here? I thought you’d headed out into town” Harry said apprehensively, as they came within arms-length of one and other.

“We did, but I needed to come back for my bike” Dalton explained, before he came to observe his friend with a certain degree of suspicion and remarked - “Hey Sports Day’s already started, shouldn’t you be getting ready for the race?”

Harry lowered his gaze uncertainly, his expression turning from a distant and worried one, to a look of earnestness. He began to stutter, unsure on how much to tell his friend, “Yeah… You know, I decided not to bother… I’m just gonna head off home… I hurt my leg when he pushed me into the wall and like you said, it was a crazy idea all along. I’d never beat him and even if I did I’d be dead meat.”

Harry’s sudden and dramatic change in attitude towards the matter confirmed in Dalton’s mind without a doubt now that something was wrong. Harry was one of those people who took the word “risk” to an extreme, stooping to all sorts of levels in order to simply have a darn good time. Dalton couldn’t hold back the worry he felt towards his friend and so decided to be open and ask the question that had been growing on his mind - “Harry, what’s wrong? Why are you acting so edgy? Did you go back to Mr Richards’ room again?”

“Me? No, I’m fine” Harry replied hoarsely. Just the tone he said it in made it apparent that there was no truth in what he had said and that everything was far from ok. “I-I haven’t done anything” he continued to stammer, “Anyway, I’ve got to go, I’ll see you later.”

Dalton wanted nothing more than to grab hold of his friend and tell him that everything was going to be ok and that he would support him no matter what it was that he had done, however stupid, if only he would speak truthfully with him. Unfortunately though, despite how he felt deep down in his heart, he wasn’t quick enough in expressing his concerns orally.

“Hey! Wait up!” He called, but it came to no avail. Harry had already gone, sprinting off, out of the front gate and down the street, back towards home.