Everything about Jacob

Four

"Harvey!" My Dad yells as he comes through the front door. "Get yourself in here right now."
I slowly walk through the big double doors leading from the kitchen out into the living room. My dad stands in front of me, his face red with anger and his fists clenched tightly. I sit down on the sofa and put my feet up beside me.
"Stand up right now!" He yells, grabbing my school tie and dragging me forwards. "Your behaviour has no place in a school like this one."
"Maybe that school isn't for me then." I sigh, sitting down again.
"Harvey, you stand up straight when you are speaking to me." My Dad instructs, staring me right in the eye.
"Piss off." I shout and dash off towards the kitchen.
"You're right, Harvey!" He calls through to me.
I ignore him and put some bread into the toaster.
"I don't think this school is the right place for you."
I slowly walk back towards the doors so I can see me Dad.
"I think boys like you belong in the military school."
"No chance." I sigh and go back towards the toaster.
"It helped your uncle Kyle!" He shouts to me.
"Then why has he got a drug problem?" I shout back.
My dad doesn't reply. I spread some butter on my toast and check to see where he is. I find him in the study, a massive room with a ceiling more than twice the height of the one in my mum's house.
"What are you doing?" I ask, standing beside him.
"Nothing." He says quickly, shutting over the laptop and getting to his feet. He looks at me for a minute, then notices the toast on my plate. "What do you think you're doing eating in my study! Eating is for the kitchen you disgusting boy!" He shoves me out of the room and slams the door in my face. I hear a key turn in the lock and my dad's footsteps disappear to the other side of the room. I drop a piece of toast on the living room rug and go upstairs to my bedroom, remembering to lock the door as I go in.
My dad's house is an old Victorian one in the middle of the country-side. There are no shops for around three miles, and no villages or towns for around five. I lie down on my bed and glance out of the huge window. I see a big oak tree, and I remember a swing my dad made the first time I came over, about a month after my parents divorced, when I was four. I stand up and look to see if it's still there, which it's not. The wooden seat has rotted away and all that's left of it is the string. I sit on my bed again, taking my phone out to check the time.
One new message shows up on my phone.
"Meet us, same place tomorrow. We want to hear the rest of the story." ~07853 453821
I open up my text messages and reply. "Who is this?"
The same number replies immediately. "You know who."
So I save the contact under the name Penny Bracken, switch my phone off and have a nap.

I wake up to a loud banging at my door. "Harvey, open this door at once!" My Dad shouts in.
I get out of bed and open the door, my dad stands there with a piece of paper and a pen in his hand. "What took you so long?" He grunts.
"I was in bed." I sigh.
"In your school uniform! That is disrespectful to me, and to the school!" He begins.
I interrupt him, "What did you want?"
"You need to sign this." He say, handing me the paper and pen and following me over to my desk.
"What is it?" I ask, just before my pen touches the paper.
"It's for you to start in the military school at the end of August." He says, hitting me hard on the shoulder.
"I don't want to go." I say, and put the pen down. "If I don't sign it, I don't have to go."
"Not quite." My Dad says, picking up the pen and handing it back to me. "I'm your father, I can still make you go."
"Then why did you ask me to sign it?" I ask.
My dad looks me in the eye and sad-smiles. "It's better for both of us if you understand that is what's best for you."
I begin to cry, just as I found a way to fit in I have to go. "Give me one more chance!" I beg. "Please!"
"Harvey, you need some behavioural discipline, and you don't listen to me." He explains.
"I promise I'll do better, I promise I won't let you down!"
"Harvey..."
"Please!"
A pause. My dad looks at me with pity. I'm in an awful state.
"I'll give you two more weeks." He says softly, picking up the pen and paper and leaving my bedroom.
"Close the door behind you." I call out to him, but he ignores me. I sit and stare at my desk, I'm in no mood to close the door myself.