Westpoint Tales
by Kiwi
John and Bob's Tale - Pt 2
Monday morning, raining again, the four B's met as usual and walked reluctantly to school. Well, three of them were reluctant, Bob, for once, was looking forward to it and couldn't get there fast enough. He wanted to see the new kid again.
Westpoint Boys Technical High School was nothing to get excited about. It was old and dingy, dark, damp and crowded. They didn't even have a sportsfield, just a small, ashphalted quadrangle marked out with hop-scotch games and suchlike. Like anyone was actually going to play those kid's games anyway. But, at least it was in the centre of the town, just one block back from the main street, and the girl's school was right next door.
The two schools were separated by a high board fence, but it had a lot of holes in it.
The boys and the girls were not supposed to talk to each other through the fence, but sometimes you had to - if a ball or something had flown across to the other side, you had to ask to get it back. In any case the fence was a popular place to hang around - on both sides of it.
No-one seemed to be doing anything about it, but there was a lot of talk around town about replacing the schools. They were fine in their day, but they were old and outdated. This was 1925 already! They weren't living in the dark ages. It was time that the town had new schools, or, maybe, just one big new school. That wasn't popular, but there was talk about combining the two into one co-educational school, boys and girls together. It would be cheaper and they had to learn to live together didn't they? The kids thought that that would be a great idea, but they didn't expect to see it in their time.
Some boys, (and some girls), thought that they should go ahead and kick the old fence down anyway, but no-one was game to start it. Maybe one day.
They hung up their wet coats, and sorted their books in the noisy locker-room. Bob left the others and wandered across to Mr.Burston, the Headmaster's office. That was where any new kids would be found wasn't it?
He was there, standing outside the office, looking lost. The white-blond curls stood out like a beacon in the crowd. They were dry for once too. The kid's hair really was a stunning color, the color of freshly fallen snow.
Bob hurried over to him and held out his hand with a welcoming smile. "Hello. You've made it then? Welcome to Westpoint Boys."
"Umm, thanks," said the boy, shaking his hand. "Do I know you?"
"What? What do you mean do you know me?" Bob stepped back and looked at him.
"He means does he know you? I don't think you've met."
Bob looked around at the speaker behind him. Smiling dark-green eyes, stunning white-blond hair.
"John?"
"Hello, Bob Lyons. This is my brother, Paul Williamson. Paul, this is Bob Lyons, I met him at the river the other day."
"Wow! Amazing - there's two of you. You're exactly the same - exactly."
"Well, no," said Paul. "Get to know us, and you'll find that we're quite different really."
"Yes," John grinned. "I'm the good-looking one."
('You certainly are.') "But, I didn't realize. You didn't tell me that you were a twin."
"That's because he's not," said Paul.
"Not twins? But you guys look so similar."
"No, we're not twins," said John. "We're triplets actually."
"Triplets! Wow. So there's another one. Where's your brother then?"
"We don't have a brother."
"You haven't? But....."
"We've got a sister, Em, she had to go to the other school, next door."
"Yes. That blows too. We don't like being separated."
Like it or not, we are separated. You'll just have to live with it, PJ."
"I guess you're right. I really don't like it though, JJ."
"It's only for a few hours a day."
"A few hours too many."
Bob's head was flicking from one identical face to the other, trying to keep up with the brothers' quick-fire conversation. These guys were something else! "I can't wait to meet your sister. If she looks like you guys, then she must be a stunner."
('Whoops. I shouldn't have said that.')
But it was all right, they just smiled at him.
"Em is a stunner, you'll see," said Paul.
"She's a bitch though," said John.
"She is not, JJ."
"She is so, PJ. And you know it."
"Okay, sometimes she can be, but she looks good."
"So, has your sister got the blond curls too?" Bob wanted to know.
"No, not at all. Em's got straight black hair."
"Yeah, we got the curls and Em took all the colour - bitch."
"Shut up, JJ."
"No, you shut up, PJ."
"No, you shut up." They argued and grinned at each other.
"Anyway, Bob Lyons, you don't want to know our Em, she is a bitch. We've got another sister, Mary, she's much nicer - Mary is a real sweetheart."
"Mary's just a kid, JJ. She's much too young to be looking at boys."
"She is not, PJ. Mary's growing up - she's 13 already."
"That's still too young, much too young."
"Don't be such a protective big brother. Mary's going to have boyfriends too."
"One day maybe, but not yet. Mary is still a kid."
"She is not. Mum had a boyfriend when she was 13, PJ."
"Yes she did, JJ, and look what a disaster that was."
"So?"
"So shut up JJ."
"No, you shut up PJ."
"Okay, okay," Bob was getting lost again. "What's with the 'JJ' and 'PJ'?"
"It's our names of course, like your B's."
"Your names?"
"Yes, Bob Lyons," John sighed. "Our second name is James - Paul James and John James."
