School Days

A Chapter by Mark Church

Today was pretty much like any other day really, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and Daniel was looking out of his classroom window dreaming about all sorts of crazy things he could be doing instead of listening to Mr Widworthy (scary looking teacher who Daniel had never seen eye to eye with) waffling on about how the history of the 'Mighty Roman Army' had helped us in todays world....all Daniel heard was BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH as his attention was caught by what can only be described as a moving wispy shadow along the tree line by the school gates,
"Hmph" thought Daniel as he scoured the rest of the trees for more signs of the strange shadow he had just seen, the harder he looked for it the more his chair creaked across the floor as his his body twisted round hoping to catch a look at what ever was out there but Daniel seemed not to notice Mr Widworthy staring down at him from behind his rather oversized glasses, which at the sight of them made Daniel chuckle, as every time his teacher spoke they wobbled down to the end of his nose almost like they were making a break for freedom,
"Daniel Carter!!!!!" bellowed Mr Widworthy
"Yes sir??" replied Daniel in rather a sighful way as his concentration was now broken by a rather red faced looking Mr Widworthy ,
"So as im sure..." Mr Widworthy went on "you will now be able to tell the class about how the Roman Army changed the world during their reign and what amazing ideas they gave to mankind seeing as you were concentrating so hard on my lesson!!!"
Daniel looked up as only a boy can do, eyes looking all sleepy and vague, and said.
"Oh yes sir, i can tell you everything about the Roman Army, i mean i could if i was actually listening but......"
And with that Mr Widworthy exclaimed..... "RIGHT Daniel, seeing as once again i have had to stop the class to speak to you...."
his voice getting squeakier the more angry he got
"....you know where you need to be now!!!, so off with you to the heads office and don't set foot in here until you feel that you want to learn something....GO NOW!!!!"

So off Daniel went to the Headmasters office where he seemed to be rather a lot lately...you see Daniel never felt like he belonged at Longmeads High School, and thats why he always played up so he didn't have to stay in class and listen to anything that didn't interest him, he always felt like there was something else out there waiting for him and that by staying in school would stop him finding out what it was.
  On the way he ran into Harvey, his only true friend at school, outside the English classroom
"Alright Dan.." said Harvey in a sheepish way, "alright Harv.." replied Daniel
"What are you doing outside, whats happened this time?", Harvey replied with a smirk on his face " Got sent out for making Miss Jacobs almost cry, well you know how much she loves all those old writers and stuff..."
Daniel looked confused and replied " yes......but what did you do??".
Harvey carried on " well she was blabbing on about some old writer bloke and all I said was that anyone could write stuff like that and how boring it all is to me, told her that I'm not going to listen any more as it's sooooo boring so she got really upset and said how her whole life has been about English stuff, So I said maybe she should go out more. She totally lost it and I watched that big vein on her head pop out before she screamed at me to go outside and sit in the corridor, think she over reacted a bit!!!. Haha",

Daniel stood there laughing as he thought about what Harvey had told him but the door swung open and Miss Jacobs stormed out and saw Daniel standing there talking to Harvey.
With out pausing for breath Miss Jacobs screeched at them both. " Right you two toe rags all I can hear is you talking when there is supposed to be silence so for that I want you to go the the Heads office right now!!, I'll let him deal with you!!"
Daniel piped up "I'm already going there, don't let that vein on your head pop or we will be in more trouble"
Miss Jacobs screamed at them like a howling banshee. " How dare you talk to me like that, I'm in my right mind to write a letter to your parents about your behaviour. SO GO NOWWWW!!!!"
And with that Miss Jacobs turned and slammed the door shut sending a cold breeze straight through Harvey's clothes leaving the two boys sniggering to each other.
  "Well that was blooming funny" sniggered Harvey as he got up from his seat and started the long walk to the Heads office with Daniel.

On the way the two boys started chatting about all the things they were going to do after school and how Daniel wanted to go to their hideout that the boys had built in the woods next to Daniels home, He hated being at school as he felt he wasn't learning anything of any interest to him so Daniel piped up, " Let's take the dog to the woods after school like we normally do, I'm sure he'd love a good run around like normal, he always acts odd there anyway so maybe he's just happy to be outside"
Harvey replied " Great idea mate, don't forget to take those sticks and shields I made and Bucksy can be MY horse for a change ,I'm looking forward to being King of the Woods this time!!!".

