MUD - An LGBT+ Story

Brockley Manor

Sitting on the first coach gazing out of the window, Steve was sat next to me with his headphones on, the type that went over your ears and cancelled out any outside noise, this meant no chatting, totally different to the time we shared sweets on the History trip in Year 7. The coach was full and bustling with excitable energy, sat in the two seat just in front was Andy and James and directly behind me was Claire who was next to Jen and noticed her black hair had a hint of red dye highlights and it suited her really well, we all complemented Jen's hair whilst taking our seats. Miss Brown was sat at the very front ensuring things didn't get too noisy and as Steve didn't want to chat I sat back and looked at the rolling hills and the autumnal colours of the countryside with the heavy looking clouds overhead which threatened rain. Honestly though my thoughts were preoccupied with wondering what exactly could and would probably go wrong on this field trip and how to get through it without too much stress. I still didn't know which group I was going to be in as everyone is going to find out this information when we arrived, just hoped it was a decent group. Looking through the timetable it consisted of a humanities lesson in the morning after breakfast with a break in-between then there was lunch followed by group work and a break before dinner. I was still trying to accept the fact there was no escape to go home at 3:15! There were also things planned in the evening, a variety of films called popcorn nights, tonight there was to be a welcome party and on the Thursday night a leaving party as we would be heading home on the Friday after breakfast, hurry up Friday my mind thought. Reading this made my thoughts race with different scenarios of what these parties could possibly entail but decided denial was the best option to avoid extra stress, plus I couldn't see any way of being able to get out of them.

The coach began to slow and turned down a narrower road lined with trees, at which point Miss Brown stood up who was wearing casual clothes light stone washed jeans and a plain yellow t-shirt under a black zip up hoodie as there was a distinct chill in the air. She picked up a microphone so she could be heard on the coaches speakers "okay... okay is this working? Yes, good, okay Year 9 we are just approaching Brockley Manor the coach will stop outside the entrance, collect your bag and wait inside the foyer, stand in your dormitory groups! Make sure you pick up everything from the coach, if you forget it then it will be gone forever!" There was a good chance Steve didn't hear any of this with his headphones still on, looking out of the window I saw the huge imposing building approach on the horizon with the dramatic dark clouds in the sky setting the tone. In front of the main entrance was a grass roundabout and the road turned into fine gravel and as the coach swept around the manor came clearly into view, a large sandy brick building with thick green vines growing up the side of the wall which looked like it had been there for hundreds of years. The coach stopped outside the entrance and the door opened which was the signal for everyone to scramble off the coach as quickly as possible, except me and Steve who sat back and waited for the hectic stampede to pass, Steve took of his headphones and put them in his backpack "We here?" He asked whilst yawning "Yep this is it" I replied looking back at the building through the window noticing the tall windows were divided into smaller oblong sections and I suddenly became nervous "Lets go, most of the others are off the coach now" eager not to miss anything the teacher might say. As we stepped down onto the gravel it made a crunching noice under our feet, a second coach came around the roundabout and stopped behind ours, then I notice the writing on the side said Happy Days, I smirked to myself, happy days? Yeah right. Collected my bag and walked with Steve, there were two largely spaced stone steps that weren't very high just wide that lead you into the main entrance and foyer area. Inside the floor was tiled and designed to make a circular pattern in the centre of the room, the ceiling was extremely high with a chandelier hanging down and position so it was directly in the centre of the tiled floor circle. Looking around, the reception desk was a modern light wood desk which curved to match the flooring yet it looked out of place, as if it was too modern. The reception was directly opposite the entrance so you couldn't miss it, today there were two people at the desk a man and lady who were both wearing plain white shirts and name badges they looked busy on the computers, from were I was stood you couldn't read their names on the badges. On the Wall behind them was a large old clock the time said 11:32am, it was the type where you could see the movements through the glass and I'm sure the tick was quite distinctive, however, with the foyer full of Year 9 students it definitely wasn't audible, next to the clock was a large map of the building and the surrounding grounds and it looked a big area which surprised me. We started to gather in our groups, me and Steve went over to join Noah who was stood with Him, we never talked about Games and borrowing my towel since that lesson, there was nothing to say and best not to make a big deal about it but my feelings did feel awkward, then Andy and James joined us and the group was complete, we put our bags in a pile and the six of us were ready to survive the next five days and four nights.