The Enders

Jane sat reading a school book when her phone rang, she didn't recognise the number.

"Hello?" she anwered.

"Hi Jane," Ash's voice said.

"How do you know my number?" she demanded.

"Is that really important right now?  Just calling to let you know, meet us in the common room tomorrow night...and bring the supplies."

***

Carrying a large bag, Jane nervously crept into the dark commonroom, a place she had been countless times before but the building at night seemed so unfamiliar to her.

Her heart jumped when the lights suddenly came on and then she saw who had done it, she saw Ash sitting on one of the tables ahead while Liz stood by the light switches.

"About time," Ash said.  "Do you have any idea how long we've been waiting in the dark just so we could scare you like that?"

"Why'd you want to scare me?" Jane said.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Ash said, ignoring the question itself.  "You brought what we need?"

"Yep," she said, handing the bag to Liz who placed it on the table, opening it for Ash to inspect.

"Hey good work, you got everything I asked for," Ash said.  "Now, this is probably gonna take all night and you two are going to have to help me as much as possible."

"Alright," Jane said.

"We’re gonna give you a good memory to end your school life on, Jane," Liz said.

"Now let's get to work," Ash said.

***

The group of five, plus Jane, sat in the commonroom on the afternoon of their last day before study leave.  Crowds of students pushed past each other to get to their lockers so they could finally leave.

"This is it then," James said.  "...Done."

"Time for study leave," Josh said.  "No more lessons...ever."

"What about Uni.?" Liz asked.

"Is anyone here actually going?" Ash said.

"Erm…I am," Jane admitted.

"I can’t believe Ash and Liz converted you," James said.

The smiling Ash and Liz, both sitting either side of Jane, each put an arm around her as if to ensure she didn't escape from their clutches.

"Their will is strong," Jane said.

"You two have gone too far with that last one, you know?" James said.

"What does it matter?" Liz said.  "This is our last day, what are they gonna do?"

"But all your other little stunts can’t really be traced back to you and they’re nowhere near as permanent as that thing," James pointed to the far wall, where a large picture had been painted.

The painting was a rather good portrait of Ash, with Jane and Liz either side of him.  Above the picture, the phrase, 'THE HAPPINESS BRIGADE' was painted in multi-coloured hues and below it, it said, 'NEARLY 7 BILLION MEMBERS AND COUNTING'.

"It is great, isn't it?" Ash gloated.

"I'm actually quite impressed with it," Josh said.

"Ash was in the art club at the academy," Liz pointed out before turning to Jane.  "It was good to have some fun for the last day.  You can spend all your study leave revising, you needed to have some fun memories of your final days."

"Yeah, our last day is over," James realised out loud.  "Why are we still here?"

"It’s hard to leave," Ash said.

"We’ll be back for the exams and then for our results and then that’ll be it," Liz said.

"How about the day after we get our results, we spend one more day hanging out around school while it’s empty?" Ash suggested.

"What’s the point of that?" Josh said.

"I just thought it’d be nice," Ash said to the floor.

"I’ll come," Liz said.

"Yeah alright," James said.  "It’s not like I’ll have anything better to do."

"Let's get outta here," Josh said.

They all stood up and made for the exit when Ms. Gracey appeared, causing all the students around to fall silent.

"Hello Ashley," she said.  A jolt of terror shot through Jane's body.  Gracey looked to the painting on the far wall and said, "Did you do that?" causing Ash to nod proudly.  "It's good," she said.

"Thanks mum," Ash said.

"You ready to go?" Gracey said.

"Sure," Ash said and Ms. Gracey then left with her son, leaving the other students behind to deal with their shock.

"Did you guys not know that?" Liz said.  "His mother and mine had been friends for years.  That’s how we met."

"But they've got different last names," James said.

"Do you really think Gracey's the type to change her name?" Liz said with a smile.  "See you guys later, I gotta get home and start revising."

Liz ran out of the commonroom while the students she left behind remained no less stunned.

Walking out of the commonroom, Liz giggled to herself and then noticed Natasha heading her way.

"What's up Natasha?" she said cheerily, but was ignored.

Liz stopped in her tracks and stared at Natasha's back as she entered the commonroom, before storming off in a huff.

***

With Jane's family all eating dinner around their dining table, Jane was more focussed on one of her textbooks.

"Jane?" her mother said.  "Put the book down for now, just eat your dinner."

Jane smiled at her and put down the book.

***

In the Foster houshold, Michael Foster entered the living room, where his wife was watching TV on the settee.  He sat next to her, easing an arm around her before Fiona Foster turned to him and they kissed.

***

On results day, James stood before the huge John Lennon poster in his bedroom.

"It’s a big day today John…I guess.  How do I look?  Not bad, eh?  Not as good as you though…you were always the king of style."

***

James arrived at the school via the side entrance, where many students were already clustered around, discussing matters of great importance to them.

