Second Draft Chapter 4

Everyone wishes summer could go on forever, but nothing is as constant as time. Despite all my efforts to will it away, the first day of school arrived.

I awoke, or rather was awakened by my father, at an early hour and washed my face with the cold water. It still felt like summer outside. The air was still warm, and the summer birds were still singing, but all this only felt like a mockery; like a prisoner who can still see the green fields from his cell window.

I walked Abel into town and then dropped him off by the primary school before going to my school.

Because it was the first day of school and mid-term fatigue had not yet set in, everyone showed up a little bit early, and we stood around and chatted while we waited for the doors to open. My friends Simon and David were there of course, but there were also many other people that I hadn’t seen all summer. To begin with there was Ajax.

Actually there was a good reason why I hadn’t seen Ajax all summer. I hated him, and he hated me. When school was out of session, we did our best to avoid each other.

Ajax was flanked on each side by his friends Hector and Teucer. Both of them loved to push people around, but they weren’t as strong as Ajax, so they had befriended him and made sure to stick close to him when doing their bullying.

Next there was Icarus, with his blond curly hair spilling over his forehead and almost covering his eyes. He was blabbing on about something, but it didn’t seem like anyone was really listening to him. Icarus didn’t always make a lot of sense, so none of us paid too much attention to what he said.

And there was Christopher and Varro in the corner talking to each other. They were the two kiss-ups of the class. Both of them were extremely serious about their schoolwork. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but whatever it was I knew it would be boring.

And there was Rosa. Rosa I had seen, if not talked to, every Sunday of the summer. But the other girls around clustered around her like Sophia and Vera I had not seen. It was no good talking to them now though. They were closed off in a tight little circle like a wall.

Joshua and Leda were off by themselves talking. Clodius and Ares were wrestling. LJ was sitting on the ground with his back leaned up against the school wall, and immersed in a book like he always was. Emma was talking to Philip.

I went straight to David and Simon. “Did you bring the hat with you?” Simon asked.

“I got it,” I said patting my book bag.

David rolled his eyes. “Jon, why would you bring something like that to school? It’s only going to get you in trouble.”

“I’m not going to show the teachers,” I said. Really, how dumb did he think I was?

Emma broke off her conversation with Philip and came over to talk to us. “Do you have the hat?” she asked me in a conspiratorial voice. I patted the book bag proudly. “Well, let’s see it then,” Emma demanded impatiently.

“Come on Jon, let us have a look,” Simon said.

David didn’t say anything, although I could almost feel the displeasure flowing from him.

I glanced around just to make sure that there were no teachers around. Then I started to open the bag up.

Ajax must have seen noticed that we were up to something because he came over, with Teucer and Hector following in his wake. He elbowed David aside and came into our circle. I stopped opening the bag, and kept the hat inside.

“What is everyone doing over here?” Ajax demanded. Although the question was directed to everyone, he looked only at me.

“Nothing that concerns you Ajax,” I replied. “Why don’t you and your friends go and play somewhere else?”

Ajax acted like he didn’t hear me. “What have you got in that bag,” he said, pointing.

“Books, notebooks, pencils, paper…”

“And a policeman’s hat?” Ajax said.

This shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. I should have known that by now the story was traveling around, and that it would eventually get to Ajax. But I guess I just wasn’t expecting him to know already. I was temporarily at a loss for words, and Ajax broke into a huge grin when he saw he had upset me. “Maybe a policeman’s hat,” I answered at last, trying to regain the confidence in my voice.

“I don’t believe it,” Ajax said. “If you’ve got it, then lets see it.”

Ajax had been speaking in a loud voice, and a small crowd of students gathered around to see what we were arguing about. I reached inside my book bag. I held my hand concealed in the bag for a moment and then, with a bit of drama, I pulled out the hat. The crowd closed in on us as the other students tried to get a better look.

A brief flicker of amazement flashed across Ajax’s eyes. He quickly suppressed it and assumed his condescending look again.

“That doesn’t prove anything,” I heard Hector yell. “The policeman could have given it to him.”

But Hector was already being drowned out by the other voices. “How did you get that Jon?”
“Did you really outrun him?”
“Tell us what happened.”

