Meet Me At The river

Chapter Ninety

 The Final Year

Chapter Ninety

Gareth Middleton

Sitting in the mess, that familiar sound which will soon be non-existent echoed through the room as Mr Trench made his way to the front of the mess, and turned to face the on-looking student body. He cleared his throat and began to speak, ‘Welcome all to a brand new year at St Evans Academy, for some of you this is the end of your journey, and for others the start. Whether it is the end or the beginning, we all come together as one big family and like all families, people arrive and people leave in a never ending cycle. They stick together through hard times and they celebrate the good times with equal amounts every year. This year will be no different, we will have some bad times, and we will have some good times, but it is through these times that we stick together that will make us stand out from all the others. We will face challenges such as auditions, examinations, and we will also win challenges such as the annual show choir competition and the very popular battle of the bands. Whatever we do this year just remember that St Evans Academy is proud of the reputation we have required and obtained. Let’s keep the flame burning bright and have another outstanding year.’

Mr Trench turned on the balls of his feet and left the mess, as the clicking of his heels faded into the distance.

*

Several weeks into the new academic year we had settled down and continued with our studying, we did have our A level examinations at the end of the year and even if we did gain entry to the colleges we wanted, we also wanted to spend more time focusing on our future careers than going over basic things we should have obtained in school.

Luckily we had two days of studying and three days revising along with dance, drama and music sessions several times a week.

The first day off we had was a Wednesday, and in the morning before anyone else was awake Stuart woke me up and said to me, ’Fancy a walk in the forest before breakfast babe?’

I was reluctant at first cause I was knackered but soon agreed and jumped out of bed before pulling off my pyjama bottoms and getting dressed, the perks of being a fifth year student at St Evans was not having to wear uniform on site at all times, just on the days we were studying.

After putting on my trainers and pulling a jumper over my head, I took Stuart by the hand and we quietly made our way out of the school heading towards the forest and the river that surrounded St Evans.

After walking for a while we came to the familiar spot, the bench in the middle of the oak trees and proceeded with the ritual, I pulled Stuart towards me and spun him around pressed my stomach against his back as I wrapped my arms around him and whispered in his ear, ‘Meet me at the river.’ I then spun Stuart back around as we dissolved into a passionate kiss.

We then walked over to the bench, sat down and began chatting, ‘So, say we get the grades in our A levels and start attending R.D.S.N.Y. What do you want to study and focus on? When we received the application forms did you see the certain section that we could study?’

Stuart shuffled closer to me, wrapped his arm around my back and laid his head on my shoulder before he started to speak, ‘I did, but I didn’t read any and just put a tick next to performing arts, sealed it in an envelope. What about you?’

I thought a bit before answering, ‘Well, I did the same, but read through a couple of the sections first they did sound interesting, but my dream is to become and actor and professional dancer so not ticking performing arts would have been a waste of time. But on the bright side other things could come from performing arts, so if I decided to perform in a musical a bit of vocal training wouldn’t be bad.’

‘My dream is just to belt out a solo speech or song on a massive Broadway stages, and have the audience in the whole theatre standing on their feet  giving me a massive standing ovation, I can picture it now.’ Stuart got up from the bench walked a few paces ahead turned and took a bow. As he closed his eyes and imagined he was standing on a Broadway stage after a breath-taking and amazing dance, song or speech.

When Stuart finally opened his eyes, I got up from the bench myself walked towards him and wrapped my arms around his waist as we swayed together, dissolving into the warmth and love our two bodies were producing pressed closely together. This was my idea of pure heaven. Standing with his soon to be husband, arms wrapped around his waist, head pressed into his neck, swaying side to side as our bodies pressed together.

After what seemed like forever, but was only several seconds, we released each other and headed back to the school still holding hands and kissing each other every few minutes.