Daniel stopped in his tracks as they got near the front door to the school and grabbed Harvey's arm saying " Harv, I've had a great idea, why not go now, look I'm sure the teachers aren't bothered if we're here or not, all we have to do is sneak past the front office and we can get out of here"
Harvey stood there for what must of been milliseconds before answering Daniel back, " Let's go then, it's too nice to be sitting in the cold corridor anyway plus I can't be bothered to sit in the Heads office while he lectures us about how we should behave in school, plus I won't be able to stop staring at that massive mole on his cheek".
Daniel laughed as he thought about what Harvey said and told Harvey that he used to stare at it constantly while in the office as Mr Pole would be stomping round the room trying to get Daniel to listen to him
  " Moley Poley...." chuckled Daniel as they both thought about the huge mole stuck on the side of his face which seemed to get bigger the angrier he got with them.

  Daniel turned to Harvey and pointed out that they needed to get past the front office so they could sneak out of the door and round the side of the building and out of the back gates
  "So.." started Daniel "Here's the plan, i'll cause a distraction somehow and you get the door open and hold it so i can get through when im ready to run"
  "Right mate, lets do it, im starting to feel like i need to learn something the more we stand here.haha" came the reply from Harvey.

  So Daniel crouched down near the door to the office which was slightly open and the familiar sound of Mrs Catchpole tapping away at her computer, the window to the office faced the front door hence the reason why Daniel needed to distract Mrs Catchpole so they could escape without being seen.
Daniel looked at Harvey and put his finger to his lips and went "Shhh" so he knew it was time to act

  So Daniel took out a pebble he had in his pocket and gently opened the door a bit more so he could cause a distraction and threw it at the giant filing cabinet sitting in the corner of the office
DOONNNGGG went the pebble as it cannoned off the cabinet causing Mrs Catchpole to screech with fright and throw all her paperwork up in the air,
"Now!!!" said Daniel to Harvey and with that Harvey made bolt for the door which should of been and easy task but Harvey being clumsy seemed to trip over his own feet and fall head first through the door,
BANG went the door and Harvey squealed "ARRGH" as the door flung open and he fell out in a heap followed by Daniel at full pelt running through the door.

He grabbed Harvey up off the floor and dragged him around the corner "AAHHH, OWWWWW, Daniel stop dragging me" Harvey screeched angrily, "Think you've broke my bum!!!". He carried on, with tears in his eyes.
Harvey stood up and brushed himself down before turning to Daniel and whacking him on the arm hard complaining that " You've ripped my blooming trousers, mum's gonna go mad now, these were my only pair!!"
Daniel was too busy looking back into the front door to see if anyone was following them to notice that Harvey was still moaning about the state of his trousers and shirt, eventually he turned round and said
" The coast is clear mate, let's go quickly before anything else happens", completely ignoring anything that Harvey had said to him.

So Daniel started off towards the back gates of the school which was surrounded by thorny shrubs and a collection of strange looking small trees, as they got closer and still with Harvey complaining in his ear about how his mum was going to club him Daniel suddenly stopped dead in his tracks
Harvey didn't notice that he had stopped and walked straight into the back of Daniel, almost tripping them both over
Harvey piped up, rubbing his now bruised nose " What did you stop for??? It's bad enough that you've destroyed my best trousers, now I think I'm going to need to go to hosp....." He was cut short in his reply by Daniel putting his hand over his mouth saying "shhhhhh Harv.......I can hear something round the corner".
So Daniel poked his head as close to the corner as he could without being seen and quickly turned to Harvey muttering "Be quiet now, guess who's out on gate duty??".
Harvey twisted Daniels hand off his mouth causing him to squeal and replied " I hope it's a doctor, think you've broke my nose as well as my bum!!!."

Patrolling round the gate and bushes was Mr Twitcher the rather odd looking caretaker who, as always, was accompanied by his rather oversized dog Rollo, he was always looking to catch kids trying to leave early so he could take all the credit claiming it was his army training that made him what he is ( truth is he was never in the army, he was thrown out of the army cadets as a kid for crying on the first day!!!), He was always muttering the same thing to himself while wandering round, it seemed to be something stuck in his head on a kind of loop.
" Today's the day, today's the day, when Herman catches kids his way........" He sang as Rollo let out a cross between a bark and a howl, which was his way of approval.
"Let's see who we can catch today boy eh!!" Mr Twitcher smirked as he paced up and down the fence waiting to pounce on the next unfortunate pupil to try and leave, they had caught loads of kids playing truant and when ever they did he would make a new badge with the child's name on it and place it in his small tinpot shed he used as his 'base of operations ' as he called it which proudly displayed the badges and names of all the children who had tried to leave early but had been caught sneaking out by Mr Twitcher and his dog, the badges even dated back to the 1970's which shows how long he has been at the school so Daniel and Harvey knew they needed to be cunning to avoid being caught.