James walked past and on the steps of the side entrance, Seth, Josh, Jane and Natasha sat.

"Hey guys," James greeted them.

"Hi James," Josh said.

"Where's Ash and Liz?" James asked.

"They’re inside getting their results," Jane said.

"You all got yours then?" James said.

"Yep," Josh said.

"Go on then, how’d you all do?" James said.

"Seth did pretty well, I was surprised,"Josh said.

"How about you?" James said.

"Meh," Josh said.

"Jane?" James said.

"I did better than I thought," Jane said.

"Alright, see you all in a minute," James said before enterering the school through the revolving doors.

Up the steps, hovering around near the entrance to the hall, was Liz.

"Hello Liz," James said.

"Oh hi James," Liz said.

"You got yours?"

"Yes, I’m just waiting for Ash, he’s getting his now."

"How’d you do?"

"Not that good."

Inside the hall, Ash, results in hand, stood up at the desk he was sat at with Mr. Foster.

"Congratulations Ash," Mr. Foster said.

"Thanks Mr. McCool," Ash said.

As Ash ran back across the hall, half-giggling to himself, Mr. Foster stood up in rage.

"What did you call me?"

Ash walked through the hall doors and was immediately set upon by Liz.

"So how'd you do?" she asked.

"Lot better than you," he said, handing them to her.

Once she read them, Liz said, "B*****d.  How?  You did a lot less work than me, it's not fair."

"Not much is Liz," Ash said.  "Now let's go outside.  See you in a bit James."

***

Ash and Liz now sat on the steps with their friends.

"What did you get Natasha?" Liz asked.

Natasha just kept staring at her results, before getting up and leaving.  Seth and Josh shared an inconspicuous smile while Ash did his best to comfort Liz.

"I know, I know," he said.

"She's too good," Liz said.  "Devoted till the end."

A smiling James exited through the revolving doors and everyone looked at him expectantly.

"I failed."

***

Later that day, the six students along with James' mother and aunts all sat around the table in his living room, eating, drinking and generally having a good time.

"You can't honestly be surprised," his mother said.  "You did absolutely no revision."

"I bet I even did more than you," Ash said.

"It's a valid point," James said sedately, before taking a drink and starting to laugh, soon followed by everyone else.

***

Stuart arrived home, results in hand.  His house was dark and vacant.  He drifted over to the kitched table by a window, dropping his results on the surface before taking a seat.  He looked around at the empty home and then longlingly out his window at both the world outside and his own melancholic face staring back at him.

As he rested his head on the table, next to the results that said he had all A's, he wished more than anything someone else was here with him.

***

Back at James' house, their mini-party continued and everyone was enjoying themselves.

"Hey Josh," Ash said.  "You wanna here a joke?"

"Go ahead then," Josh conceded as a result of his fairly good mood.

"Why did the mushroom go to the party?"

"Go on, tell me."

"Because he was a fun-guy."

Everyone around the table burst out laughing at this bad joke, all except Josh, who lunged at Ash.

Ash dodged and took cover behind Liz to protect him.  The now standing Josh looked around at all the laughing faces and soon joined them.

***

On the school field the next day, Ash rested with his head in Liz's lap, Josh was sunbathing and Seth read his book.  Some other students were playing football in the background.

Ash's eyes eased open temporarily and noticed a small insect crawling on his chest.

"Ahh!" he cried out.  "Liz."

"Huh?" she said.  "What?"  She looked down at the bug and said, "Oh for goodness sake, it's tiny," before flicking it off him.

"Thank you Liz," Ash said.

"You’re such a baby."

"I just don’t like insects.  They’re the rudest of creatures.  Now that it’s warmer, they come into my room without permission and try to touch me.  If a human did that, you’d call the police but for some reason, it’s OK with insects.  Oh…but they’re brains are little and they don’t know any better, that’s what they want you to think."

"Please tell me you haven’t called the police because there was a spider in your room."

"No I haven’t…yet."

It wasn't that long after Ash closed his eyes again that James arrived.

"Hello people," he said.  Ash and Josh opened their eyes while Seth gave him a wave.

"Hiya," Liz said.

"So you all actually turned up?" James said.

"All except Jane," Liz said.  "Something came up last minute."

James sat down, joining the group and said, "That was fun last night, thanks guys."

"No problem," Josh said.  "We had fun too."

"Looks like we weren't the only ones who thought of this," James said, gesturing towards the footballers.

"Yeah, they were already there when we got here," Ash said.

"It’s nice like this, a school without a school’s mentality," James said.  "It’s a really beautiful place and you never have time to notice.  You guys wanna hear a secret?  I hated school."

"I think that was probably the worst kept secret ever," Ash joked.

"Yeah…just awful," Liz said.

"I never understood it," James said.  "Why don’t they ever teach something useful for your future lives…like cooking?"

"You already know how to do that," Ash said.

