An Ordinary Boy

by Hamster

Chapter 3: War and Peace

Fortunately, and to the relief of both Mike and Josh, the war didn't last very long. It had started mostly because both Mike and Josh were in foul moods when they got into Mike's car after school had broken up for half term. Mike was seething with anger because of his treatment by the Headmaster, while Josh was angry at having to spend half-term with one of his teachers.

Mike slammed the car door as he got in and glanced over to make sure the boy had fastened his seatbelt.

"Ready?"

The boy merely grunted, delved into his backpack, took out his phone and started tapping away. The silence between them lasted for the entire journey which, fortunately, lasted only about fifteen minutes. When they reached Mike's house they got out, Josh reached in for his bag, and they went into the bungalow. They walked down the central corridor, past the living room on the left and the bedroom that Mike used as an office, past a bathroom and into the second bedroom on the right.

"This will be your room. You probably want to change. The bathroom is next door."

The boy said nothing, just grunted and went into the room. Mike went on down to the back of the house which was one long room with a dining area at one end, the kitchen in the middle, and a sort of family room at the other end with comfortable chairs, the television and a bookcase.

"THERE'S NO TOWEL! THERE'S NO BOG PAPER!"

Mike turned round and saw the boy glaring at him from the kitchen doorway.

"Sorry."

He went to the hallway closet, got out a towel and some toilet paper and handed them to the boy who just turned and walked away.

"I'll make the bed for you later."

The boy didn't answer, just walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. Mike's anger increased exponentially. He was close to screaming at the boy, but he remembered one of the cardinal rules of teaching: 'never lose your temper in front of your students. They will sense your weakness and turn on you like a pack of wolves'.

Mike poured himself a glass of water and was drinking it, standing up looking at his garden, when he heard the boy come into the kitchen. He had changed into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, and was wearing Crocs. He looked just like a normal teenager rather than an badly dressed schoolboy.

"Got anything fizzy to drink?"

"Sorry, I've only got water and milk."

"Any crisps?"

"No, sorry."

At that point the war broke out.

"WELL YOU'RE FUCKING USELESS. I GET OUT OF SCHOOL AND THERE'S NOTHING GOOD TO EAT OR DRINK! THIS IS GOING TO BE THE WORST FUCKING WEEKEND OF MY LIFE!"

Mike finally lost it.

"WELL, YOU'RE NOT HELPING! YOU HAVEN'T SAID ONE GODDAMN WORD SINCE WE LEFT SCHOOL, AND ALL YOU DO IS BITCH AND MOAN LIKE YOUR SOME SPOILT BRAT!"

"YOU COULD HAVE MADE AN FUCKING EFFORT TO MAKE ME COMFORTABLE AND WELCOME. I GET HERE AND THERE'S FUCK ALL FOR ME! I RATHER BE IN THAT STUPID SCHOOL THAN STAYING HERE!"

"AND HOW THE FUCK WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO ALL THIS WHEN I HAD NO FUCKING IDEA YOU WERE COMING!"

"YOU HAD PLENTY OF TIME!"

"YOU CALL HALF AN HOUR PLENTY OF TIME! JEEZ, WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO? FLY TO THE SHOPS? CLEAN THE FUCKING HOUSE AND GET BACK TO SCHOOL IN THIRTY MINUTES? HAVE SOME GODDAMN SENSE, YOU STUPID DICKHEAD"

"YOU HAD TWO DAYS!"

"I HAD THIRTY MINUTES!"

"NO YOU HAD AGES AND YOU DID NOTHING!"

"OH, GROW UP YOU SELFISH LITTLE BRAT!"

"I'M NOT BEING SELFISH! BLIMP TOLD ME TUESDAY I WAS COMING TO STAY WITH YOU, SO YOU HAD FUCKING AGES!"

"NO I DIDN'T………Wait, did you say Blimp told you on Tuesday?"

"THAT'S WHAT I'M TELLING YOU, AND YOU SAY THAT'S NOT ENOUGH TIME! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU NEED?"

"COOL IT AND LISTEN. You're saying Blimp told you on Tuesday?"

"YES, TUESDAY!"

"But he didn't tell me until lunchtime today! Something's wrong here!"

"WHAT? He told me Tuesday, he emailed my parents, told them I had to stay with you, they emailed back and said they were satisfied with the arrangement, that's all I was told."

"So why didn't he ask me earlier? I don't understand. The first I knew about you coming here was at lunchtime today after the last class when he called me to the office, told me you had to stay with me, and then walked out of school to go on holiday in Cornwall with his wife."

"That's crazy. The guy's total idiot but I didn't think he was THAT stupid. No wonder you are pissed off."

The two of them stood there looking at each other. Neither knew what to say. After a while Mike decided to try to calm things down.

"I don't know what happened. We can talk about it later. But we need to do two things first. First, we need to stop arguing, that's not going to help either of us. Second we need to get to the shops to get you some stuff you like to eat. I don't want you to die of starvation while you're here. Truce?"

Mike held out his fist. The boy finally smiled, and they bumped fists.

