Young Writers Society

Vincent wakes up to the sound of the shrill beeping of his alarm clock. His eyes opens to the blurry outline of his room which gradually adjusts to the bright summer light that pours in from his open door. He pushes the covers and changes into his school uniform. He didn't want to pay attention to his stomach; it was a swirl of nostalgic sickness whose pain rhymed with the ache in his head. He dashes downstairs the corridor leading to the bathroom flashing in glimpses of the summer light as he runs past. After washing his face and patting it dry he emerges from the bathroom and sits down for breakfast. His mum emerges from the hallway while he shovels spoons of ready brek into his mouth.

"How do you feel on your last day?" She asks.

"I dunno, a bit sad." he says without lifting his head from his breakfast.

"You'll still be able to see your friends on results day," she says soothingly.

“Mum! Don’t talk about it; don’t remind me, I already couldn’t wait to know what grade I got when I just finished each paper!” He finally turns his head to acknowledge his mum and his face had coloured slightly with tension. He recalls that on the night before his last exam he had sat on his office chair at his desk, with his revision notes spread out and his phone in both hands admiring a photo with three girls picnicking in a park. He had turned up to his exam and reached the second to last question which demanded a short essay explaining the effects of design protection laws on manufactures, before his thumb’s joint began to throb with pain. It had required grit and determination to persevere in spite of the pain and he had to write slowly to reduce the pain. Except his mind had gone blank on this question and he couldn’t remember the answer. He flipped to the next question and found that he didn’t know the answer for that question either.

"Sorry,” Mum apologises and she goes to carry her basketful of laundry to the door where she pauses to fish out a silver key in her pocket to open the door before going out. Vincent turns his attention back to his cereal which he had almost finished. He scrapes the bowl slowly his mind running through each exam and guessing what grade he got. It was a game he had played since his first exam and every time he had to remind himself to not give in to his ego and judge solely based on his performance. He carries his bowl, cup and spoon to the kitchen sink then goes to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He looks at his reflection and touches the stubble on his chin, before reaching out to get the shaver from the bathroom cupboard to shave into the sink. His hands then brushes gel into his hair careful not to put too much. He preferred a more natural look than allowing the gel to harden his hair. Then he emerges from the bathroom.

He checks the time on the kitchen clock and found that he had fifteen minutes to spare so he goes up the stairs to his room. His hand hovers between his smartphone and his DS on his bedside cabinet before finally settling on the DS. He sits on his office chair in front of his desk then switches the console on. Pokemon Y. His virtual self walks to the Poke centre to cure his pokemon after their last battle then heads to a grassy patch to train his pokemon. He closes his console then picks up his phone and switches it on. He waits for it to load then opens whatsapp to look at Clara’s photo. Then he opens instagram and checked her friends’ profile. No new photos.

Ten minutes later his mum's voice calls from the hallway: "Vincent! Time to go!" He switches off the console and grabs his gym bag and hurries downstairs. He was now so tall that his legs were long enough to take the stairs two at a time. As soon as he arrives in the hallway to put his school shoes on mum asks him where he would like to go for tea to celebrate his end of exams. He replies that he would like to go to ‘Bibimap,’ and enquires whether his two elder siblings will be there. His mum reassured him that they will definitely be there and to be ready at around five pm when his dad will arrive from work to take them there.

As he settles in the front seat next to his mum, she drives through the residential streets that led to the school while filling him in on the latest gossip from her friend, Molly who had a son named David in the same year group at school. She told him that Molly and her husband were taking David to London tomorrow to celebrate. Mum became friends with Molly from his primary school days but he and David differed in their interests. David was sporty and loved football. Vincent was more like a vampire and spent the days paling his skin in the shaded light indoors. Mum went into detail about their plans while he occasionally looks in his mum’s direction, nods and makes agreeable noises to show that he is listening.

Eventually mum pulled up into one of the side roads from the main road. Both were lined with houses and as usual two school buses dominated the front of the school. Mum turned to look at her son, her eyes glassy with grief at her son’s ripening youth.

