The first day of school was as terrible as he had imagined. The class was loud and all sorted into close-knit friendship groups that he knew would be hard to break into. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to. They all seemed so strange. Not strange in an offensive way but in the way that he didn’t understand them at all. They spoke in different accents than he was used to, with different slang. He had grown up only an hour's drive away but it felt like a whole different country.
He had to wake up early, at seven o’clock. He was less than happy about this, ever the night owl. And to get up just to have to put on a bad uniform? Just cruel. And it was a bad uniform. He had to wear grey trousers, an off-white shirt, a navy and white tie, black socks and black dress shoes, he also had to tame his hair. He had to have it up in a ponytail with a black bobble, since boys weren’t actually supposed to have long hair in the school.
He met his form teacher Miss Finch. She was a short woman with a permanent frown on her pinched face. She wore a very old-school style for her age, a grey cardigan, a knee-length pleated skirt, and a frilled blouse. Her hair was styled in a bun which seemed to add to the strict look.
“Hello Finn. Welcome to our school. Here is your timetable for the year.” She handed it to him. “Please go sit down over there beside Matthew. Make yourself known please Matthew.”
The boy called Matthew put his hand up and waved. Matthew looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks, his eye bags were like massive twin bruises in his head. His skin was completely pale apart from that; it was like he was a ghost. His hair wasn’t in a ponytail like it should have been according to the rules; it was instead hanging around his shoulders like limp, greasy, black curtains.
Finn walked over and sat down beside him.
“Nice to meet you.” Matthew smiled politely.
“Nice to meet you too.” Finn smiled back.
Finn looked around the classroom to see who he would have to deal with for the next few years. He saw the two boys he had seen in the park the day before, they were now sitting with the dark haired one on the table and the blonde one sitting on a chair in front of him. Finn saw a couple of boys who were obviously the ‘popular’ boys all jostling with each other at the back of the room, a few girls who were obviously the ‘popular’ girls sitting in a gaggle around a singular desk gossiping away, a few other kids who were obviously loners sitting at different tables reading or drawing or just staring off into space, and the rest who were somewhere in between. Lastly, he saw one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. She had long brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes, she even managed to make the uniform look nice. She was sitting with another girl who had short blonde hair and was smiling as the pretty girl spoke.
Form class ended without much said between Finn and Matthew. Finn had come to the conclusion that Matthew was one of the loner types, and didn’t enjoy conversations much. Finn didn’t mind though. He wished he could have had someone who wanted to talk, the silence just made the gap left by Shaun and Daisy bigger. But he could make do. Beggars can’t be choosers.
“There’s the bell. Off you go.” Miss Finch said from her desk when the screeching rattle of the school bell sounded without looking up.
The class quickly filed out of the door and off to English class. No one was excited for English class, most of them wished they could have abandoned the subject for GCSEs. The day was full of introductions for Finn and boring classes for everyone. Throughout the whole day, Finn didn’t manage to have a good conversation with anyone or make a single friend so he dreaded lunch time.
When lunch arrived Finn found himself sitting alone at a table as he expected. Well, not fully alone. He was surrounded by other loners who had no one. They didn’t talk to each other and didn’t even look at each other. The air was so awkward and Finn felt awful. He did not want to sit here again. It was hellish. He felt like they were judging him the entire time. Maybe they were. They didn’t say anything at all which made it worse.
The last classes of the day were no different than the other ones. Three words he would describe them as would be ‘hell, boring, and lonely.’ The teachers all seemed nice enough, though they weren’t fun. It seemed like they were putting on an act for the first day back and would soon revert back to their usual dragon-selves. Finn found himself checking the clock every five minutes, desperate for the home bell to ring.
When it was finally home time, Finn walked by himself. He looked around at all the other kids walking home like him. He didn’t see anyone that he would want to walk up to and talk to so he walked alone. He wouldn’t walk up to anyone anyway. That had never been his way of doing things. He didn’t know how to make friends, he only ever had two friends; Shaun and Daisy. With Shaun, he couldn't even remember how they became friends. Daisy became friends with him, not the other way around. He wondered what he should tell his parents since they would be unhappy to learn the truth about his day.
“How was your day son?” Mr Lowry asked as soon as Finn walked inside.
“It was good.”
“Yeah?” Mrs Lowry asked.
“Yeah. My teachers seem nice. And so are my classmates.” He said.
“Oh that’s lovely. Any new friends?” Mrs Lowry asked.
“Yeah. This guy called Matthew beside me in form.”
