Hidden Desires

Year 11 2003-2004: Mixed Residential

3.45pm. We depart. The 'cool' kids sat at the back with Mr Henry. As fun as this sounded, that was in fact a punishment. This was Mr Henry's way of keeping an eye on any potential misbehaving. The coach journey to Hindhead was absolute fun. I, of course, sat next to Myah. Jaime sat next to Nicolas, in the opposite row, 2 seats ahead, to be exact. Dominic was behind them with Romero Bryant. I found it amusing though, as I knew it was an excuse for Jaime to keep turning around. I'd catch him on more than one occasion, stealing glances and staring at me. But I'd get nervous and timidly look away. The coach driver allowed us to choose which radio station we wanted to bump our heads and sing our hearts to. Choice FM was the popular choice. DJ Jigs was spoiling us with 'The Drive By'- his infamous 3pm-6pm slot on the station, by playing some ultimate bangers. We shamelessly bumped our heads to Chingy's Right Thuur, B2K's Badaboom, Joe Budden's Pump It Up and sang our 'out-of-tune' hearts to Ashanti's Rock Wit U and Beyonce's Baby Boy. The boys joined in too. More than they'd admit to. In fact, they were the loudest! We hit rush hour traffic, but I must admit that I wasn't in a particular rush to get there. We had the whole entire weekend ahead of us. And I wanted to enjoy every single last minute of it.

Upon arrival, the residential staff directed the girls and boys into their separate 'dorm rooms'. I was excited. I was sharing rooms with Myah, Jada King and 2 other girls. Putting my luggage onto the floor, I quickly climbed up to claim one of the top bunks. Immediately, we started discussing plans for mischief for the weekend ahead, anything to make it a memorable one.

"I think we should sneak in and hide in the other girls' room and scare them," suggested one of the girls.

"Oooh, that sounds good. We could run into the other girls' rooms and whilst they're in bed, drenched them with water," giggled Brenda Clarke.

"Wait! I've got the perfect idea. We should wait for the teachers, especially Mr Henry, to go to sleep, then we sneak into the boys' dorms!" I suggested, eager and wide eyed, waiting for their response.

"Yesss!" The girls shouted in unison.

 
It was decided. After dinner, we were gonna wait for everyone to go into their respective rooms then we'd attack the girls in their beds. I made a mental note that I'd run and sneak into the boys' dorms! I was thrilled with the idea. This was gonna be fun! Well if we didn’t get caught that is! 

My mind was this evening's mischief. I ate dinner quickly, engaged in a few surrounding conversations here and there. I watched Jaime intensively, stuffing his face with a slice of cheesecake for desert. Tonight's dinner had been fish and chips, with mushy peas. One of my favourite, ultimate comfort foods. The teachers were sitting on their own tables, laughing away, clicking glasses, probably, alcohol filled and glimpsing our way, once or twice, making sure we weren't up to no good. I hadn't spoken to Jaime as much as I would have hoped. After dinner was over, a group of us decided to hang out by the pool table, in the lounge, with the boys, since we were soon gonna be separated. I, for one, didn't know how to play pool, and really didn't want to embarrass myself in a room full of people and especially not in front of Jaime. Music began blaring through the air and instantly, I recognised Kelis' Milkshake song, escaping through the built in speakers on the walls. A few of us started dancing away, laughing and having a good time, until the teachers spoilt our fun, by reminding us that we had an early start and busy day of learning ahead of us the following day.  

Dragging our feet and mumbling under our breaths, we made our way back to our designated dorm rooms. We started thinking about whose room we should run into first and what we could use as weapons. 

"I've got some baby powder we could use," Jada King suggested excitedly. 

"That's perfect! We could throw some water on them first, then use the baby powder for effect," Myah replied giggling uncontrollably.