“Enjoy your last day,” she says while her son’s frame folds itself to duck under the doorway as he climbs out of the car. He turns to look at his mum’s sad smile, and replies in return that he hopes mum had a nice day at work. When he reaches the school gates he feels a bloom of nostalgia in his stomach as a thought struck him for the first time. Next year his year will vanish into nothingness while everyone else will move up a year.

He walks down into a building and climbs two flights of stairs to walk down the laminated brown planked corridors. His tall figure dominates the streams of girls with their long candy floss hairs and the chubby boys who weave in and out of the crowds of students walking to their classrooms. As he is tall, the younger students swerve to avoid him. Nostalgia inspires a thought; what if the corridor never ended? Then would he stay frozen as a sixteen year old who has just finished his GCSEs?

He opens the door to his classroom letting his body move a little at the force he used to pull the door open, his other hand clutched the strap of his gym bag and walked to his assigned seat. Two girls both with blonde hair were standing near the seat next to his talking to their friend. He thinks that he would entertain them with his new thought and asks them wouldn’t it be epic if they were frozen at the age of sixteen? Claire said it would be much preferable to be frozen at the age of eighteen so they could have the added independence to drive. He nods in agreement while Tania chides him for shirking responsibility by wanting to live with his parents.

His discussion with them ends when Amy brings up the concert that they are planning to go to. Vincent listens for a while his fingers picking at the cracks and scratches at the table before boredom manifests.

“Are you sure I can't come?" The joke bursts from him as his head turned to look at them, his floppy hair swishing at the turn.

"Well... do you like Olly Murs?" Claire responds smirking.

"Yes of course I do...when it's not actually him singing," He says while his mind screams that it was a lame joke.

Claire gives him a playful shove then turns her attention back towards Tania and Claire.

The door swings open and Miss Lepowski enters. Tania and Amy walks back to their seats while he stares at the door willing another girl to reappear in the grey darkness behind. No-one follows so he pulls out his diary from his gym bag and began doodling on today’s date with a pen.

Halfway through the register the door swings open revealing a flustered looking Clara, her cheeks red from running. “Sorry I’m late Madam, my mum’s car wouldn’t start so I had to walk,” she apologised. Miss Lepowski glanced at her from the register and said “I’ll mark you in, sit down.” At her voice his head lifted from his doodling to take in her image once more while she walks away from his glance to the left side of the classroom. She was short with dark hair and olive skin. She had a particularly square nose and he had imagined she must be of Italian or Greek descent.

After the register was done Miss Lepowski turns away from the computer and said that they can all chat for fifteen minutes because mass doesn’t start until 9:30. She opens some exercise books and starts marking them at her desk. Everyone moves back to their original positions before Miss Lepowski’s arrival while he glances once more in her direction, quickly so no one can notice or comment on his stalker behaviour.

At the same moment Eric, who was sitting in front of Claire and Vincent turns around, fast like lightening to see what Claire was doing. He notices that she was reading and his hands come up to tug the book from her grasp. He shuts the book to look at the cover.

“The Curious Incident of a Dog at Night-time,” He reads while Claire’s arm’s comes up to try to grab the book back. Eric begins to walk around the classroom with the book while Claire slips from her seat to chase him.

“Eric! SIT DOWN!” Miss Lepowski yells and Eric retreats back to his seat slamming the book back onto Claire’s desk grinning. Claire returns and stuffs the book back into her bag.

“Everyone line up its time to leave!” Miss Lepowski rises from her chair and walks to the door while the entire class filed out following her to the field for their Leavers Mass.

The sun was warming up bleaching the grass a pale green. Navy chairs were already sat in rows in front of the priests’ pulpit where Father Tony stood with Deacon John on his right. He had exited the classroom with Claire as they had left their seats at roughly the same pace. His eyes spies Clara two heads ahead of him so he runs to catch up with Clara who was chatting with her friend Emily. They had left the building for the sun’s cool morning rays and he loosens his tie to catch the heat. He greets them and the two girls stop talking to look at him. A silence blooms and he quickly enquires whether they will miss the school. He can feel his facial muscles relax when Clara replies that she will miss some of the teachers and classes but not the scary Mrs Lorward who yelled at a girl who had asked to leave maths to attend her violin class.

