Okay sorry for the delay but here it is the draft of Chapter 1 of my novel! I am quite exited baring in mind only two people have ever seen this so far, I really want to know what people think. So if you are reading this please leave me a comment or somehow give me feedback, anything at all about it (even if you thought it was complete shite I don’t mind! I want to know!). Please tell me! Pretty please!
I just thought I would say this before you read it: none of these people that I write about are based on solely one person, they are a mixture of many people I have met, have heard about and will no doubt meet in the future. The setting isn’t real! St Peter’s is once again a mixture of many high schools with a six form college; I would never describe my college like this at all. Infact for the record Hutton Grammar School is an amazing place to be and unlike some of my characters, I am very happy with my college and I feel at home there.
One last point the title of the novel, is currently only a working title but I think it is good because it reflects freedom and consequences quite well which are two main themes throughout the storyline.
So yeah, I hope you enjoy it…
Butterfly’s In The Breeze
“A bicycle shop at the end of the road
A Chinese chippy to ease the load
The lights are low, and life's not fair
What I have is yours to share.”
A Chinese chippy to ease the load
The lights are low, and life's not fair
What I have is yours to share.”
Liam Fray
Chapter 1
St Peter’s School and Six Form collage was a complete dump. Year Sevens ran all over the severely waterlogged front field while others slid on the ice that inhabited the square shaped plot of playground which everybody referred to as the quad. Older kids stood in groups huddled together wishing they could go inside, but the prefects stood by the doors and refused to let anybody in.
Sam Jones watched all this from the English room window. Abruptly an angry voice screamed at him across the other side of the practically empty classroom, “Sam Jones! What are you doing? Less looking out of the window and more revising, otherwise you will fail, again!” The voice came from Mrs Hatchet; she was the elderly English teacher who made Sam’s English Literature lessons as appealing as having a nail hammered in to your private area. Sam stared at his battered copy of ‘The Kite Runner’ which lay in front of him, “What is the bloody point?” he muttered to himself. He opened the book up at a random page and began to read.
After what felt like a millennium it was half one and the re-sit class which consisted of Sam and his best friend George Day who everybody called ‘Georgie’ exited the classroom. “Oh, I wish I had passed first time so I we didn’t have to have these shit lessons” Georgie moaned in his nasal sounding voice. Sam didn’t bother answering; he had too much experience of Georgie’s moaning rants so he replied in a slightly more optimistic tone. “Where are we going now, Chippy?” “Don’t have any money do I?” replied Georgie. “Bloody hell, you already owe me thirty quid, don’t you” Sam replied in annoyance at his friend’s ability to never have any money. “Come on just a fiver man” replied Georgie in a begging tone. “Fiver and two fags” replied Sam allowing himself to smile as his best friend tried to think of a better way to avoid losing his prized possessions. Georgie snarled and then handed over the two cigarettes to Sam after checking there was nobody in sight.
Sam and Georgie continued their walk down the road towards the chip shop. They passed out of the back gate in-between the plush new Six Form block and the slightly older performing arts block and approached the Motson Avenue shops. The shops consisted of: a bicycle shop, a carpet and furniture store, a funeral directors and then finally the ‘Lucky Star’ chip shop. Sam and Georgie got their lunch and then continued back towards the school virtually in silence. Being Six Formers meant that the privilege of been allowed to leave school when they wanted to. However both boys failed English Literature in their October mock exams so had to spend there Monday lunch breaks revising for the re-sit with Mrs Hatchet. Sam had got a D where as Georgie had failed with a more shoddily F.
The common room was virtually empty as Georgie and Sam entered, most of the six formers had lessons but there was an odd few who sat around flicking through a text book or texting a friend on their mobile phone. Georgie and Sam slalomed through the scattered chairs and piles of litter to where they usually sat to eat the few remaining chips and scoop the remaining gravy out of the bottom of the yellow disposable trays the chippy gave the boys before wiping the grease on to their suit trousers.
Both Sam and Georgie were meant to have General Studies but they never turned up, not that the aging teacher Mr Kirkby minded. He had already put up with enough of Sam and Georgie’s attempts to cause havoc in the previous two years in his lower school Citizenship classes. Sam and Georgie never got punished for missing the classes since it was too much effort for Mr Kirkby to fill in the red slip which told the head of year who had missed the lessons.
In one corner of the room was a slim girl with washed-out blond hair sat at one of the few desks in the downstairs part of the common room filling in some forms. Sam peered round to get a good look at the girl; she didn’t seem to notice him ogling her. Sam then violently nudged Georgie in the ribs sending him momentarily in to a spasm. “What would you rate that chick in the corner?” he asked Georgie. Sam watched Georgie searching the room, it was a matter of seconds before he noticed her, “Nice arse, nice hair”; he peered around the side of the vending machine that obscured the view of her. “Definitely shag-able, a nine, maybe a ten” he said smugly.
Sam nodded conceitedly, “She’s deffo a nine, any day of the week. Never seen her before though she must be new; I am goin’ over to introduce myself.” “Yeah, I’m coming too.” Georgie said quickly. Sam glared at him, “She’s mine! I saw her first, so you should keep your distance.” Sam said in a voice of authority which appeared to have a huge effect over Georgie who now wore a sulky expression.
Sam swaggered over to her, he expected her to turn her head and notice him, but her the blasting sound of ‘The Libertines’ on her ipod shut every sound in the common room out. “Hey” Sam said machoisticly, the girl didn’t look up, she carried on writing on the green form which lay on the desk along with at least three other forms. Sam took a step closer, “Hey” he said again slightly louder this time. His body casted a shadow over the girl’s form and then she noticed him. She swiftly ripped the white ear phones from her ears and turned around slowly.