“Oh nice. You’ll have to invite him over someday.” Mr Lowry smiled.
“Yeah, someday.” Finn gave an awkward smile. “I’m going to hang out in my room for a while.”
“Alright, have fun.” Michael grinned and waved him off.
The next day, Finn woke up about ten minutes late and lay in bed for a minute before realising. When he did realise however his eyes widened completely and he yelled at the top of his lungs. He jumped out of bed and ran to his desk and grabbed his uniform. He threw on his shirt and ran to brush his teeth while still buttoning the shirt and in his pyjama bottoms.
He ran around the house half getting dressed, half packing school books in his bag.
When he finally managed to get out of the house, he ran to the school. He ran past a few of the villagers who looked at him weirdly and a few who cheered him on.
He made it to form class fifteen minutes late, which the teacher pointed out.
“Sorry Miss.” Finn apologised as he sat down beside Matthew.
“Just try to be here on time tomorrow, okay?” Miss Finch sighed.
“Alright.” Finn said back.
The teacher got back to giving the weekly announcements and Finn looked at Matthew.
“Hey. I, uh, saw you sitting alone at lunch yesterday.” Matthew said when Miss Finch was done with her speech. “I was wondering if you wanted to sit with me and some of my friends at lunch.”
“Oh… that would be cool.” Finn smiled. “Thanks.”
“No problem man.” Matthew smiled as if relieved that Finn accepted.
The first class of the day was chemistry with Mr Ollen. Mr Ollen was a strange dude, he liked to talk rather than teach. All of the students were certain he wanted a therapist instead of students. Or so Matthew told Finn on the way to class.
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“Class. Hello.” Mr Ollen greeted at the door. “I will call your name and you will go to your seats, yes?”
The whole class nodded and a couple added comments of ‘yes’, ‘sure’ and ‘whatever you say’.
“Great. Daniel.” Mr Ollen began but waited a second before resuming. “Daniel?”
Daniel walked to the front of the crowd and made himself known. Mr Ollen looked at him with a frown.
“What kept you?” He asked, not really caring for an answer. “Anyway. You go to the desk by the window over there. You see it?”
Daniel did see it but decided to mess with the teacher for a bit.
“This one?” He asked, standing by a desk nowhere near a window.
“No. That one.” Mr Ollen pointed again at the desk he meant.
“Oh okay. This one?” Daniel stood at the desk at the very back of the class.
“No.” Mr Ollen said. “That. One.” His voice got slower as he got angrier.
Daniel either didn’t notice or decided to make Mr Ollen completely mad. So he walked over to the desk closest to the door.
“This one sir?” He asked, smirking as his friends stifled laughter from outside the door.
“Go to the office Mr Armstrong. I had hoped you would act more mature this year.” Mr Ollen commanded through gritted teeth.
“What did I do?” Daniel asked, feigning confusion.
“You know damn well what you did. Now leave.” Mr Ollen looked ready to hit Daniel, rules be damned.
So Daniel took his leave. “Alright. Bye.” He said as he pushed back out through the crowd.
Mr Ollen sighed and clutched his clipboard until his knuckles turned white. His eyes were clenched tightly and his mouth was pursed as though he had just eaten a lemon.
“Will all the rest of you behave? Or will the principal have a lot of new friends today?” He asked cooly.
The class remained silent. Mr Ollen smiled again, although his eyes had dimmed down and his manner was less upbeat.
He went through the list quickly and without fuss, though some students did voice their disappointment at their seats for a second before being shut down by Ollen’s glare. Finn was put beside the pretty girl from yesterday.
“Hi, I’m Donna.” The girl smiled when they were both seated.
“I’m Finn. Nice to meet you Donna.” Finn greeted Donna with a smile that he hoped seemed friendly.
“Sorry about Daniel holding up class… He’s such a prick.” Donna sighed, playing with a strand of her hair as she rolled her eyes.
“Oh… why are you sorry?” Finn was confused. Were Donna and Daniel close in some way?
“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know. He’s my boyfriend so y’know. I gotta keep him in line.” She gave the smile of someone who had been long-suffering. Finn thought that if Donna had to deal with Daniel everyday, she may be long-suffering.
“Oh…” Finn was unsure what to say. “That makes sense.” He settled on after a second of thought.
“Ah well you know how it is, I'm sure. You must have had a few girlfriends before?” Donna asked, her hair still between her fingers.
“Oh no not really. I was never really in the whole dating scene.” Finn admitted.