Their feet trade the smooth brownness of the ground for the field and on both his sides the other forms had collapsed into squares as everyone moved to talk to their friends from the original formation of a line. The school was quiet as all the other students were in their class. As they near their seats he backs a few steps and pushes in-between Amy and another girl in his form group so they were back to their original formation of a line. He stares at the seats in front of him to count the seats and his gaze flicks back to the people in front of him counting until he concludes that he wouldn’t have to sit in the row behind Clara. Once they had sat down he enquires what Clara thinks of their English teacher who is young and whether she comes across as unprofessional. She replies with perception saying that she was young and needed more experience while Vincent nods his body turning more in her direction.

Behind them the seats fill with more students from their year while at the podium in front the deputy head teacher tests the microphone by shouting into it ‘testing, testing.’ As soon as the last person was seated Mrs Lutch then calls for attention and gives a short speech to commiserate the end of the past five years of education. She introduces the priest and deacon who will lead the mass. They both stand and the piano introduces the opening hymn. Everyone else stands and the teachers’ voices began to sing along with the piano. Vincent looks around to see who was singing and couldn’t spot anyone whose mouths were moving in the words. His gaze rests on the grass below his feet.

Mass followed with their head of year Ms Wells making a speech about the importance of following dreams, maintaining motivation and good working ethnic, before she gave out the end of year awards. Behind the podium floods of younger students fill the path as the bell rings signalling the end of the first period. Vincent stares at them before pulling away to concentrate on Ms Well’s speech. Every year all subject departments nominated a student from each year group to receive a certificate as testimony to their hard work. This year the year group’s first Nepalese student who joined their year group two years ago received the most awards, collecting one for maths and another for science. Vincent claps his hands loud and fast for her. After the last award for design and technology which went to a blonde boy named Ben, Vincent’s body braces itself to leave his chair but Ms Wells voice announces that they have awards for individual qualities to give as well. Vincent relaxes and his eyes returned to rest on Ms Wells curious whether there was one in waiting for him. After a while Ms Wells voice magnifies to call out his name:

“Certificate for the best overall improvement for the year: Vincent Rason.”

Vincent: Huh?

“Vincent Rason?”

He looks around to notice everyone’s eyes were turned towards him so he stands up and swaggers to the front. He reaches out to shake Ms Wells hand, and she hands him his certificate and congratulates him on all his hard work. When he returns to his seat he eyes seeks out Clara’s and she smiles at him. “Well done,” she says her voice filled with sweet sincerity. Vincent thanks her and swings his head to watch the rest of the assembly. His hands rest on his lap and he no longer glances at the classrooms in front or the grass at the bottom.

His back constricts like a cobra when Ms Well’s calls out Clara’s name.

“Certificate for the greatest contribution to the school community goes to Clara Jones!”

He turns his gaze Clara who has already stood up and was making her way to the podium. His gaze follows her as she went to get her certificate then walked back to her seat. When she had settled back into her seat and received congratulations from the people in front of her Vincent leans in her direction and whispers “well done, you deserve it.” She thanks him and turns back towards the podium to watch the rest of the students receiving their awards. Fifteen minutes later the assembly ends and three teachers dismiss the students row by row. Vince walks back to the school grounds with Emily and Clara discussing their plans for their summer holidays. Clara says that she hasn’t got anything planned this year, while Emily says that she is going to Singapore to visit her mum’s family. Vincent jokes that he is going to explore the true meaning of teenage hood by getting drunk and going to clubs before telling them that he is going to Spain with his family.

The school grounds is silent, all the other students are in class and the only other movement was being made by the decaying leaves from last autumn who circled the air in the breeze. They climbed up the hill to the metallic school gates where Emily bid goodbye to Vincent and Clara and promises to whatsapp Clara. She gives her a long teary hug and leaves to go to her bus stop. Midway she turns back to wave at them before crossing the road to go to the island in the middle where her bus stop was marked by a tall white sign. He mentions to Clara that it was fortunate that students normally had to queue for buses in the playground otherwise students might have had to stand on the road when space ran out. She responds by telling me not to think about problems that didn’t exist. He changes the subject.

“I wanted to ask you something since we don’t have any more exams.” He announces.