There were so many questions I was unsure of which one to answer first. I looked around at the crowd trying to decide who to answer, and then I became aware that everyone was stepping back. An older boy was entering our circle, and they were making room for him. Even Ajax and his friends stepped back respectfully and gave him a wide berth.

The boy had a familiar look to him. Despite his stern expression, my mind connected him with some sort of positive association. Something inside me was saying he was an ally. And then it clicked. This was Orion, the boy who had saved David and me from the police a few weeks before.

“Jon, right?” he asked. I nodded. His eyes were focused on the hat. “So you’ve moved on to bigger things?” I nodded blankly. He didn’t ask any questions, but he knew just by seeing the hat what had happened. There was a silence, and, as with our first meeting I could see that his eyes were moving up and down. He was studying me. “You’ve got a lot of courage,” he said at last.

I struggled to think of a suitable response to this. “It was just an impulse.”

He nodded slowly, but his far away look gave the impression of not having really heard me. And then he walked away.

There was silence after he left. The crowd around me had ceased asking questions. Ajax didn’t try and challenge me any more after that. Instead, Ajax just turned around and walked away, with Teucer and Hector trailing him as always. “How did he know your name?” David asked.

The bell rang. We all filed into the school and into the classroom. I sat next to David on his left, and Simon took the desk to David’s right. David pressed his question again. “How does he know your name anyway Jon?”

“I don’t know. When we ran into him in the street that was the first time I’d ever seen him.”

Simon overheard this. “You must have seen Orion before. He’s one of the class leaders.”

“Jon doesn’t pay attention to that stuff,” David responded in a sarcastic voice.

“Really? You don’t know who any of the class leaders are?” Simon was surprised at this, but he seemed to accept it without any more follow up questions. Although after a moment’s reflection, he added, “strange, isn’t it? Orion is the most well known person in the whole school, and yet didn’t even know him. And you are an absolute nobody, but he knows who you are.”

I was about to thank Simon for phrasing it so elegantly, when the teacher walked into the room. “Good morning class,” she chirped.

“Good morning,” we replied in a grunt. Obviously none of us were happy about being here. Only Christopher’s voice had a tint of enthusiasm to it.

We knew this teacher already from last year. There were only a few teachers who taught at the school, and we knew them all. She was not a novelty to us, and we were not new to her.

“I hope you didn’t forget your lessons over the summer,” she said. Of all the teachers, I hated her the least. She had a cheerful voice, and it never sounded forced. Like all teachers she could be strict sometimes, but she as teachers go she was actually one of the nicest ones.

“Did you review your lessons every day like I asked you to?” she asked again. A small rumbling murmur of nervousness mixed with embarrassment flowed through the class. Was she asking because we were going to be tested on it? Seeing the other nervous faces, I thought I in good company.

“Let’s review just in case some of you forgot,” she said at last. This meant there wasn’t going to be any test. A flood of relief passed through the class. “Does anyone even remember what we were talking about?” she asked. Christopher’s hand went up. “Yes, go ahead Christopher.”

“We were talking about the Canaan Wars,” he answered.

“Thank you. And who remembers what the cause of the Canaan Wars was? Yes, Varro.”

“To restore the Church in Canaan,” Varro answered.

“Good. Good. Who remembers the other reason?” Only two hands were in the air now: Christopher and Varro. The teacher seemed almost on the point of calling on one of them again, and then she decided against it. “This year I want to try and get as many students participating as possible,” she suddenly announced. “Last year I felt like it was always the same few people answering all the questions. Matthew, do you know?”

“No Ma’am, I’m sorry.”

“Icarus, what about you?”

“No Ma’am.” [Alternate: some ridiculous Icarus style answer (probably overkill, but just an idea)-or some other student entirely].

“We studied this last year. Are you telling me that nobody besides Christopher and Varro remembers?” There was growing frustration in her voice. Somebody needed to answer this question quickly or we might all be in trouble.

Fortunately LJ raised his hand. “Lucius, thank you,” the teacher said in a grateful voice. “What was the other cause of the Canaan wars?”

