Front Line

Front Line - Chapter 12 - Year 10

Front Line

Chapter Twelve – Year 10

  Feeling better about starting this year, I strode in the school with new confidence, and a new uniform. Instead of the boring, flabby pillar-box red sweatshirts, we traded them in for two more years of not red but grey flabby sweatshirts. No one ever had the correct size that would fit them, we all looked ten times bigger than we were just because of the size of our sweatshirts. It didn’t exactly help me as I’m not the slimmest person to begin with, now thanks to the monotone grey colour, I felt no more confident than I already was in the previous year. Great.

  One good, well semi-good thing did come out of the hideous grey sweatshirts, it made me feel more important than my friends that were in the year below. It sounds self-centred but back then if you were in the year above or had finally reached the year that you were on top, you milked it. I didn’t have any real friends in my year so all my close friends were stuck with one more year of flabby red sweatshirts. We weren’t completely on top in my year though, we were the younger of the GCSE students, the Year 11’s always looked down on us because we were the ‘newbies’, clearly forgetting that last year it was them. The ultimate alpha-dog status would come when we get to 6th form, years 12 and 13.

  For years, four to be exact at this point, we had watched many 6th form kids come and go, they didn’t have to wear their own uniform so we were all looking forward to the day where we could be like so many American kids, and wear our own clothes to school. Each of us had our own idea what 6th form would be like, for me it was all American high school ideals. Lockers, laptops, mobile phones, just thinking about how one day I could be like how my secondary school dream used to be made every painful day for the next two years all worthwhile.

  Since SATs were scrapped the year before, this year just like the rest we had to choose what we wanted to do, only without having to give the grades of SATs. You were allowed to choose three subjects in which you wish to study alongside the mandatory ones, English, Maths and Science. I chose to study English Language, French and Sociology. So yeah basically I’ve chosen to do double English, learn a new language and study society, not the easiest of subjects but somehow I knew I was going to get through them just fine.

  Coming back around to where I should have begun, the first day of term started as it always did, only this time I was in a different room and only two people from my previous tutor group came into my new one. Not that I talked to either of them in the first place. I actually chose to stick with a girl I had been on/off friends with for the past 2-3 years, her name is Fay. She and I were put into the same tutor group so being there early we got to choose the seats we would remain in for the two years, I stood on the other side of our table which was first by the door, standing against the doorframe the most unexpected thing happened.

  Standing there innocently talking to Fay as the latecomers filtered in, came in one person in particular that caught my eye. His hair was as blonde as fairy-tale princes in books would only have, his eyes a captivating blue and his chiselled yet cherub-like features hit me like a charging bull. He was the most handsome, the best-looking man I had ever laid my eyes on. I had never felt anything like this before from the moment I started having feelings for men, he made me feel different. He didn’t notice me of course, with what I presumed was his mates he sat down at the far right seat, furthest away from me.

  For the next month or two, I spent my time deciding if he was actually good looking or not. He was on that line that could go either way, depending on his hairstyle or his smile, it was a hard call. He was in my French class, luckily he sat only a desk behind me as I sat on my own on the first table but he and my ‘friend’ Kirsten sat on the one behind. I was lucky enough one time to actually be his partner in a French class activity, for which I was over the moon. Not only did I get to see him in French class but he was also in my Media Studies class. This time however he was on the other side of the room to be but at the very beginning of it all, he asked me looking at me, “Julianna feel my hand.” I must have done about a thousand backflips in my mind I was going from heaven and back more times than ever before. I got to touch him and it wasn’t in a creepy way either, this left me wanting for more.

  Two months into the school year in November the annual Diwali pronounced di-va-lee, came around and myself and my best friend at the time, David, were more than happy to help out on sound and lighting. I had no experience so I was going to be there to help out when David couldn’t be in two places at once. Turns out I got to do more than that, it wasn’t all that much but I got to set up the lighting board, check the mics and make sure that the order of the acts were correct and that everyone was here. It was a great time doing something with a friend, even if I wasn’t actually a part of the initial celebration.

  When it came around to doing our first set of GCSE exams, I was more than nervous thanks to not having the SATs the year before, which would have prepared me for these. Thankfully I wasn’t one of those students who learned everything at the last minute and hoped for the best, no I studied hard and got all my work done so when my ten exams had finished I was relieved. They weren’t as bad as I thought but we wouldn’t get the results until August so there was just over a month’s wait, a long time when you’re whole future is riding on a set of exam results. So now all I had to do was sit back and wait for them to come.

  Exam results day came in no hurry, it felt like forever until the day actually arrived and even when it did we all wished it was like next week. Thankfully I passed all my exams with my best grades being in Media and English, as French exams would be totalled up at the end of the two years rather than right now.  With that worry over, it was summer, summer and more summer only in my eyesight for the next month. Until it all started again in September.