So Daniel spotted a gap in the bushes right by where they were standing and slowly slipped inside, Harvey was looking the other way and still talking to Daniel
"So what's the pla........ Daniel??, where are you???" Harvey whispered as he noticed Mr Twitcher coming their way
" Daniel? Daniel?" Harvey got more and more agitated the closer the caretaker and his dog got to where he was standing.
Next thing Harvey knew was he suddenly lifted off his feet and was being dragged through the bushes just as Mr Twitcher and Rollo reached the spot where they would of been standing.
Mr Twitcher looked puzzled, he took off his hat, scratched his head and muttered to himself "I'm sure I just heard voices here!!", Rollo let out a deep sounding bark and started sniffing the bushes close to where Daniel and Harvey were hiding.
Daniel had his hand across Harvey's mouth so he couldn't say anything or shriek like he normally did when he was startled which was just as well as all of a sudden Rollo's nose poked it's way into the bushes and started sniffing around, Harvey's eyes widened as this huge wet nose got ever closer to his feet and legs, next this head appeared through the thick hedge, Rollo had discovered the two boys hiding place and the next thing Harvey knew Rollo had grabbed hold of his trousers and was trying to drag him through the bushes growling as to get Mr Twitcher's attention so he could see what Rollo had discovered, Harvey was getting more and more scared as he was being pulled through slowly, making strange noises on Daniels hand which was clamped round his mouth still.
Daniel whacked Harvey With his other hand and mouthed at him to be quiet "Shhh Harv.....I've got an idea"
Daniel dove into his pocket and pulled out a small packet of pepper he had taken at lunch and opened it up, he sprinkled it over Rollo's big wet nose and waited, Rollo let go after a few seconds and licked his nose clean then...... Rollo's nose went into a sneezing fit which made him move backwards out of the hedge and he started rolling around on the grass trying to get rid of this awful taste. Mr Twitcher was preoccupied with something in the distance not to notice Rollo was now lying upside down pawing at his nose still, "aawwwrrrrrrrr" went Rollo as the pepper worked it's way deeper inside his nose, Daniel sniggered to himself while Harvey tried to wipe off the dog slobber on his trousers leg which Rollo had kindly left for him.
The boys froze stiff as Mr Twitcher all of a sudden backed up into the hole in the hedge not knowing who was behind him, (small gap and big bottom) followed by a sneezing Rollo who was less concerned with the find he had made in the hedge,
The voices of a couple of children could be heard getting closer to the hiding place of the caretaker and his dog, Daniel and Harvey just kept as still as they could as the voice grew nearer ".....get out before we are seen..."said one voice, then without any warning Mr Twitcherleapt out of the hedge like an Olympic athlete screeching "got you boys!!!!....think you could get past me did you eh.... let's take a little walk back to the heads office shall we!!!". One of the boys answered back " but...but sir i have an appointment". The voices gew quieter as Rollo slowly followed possibly still puzzled by what was in the hedge. But he ambled slowly off in search of water to get rid of the taste in his mouth.
Daniel tugged at Harvey's arm and whispered "follow me... but be quiet for once" and they made their way through the bushes which hid them from sight and eventually came to the back gates of the school.
"That was close mate....thought we were goners for sure" exclaimed Harvey as he looked back to the school to see Mr Twitcher dragging the pupils by the scruff of their necks.
Daniel was already up and over the gates by the time Harvey turned round in expectation of an answer. He shouted to him "Are you coming Harv?? Or do you want to get caught by Twitcher??".
Harvey scrambled up and over the gate replying "Good God no!!, I've already been nearly mauled to death by that flaming mutt of his" and with that Harvey and Daniel looked back through the gates of the school just as the bell rang for lunch.

  "Come on mate let's get going before we are seen, don't fancy another lecture from moley Poley" Daniel said as the boys made their way along the hedge row and out of sight of the school where they were greeted by the familiar sight of Bucksy bounding towards them, tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth and drool flying off it, he leapt up at Daniel and covered his face in slobber, "Bucksy!!!" Daniel said as he was licked to within an inch of his life by his most loyal friend (after Harvey of course!!!). "Come on boy let's go, we've got a busy afternoon planned".

  "Best stick to the woods then Daniel " replied Harvey, " we can go back to mine until later as mum is still at work..." He carried on.
"Then we can go to yours and hide out in the den" Harvey said excitedly
  "Sounds like a plan mate, don't think I can hack another day at that place, I can't wait for term to finish so I don't have to go back". Sighed Daniel as the boys disappeared off into the security of the woods and disappeared from sight with the odd bark heard from his furry friend.

If only he knew just how true that statement was........

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