“Fabulae was still split after the Restoration,” LJ answered. “The Duke needed the support of the Church, and he needed the support of the conservatives, so he embarked on a popular war to attempt to restore the church to Canaan.” In his own way, LJ was probably a lot smarter than even Varro. He rattled off all that complicated bookish type stuff as if that was how he always talked.

The teacher was momentarily unsure of what to do with this answer. She nodded as if she were thinking about it and then answered, “Noooo,” in a drawn out voice. “No,” she said a second time with more confidence. “No, that’s not one of the reasons we learned in this class. Please try and contain your answers to things in the textbook. Can someone else give me another reason? Sophia, what about you?”

I hated history. Five minutes into the new school year, and I was already bored out of my mind. I leaned over to David to continue our conversation. “Well, whoever he is, and however he knows me, he certainly shut Ajax right up, didn’t he?” I whispered. “That was wonderful to see.”

“Huh?” David’s face was confused. It took a few seconds for him to remember what we had been discussing. “Oh. That still.”

“Well somebody needs to do it. Ajax is a real thug, and his friends are just bullies. And they’ve been like that for as long as I can remember. Do you remember the fight I got into with them last year?”

“Yeah.” David usually gave me brief one word answers when we were talking in class. He was always afraid we were going to get in trouble.

“They picked that fight with me. I wasn’t even doing anything. Ajax just wanted a fight.”

“I’ve never had a problem with him,” David answered. Of course David never had a problem with him. David was too nice of a guy to have any enemies. And because he himself never had any enemies himself, he always assumed that I must be partly at fault for all my quarrels. He never seemed to understand that there were bullies in the world, and that someone had to stand up to them. “If he’s always bothering you, he must have a reason for it.”

Now this was the part I could never get David to understand. “No, see Dave, that’s the point. He has absolutely no reason.”

“He must have some reason. Did you ever to something to him?”

“I never did anything!”

“Jonathon! David!” We’d been caught by the teacher. I must have raised my voice too loud on that last statement. “Will you two please shut up and listen to the lesson?”

“Yes Ma’am,” we both answered. Fortunately for us it was the first day of school, and she was one of the nicer teachers, so she let it go at just the scolding, without any punishment.

“Now,” she continued in her teacher’s voice, “the high priest was forced to flee from Canaan. The Duke naturally invited him to come to Fabulae until the crisis was over, but the priest went to the neighboring country of Amicus instead. And there he formed his own government in exile…”

David, if I left him alone, actually seemed interested in this stuff. He followed the lecture with a thoughtful look on his face. I suddenly noticed that Emma, who was sitting on my right hand side, was furiously scribbling down notes. I began to feel slightly guilty that my own notebook was still blank. I looked at the white pages of my own notebook shining back at me, and at my pen lying still on my desk. Then I looked over at Emma again. Her hand was still moving quickly. What could she be writing that was so important? I leaned over to get a closer look.

“The Duke wanted to preserve the reforms of the restoration and Icarus stop chewing on your pen also wanted to restore the church to LJ does that book have anything to do with this class? No? Well then put it away to restore the church to Canaan for which he would have the eternal gratitude of the true Canaan people Sophia look up here don’t look out the window…”

Emma was writing down every single word the teacher spoke whether it had to do with the lecture or not. I guess you have to do something to make this class interesting. If we weren’t permitted to talk to each other, then you had to be creative.

The teacher seemed to notice it the same time I did. She leaned over to see what Emma was so busy writing. The teacher turned pale when she saw it. “Emma, for heaven sakes stop it. If the headmaster had seen what has been going on in this class, it would mean my dismissal.”

There was a bit of shocked silence after this, and I think we all realized we had been taking advantage of the teacher’s good nature. Emma looked down at her notes and then immediately tore them up.

The rest of the class proceeded without incident. I didn’t pay attention, but I didn’t try and talk to David anymore either. Like Emma, I was too fond of this particular teacher to want to get her in trouble.

The next teacher was a different story however. I wouldn’t have minded seeing his dismal at all. He was one of the strictest teachers at the school. He loved seeing students suffer. You could see it in his eyes. Actually he didn’t even have eyes. He wore eyeglasses which reflected the light and make it look like he didn’t have any eyes at all, but just two round discs. He was impossible to like.

