FINDING MYSELF

Chapter 7 - Monday

    Even though I knew I was going to go through hell with Happyfeet and Maravel this afternoon. I was more than happy to be entering the grounds of St Andrew's. This was a Mum-free Zone which translated into a guilt-free, end-of-guts churning zone. No, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty tonight, but at least for the moment I had escaped.

     I walked past the bloke I winked at on Friday afternoon. He was the main man of the brothers, that's why his statue was struck right where everyone could see it. The front of the school looked old, like one of those posh English boarding schools. Lots of sandstone and gardens, with a bell tower on the main building that made sure everyone in the area knew how important that place was. But it was the only building like that. The rest of the school was brick and concrete, and then further back, so no one could see them, they stuck the fibro huts. That's exactly what St Andrew's was like. It thought it was a cut above the rest but, when you really got down to it, it was just the same as any other school except that it was majorly strict, and the gates that kept us in were fancy gates.

     I could hear the senior quad before I got within thirty metres of it. If someone came up with a way to take the sound from boys' schools and make it into fuel they would be a trillionaire and everyone could stop freaking out about the world's energy crisis.

     I walked past the canteen and swung into the quad to find a full-scale handball competition in progress between Year 11 and 12. No doubt the brainchild of Max and Hunter, who have not yet come to terms with the fact that with the passing of every year they are moving fr childhood. They spend most of their energy trying to keep themselves at twelve. But then who am I to judge, I am as guilty of it as they are.

    No way that was out, man! I'm not going anywhere!

    See.

    Hunter looked around for someone to acknowledge his cries of injustice and found me.

    Vance! My hero! At which point he knelt down in his square, carful not to lose his position, and bowed.

     Get up, you wanker. This is all your fault.
     No way, mate, don't you go blaming me. I only offered five bucks. I didn't think even you'd be that cheap.
      At this point the other boys joined in.

      Whoooo!

      Nice arse, Vance! How about you and me make a date for the toilets at lunchtime?

      That was Max - he always made it his job to push things too far. The other boys followed.

       You'd want to be careful the boys on Oxford Street don't track you down.
        Well, it wasn't as if the Lakeside girls were exactly throwing their phone numbers out the window.
      Yeah, but I heard they were throwing up!