"Do you though?" James said, causing Ash to shake his head.  "Our lives are backwards…and what are we going to do about it now?  Is seriously no one here going to University?"

"I couldn’t find anything I’d like to study," Liz said.

"I wanted to stay with Liz," Ash said.

"I don’t think Uni. would suit me," Josh said.

"Seth?" James seeked Seth's opinion, who only shrugged, but at least he cared enough to look up from his book, even only momentarily.

Ash leant back, his head resting on his hands and said, "Wow, we're rubbish."

"No," James said.  "We’re just afraid. It’s our pride that confines us, we accept them stealing away our youth.  We accept these lives we hate because we don’t want to admit that we’re too stupid to change them into something we could actually like."

A silence fell over the group, which was only broken when the football of the other group of students hit Josh.  He picked up the ball that had just struck him as a boy came over to collect it.

"Hey mate, can you pass us the ball?" he requested.

"Excuse me?" Josh said.

"Pass the ball."

"I'm not your mate," Josh said before kicking the ball as hard as he could in the opposite direction, sending the now irritated boy running after it.

It was at this point that Seth closed his book and stood up.

"You can be such a c**t sometimes, you know that Josh?" Seth said, causing everyone to look at him in surprise.  "Such a f****n' c**t..." he continued.

"Whoa," Josh said.  "I liked it better when you didn't speak."

Seth smiled to himself.  "That’s what my mum said after I told her to f**k off.  She also said that if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t speak.  It’s good advice…you c**t."  Seth held up his book to everyone and said, "And I really f*****g hate this book," before tossing it to the ground.  "I'm outta here," he said and then walked off.

Josh looked at the rest of the group in astonishment, before running after him saying, "Seth!  Wait up!"

As the two old friends disappeared across the field, the three remaining all started to laugh.

"That was...unexpected," James said.

"I'm going to always remember that moment," Ash said.

"I’m gonna go get some things I left in my locker and I’ve still gotta return some books.  I’ll see you later," James said, getting to his feet.  "You know...this world is such a depressing place...but it doesn't have to stay that way."

***

Ash and Liz, the only two remaining, had relocated up to a branch in their favourite tree with Ash resting his head on her shoulder.

"Liz?" he said.

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Liz's eyes instantly widened in shock.  She started to blush and looked around nervously before closing her eyes and smiling.

"I love you too," she said.

Ash, with a wide smile on his face, turned to face Liz, who struggled to maintain eye contact.  She suddenly took off his hat and kissed him, using the hat to conceal it.

"What are you guys doing?" asked the newly returned James from ground level.

The startled Liz dropped the hat to the ground, not too far from James' feet.  Liz was now blushing even more and had to look the other way while Ash tried to conceal his giggles with both hands.

"No ears today?" James asked as he spotted the lack of cat ears on Ash's head.

"No," Ash said.  "School's over.  I don't need them anymore."

"I ran into Seth and Josh," James said.  "They've made up and we're all going over to my house now.  You coming?"

"Sure," Ash said.

Liz dropped to the ground and helped Ash down.

James and Liz began to walk ahead while Ash undid his twin ponytails, letting his long hair flow loosely as he picked up his hat, carrying it as he skipped to catch up with his friends.

"You know, I also saw Natasha," James said.

"Really?" Liz said.

"Yeah, she was returning some books as well."

"Then all is not lost."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing sane so don't concern yourself with it," Ash advised.

***

James stood by himself near the side entrance, watching a single bird singing on the gate, before flying away, which made him smile.  Once catching up, Liz approached him and Ash placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go," he said.

"Go wait for me outside," James said.  "I'm just going to grab my bag."

***

Ash leant against the gate just outside the side entrance while Liz paced nervously.

"There’s a good chance she’s already gone home," Ash said.

"But if she hasn’t, then she’s gonna have to come through this gate since the main one’s closed," Liz said.  "I’m not gonna let this opportunity to finally win slip by.

"You are so crazy…I don’t believe it, there she is."

"Really?  Where?"

Liz darted over to the gate and looked at the revolving doors, through which Natasha was exiting.  Liz quickly leant against the fence next to Ash in a poor attempt to look nonchalant.

Natasha left through the gate and passed them by.

"Goodbye Natasha," Liz said.  There was no reply.  "Natasha!"

As Natasha walked further and further away, Liz stepped forwards and continued to call after her.  "Fine Natasha, you win!  Congratulations!"  Ash stepped out from his position by the fence and stood next to Liz to get a better look at her completely losing it.  "Well done Natasha, you are the official Queen B***h," she shouted at her.  "I just hope it was worth it!"

She was so incensed by her, Liz didn't even notice James appear behind her.

"What is that b***h's problem?  What the f**k did I ever do to her?" she demanded of Ash before turning her attention back to Natasha.  "Answer me!"

"You know she's deaf, right?" James said, causing Liz to spin round in surprise.

"What?"