Retroexposure

Chapter 8 - School Memories

Tuesday 9th October 2007 12:34pm
I've realised just how samey life can get when you are unemployed. Today, I was supposed to be signing on. Now usually, as you will know from a previous entry, getting to town with my irritating toilet habits is usually a military operation. However this morning, I seemed okay, and prepared to go and sign on and do all the things that I had scheduled myself to do today. So I got really annoyed with myself when I genuinely had diarrhoea! I'm not going to go on about this for too long, cos, let's face it; it's a gross image to have in your head right now!
Anyway, I took the Immodium and had to reluctantly call the job centre to say that I wouldn't be signing on today. I'm signing on, on Thursday instead. So this morning I decided to watch a film called What Women Want starring Mel Gibson. I admit, I have several 'chick flicks' and I'm proud of that fact. I'm not just full of male ego and testosterone; I have a sensitive side too. Maybe that's why girls at school thought I was gay! I'm not, by the way. I kissed a guy once, but that was like years ago when I was 15. Only once, never to be repeated!
Anyway, I realised that while no girl fancied me or wanted to go out with me, they always came to me for relationship advice! I was always the friend and never the boyfriend. What made matters worse for me is that, all the girls I fancied were going out with my best friends. One time this girl, Q, stayed over at my house once and asked if my best mate could stay over too.
Mum and Dad were ok with that, as was I, to begin with. Q stayed in the spare room while A and me set up a spare bed in my room, so that A shared with me. We stayed up talking for a few hours. We even got into my bed, all three of us and managed to fit too! Just! I was on the outside of the bed, so my butt was hanging out over the edge. So it was A, Q in the middle and then me. She then let both us boys grope her! A had the top half and I had the bottom. I have to admit, she looked very sexy in just my pyjama top and knickers.
If it wasn't for the fact that she was on her period, (Girls in my bed and periods always seem to go hand in hand, don't they?) I'm sure that she would have let us do more than just grope her. So therefore there was nothing I could do but rest my hand on her waist. After a short while, Q went to the bathroom, and A went with her, probably so that they could kiss in privacy! Before I fell asleep that night, I remember feeling hurt that I'd be used like that. Q knew that I fancied her, and she always wanted to be with my friends.
When I woke the following morning, I looked down at the foot of the bed and saw that A and Q were in the bed together. Just as I woke up and got the shock of my life, Mum put her head around the door, and was seeing what I'd just seen! She asked me if I knew what had happened or why, I said I didn't. Apparently Dad had seen them too, as he came in to switch my alarm off when it had gone off at 6am. But he didn't say anything until he got back home.
When A and Q woke up, I told them that my parents had seen them in bed together and wanted an explanation, they both apologised sheepishly and Mum and Dad accepted their story, but was very disappointed with them. I, on the other hand, felt hurt, angry and betrayed.
A and I stayed friends but Q soon left our school, when she had accused three boys in my year of trying to rape her at a mutual friend's birthday party. When it initially happened, Q had the support of everybody. I felt responsible, because she was staying with me at the time, so I felt I should have protected her more. The boys involved had to have their lessons in the staff corridor, because once it filtered around the school about what had happened, everyone wanted to lynch them!
It turned out that Q had made it all up. I don't know what really happened, or why she made it up, but once the truth came out, just before it went to trial, those that supported her, turned on her. After being made public enemy number one, Q had no choice, but to leave our school. It's always been said that school kids can be a fickle bunch!
School was never easy for me. I was a bit of a bully at primary school. Although I don't see it quite like that. I got picked on, but I was always the one caught out if I retaliated. One time this kid knocked me to the floor, and while on the floor, I couldn't really hit out at him, so I bit him on the ankle instead! Not one of my proudest moments, but funnily enough it is my most memorable, from primary school anyway.
At secondary school, I changed. I didn't retaliate. I just let myself get bullied. I thought that sooner or later, they would be caught out and punished just like I was. Yeah, right! Like that ever happened! I was just seen as a whining telltale snitch. So, once or twice, I fought back, and guess what, I got punished, they got away with it.
I was pushed down stairs twice. The first time was at the end of school, home time. I was 12, so that would be when I was in year 7. As I was saying, I was pushed down a flight of stairs near the English department. But instead of someone helping me up, about a hundred kids trampled all over me. I made it to my bus and made it home. Later that evening I wasn't feeling well, so I told Mum and Dad what had happened, so we headed down to the hospital to get me checked out for possible delayed concussion.
What happened when we got to hospital ended up like something out of a Carry On...movie. I fell asleep because I had developed photophobia (fear of bright lights). When I woke up however, I thought I was seven years old again! I thought that my grandparents were still alive. But the most bizarre thing about it all was that I thought that Dad wasn't my real dad, just a man that my Mum lived with! Which had, apparently, people staring at dad with strange looks. I got over that scenario relatively quickly, but nowadays Mum looks back on that day with humour and fondness!
The second time was possibly my fault. I say my fault, because I was running through the corridor. Someone stuck out their leg, and sent me flying. It was only a few steps, but as the ground was lower than the ground that I was tripped up from, I landed quite hard. So hard, in fact, I was worried, that I'd done something to my neck. I was helped to the receptionist's office, which after possibly hurting my neck wasn't really a good idea. But an ambulance was called and they came to check me over and take me down to the hospital. As I was being wheeled out, there was a huge thrall of pupils gawping to see what was happening. One of my friends, M, was standing by the main entrance door, where I was being wheeled to, crying, "Don't die, James!" I told him I was okay and that I wasn't going to die.
I recovered from that too, obviously. But it was from that point and when after being bullied by a kid from hell, who, humiliatingly, was two years younger than me, that I had had enough. Someone insulted my mum while we were travelling home on the school bus; I took offence to that (obviously) so I laid into him, throwing about half a dozen punches to his face and head. He came to school the following day with two black eyes and a bruised cheekbone. Again, I wasn't proud of that, and I deservedly got punished for it. But I did, finally, start to gain respect.
I've worn glasses since I was 13, if someone wanted to start a fight with me; they knew that I was going to take them on, when I removed my glasses. Apparently I had quite an evil stare without my glasses on. The only reason that was, was because I needed to focus on the person I was fighting with!
One time, M wanted to fight me. We are, and hopefully always will be friends, but at school, he was of the nature where you could be friends with him one minute and want to fight him the next. And this happened to be one of those times. He challenged me to a fight, and I wasn't really going to fight him.
Our friends knew that I didn't want to, but M kept trying to wind me up. So when I passed my glasses to a friend to hold on to, M bolted out of the room like a bat out of hell! M thought I was being serious and ran before I could do anything to him!
When he ran out of the room he was caught running by a dinnertime supervisor and got in trouble. He tried to blame me of course. The group of us just burst out laughing. M being scared out of his wits, just because I took my glasses off! When we were all friends again, memories of that lunchtime became a running joke for the rest of my time at school.
While on the subjects of jokes at school, I can remember when a group of us was caught smoking at school, behind the mobile classrooms and were sent to our head of year. So there we are being punished about smoking on school grounds, when the year head, lights up a cigarette in front of us! We weren't being punished severely, that was obvious. I guess because we were in our final year at school, we had a bit of leniency.
So as we were being lectured about smoking in school, our year head was smoking in front of us! As he sent us away out of his office, I remember one of us asking 'if Sir could crash us one for later?' He grinned and said no, while the rest of us were trying to stifle our laughing.
When we shut the door to his office, we just cracked up with laughter, so much so that a teacher from a nearby classroom came out into the corridor and told us to be quiet and get to class! That has to be one of my most memorable times at secondary school. 2:24pm