Early Days

“Well here we are,” said James as we completed the long journey and entered the driveway leading up to the school. It was a long driveway with tall trees lining it on both sides and between the ones on the left I could see a huge football field. A couple of lads were on it having what seemed to be an impromptu game. On the right was a huge open field with grass that reached about up to my knees. The driveway ran through huge open gates that had brick walls on either side. Beyond the wall on the right was what I assumed to be a swimming pool as I could see a the top of a diving board above it.  As we drove through the gates I saw a gigantic building. It overlooked the driveway which ended in a circular roundabout. There was a statue of a man reading a book in the middle and this was surrounded by the red and yellow flowers covering the rest of the roundabout. We pulled up in front of the building and James got my luggage, which consisted of one large brown leather suitcase and my black backpack, out of the boot. We went into the building and were immediately greeted by a short, extremely thin and graying old lady who introduced herself as Mrs. Feldman, the principal’s secretary. We introduced ourselves to her and, after a short conversation and nothing but a wave and a smile, James left and I was all alone with Mrs. Feldman.



“So Mr. Duvall,” said Mrs. Feldman, “how do you like what you have seen of our school so far.” I looked around the hall before answering, “it’s alright I guess.” I heard footsteps approaching and a boy entered the hall. “Ah Mr. Cook, you are just the person I wanted to see. This young man is Mr. Duvall, I want you to take him up to the hostel and show him around before supper. Mr. Duvall, you will see the principal tomorrow morning and meet most of your teachers throughout the rest of the day. I will see you both later. Now be off with you.”



I put my backpack on and took up my case. “This way,” the boy said. “By the way my name is Terrence, everyone just calls me ‘T’.” “My name is Luando, t,” I replied. We turned right after leaving the hall and went up the first flight of stairs. He led me to the first room that had ten beds, each with a locker beside it, on either side. At the other end were two long tables with a couple of chairs facing the wall. Two other lads were in the room putting stuff into their lockers. “Hey fellows, this chap here is Luando … Duvall is it?” T asked. “Yes that’s right,” I replied. T said, “That tall one on the left is Ian Douglas and that pipsqueak is Jamie Bowen.” Jamie took up the pillow from the his bed and threw it at T. “Who you calling pipsqueak.” He rushed at T and they were soon rolling around on the floor. “You two better cut that out before you have the witch coming down on us,” Ian said to the pair of them who by now were laughing their heads off. T got up and said, “you can take any bed that has a locker with a key in it.” I chose the last bed on the right and put some of my stuff away in the locker. I put my case under the bed and we all left for a walk around the grounds.



Ian and Jamie had just arrived and hadn’t yet been around the school. T had been there for two days and basically knew his way around the place. He decided the most important thing for us to see was the girls’ dorm which was on the third floor and on the opposite side of the building. Did I mention that the girls’ dorm was off limits to us? “Come on let’s go up. Mrs. Feldman is over by the pool and the girls aren’t coming in till tomorrow. Up there will be empty,” said T. I wasn’t so sure if I really wanted to go up there but the others were all keen on it so I didn’t want to be the odd one out. To get to the girls’ dorm you had to go through the door at the end of the hall on the ground floor and use the stairs on that side of the building. We went up to the third floor and T slowly opened the door and pushed his head through. “Come on you guys, the coast is clear,” he whispered. We all went in and started looking around. There were six doors, three on either side of the corridor. The first door on the right was see through glass that had supervisors office stenciled in large black letters on it. We passed the office and went into the room beside it. It was very similar to our own dorm room but the lockers all had a mirror on the door and there was also a small table with a drawer beside each bed. We turned around and were about to leave the room when we heard a door opening. The others scattered and I dove underneath the nearest bed and bounced against something soft that immediately moved. I jumped up screaming with fright and banged my head against the underside of the bed which flipped over and crashed to the floor. I found myself face to face with a boy I hadn’t previously seen. The door flew open and there stood Mrs. Feldman. We were caught red handed.



After supper that evening we pieced together what had happened while we, all seven of us, started the first day of our two weeks of pot scrubbing duty in the kitchen. Apparently the other lads had the same idea as us and were up there looking around when they heard us coming in. Thinking that it was Mrs. Feldman, the three of them, Joe Wallace, Kevin McGowan and Billy Foster all hid under beds in the room. Mrs. Feldman on the other hand had left her keys on the desk in the dorm supervisor’s office and had only come back upstairs to retrieve them when she heard the commotion.



That was how I managed to get into trouble on my very first day at Brookvalley High and how I met the rest of the lads. That incident brought us all together and led to a close friendship which was to last us throughout our school years and onwards into the rest of our lives.