"Truce. What are we waiting for, let's go, I'm starving!"

With the war over a fragile peace broke out. Mike grabbed some shopping bags and they went out to the car. When they were both buckled up, Mike looked over at the boy.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. I shouldn't have. My name's Mike for the rest of the weekend."

"I'm sorry as well, sir, um, Mike. I'm Josh."

They smiled, shook hands, and drove into town to buy junk food.

An hour later they were back in Mike's house sitting at the kitchen table. Mike watched while Josh started devouring the large pile of crisps, biscuits, and chocolate all washed down with two cans of soda. Eventually Josh stopped eating and looked at Mike.

"Mike, why do you think Blimp didn't tell you that I had to stay with you until the very last moment? It doesn't make sense."

"I've been thinking about that as well. I'm not sure, but I think he was trying to get me to refuse or mess things up so he could tell Shelburne Academy I was not suitable for the job."

"Why would he do that?"

"He doesn't like me, never has, and probably never will."

"Why?"

"Maybe because he felt I was forced on to him because there wasn't anyone else available, maybe because he knows I'm gay and he's very homophobic."

"He can't do nasty things to you just because you're gay."

"In theory that's true, but you try proving that was the reason he did all this. We get discriminated against in all sorts of little ways and there's very little we can do about it."

"So, what do you think we should do? Can we make a complaint?"

"I'm not sure. We don't have a strong case. He could just say he forgot, or an email got lost, or something like that."

"That's not true, Mike. He broke the school rules. I'm not supposed to be in a car alone with a teacher but he made you drive me to your house."

"Damn, you're right! And there's more than just that. I'm not allowed to have boys in my house unless there are at least two other adults present. Right now, I'm breaking that rule, and you're going to stay overnight. That would normally get me dismissed immediately. That makes our case really strong."

"YES! I think we can really get him into trouble because of that."

"Yes, they're very worried about adults molesting any of the boys, not that that's going to happen to you while you're here."

"You could if you wanted, I wouldn't mind!"

"NO, NO and NO! It's not going to happen. Because your thirteen it would be statutory rape and I'd be in prison for years!"

"I wouldn't tell, Mike, and I wouldn't mind."

"NO! Let's think about how we can best complain. I'm not sure that if you made the complaint they'd listen very hard. It would be your word against his, and people normally believe adults more than kids. And because I'm temporary they might not listen to me much either."

"How about if we get my parents to complain? I bet they'd listen to them."

"That's a great idea, Josh. Do you think your parents would do that?"

"Yeah, they would. They don't like Blimp. We could tell them what to write and they'd make the complaint. But who would they complain to?"

"Oh, that's easy. The school Board of Governors would be the right place, they could complain to the Chairman."

"Let's do that, Mike!"

"Why don't we arrange a Zoom call with them so we can talk it all through with them. What's the time there now?"

"Umm, I think it's nighttime. Let me check. Oh, here we are, it's four o'clock here so it's three in the morning. Best not to call right now."

"Why don't we do this, Josh. You send them an email saying we want to talk to them. You can tell them what happened and why we want them to complain. I think we should give them time to think things over, so let's arrange the call when we're having breakfast tomorrow and it's early evening for them."

"Sounds good to me, Mike. I'll get on it right away. What's for dinner?"

"Pizza OK?"

"YES! Large supreme pizza, no anchovies! And garlic bread!"

Josh went off to find his laptop so he could start composing the email to his parents. Mike decided that he had earned a beer after all the drama and while he was drinking that he thought maybe the weekend wasn't going to be such a disaster. Josh was turning out to be a lot smarter than Mike had thought, and they had a strong bond now because of the way they'd both been treated by the Headmaster.

About half an hour later, Josh reemerged with his laptop. Mike was very impressed: Josh had made a clear summary of the situation and made suggestions about what his parents could say in their complaint. Not only was the content clear, it was grammatically correct, everything was spelled correctly, and it was properly formatted.

"How come your homework is so poor when you can write as well as this, Josh?"

I hate the school, I can't wait to leave, so I just don't bother. It's not worth it. And I just want to be anonymous so I do enough to avoid extra work or punishment. I don't want to be seen as smart, just an average boy that nobody really notices."

"Well, you've done a great job of appearing to just be an ordinary boy! You fooled me! I thought you weren't good at English but it appears I'm wrong."

"I hope I leave at the end of this term. It's up to my mum. If she hates Australia like she says, then she'll come home and I can go back home and go to a normal school."

"Normal?"

"Normal schools have boys and girls. I like that. And I wouldn't have to eat school food all the time like I do here."

Mike smiled.

"Food and sex, a typical teenager. Do you ever think of anything else?"

"Football. But food and sex are top of the list."

After Mike had made a few suggestions to improve the email, Josh tidied it up, suggested a seven o'clock evening Zoom call, and sent the email off. Mike ordered the pizza, and later watched as Josh reduced a large pizza almost single-handedly. And knowing they had to be up early for the Zoom call, Mike went to bed leaving Josh to play Fortnite for a while before he too gave up and fell asleep.