“Really?” Donna seemed incredulous. “Someone as handsome as you? Well, it doesn't matter. You’ll soon find a girl here.” She winked with a smile as Mr Ollen turned to the blackboard and began to ‘teach’ his lesson.
There were more classes until lunch and each was just as boring as the last. There were more new people beside Finn and he spoke kindly to each of them but made no new friends. It seemed to him that Matthew was good enough for now. Besides, he had made it up to this point in his life with just one friend at a time. It was what he was used to.
Lunch soon came around and Finn made his way to the canteen where he found Matthew sitting at a table with another boy. This boy had ginger hair and wore glasses that were almost twice the size of his head, making his eyes look massive.
‘I may kiss goodbye to any hopes of being popular here.’ Finn thought to himself.
He grabbed a slice of pizza and paid before making his way to the seemingly nerdy table. Matthew greeted Finn with a smile and continued with his lunch before remembering that Finn and the ginger boy had never met before and ran them through an awkward introduction.
“Oh yeah, uh Doug this is Finn, Finn this is Doug. Finn’s the new kid that sits beside me in form.” Matthew explained. Doug smiled awkwardly at Finn who gave back the same smile.
“Nice to meet you.” They both said simultaneously.
“So what do you think of the school so far?” Doug asked. He didn’t really want to know the answer. It was just a polite thing to ask new students.
“Uh. Yeah. It’s pretty cool.” Finn answered. Then they all turned back to their lunch and ate in silence as if it were a very awkward Christmas dinner with those relatives you barely know.
Over a week-long period, Finn found himself falling in love with Donna. This was not ideal since Donna’s boyfriend was a very head-strong type of boy who would start a fight over nothing. The excitement of trying not to get caught simply added more to the attraction to each other.
They would often find themselves in lengthy discussions about musicians or books or artists during their break and lunch times, their friends became friends with each other, they became friends with the others friends. In only a couple of days they had become a friendship group of seven. It was hard for Finn to manage, but he was enjoying it. This was the social pleasure he missed out on for all those years.
“How was the weekend?” Hellie asked Matthew as Finn and Donna started talking to each other again.
“It was alright, yeah. Had to help mum with the shop for a bit. You?”
“Sweet. I had some weekend homework to do which sucked but got it over with. Apart from History, have you got it done?”
“No, sorry.”
“Ah it’s fine. I’ll make something up.”
Just then they both looked over to Finn and Donna. Finn had taken his hair out of the ponytail it was normally tied up in and was letting Donna plait it. It was a very intimate scene that Hellie and Matthew found themselves watching in silence.
“Ah shit.” Hellie whispered. Matthew followed her eyeline and saw Daniel staring from the other side of the playground.
“Yup.” He agreed. “Think we should tell them?”
“Nah. Let’s go find the others.” Others, referring to the rest of their friend group than just the four that had been gathered.
“Your hair is so nice!” Donna complemented as she ran her fingers through it.
“Thanks!” Finn grinned.
“Do you put conditioner in it?”
“No. Just shampoo.”
“Lucky! Not many guys have such incredible hair.” Donna flirted.
“Really?” Finn acted surprised.
“Yeah. But women love a man with long hair.” Donna said playfully as she finished the plait.
“You don’t say.” Finn turned to face her with a flirtatious smile.
“Yeah. Wish I had a fella with long hair.” Donna said with a soft smile.
This line pulled them from their seclusion.
“Guess you’ll have to tell Daniel that, huh?” Finn asked.
“Yeah. I guess.” Donna frowned slightly, so faint and so quick that it was barely noticeable.
The bell rang for class.
“Time to go!” Donna smiled.
“Yeah. See you soon.” Finn waved as he left for his set class.
By some twist of fate, Daniel was in Finn’s set. He didn’t show any signs of knowing other than glaring at Finn.
“Daniel with Polly, Finn, Hellie and Richard.” Miss Drewid called. She was pairing off her drama students for their performance.
Daniel sighed and motioned for everyone who had been called to him to come over and sit in the empty seats beside him. They all did as they were told.
They sat in silence as Miss Drewid explained the assignment. They were to write a script and perform it in their groups in June for their summer exam.
“Oh come on Miss.” Hellie sighed.
“Oh come on Hellie.” The teacher smiled. “It’ll be fine. Right you have twenty minutes left, do what you can.”
None of them really enjoyed the current drama topic. They were beginning to wish they had picked a different subject. Not fully but they were jokingly considering it.
Over the course of the class they managed to come up with a few characters and a plot idea. It was going to be about a princess in the mafia; the princess by Polly, the mafia idea from Richard.