“Ermm hi”, the girl said nervously looking anywhere but at Sam, she spoke with a smooth Geordie accent and her body language suggested that she didn’t particularly want to be acknowledged. “Hi, you new here?” Sam asked confidently. “No I am just filling all these forms in, because I come here every day.” Sam wasn’t expecting this blow of sarcasm and it hit him like a hammer. “Wow, jeez simmer down.” he replied with slightly less confidence this time. “Well you were the one who asked a question you already new, so what do you expect.” The girl said aggressively. “Sorry, I only came to say hello, I just thought I world just…” Sam‘s words fizzled out like a match that had just been dipped in a bucket of water.
There was awkward silence for a few seconds in which they both stared at each other. Neither of them noticed Georgie arrive. “Alright gorgeous” he said in the most self-assured tone that was known to man kind. The girl glared at him, Georgie grinned back. “Oh, just piss off” the girl said in an incredibly annoyed voice and put her ear-phones back in and turned her back on both of the boys. “Looks like it is someone’s time of the month.” Georgie said in a voice which resembled both laughter and disappointment at the same time. Both boys looked at each other and drifted back over to where they were sitting before.
“Why did you have to come over?” Sam said angrily, “I was just getting in there with her as well!” Georgie snorted like a pig with a blocked nose, “Yeah right, she had a little paddy and there was silence for a few seconds.” Georgie said trying to rub salt in to Sam’s wounds. “It’s called passion you moron.” Sam replied irritably, he was annoyed that Georgie had read the situation and knew that their brief conversation hadn’t gone well. “I bet you don’t even know her name.” Georgie said trying to degrade Sam even more. “Actually I do.” Sam said glad he had looked at the girl’s papers that she was filling in and noticed her name. “It’s Sarah.” he said sensing his victory over Georgie.
Sam glanced at his watch and said “It’s nearly twenty past I am going to head off, I have Miss Black next, she always skits out whenever anyone’s late.” Georgie nodded appearing to display no emotion, “yeah I am going for a slash then I am going to head home, I just have frees now.” Georgie then smirked rubbing in the fact that Sam had to go to lessons. “Lucky for some.” Sam grumbled as he headed out of the Six From building and strolled towards the main block.
***
“Hey, Kentaro”. A voice came across the ICT suite. A girl was spinning around on an office chair making a come over here gesture at Kentaro. The girl had a short mini skirt a short white shirt on which revealed a pink bra underneath and stiletto shoes. You could tell from one glance at her that she was the sort of girl that every boy dreamed of dating and every girl thought was a slut. Kentaro wandered over hoping that this wasn’t going to take up much of his time. “What now, Zoe?” he asked with an unenthusiastic tone. “How do I like, get up the code for this?” she said pointing at the screen clueless at what she was meant to be doing. Kentaro grabbed the mouse and quickly clicked a few times and then muttered under his breath.
After a few minutes he wiped the sweat of his fore head and said “You had changed the mode to view so you couldn’t get the FTP file” he said before he was quickly interrupted by Zoe “Cheers hun, see you later then…” she said and flicked itunes back to her screen so she could change the music track. “And what a lot of thanks I get” Kentaro muttered to himself as he walked back to his seat on the other side of the classroom.
***
Sarah Pederson was new to the school so did not have a clue where room ‘C86’ was so she wandered around the corridors in hope that she would find the school admin. She eventually found the reception desk and an overweight lady with spectacles gave her directions, “Second left and first room up the stairs” she said in a bored tone. Sarah walked quite quickly knowing that it didn’t matter that she was late to General Studies; being new meant she had an excuse to get her out of trouble for the first few weeks.
The class room was small and about fifteen six formers sat desks pretending to do their work while texting their friends in another classroom or chatting to the class mates around them. Mr Kirkby was quite an old man; he sat at the desk scribbling away at a crossword. You could tell from his face that he was in his sixties and his fashion sense was another give-away. He had a mop of chestnut brown hair which gave him a sort of Paul McCartney look. When Sarah opened the door he took no notice and it was only when Sarah was less than a meter away from his desk that it looked and with a frown said “What are you doin’ ‘ere?” Sarah then quickly replied “I am new sir, I am in this class.” “Well ok then go an’ get a sheet from over there” he said pointing at a small sheet of piles on a desk a few meters away. “The work sheet is on the global village, you should ‘ave done it done before in Year Ten” he said gradually losing interest. He then put his head down and muttered to himself about how difficult the crossword was and reached for a thesaurus from the shelf behind him .
Sarah sat at an empty desk and began doing her work. She wanted to make a good impression to start with and she took an immediate dislike to her general studies class who appeared to be acting very childishly. A few of the bored boys at the back kept wolf whistling at her trying to get her attention. She wasn’t really in the mood for their attention. She wished that she could just fade in to the background and slowly forget the reason why she was in this shit-hole. And how she had spent the whole morning filling in an application form for a college she was already at. What a pointless day she thought to herself.
Two minutes later she had finished the worksheet. In her five minutes work she had done more than the whole class put together, she couldn’t be bothered putting her hand up and asking for the extension work, Sarah didn’t want to be labelled a swot, she didn’t really want to labelled anything, just yet. She looked at her timetable, last thing music. At least it was something she was reasonably good at. So far she hated this six form college it felt more like a secondary school than a college but she realised she had no choice since her mother had given her no choice about where to go and now she was trapped, she would have to get through her A levels, then she could go to university and live life her way. The sound of the dull bell ringing interrupted her daydreaming.
Hope you enjoyed it, my email is octopusox@gmail.com or you can just comment on wherever I posted it be it below, on facebook, on the HB forum or wheverever I have left it for you to find!
Oh and sorry for the bent formaing there is nothing I can do at present to solve this, but I am on to it I promise! The damn website makes it impossible to format properly :/