"Oh. I see. What about your sister, is she Emily James?"
"No, of course not. She is Emily Jane, but we just call her 'Em" for short."
"And your other sister, Mary, has she got the blond curls?"
"No. Mary Jane has got straight, black hair like Em's.
"And she's not a triplet?"
"No, she's younger."
"Mary was a twin though. She had a twin sister but she died when they were just babies."
"Triplets, then twins, your poor mother."
"Yeah," John nodded. "She hasn't had any more kids since then. Six in four years was quite enough."
"Six??"
"Yes six. We had an older brother, Michael, but he died in the flu epidemic in 1920."
"Oh. That's too bad. I had that flu too."
"Yeah, so did we. We were really sick, but we survived. Michael died."
"That's too bad. Lots of people died of that flu - they say it killed more people than the Great War did."
"So they say," Paul agreed. "What about you? Have you got any sisters?"
"Me? No. No brothers either, I'm an only child."
"That must be great. I wish I was too."
"Shut up JJ, you do not. What would you do without me?"
"I'd survive PJ. I'd survive."
"Well I wouldn't. Wouldn't want to anyway."
"Sure you would. You're always moaning about not having enough space in the bedroom, and the bathroom."
This was getting personal. Bob didn't want to know. "So, ah, you guys must have a really busy house?"
"Not really. There's only four of us - two boys and two girls."
"Yeah, and three bedrooms."
"So?"
"So shut up!"
They were saved from another, (joking), argument as the school bell rang. The Headmaster emerged from his office, looking around and blinking myopically.
Ah. Mr.Lyons, you've met our new recruits I see." (He was an ex-army man, most of the teachers were.)
"Yes Sir, Mr.Burston, we've met."
"Good, good, and you are a senior, are you not?"
"Yes Sir, I'm in 5 Upper."
"Yes, I thought so. That is where these brothers Williamson are to go as well. I'm really busy here in the office this morning, I get no help at all. Would you take our new recruits and introduce them to Mr.Craddock please."
"Yes Sir, of course."
"Good, good, and Lyons? Pull your socks up boy! You know better than to walk around with them at half-mast." He retreated back into his dark office.
"Good, good," Paul grinned." Pull your socks up, Lyons. What are you coming at?"
"No. You've got to leave them something to complain about. Come on then, we'll be late."
The brothers Williamson caused a sensation when they arrived in Mr.Craddock's General Science class. It was not their appearance, though that was amazing enough - it was more their behaviour. Sensational!
The three arrived late, the class had already gone in and taken their seats, but they had a good excuse. Mr.Craddock looked up from the roll-call book.
"Well? What have we here?"
"Please Sir," Bob began."These are John and Paul Williamson. Mr.Burston said to introduce them to you."
"Very well, now you've done that. Go and sit down Lyons and don't be late to my classes again."
"Yes Sir. Thank you Sir." Bob took a seat and the teacher turned and focused on the new recruits.
"So. Williamson, John and Paul. Twins."
"No Sir, triplets," said Paul.
Stalling the inevitable question, John added, "Our sister is at the Girl's School."
"Hmmm. By the look of all that hair, maybe all three of you should be at the Girl's School. Well? Notes boys - hand them over!" He stood, one hand extended, snapping his fingers in their faces
John and Paul both handed over the introductory notes from Mr.Burston
"Go and sit down then. No, you don't sit together. You sit there and you go and sit over there."
The brothers sat down, apart, Mr.Craddock read their notes, then looked up at them.
"Hmm. This is not good enough. Which one is Paul?"
I am, Sir," Paul raised his hand.
"Put the hand down, Boy. No need to wave at me." Mr.Craddock got up and walked over to stand in front of John.
"If that one is Paul, then you must be John." He leant forward and chalked a large letter 'J' on the front of John's dark-gray school jersey. "Just so we know."
He turned away and walked over to the other. "And you are 'P'" He chalked the initial on Paul's jersey. "Just so we know."
Mr.Craddock straightened up and turned to go back up to the front, but John was standing there right in front of him.
"What do you think you're doing? Get back to your seat, Williamson."
John reached out and chalked a large letter 'T' on the front of his suit jacket.
"T for teacher - just so we know."
"What! How dare you? Get Out! Get out of my classroom. Go to the Headmaster's office and wait for me there."
John went back to the desk, collected his books, and left the room. Before he reached the door Paul was joining him.
"Where do you think you're going? No-one told you to leave."
"I am going with my brother, Sir. Where he goes, I go."
"Right! You will then. Get out, both of you."
The brothers left, Mr.Craddock stood at the front and leafed through the text book. He glared up at the faces not grinning at him.
"You will revise chapters 11 to 13 of the biology section. No noise and no nonsense. I will be back shortly."
He left the room, slamming the door behind him, and laughter and exclamations broke out all around.
"Wow!'
"T for teacher!"
"Their bums hardly touched the seats!"
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