I tried talking to David to occupy my mind, but David just shot me a dirty look and I shut up. After fifty minutes, the bell rang and we packed up our stuff.

“What’s with you?” I asked David.

“Jon, listen, it’s the first day of school. Do we have to get in trouble on the first day?”

“But I was talking about something important.”

“We can talk about it at break,” David answered as he swung his book bag over his shoulder. David exited the room while I was still packing up my books.

The rest of the day went without incident. Or I should say, with only the usual incidents. I hung out with David and Simon during the break. After lunch, Icarus tried to climb the tree, and for some reason, I ended up being one of the people encouraging him on. He fell off, but was not badly hurt. Ajax and Hector had a good laugh when Icarus fell, but they always had a good laugh whenever someone else got hurt.

After school I should have gone straight home, but a number of us decided to play sports outside the schoolyard instead. I ended up eating supper at David’s house. Since I had not told my father I was going to do this, I knew it would get me in trouble. But it was the first day of school. I couldn’t just go straight home and study for the rest of the night. What kind of a start would that be.

Even after dinner at David’s house, the walk home made me hungry again. I went into the kitchen to get something to eat. The noise from the kitchen must have attracted my father. He snuck up behind me. “Home late again, Jonathon?” I jumped, startled.

“I’m sorry, I lost track of the time,” I answered quickly.

“Didn’t they feed you at David’s house?” He knew that was where I had been without me having to say anything. I was always at David’s.

“No, they did. I’m hungry again.”

“You didn’t tell me you weren’t coming for dinner tonight, so your food is still on the table. It’s cold now of course, but if you’re still hungry, that’s what you’re eating. You’re not helping yourself to anything else from the kitchen.”

I nodded, too tired to argue, and simply went into the dining room. He followed me. I silently braced myself for the coming onslaught. “You better shape up and learn how to follow directions. You’re going to be working with the Duke someday.”

“Yes I’m sorry,” I answered as I picked over the cold food on my plate. After standing and picking at the food with my hands for a while, I decided I was hungry enough to eat the whole thing and slid into the chair.

He remained silent for a while, watching me with a disapproving expression. When he spoke again, it was in the same harsh tones as before. “The first day at school and already you are coming home late. This is a terrible way to start off. I thought we agreed you were going to take your studies more seriously this year?”

“I will,” I mumbled through a mouthful of food.

“I hope so. Am I going to have to meet with your teachers again this year?”

“No sir.”

“Good.” He went over to the cabinet and brought out a flask of alcohol. He unscrewed the top and poured some for himself into a small glass. “Good because I’m really sick of that. You had better stay out of trouble at school this year.” He brought the glass to his lips and took a drink. I always marveled at how he could keep a straight face drinking that stuff. On the few occasions when I had snuck a drink, my face had gone into all sorts of violent contortions as soon as the alcohol entered my mouth.

“And I mean it this year,” he continued. “You will not have another year like last year? Do you understand me?”

“Yes sir,” I mumbled again.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Sorry sir.”

“You know why your behavior is important, don’t you? People know who you are. You realize that don’t you?” I nodded. “And when you persist in making a jackass out of yourself at school, it reflects badly on me and it reflects badly on the Duke.” There was silence. He took another drink. “You realize that don’t you?”

I was annoyed at having to answer the same question twice. “Yes.”

The tone of my voice caused my father to explode. He slammed his hand on the table and yelled, “Well then maybe you can act like it this year.”

There was silence as he glared angrily at me. My throat constricted, but I forced myself to swallow the food that was in my mouth. “Sorry sir.” This was how he usually worked. He exploded unpredictably at small things to indicate his larger anger at me in general.

For a short time I just sat silently under his angry gaze. Then his face softened slightly, and he tried to change the subject. “How was the first day of school,” he asked.

“Good.”

“What happened today?”

“Nothing.”

“Well what did you do after school?”

“Nothing.”

I knew this line of conversation was his attempt at an olive branch, but I didn’t feel like opening up and talking about my day after the reprimand he had just given me. He didn’t press it. “Well, I’m going to bed now,” my father rubbed his hand over his face to indicate how tired he was. “You will be home for dinner tomorrow. And you had better not get in any trouble at school this year.”