EVERGREEN, elijah hewson

anarchy in the uk

CHAPTER ONE
"anarchy in the uk"

EDEN HALE WANTED TO JUMP OUT OF THE BUS.

To begin with, Mr Sahni had lied to everyone. He had told them countless times, through gritted teeth, that this was to be a 'solitary experience'. He never mentioned other schools, never mentioned meeting new people or being split apart from your best mates. No, why would he ever bring that up? Why would he bring up the sole purpose as to why they were going on this stupid expedition?

Eden decided that he was scared. Yes, he was downright terrified of his students. He could barely even look them in the eyes now. He had perched himself in the back corner of the bus, probably calling his mum. Mr Sahni was always a coward. But it was fair enough. A crowd of half-asleep teenagers would make any teacher shit bricks.

Someone at the front row had put on some rave music, piles of Oreos had been thrown all over the ground and all that Eden could focus on were the disgusting walking boots she'd brought. Her brother had thrown them down the stairs for her just as she left the house. He didn't clean them. They stank of mouldy cheese, didn't fit right and were the colour of diarrhoea. She'd stupidly only brought one pair of shoes. With her luck, they would become a duck pond by the end of the week. She couldn't wait to give them back to her brother once they had been destroyed.

Screams were echoing throughout the bus. People were getting impatient. They all wanted more details, to find out if their teacher had been hiding more information from them. Mr Sahni was not smart to leave them unattended. Eden noticed the two students sitting behind her had smuggled a pack of cigarettes. They just smoked them without a care in the world. Mr Sahni had gone into his strop mode. He'd be there for a while.

"He's having a laugh." Eden nudged her friend, Belle, who was sitting beside her. "And he didn't have the nerve to tell us. Wanker."

Belle pulled out her earphones to take in the atmosphere. She laughed to herself at the sight of the smokers. "He can go to Hell. D'yer think they'll split us up or summat?" Her strong Mancunian accent always made Eden's day a whole lot better. No wonder it was voted the sexiest accent in England

"I'm praying they won't." She clung to the thought like a lifeline, the words 'keep me with Belle' echoing through her mind like a mantra. If they were split up, she'd make her way right back home.

Belle's mind went straight to the next worse thing. "What if we get mixed with a group of right nobheads?"

"I'll tell them to do one." She'd learnt that phrase from Belle.

Belle grinned up to her ears. "'Course you would."

Finally, after the longest ten minutes of Eden's life, Mr Sahni reappeared. He was a mess with his floppy hair and oversized hoodie. The eye bags under his eyes had grown even darker and his eyelids were drooping. The group fell silent as he made his way from the end of the bus to the front. His booming footsteps were like something out of a horror film. Some pupils were staring out of the window in order to escape his hooded gaze. He could be terrifying at times. Especially when he looked as if he hadn't slept in weeks.

"Students of Hillview, I must apologise sincerely. I should've told you this earlier." Eden wanted to steal Belle's airpods in order to get away from that soul-shaking accent. He was posh to an extent that was barely imaginable as if he'd just walked out of Downton Abbey."I've just been on the phone to Principal Grantfield. He's decided that we're still going to go through with us and that it would be great for all of you to meet new people. These students are coming in from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Isn't that exciting...?"

Mr Sahni was met with blank faces. Everyone was consumed by boredom. Arms crossed over chests, lips pursed shut.

"Well, we'll be arriving in less than 5 minutes. Phones will be given in once we get to The Centre as one person in each of your groups will be given a walkie-talkie," Mr Sahni continued. He was still staring each student down. He turned his head rapidly at the flash of a camera. "Who was that?"