“ Sure,” she replied. “What is it?”

“ Well….” He pauses. The sun’s rays had grown warmer and he shakes his blazer off then stuffs it into his bag. He inhales in the humid air trying to fill his lungs with oxygen in preparation for a possibly long nerve-wracking speech.

“Do you want to go to the cinema with me? Now those exams are over and we have an extra long summer holiday with nothing to do …. or we can hang out at my house, my parents won’t mind and anyway they are at work” he finally babbles.

“Oh! I can’t I have to go and help my mum with the shop,” she replies.

Clara watches him, her eyes intent on reading his expressions before she adds: ““I’ll message you on whatsapp later, and then we can plan something.”

“Ok, sure,”Vincent replies. He can feel the heat manifesting itself into sweat on his forehead and gastric acid swirling into his stomach. Behind him he can hear the hyper energetic goodbyes girls were giving to other girls and boys in his year.

Someone in the distance shouts “Bye Clara, bye Vince.” He turns and his face changes into a forced smile as he recognises Dan. Dan had his arm draped over his girlfriend Libby who beckons Vincent and Clara to come forward. She holds out her camera and asks whether they could have a group photo taken. Clara replies that it was a great idea and calls for Abbie a girl who has just come out of the school gates. Abbie changes her route and walks towards them and Libby asks her whether she could take a group photo. She hands Abbie the camera and she steps a few paces backwards. Holding the camera she asks everyone to shout ‘cheese puffs,’ before taking the photo.

After three attempts for the perfect photo Clara asks whether Libby could send the photo to them on their whatsapp group chat. Libby reassures her that it will be sent on there then she runs to take photos of other people with Dan following behind.

His eyes flicker towards the road where the long rectangle front of the bus drives up to the side of where they are standing showing him its side. Through the window he can see mostly elderly people scattered out onto the seats. One lady’s gaze rests on his so he quickly shifts his gaze back to Clara.

“Ok cool I’ll wait for your message then! I’ll see you later,” he says smiling.

Her body partially turns to the bus and she shouts to him “see you later! Bye!” He waves in return then slopes to the brick wall where his friends Ashley and Brandon were waiting for him. Once they catch sight of Vincent they quickly jump off the wall to meet Vincent in the middle of the footpath blocking the way for passer-bys. They demand to know what kept Vincent so long. At first Vincent acts indifferent and shrugs. He stuffs his hands in his pocket and begins to walk away but the two boys run after him shouting “come on! Tell us! Brandon with a greater insight smirks and asks whether he snogged Clara. Vincent responds by shoving him into a wall but Brandon’s left foot had a quick reflex and lands in a stance to prevent him from falling. Ashley joins in Brandon’s idea and asks whether Vincent had scored a date. Vincent tells Ashley to shut up and calls him a girlfriendless being.

Vincent tells them they are both wrong because Clara had told him that she had to help her mother in the shop after school, but she’ll message him. Ashley responds by slapping in on his back and congratulates him on finally making a move.

Vincent frowns and asks Ashley and Brandon whether Clara will really message. His pace slows as he turns his full attention to his two friends. Brandon reassures him that Clara was not the sort to tell someone that she will do something, only to forget. He tells Vincent that she is the sort to bring a dying pigeon home so of course she’ll message.

They turn left, and then cross the road. They were almost at Vincent’s house and Ashley asks Vincent whether they could spend a few hours at his house playing ‘Call of Duty.’ Vincent pauses and takes a while to answer before agreeing.

Later after Brandon and Ashley had left and Vincent had washed up the dishes they used to eat some ready meals they had found in Vincent’s fridge and put away the playstation controls, he walks upstairs to his room. He strides towards his bedside cabinet and presses the button on the bottom of his phone. The screen lights up announcing that he had one message unread. With both hands he unlocks his phone and presses the whatsapp icon on the menu. He clicks the line that shows that Clara had sent him a message and reads what it said:

Do you want to come and play badminton with me and two of my cousins on Saturday?

He turns his gaze towards his bedroom window on the left and saw that clear sky was streaked in a rich cerulean blue endless in its possibilities.

He begins to type his reply.